[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7267-S7268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING PAUL SARBANES

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, when you are new to the U.S. Senate, it 
is not unusual for friends and people back home, after you have been 
there a while, to say: So who are the good guys and who are the bad 
guys in the Senate? Who are the ones you really like and what can you 
tell us about the rest of them?
  It is a common question that is asked, and I do remember, as a new 
Senator here, reflecting on that question and saying: You know, if I 
had an important decision to make in the Senate, whatever the issue 
might be, there are two Senators whom I always want to sit down and get 
their advice. One was Carl Levin of Michigan--one of the most 
thoughtful, smart guys I had a chance to serve with, and the other was 
Paul Sarbanes. He just always struck me as a man of substance, who took 
questions seriously. He was respected in the U.S. Senate for his 
service, of course, to Maryland, and he was just a good person. He 
brought real integrity to the U.S. Senate.
  So when I learned that he passed away just a few days ago, I wanted 
to put a few things in the Record.
  He was a man of towering intellect and integrity, but he was modest. 
He didn't care about headlines. He did so much good work behind the 
scenes. He was given some of the toughest assignments.
  Think about the responsibility of dealing with the great recession 
and then working with Republican Congressman Oxley to put together a 
really significant reform of Wall Street and the financial community. 
We knew we could trust Paul Sarbanes to do it, and he did it in a 
bipartisan fashion.
  He was a proud son of immigrants. He never forgot it. His parents 
emigrated from the same town in Greece but only met in America.
  The Sarbanes owned a famous restaurant in Salisbury, MD, and gave it 
the quintessentially American name--the Mayflower Restaurant. Paul 
worked in the restaurant as a boy, and he and his family lived above 
the restaurant.
  He graduated from public high school, won a scholarship to Princeton 
University, studied as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, and in 
1960 earned a law degree from Harvard. Not bad for an immigrant's son.
  From Harvard, Paul went to the White House, where he was one of the 
best and brightest who answered President John Kennedy's call to public 
service. There, he worked as an administrative assistant to Walter 
Heller, who was Chairman of President Kennedy's Council of Economic 
Advisers.
  Paul Sarbanes' parents taught him that serving one's nation in public 
service was a noble calling.
  One of the many Greek words Paul Sarbanes learned from his parents 
was the word ``idiotes.'' It is the Greek root word for the English 
word ``idiot,'' but it has a different meaning in Greek. It means 
someone who takes no part in the affairs of his community. In the 
Sarbanes family, that was almost a curse.
  Paul and his parents believed that service to others and to their 
adopted homeland was a noble calling. So Paul first ran for elective 
office. In 1966, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates.
  In 1970, the people of Maryland elected him to the U.S. House of 
Representatives. He was a young Congressman when he wrote one of the 
successful Articles of Impeachment against then-President Nixon for 
lying about his Watergate burglary.
  In 1976, he won his first election to the U.S. Senate. He would go on 
to serve 30 years in the Chamber. He was a voice of reason on both the 
Senate Iran-Contra and Whitewater committees.

[[Page S7268]]

  When corporate swindling at Enron and other large corporations 
cheated millions of Americans out of their life savings, it was Paul 
Sarbanes' leadership that enabled the Senate to pass the most far-
reaching corporate accountability reform since the Securities and 
Exchange Commission was created 70 years before.
  That Sarbanes-Oxley reform law passed in 2002. It was designed to 
prevent the kind of corporate abuses that had so damaged America's 
economy and shaken the faith of the American people in the economic 
markets.
  In 2002, things came full circle for me. There was created an award 
in the name of Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois--a man whom I first met 
as a college intern who inspired me to get started in this business. 
Paul Sarbanes won in 2002 and became the first recipient of the Senator 
Paul Douglas Ethics in Government Award that is presented by the 
University of Illinois to honor men and women in public service who 
exhibit the finest qualities of leadership. It was a perfect match, 
and, for me, it came full circle.
  What a coincidence it is that the people who have been my heroes in 
public life so far, so many are named Paul: Paul Douglas, who had 
started me as an intern, who introduced me to Paul Simon, who preceded 
me in the U.S. Senate, where I served with Paul Sarbanes.
  They basically say in my office that I have been raised according to 
the Gospel of ``Saints'' Paul.
  I want to quote briefly from Senator Sarbanes' final speech in the 
Senate before he retired in 2006. It speaks powerfully to the kind of 
leaders America is looking for today.
  Here is what Paul Sarbanes said:

       Throughout my years in public service, I have worked to the 
     limits of my ability to provide the people of Maryland and 
     the Nation dedicated, informed, and independent 
     representation based upon the fundamental principles of 
     integrity and intelligence. I have been guided in this effort 
     by a vision of a decent and just America, based on a strong 
     sense of community and offering fairness and opportunity to 
     all its people.

  I know I join all my colleagues in thanking Paul for doing his part 
so nobly and so well to help us move toward a more perfect Union.
  And let me say a word about his wife Christine. She was his real 
partner in life. I can recall when he retired, and I said: Paul, I am 
sorry to see you go. And he said: Let me ask you a question. When are 
you supposed to leave around here? It is a question many of us have 
asked ourselves over and over.
  As far as he was concerned, I said: What do you want to do the most? 
He said: Travel with Christine.
  They were able to do that for a limited period of time because 
Christine died of cancer in 2009. She was a wonderful person--
intelligent, just like Paul--and the two of them were pure happiness 
together.
  Loretta and I wish to express our condolences to the Sarbanes family, 
especially to their children--Michael, Janet, and a man I have come to 
know and respect, his son, Congressman   John Sarbanes, as well as 
their grandchildren, his friends and former staff members, and the 
countless people whose lives are better because of Paul Sarbanes.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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