[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 209 (Thursday, December 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7380-S7381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO CORY GARDNER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now, on one final matter, it is my 
honor today to pay tribute to a truly exceptional U.S. Senator, someone 
who arrived in this body with a full head of steam and a determination 
to cram as much service as possible into every day he got to wake up 
and serve his neighbors who sent him here.
  Our good friend, Cory Gardner, the junior Senator from Colorado, has 
been a man on a mission from the day he arrived. He already knew the 
institution. He was already one of the highest energy high-achievers 
that anybody who knew him had ever met. So he got to work, and he spent 
6 years delivering a dizzying list of accomplishments.
  If you have heard about Cory Gardner's early days, you know that his 
high-speed, can-do attitude is nothing new. Case in point, one evening, 
when Cory was a boy, he and his friends got tired of their hoop 
sessions ending at sundown because the public basketball court lacked 
sufficient lighting. The group of friends considered how to remedy 
this. Cory's dad happened to be a town councilman. So a little 
government relations took place right around the dinner table.
  Well, no Senator who Cory ever pressed for a vote will be surprised 
to hear that the lighting infrastructure was soon adjusted, and the 
kids could take their pickup games into prime time.
  So young Cory was no stranger to persistence or public service, but 
it was in high school that he scored an opportunity to taste a level 
beyond Yuma's local government. He won admission to the U.S. Senate 
Youth Program. It is a scholarship that brings promising students from 
around the country to these halls for a quick immersion experience.
  Teenaged Cory Gardner liked the looks of this place. He made a mental 
note. By the way, to this day, Cory, along with his fellow alumna, 
Senator Collins, continue to make sure that special experience is paid 
forward.
  It didn't take Cory long to come back and begin strolling these 
hallways for real. After earning honors at Colorado State and a law 
degree from CU Boulder, he wound up working for our former colleague 
Senator Wayne Allard--and rising quickly through the ranks.
  In short order, he developed a reputation as a highly effective 
advocate for Coloradans. In fact, he was so well liked, so effective, 
and so thoroughly the proud son of Yuma that folks started to wonder if 
it wasn't time for Cory to put his own name on a door somewhere. So it 
wasn't long before the men and women of Colorado's State House District 
63 found out firsthand what happens when you hire Cory Gardner to fight 
on your behalf. You get results big time.
  Not much later, his neighbors then gave Cory a new assignment here in 
Congress. Again, Congressman Gardner didn't just meet the bar as one 
out of 435. He excelled as a powerful, energetic voice on the most 
consequential issues. He brought home one win after another when it 
really mattered.
  It didn't take long before another promotion came calling, and so, 
appropriately enough, the Senate's freshman class of 2014 included a 
new member from the land of ``14ers''--what Coloradans call their peaks 
higher than 14,000 feet. Cory was already accustomed to altitude.
  So here in this upper Chamber, Senator Gardner hit the ground 
sprinting. I believe he has authored 11 standalone bills that have been 
signed into law in just 6 years. Without Cory's tireless work and his 
travels to the four corners of Colorado and beyond, the biggest 
conservation bill in a generation--the Great American Outdoors Act--
would not have become law.
  There has been his key role in the Supreme Court confirmation of 
fellow Coloradan Neil Gorsuch, his mission to move the Bureau of Land 
Management to Grand Junction, and, of course, the nuts-and-bolts 
constituent work that Cory and his staff are famous for mastering.
  This not-so-junior Senator has used Colorado values to improve 
Washington and Washington influence to advance his home State.
  He dived head first into his leadership role on the East Asia 
Subcommittee on Foreign Relations. His work with regional allies helped 
drive the Senate to approve meaningful sanctions against North Korea, 
and the impact of the Asia Reassurance Initiative should echo long 
after all of us here today have left this scene.
  The litany of Cory's work just simply does not end. There is the new, 
nationwide three-digit suicide prevention hotline. There is the fact 
that this freshman not only scrapped over a national defense issue with 
our late colleague Chairman John McCain--talk about fearlessness--but 
that he somehow emerged mostly unscathed and with a win on space launch 
vehicles to show for it.
  But, like I said, one of the best aspects of Cory's operation is his 
almost obsessive focus on looking out for his people--one family and 
one story at a time.
  That is why it is impossible to give a speech on Senator Gardner 
without working your way to another name, Don Stratton.
  When Don was first met with our colleague, the 95-year-old Navy 
veteran was living with his wife in Colorado Springs. But the story 
began 76 years earlier, when he was among the fortunate few sailors to 
survive the bombing of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
  At 19, Don had survived severe burns but insisted on returning to 
combat with the fleet. After the war, he raised a family and wrote a 
book about his experiences. But Don's request to Senator Gardner wasn't 
anything for himself. It concerned a comrade who had saved his life 
that day 79 years ago this very week.
  At risk to himself, a sailor named Joe George had literally thrown 
the lifeline that brought Don and five shipmates to safety. But Joe's 
lifesaving efforts had gone unrecognized before his death.
  For years, Don didn't even know who had saved him. So once he found 
out, Don Stratton made it his mission to ensure our Nation formalized 
our gratitude for his guardian angel.
  Let's just say that the Strattons picked the right State to retire 
in. Colorado's junior Senator was on the case. Cory and his staff waded 
through tangles of bureaucracy. They appealed decisions all the way to 
the Secretary of Defense. And you better believe they secured that 
Bronze Star for PO1 Joe George, with the ``V'' device for valor to 
boot.
  Don passed away earlier this year. By all accounts, he and his family 
had come to regard Senator Gardner not just as an incredible advocate 
but as a true friend.
  Now, in fairness, this same eagerness and almost maniacal problem-
solving

[[Page S7381]]

can also get Cory in the occasional pickle. I remember recently that 
just months after the Senator was sworn in, he and I were on a codel 
together in the Middle East. I think the itinerary was something like 
eight countries in 6 days.
  At one point, we were waiting to meet with a foreign leader. As 
everyone else was just waiting patiently in this grand palace, Cory 
spots what looks like a stray piece of paper lying on the floor. 
Earnestly thinking he should leave the place better than he found it, 
Cory bends over and picks up the trash--except, it wasn't trash. Just 
then, the Monarch rolls in with a color guard--a color guard that is 
looking anxiously for the floor marker that was supposed to indicate 
where to stop marching. Luckily, the only diplomatic fallout was a good 
laugh by all.
  Actually, good laughs tend to follow Cory in his wake. Our colleague 
finds humor in the ``everyday'' like few can and shares it freely.
  I understand one of his favorite stories concerns a chat in the well 
with yours truly and former Senator Orrin Hatch. Cory was filling me in 
on his efforts to legalize marijuana in States like his. Orrin comes 
by, and sensing an ally, I pulled him in. I said:

       Orrin, is this true? What the heck is going on out West?

  Without missing a beat, our friend from Utah, a member of the LDS 
Church, shook his head sadly and said: ``First, it was tea. Then, 
coffee. And now this!''
  Cory's version of this story comes complete with his finest Hatch and 
McConnell impersonations. Believe me, he has the voices down pat.
  For 6 years, Coloradans have been represented by this remarkable 
person who lives and works with relentless focus and infectious joy: 
globe-trotting diplomacy, a thick stack of signature bills signed into 
law, and generational accomplishments that were only possible because 
he was here.
  Cory likes to say himself: ``Not bad for a boy from Yuma, CO!'' We 
know what he means, but I have to observe that Cory's roots and his 
accomplishments are not in conflict--quite the contrary. It is only 
because Cory Gardner is exactly who he is that he is able to do what he 
does.
  Cory, everyone knows darn well your transition is no ``retirement.'' 
This is a brief pause between great chapters. I bet Jaime will call it 
a victory if she, Alyson, Thatcher, and Caitlyn can just get you to sit 
still--just sit still--and stay home through the holidays.
  But we all know it will take about 5 minutes before you have found a 
dozen new ways to keep doing big things, winning victories on behalf of 
others, and paying forward the ways in which you have been blessed. 
Colorado and your country aren't finished with you yet, not by a long 
shot. So thank you for everything. We will miss you badly around here, 
but we can't wait to see what course you chart next.

                          ____________________