[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 210 (Monday, December 6, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S8923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Robert J. Dole

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I learned this morning about the passing 
of Senator Robert Dole. What an extraordinary person he was.
  It was not my good fortune to serve with him in the U.S. Senate, but 
as a Member of the House of Representatives, I knew his work.
  (Ms. DUCKWORTH assumed the Chair.)
  I can remember when we enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
Tom Harkin was our leader on the Democratic side. He had a member of 
his family who suffered a disability, and Tom was always sensitive to 
that. But Bob Dole's leadership on the other side, from the Republican 
side, made a remarkable difference because we knew that Bob Dole was 
not speaking about disability as some other person's experience but, 
frankly, his own.
  I don't know what measure of courage Bob Dole showed before he served 
the United States in World War II, but we all knew that experience led 
him to a battleground injury, which he carried the rest of his life. It 
was amazing to me that he kept his public life so active despite the 
limitations that he faced. His loss of use of one arm put him in a 
position where he was compromised in many ways every single day. Yet he 
soldiered on, literally, to serve his Nation, not only in the Armed 
Forces but also in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation, major 
legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is remarkable 
that he lived as long as he did and faced the injuries that he did.
  I would say, Madam President, you know better than most what we are 
speaking of with Senator Dole's contribution to his country and the 
battle he continued to wager the rest of his life.
  I respect him so much and hope the Senate will just pause for a 
moment to not only reflect on him, Elizabeth Dole, and his family but 
also on the fact that his bipartisanship made the difference in the 
lives of ordinary Americans. He was willing to sit down with the party 
on the other side of the aisle, compromise, and be determined to get 
things done. Shouldn't we do the same in his honor? I think we should.