[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 27, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3734-S3736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATOR JOHNNY ISAKSON VA REGIONAL OFFICE ACT OF 2022
Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize a giant of the
great State of Georgia--which the Presiding Officer and I both have the
distinct honor of serving--to recognize a true legend of the U.S.
Senate, an extraordinary father, husband, and representative of our
State, the late Senator Johnny Isakson.
Senator Isakson served Georgia all his life. Born in Atlanta, Senator
Isakson attended the University of Georgia, then enlisted in the
Georgia Air National Guard. He was a successful private businessman,
growing his real estate enterprise to one of the largest in the State.
He served in both the Georgia House of Representatives and the State
senate, and Governor Zell Miller, a Democrat, appointed him, a
Republican, to chair the State Board of Education.
In 1999, Senator Isakson was elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives, where he worked to improve American K-12 education.
And in 2004, he was elected to this body, where he would serve for
almost 15 years with courtesy, dignity, and kindness, supporting and
championing bipartisan efforts to better serve our Nation's veterans.
And his service culminated in his chairmanship of the Senate Committee
on Veterans' Affairs and of the Senate Ethics Committee.
As we will hear from our distinguished colleagues who served
alongside Senator Isakson--like Senator Blunt--Senator Isakson, through
his uncommon decency, his generosity of spirit, his commitment to
integrity and service of others over service of self, won universal
respect in this body; won respect in the State of Georgia that crossed
party lines and earned the reputation not just nationally but around
the world for statesmanship, effectiveness, and hard work.
Even more than his work as a statesman, Senator Isakson was a father
and a husband. And I want to recognize Senator Isakson's extraordinary
family, including his wife of more than 50 years, Dianne; his sons,
John and Kevin; his daughter Julie--all of whom I have had the pleasure
of speaking or corresponding with in recent months and all of whom, in
their lives, carry on the Senator's legacy.
Senator Isakson had a saying that there are just two kinds of people
in this world: friends and future friends. I hope we can all be
inspired by that aspiration and that outlook, by his resilient desire
to see the good in everyone; to see the opportunity to work with
anyone; to try to find where our interests align, where we can meet eye
to eye, where we can get things done together.
Senator Isakson's courtesy, collegiality, and integrity will forever
serve as an example to all of us who serve in this body today and in
the future. And that is why, in recognition of Senator Isakson's
tremendous contributions to American veterans, to the State of Georgia,
and to the United States, it has been my privilege to introduce--
alongside my distinguished Republican colleague from Missouri, Senator
Blunt, and the Presiding Officer, Senator Warnock--the Senator Johnny
Isakson VA Regional Office Act to rename the VA's Atlanta Regional
Office after Senator Isakson as part of our Nation's ongoing
recognition of his service and as an example to those who follow in his
footsteps of the virtues that his representation embodied.
I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their support of
this legislation. We will hear from Senator Blunt and Senator Warnock,
to share their experiences working alongside and knowing Senator
Isakson, in just a moment.
But now, let's get this done and take this action to demonstrate our
enduring respect and admiration for this extraordinary American
statesman, Johnny Isakson. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs be discharged from further
consideration of S. 4359 and the Senate proceed to its immediate
consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
[[Page S3735]]
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 4359) to designate the regional office of the
Department of Veterans Affairs in metropolitan Atlanta as the
``Senator Johnny Isakson Department of Veterans Affairs
Atlanta Regional Office'', and for other purposes.
There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the
Senate proceeded to consider the nomination.
Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, I further ask that the bill be considered
read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be
considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or
debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 4359) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:
S. 4359
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Senator Johnny Isakson VA
Regional Office Act of 2022''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) John Hardy Isakson, known as ``Johnny'', was born
December 28, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Julia Isakson and
Edwin Andrew Isakson.
(2) Johnny Isakson graduated from the University of Georgia
in 1966 with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration.
(3) In 1966, Johnny Isakson enlisted in the Georgia Air
National Guard, serving until 1972 and attaining the rank of
Staff Sergeant.
(4) Johnny Isakson gained success in private business,
serving for 22 years as a real estate executive and growing
his business into one of the largest of its kind in both
Georgia and in the United States.
(5) Johnny Isakson was elected to the Georgia General
Assembly in 1976, serving in the State House of
Representatives until 1990.
(6) Johnny Isakson was elected to the Georgia State Senate
in 1992, serving until 1996.
(7) In 1996, Governor Zell Miller appointed Johnny Isakson
to be Chairman of the Georgia State Board of Education.
(8) Johnny Isakson was elected to represent the 6th
District of Georgia in the United States House of
Representatives in 1999, and served until 2005.
(9) During his time in the House of Representatives, Johnny
Isakson, as a member of the Committee on Education and Labor
of the House of Representatives, worked to improve American
education, and was a key advocate for the bipartisan
education reforms that became the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (Public Law 107-110).
(10) Johnny Isakson was elected to the United States Senate
in 2004, serving until December 31, 2019.
(11) During his time in the Senate, Johnny Isakson was an
exemplar of courtesy, dignity, and kindness, beloved and
respected by colleagues regardless of party.
(12) Johnny Isakson, during the 111th Congress,
demonstrated a bipartisan yearning for peace, and crossed
party lines to support the ratification of the 2010 Strategic
Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and the
Russian Federation, also known as New START.
(13) During the 114th, 115th, and 116th Congresses, Johnny
Isakson served as Chairman of the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs of the Senate, a position with which he tirelessly
championed reform to improve the benefits and quality of
service for our nation's military veterans.
(14) During the 114th, 115th, and 116th Congresses, Johnny
Isakson served as Chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics
of the Senate.
(15) The late Congressman John Lewis once described Johnny
Isakson as ``A man who has strong belief but also willing to
work with others to get things done.''.
(16) On December 19, 2021, Johnny Isakson passed away, but
his legacy of character and goodwill will endure as an
example to all who serve, or will serve, in the United States
Senate.
SEC. 3. SENATOR JOHNNY ISAKSON DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
ATLANTA REGIONAL OFFICE.
(a) Designation.--The Department of Veterans Affairs
Atlanta Regional Office in Georgia shall, after the date of
the enactment of this Act, be known and designated as the
``Senator Johnny Isakson Department of Veterans Affairs
Atlanta Regional Office'' or the ``Isakson VA Atlanta
Regional Office''.
(b) Reference.--Any reference in a law, regulation, map,
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the
Regional Office referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed
to be a reference to the Senator Johnny Isakson Department of
Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office.
Mr. OSSOFF. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I am glad to join you and the other Senator
from Georgia, Mr. Ossoff, here today and join both of you in sharing
some thoughts about Senator Isakson.
Senator Ossoff has already said a lot of things that are easily said.
Not that they were easy for him to say, but anybody that knew Johnny
Isakson would make many of those very same points and, hopefully, make
them as well. I was glad to join him as the original cosponsor of this
bill.
Johnny and I served together in the House from 1999 until 2005. I was
the majority whip during most of that time. And he was one of the half
dozen deputies that really are key to getting things done. And Johnny
Isakson liked to get things done.
In 2005, he came over here to be in the Senate and brought that same
determination to get things done, to find the place--wherever that
place was--where something could happen. And he was a master at making
things happen.
When I joined him in the Senate in 2011, I was pleased to get a
chance to serve alongside him again. He was a fast friend and a friend
that you could count on. He knew how to bring people together. He did
view, as Senator Ossoff said, people as his current friends or people
who--the only reason they weren't his friend is they hadn't become his
friends yet. And that is quite a way to approach life. And Johnny did
it really well. I don't think there was anyone more respected by the
other Members of the Senate than Senator Isakson was.
In September of last year, I had the opportunity to join you, Mr.
President, along with Senator Coons and Senator Graham, in hosting a
bipartisan lunch that Johnny first started 13 years ago. I think we are
going to do that again in September of this year. We have Democratic
lunches, and we have Republican lunches. The Johnny Isakson lunch every
year was the bipartisan lunch. And I think that is a great tradition to
at least one more time do in honor of his service here and his
friendship.
He understood the value of sitting down over a cup of coffee or over
a meal, of talking to one another, of finding the things you agree on,
and then working together.
And one thing I found here--and I think one of the ways I found it
was watching what Johnny did--when a Democratic and Republican Senator
find something to do together and get it done, invariably, they start
looking for the next thing to do together. And their staffs start
looking for the next thing their bosses can do together. And it is an
infectious kind of thing that gets things done. And that was one of the
great understandings of the legislative process that Johnny brought to
the Senate.
I think when Johnny was in the Georgia House, there were a handful of
Republicans in the Georgia House when he got there. He told me he got
to be minority leader pretty quickly--maybe it was because he didn't
show up in the room that day before they could choose who their leader
was going to be. But he understood what it took to bring things
together. He liked to help people. He liked to get things done. He
especially liked to get things done for his fellow veterans.
Now, we are going to approach this veterans issue this week. And I am
sure we are going to get it done. We just had a discussion about
veterans and our commitments to veterans. But as chairman of the
Veterans' Affairs Committee, Johnny really led efforts particularly to
increase accountability at the VA. And there was an accountability
problem at the VA that Johnny was intent on making sure we got to the
bottom of it, to be sure that veterans received the care that they were
entitled to and the benefits they had earned.
Under his leadership, Congress also passed a MISSION Act, legislation
that gave veterans real and permanent choice in their healthcare. This
is something that particularly younger veterans care about. They want
to go to the doctor that they want to go to. They want to go to a
doctor close to home, or they want to still have the option, as they
would have, to go to a veterans facility or be referred from that
facility to another place where their care would be more easily
available to them.
But what veterans really want was the idea of having not just a pilot
project on choice, which was the case
[[Page S3736]]
before Johnny Isakson as chairman decided, no, we are going to have a
permanent process where veterans are going to have those choices in the
future. And so here we have just passed legislation designed to
designate the VA facility in Decatur, GA, the Senator Johnny Isakson
Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office.
I am certainly proud to join my colleagues today as we sought and
received unanimous consent for this legislation to pass. I really can't
think of a more fitting way today, as we talk about veterans, to honor
Johnny's legacy than to have his name associated with an issue he cared
deeply about.
Another issue he and I cared about and worked closely on was health
research and what was happening at the CDC. There will be a building--
the ground is being broken right now, as I understand it, for a
building--at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta that will also be named
for Johnny Isakson.
Those are two very fitting areas of focus for what he did for the
people in Georgia, what he did for veterans in Georgia, what he did for
healthcare in Georgia, and what he did for all of those things as it
related to the entire U.S.A. I am glad to see this legislation pass.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to honor a
friend, our late Senator from Georgia, my predecessor, Senator Johnny
Isakson, as we work across the aisle, just as he did, to rename the
Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office in his honor.
I thank my brother and fellow Senator from Georgia for leading this
effort.
Without a doubt, Senator Isakson loved Georgia, and he cared deeply
for our country. He was a patriot, a public servant, and I am proud to
say that there are members of my staff who used to work for Johnny
Isakson. They will tell you that he never hesitated to show up.
In my other job as a pastor, I talk often about the ministry of
presence. Sometimes, it is not about what you say, because there are
some situations, quite frankly, for which there are no adequate words.
When someone has lost a loved one, and you are standing there at
graveside or standing in a hospital at bedside with a patient,
sometimes the issue is really showing up--the ministry of presence.
Johnny Isakson had it. He knew how to show up. Whether it was paying
a visit to an ill patient or seeing a disabled veteran, he was there.
Senator Isakson, the consummate public servant, dedicated his years of
service to our beloved Georgia, to veterans, to our families, and to
our children.
He always made it a point to show up at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Every year in January, as we celebrate Georgia's greatest son, the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Johnny Isakson, without fail, was
always in the house. Now, to be sure, when the King holiday rolls
around, politicians do tend to show up, but what was so impressive
about Johnny Isakson is that, not only did he show up for the service,
he stayed for the whole service--a service which, I will admit, is
long, even by Baptist standards. He stayed there the whole time.
He was unafraid to work across ideological and political differences
in our State, in our country. I shall never forget his example of
public service.
We talked from time to time. In fact, it occurs to me that the first
time I stood in this Chamber, I stood not as a Senator but as Chaplain
of the day, and it was at Johnny Isakson's invitation. I remember his
graciousness on that day and on so many occasions.
When he announced his retirement, he called me and said: Raphael, I
am retiring, and I want to drop by Ebenezer and say goodbye.
When he came that Sunday, he asked the members of our church who are
veterans to stand. As he looked across the audience and saw all the
veterans who were in our church, he said: I want to leave a special
offering for the veterans ministry in this church.
That was Johnny Isakson.
So I am thrilled that today, with great appreciation and admiration
for Senator Johnny Isakson, our bipartisan legislation honors his life
and his legacy by renaming the Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta
Regional Office in his honor, and I am thrilled that it has passed in
the Senate in a bipartisan way with unanimous support.
Isn't that fitting? Johnny Isakson is doing now in death what he did
in life--bringing us together. And in this moment in which we are in a
debate about what to do for our veterans, isn't it appropriate that his
spirit summons us to common ground--and the higher ground--so that we
can do all we can for those who have our back in dangerous places all
over the globe.
Senator Isakson cared deeply for Georgia's veterans and for veterans
all across our country. He understood that there are some things bigger
than politics. So we recognize his amazing service, his incredible
legacy of life and self-sacrifice by renaming the Atlanta Regional
Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs in his honor.
I am proud to sit in the seat where he sat, and it is my honor to
help lead the passage of this bipartisan piece of legislation that will
help preserve the legacy of our late and dear friend.
Long live the spirit of Johnny Isakson.
____________________