[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9763-S9764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     
     
                            TRIBUTE TO JAMES M. INHOFE
     
       Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise to pay tribute to our colleague 
     and friend, Senator James Inhofe. There are few Senators more 
     conservative than Senator Inhofe. And yet he is always working across 
     the aisle, collegially, on issues where he can find bipartisan 
     agreement. I have enjoyed working with him on the Senate Environment 
     and Public Works Committee. We disagree on most of the ``Environment'' 
     portion of the committee's jurisdiction, but we certainly agree on the 
     ``Public Works'' portion. Because of his leadership, EPW is ``the 
     committee that gets things done,'' as he likes to put it.
       Senator Inhofe served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1958. He served 
     in the Oklahoma State Legislature for 10 years, including 4 as senate 
     minority leader. He was elected mayor of Tulsa three times. He won 
     election to the U.S. House of Representatives four times. And he won 
     election to the Senate six times. He has served as chair and ranking 
     member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Armed 
     Services Committee.
       Senator Inhofe has had a long career in public service, but he also 
     worked in the insurance industry, real estate development, and one of 
     his greatest passions, aviation. Senator Inhofe is a pilot, with over 
     11,000 flight hours. I believe he is the only Member of Congress to 
     pilot his own plane--a twin-engine Cessna--around the world, something 
     he did in 16 days in 1991, recreating Wiley Post's historic 1931 
     journey. He is one of general aviation's most dedicated advocates and a 
     member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, AOPA.
       If you want an example of grace under pressure, in 1999, Senator 
     Inhofe lost the propeller off his Grumman Tiger May 8 but made a 
     successful emergency landing at Claremore, OK.
     
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     As AOPA reported at the time, ``In a strange coincidence, the propeller 
     was found by one of Inhofe's high school classmates from Tulsa, who 
     called the airport asking if anyone had lost a prop. G. W. Curtiss 
     returned the prop to the airport and reunited with the senator, whom he 
     hadn't seen in some 40 years.''
       Senator Inhofe is a rightfully proud of his role on the Armed 
     Services Committee in producing the National Defense Authorization Act, 
     NDAA, each year, and it is fitting that this year's NDAA bears his 
     name. He has worked especially hard on building U.S. relations with 
     countries in Africa and led the effort to establish AFRICOM as a 
     separate combatant command in 2007. I have appreciated his strong 
     support for Israel and for cosponsoring my measure, the Israel Anti-
     Boycott Act.
       On EPW, I have enjoyed collaborating with Senator Inhofe on surface 
     transportation and water development bills. For many years, Senator 
     Inhofe was the only Republican to join my Dear Colleague letters to 
     fund the Water Resources Development Acts of 2014 through 2020, with 
     the grant programs under those bills receiving steady increases in 
     their appropriated levels. These increases have accrued to State 
     Revolving Funds for wastewater and drinking water but also to smaller, 
     objective-specific programs to reduce lead in drinking water, for 
     instance.
       Senator Inhofe and his beloved wife Kay celebrated their 63rd wedding 
     anniversary this Monday. He is devoted to her and to his 20 children 
     and grandchildren. I know he is eager to spend more time with them.
       There is much that Senator Inhofe and I disagree on, but we both know 
     that our friendship transcends those disagreements by a wide margin, 
     and, as a result, we have accomplished much together where we agree, 
     especially on water infrastructure. I am grateful for our friendship 
     and for his public service spanning eight decades--from his Army 
     service in the 1950s to today--and wish him a happy, well-deserved 
     retirement.
     
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