[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 29 (Monday, February 13, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S340-S342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HONORING THE LIFE OF DAVID FERDINAND DURENBERGER

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 
Res. 57, submitted earlier today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the 
resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 57) honoring the life of David 
     Ferdinand Durenberger, former Senator for the State of 
     Minnesota.


[[Page S341]]


  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the 
motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with 
no intervening action or debate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 57) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record 
under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')


                Remembering David Ferdinand Durenberger

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise with my colleague Senator 
Smith, who will be speaking shortly, to recognize the life of Senator 
David Durenberger, who passed away on January 31, 2023, leaving behind 
his loving wife Susan, to whom he was married over 27 years, as well as 
his four sons, two stepchildren, and 14 grandchildren.
  Last week, I had the honor of attending Dave's funeral at St. John's 
Abbey in Collegeville, MN. Attendees included Governors of both 
parties. Governor Pawlenty was there, Governor Walz and Governor 
Dayton.
  It was a fitting venue because in so many ways, Dave was St. John's 
College. He was raised there by his parents, George and Isabelle, both 
of whom were faculty members. And as a student at St. John's Prep and 
St. John's University, he grew up fully immersed in the Benedictine 
values of faith, listening, respect, stewardship, and justice. Those 
values shaped what he did.
  Shortly after I won my first Senate race, Dave invited me to 
breakfast, and there is actually a photo of us on the wall when we had 
that breakfast in that restaurant. He had a few lessons he wanted to 
share with me. He didn't sugarcoat anything. He said that Washington 
can ``eat you up'' and that, too often, the value of stewardship is 
missing.
  He told me to join the prayer breakfast, because he said it was one 
place where people could talk to each other, nothing would leak, and 
you could build trust and take a moment and put things in perspective.
  I did join the prayer breakfast, and 2 years later, as often happens 
in these things, I was actually cochairing it with former Senator 
Johnny Isakson, another good Senator we will miss very much.
  Dave also gave me a small book called ``The Teachings of Jesus'' and 
told me to keep it in my office, which I did. It is on my bookshelf. 
And as he predicted, I did look at it in moments of good and moments of 
bad.
  One of the teachings stood out to me as I was reflecting on Dave's 
life. From Matthew 5:16:

       Let your light shine before others so that they may see 
     your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

  That is Dave. Through the bluster of Washington, Dave found ways to 
bring his good work and his belief in public service to the rest of the 
country.
  Dave took volunteerism seriously. We saw it in how he lived his life. 
He paired up with his then-Democratic colleague, Senator Paul 
Wellstone, on the legislation that created AmeriCorps. As a result of 
their efforts, millions and millions of Americans have gotten the 
support that they have needed to better their communities.
  Dave's devotion to stewardship is also clear when you look at what he 
did to promote conservation. It was in that spirit that he worked to 
successfully secure protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, for 
Voyageurs National Park, and for the Mississippi River. He wanted his 
grandkids and their kids to be able to experience the natural treasures 
that Minnesotans have enjoyed for generations.
  You simply can't talk about Dave's time in Washington without noting 
what he did to advance the rights of those with disabilities. From his 
faith, he carried with him the values of respect for all people, and 
from his time in former Republican Governor LeVander's office, in 
working on disability issues, he carried with him a steadfast 
commitment to improving the lives of disabled people across the 
country.
  Once, through his work in the Governor's office, Dave visited a 
hospital where he saw patients with disabilities, and in his words, 
they were warehoused. Most of them, he said, didn't even have clothes 
on. He knew that as a society we could and must do better, and in 
Washington, he saw to it that we did.
  As I know the Acting President pro tempore is aware, given the 
leadership torch passed on to her, through his leadership on the 
Americans with Disabilities Act, he helped to usher in a whole new era 
of disabilities rights--one where people in wheelchairs weren't trapped 
in their homes as a result of a lack of ramps, one where disabled 
people weren't systematically excluded from the workforce, and one 
where the destitute facilities that once motivated him to take action 
were phased out in favor of community residential treatment and care 
services.
  In the years that followed, he found a loving partner in Susan, his 
wife, whose dedication to mental health reform eventually led her to 
write her book ``The Crusade for Forgotten Souls,'' a rich history of 
the campaign to provide dignified care to Minnesotans with 
disabilities. And Minnesota, back through the time of Hubert Humphrey, 
when he gave his famous speech at the 1948 Democratic National 
Convention, has always been ahead of itself and the rest of the country 
when it has come to people with disabilities.
  Dave, a Republican, carried on that torch from the other side of the 
aisle. From the outside, Dave's work often looked like a manifestation 
of faith in action, but the way he saw it, he was just doing his job--
the good deeds--in letting his light shine onto others.
  When Dave left the Senate, it wasn't easy. It has been quite 
documented what happened. He could have been bitter or he could have 
just hidden away and ducked down and not taken responsibility, but he 
didn't. He apologized and kept working. He taught. He would bring his 
students out here on healthcare. He was an advocate for healthcare 
reform, and he still spoke around the State. He showed us that that 
kind of resilience only comes when something happens to someone where 
they have to decide, Am I going to sink down further in a valley or am 
I going to rise up on the mountaintop and do good again? That included 
mentoring new Senators and new people in public office, which included 
me.
  He did good both while he was in the Senate, before he got here, and 
then, of course, after he left. He had a higher purpose, and he found a 
way, one way or another, to improve people's lives as a Senator, as an 
educator, as a husband, as a dad, and as a grandpa. Dave lived every 
day of his life trying to do good. He learned that, of course, growing 
up at St. John's, but he brought it to this Chamber and beyond.
  Today, Senator Smith and I are coming together to introduce this 
resolution, which we are honored has passed, honoring Senator Dave 
Durenberger, a man whose higher purpose led our country to a higher 
ground.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. SMITH. Madam President, thank you to my colleague Senator 
Klobuchar for those very personal words about our shared friend, 
Senator Dave Durenberger.
  I rise today with my colleague Senator Klobuchar to honor the life of 
Senator Dave Durenberger, whom we lost, as Amy said, on January 31.
  Archie and I send all of our support to the Durenberger family--to 
Susan, Charlie and Lois, Dave and Heather, Michael and Margaret, Daniel 
and Jennifer--and to all of the family who loved him so well.
  When he was first elected to the Senate in 1978, Senator Durenberger 
became the first Republican Senator from Minnesota in 20 years, but his 
political affiliation never defined him. Throughout his 16 years in 
service in the Senate, Senator Durenberger measured his success by 
doing work that helped people, not by scoring political points for 
himself or his party.
  Long before arriving in Washington, Senator Durenberger was committed 
to public service and committed to improving the lives of Minnesotans. 
He was, as Amy said, a proud graduate of St. John's University and the 
University of Minnesota Law School. He also spent 2 years as an Army 
officer and 7 more in the Reserves. Later, he served as chief of staff 
for Gov. Harold LeVander.

[[Page S342]]

  When I became chief of staff to Gov. Mark Dayton in 2010, Dave 
quickly called me up to offer his advice and support, with his 
characteristic understatement and dry sense of humor.
  In Minnesota, Senator Durenberger was respected as a volunteer, a 
thinker, a doer. He was always ready to pitch in and help with a wide 
array of organizations that he saw were doing good work, from those 
dedicated to environmental protection to conservation, to children's 
health.
  In the Senate, Dave built a reputation as a powerful advocate and 
expert on healthcare reform. He was instrumental in passing the 
landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, which recognized the civil 
rights of people living with disabilities, and he was an effective 
leader on legislation to protect our air and water, to clean up 
Superfund sites, and to protect public lands so that all of our 
children and grandchildren could enjoy them forever.
  After he left the Senate, he continued to advocate for the things 
that he cared about, from improving healthcare to protecting the 
environment. He became one of the Nation's leading health policy 
experts at the University of St. Thomas and helped to mentor the next 
generation of health policy leaders.
  When I came to the Senate and won a seat on the Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee, a committee that Dave also served on, he 
immediately reached out to me to offer support and ideas. Every year, 
he organized a group of young healthcare leaders, through the Health 
Policy Center at St. Thomas, to come to Washington, and I always made 
time to sit down and talk with them. It was so great to see how Senator 
Durenberger continued to instill in these policy fellows the mission of 
diving in beneath the headlines to figure out exactly what would help 
to make healthcare more accessible and affordable for everyone.
  When Dave was elected to the Senate, he was an Independent 
Republican, as the Minnesota State party was then called. He later 
dropped the Republican part and was a proud Independent--always willing 
to work with both Democrats and Republicans to solve problems. He was 
an outspoken critic of President Trump, and he lamented the extremism 
in the Republican Party today. Dave always stood for bipartisanship, 
pragmatism, and politics that was about improving people's lives. He 
proudly called himself a progressive Republican. I love that.
  If I had to name one thing that characterized Senator Dave 
Durenberger, it would be his determination to find solutions to the 
problems that hold people back in their lives, especially problems with 
healthcare. He didn't care whether an idea came from Republicans or 
Democrats. He just cared about what was going to make a difference.
  As I reflect on his life and his time in the Senate, I am reminded 
that his Midwestern brand of bipartisan, commonsense, pragmatic 
politics still lives on in the Senate today. Beneath the headlines and 
the division and extremism, many of us on both sides of the aisle still 
carry on his legacy by working together to try to find common ground 
and solve problems.
  Today, as we mourn the loss of Senator Durenberger, let us take 
inspiration from his example of thoughtful, pragmatic, and results-
oriented politics. May his memory be a blessing.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________