[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 34 (Thursday, February 20, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1064-S1066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Retirement

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I have never liked calling too much 
attention to today's date, February 20, but I figured my birthday would 
be as good a day as any to share with our colleagues a decision I made 
last year.

[[Page S1065]]

  During my time in the Senate, I have only really answered to two 
constituencies: the Republican conference and the people of Kentucky. 
Over the years, that first group trusted me to coordinate campaigns, to 
count votes, to steer committees, to take the majority, and, on nine 
occasions, to lead our conference.
  Serving as the Republican leader was a rare and, yes, rather specific 
childhood dream, and just about a year ago, I thanked my colleagues for 
their confidence which allowed me to fulfill it.
  To the distinguished Members of this body I have had the privilege to 
lead, I remain deeply, deeply grateful.
  Today, however, it is appropriate for me to speak about an even 
deeper allegiance and an even longer standing gratitude.
  Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate. Every 
day in between, I have been humbled by the trust they have placed in me 
to do their business right here. Representing our Commonwealth has been 
the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My 
current term in the Senate will be my last.
  I have been a student of history my entire life. I can't remember the 
last time I didn't have a stack of biographies or political memoirs on 
my nightstand, and I know well how tempting it can be to read history 
with a sense of determinism: assuming that, somehow, notorious failures 
were inevitable; that crowning triumphs were predestined; and in either 
case, that lives and careers followed orderly paths.
  This isn't, of course, how things work, and I have never had to look 
further than my own life to recognize it. I have never lost sight of 
the fact that without my mother's devoted care, a childhood encounter 
with polio could have turned out a lot worse; that unless my father 
hadn't taken a job in the Bluegrass State, my politics might have run a 
course somewhere else; that if it weren't for an eleventh-hour, 
outside-the-box idea on the campaign trail, my Senate career would have 
been over before it began; or that if not for the people of Kentucky 
time and again agreeing that leadership delivers and electing to send 
me back here, it would have been someone else from somewhere else 
taking that seat at the table where I have had a chance to work, 
strategize, fight, and win.
  I grew up reading about the greatness of Henry Clay, but there were 
times when the prospect of etching my name into his desk in this 
Chamber felt like more of a long shot than making it to the Major 
Leagues. I got a front row seat to the greatness of Senator John 
Sherman Cooper of Kentucky as a summer intern in his office; but in so 
many moments in my early career, the idea of following in his footsteps 
felt more distant than the Moon.
  So the only appropriate thing to take away today, apart from a 
healthy dose of pride, is my immense gratitude for the opportunity to 
take part in the consequential business of the Senate and the Nation: 
gratitude to the people I represent--Kentucky's families and farmers 
and miners and servicemembers and small business owners; gratitude to 
loyal friends, dedicated volunteers, and talented staff, who have 
helped me serve much better; gratitude to this institution that has 
repaid my devotion so generously over the years and to so many 
colleagues who have become great friends; gratitude for my family's 
support and, in particular, to my ultimate teammate and confidante over 
the last 32 years. Elaine's leadership and wise counsel, in their own 
right, have made her the most seasoned Cabinet official in modern 
history. On top of all that, her devotion to me and to Kentucky is a 
lot more than I deserve.
  When I arrived in this Chamber, I wasn't coming with a Governor's 
statewide executive experience or a House Member's appreciation for 
Washington dynamics. I knew my hometown of Louisville, and I had spent 
the previous few years working hard to learn what mattered to folks all 
across the rest of the Commonwealth.
  And yet, within weeks of swearing the oath, sure enough, I was here 
on the floor talking with colleagues from other far-flung corners of 
the country, discussing solutions to a farm income crisis and 
infrastructure challenges that affected different States in the same 
ways.
  I learned quickly that delivering for Kentucky meant finding the ways 
the Commonwealth's challenges were actually tied to national debates: 
seeing to it that major agriculture legislation remembered Kentucky 
farmers, particularly including when they needed extraordinary 
assistance, like the tobacco buyout; making sure that nationwide steps 
on transportation infrastructure included resources for modernizing the 
Brent Spence Bridge, which supports billions of dollars in economic 
activity in Kentucky and the surrounding region; and, with the trust of 
the local community, finishing a task first assigned by President 
Reagan: the safe destruction of America's legacy chemical weapons at 
the Blue Grass Army Depot.
  So efforts like these have spanned the length of my Senate career, 
and I have been humbled by each and every opportunity to help Kentucky 
punch above its weight.
  Of course, the Senate has to grapple with foundational questions that 
reach even more broadly across American life and even further into 
posterity. We are trusted, on behalf of the American people, to 
participate in the appointment of the Federal judiciary, to be the 
final check on the assembly of power in the courts, beyond the reach of 
representative politics, and to ensure that the men and women who 
preside over them profess authentic devotion to the rule of law above 
all else.
  When Members of this body ignore, discount, or pervert this 
fundamental duty, they do so not just at the peril of the Senate but of 
the whole Nation. The weight of our power to advise and consent has 
never been lost on me, and I have been honored to perform my role in 
confirming judges who understand their role.
  On this floor, there is no place to hide from the obligations of 
article I, the Senate's unique relationship with article III, or our 
role in equipping the powers of article II. Here, every debate over 
agriculture or infrastructure or education or taxes is downstream of 
the obligations of national security. Every question of policy here at 
home is contingent on our duty to provide for the common defense.
  One of the first times I spoke at length on this floor as a freshman, 
I was compelled to join the debate over strengthening the deterrence of 
America's nuclear triad. Whether to expand the U.S. military's hard-
target nuclear capability was an interesting question to pose to 
someone whose most recent job had been running a county government.
  But there, of course, was the Founders' brilliance at work: The hopes 
and dreams of every American are tied up in our ability to protect and 
defend the Nation and its interests. Every family traveling abroad and 
every worker and small business owner whose livelihood depends on 
foreign trade, they depend in turn on the credibility of America's 
commitments to friends and the strength of her threats to enemies.
  In turn, the safety and success of the men and women who volunteer to 
serve this great Nation in uniform depend on the work we do here to 
ensure that enemies think twice--twice--before challenging them and 
those enemies never face a fair fight. Thanks to Ronald Reagan's 
determination, the work of strengthening America's hard power was well 
underway when I arrived in the Senate. But since then, we have allowed 
that power to atrophy, and, today, a dangerous world threatens to 
outpace the work of rebuilding it.
  So lest any of our colleagues still doubt my intentions for the 
remainder of my term, I have some unfinished business to attend to.
  In our work, most of us in this body develop an appreciation for the 
Senate itself--its written rules, its collegial norms, its pace of 
play. Yet so often I have watched colleagues depart, venting their 
frustration at the confines of the institution or mourning what they 
perceive to be the decline of its norms.
  Regardless--regardless--of the political storms that may wash over 
this Chamber during the time I have remaining, I assure our colleagues 
that I will depart with great hope for the endurance--the endurance--of 
the Senate as an institution.
  There are any number of reasons for pessimism, but the strength of 
the Senate is not one of them. This Chamber is still the haven where 
the political minority can require debate. It is still the crucible in 
which jurists are tested for

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their fidelity to upholding the Constitution and laws as they were 
written. The Senate is still equipped for work of great consequence. 
And to the disappointment of my critics, I am still here on the job.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Members 
and staff and spectators in the Gallery be allowed to applaud for a 
period not to exceed 30 seconds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagerty). The Senator from Illinois.