[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 26623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    IN HONOR OF SENATOR JOHN CHAFEE

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today for a few words about 
Senator John Chafee, our wonderful friend who left us early this 
morning.
  I happened to be privileged to know both he and his wife Virginia 
very well. My heart goes out to her today. I have not been able to 
contact her because it is pretty difficult. The phone lines are busy, 
and she is busy. But my wife Nancy and I extend our sympathies and hope 
we will see her very soon.
  As I think about John Chafee, I see this mild-mannered person; but 
then I read about him, and there is a great paradox. If you look at 
what he did as a patriot, he was a great war hero. He served with the 
U.S. Marines in Iwo Jima, a very gruesome life experience. Clearly, he 
had to do some things that aren't so consistent with what we see in a 
very mild-mannered person.
  Believe it or not, after law school at Harvard, he volunteered and 
went a second time. He went to Korea. Then you would think such a 
talented man would probably want to be in the front office with 
generals and admirals. But he was head of a rifle team on the ground. 
That was John Chafee. Yet you could hear him regularly, when he made 
decisions on foreign affairs issues, talk about our country in a way 
that you absolutely were sure you knew where his heart, conscience, and 
mind were. It went way beyond that.
  So if anybody were striving to match him, they would have to take a 
look at the next one, which is his fantastic public service. We all 
knew him in his last public service career. But many people knew him in 
the earlier stages, when he was a representative and head of the 
minority party in the House of Representatives in his State and 
Governor twice.
  I remember vividly when I was elected to the Senate 26 years ago, 
there were four Senators on the Republican ticket across America who 
were expected to win. I remember getting a visit in my State then from 
Richard Nixon, and he had gone to Rhode Island, which was where John 
Chafee was running, who had been Secretary of the Navy and was supposed 
to be elected; Senator Bartlett of Oklahoma; Senator McClure of Idaho; 
and myself. He lost.
  So he was 2 years younger than I am. It took 2 years for them to 
realize it, but then they finally elected him. He was here ever since. 
I can quickly state the legacy I see after all these years, as can 
others who have been here 10, 15, 20 years. He had such a variety of 
things he did that I am not sure the two things for which I know him 
best will be his true legacy; maybe both will be.
  Senator Chafee followed in the footsteps of great environmental 
Senators such as Ed Muskie when he became chair, on our side, of the 
Environment and Public Works Committee. I do believe, even though most 
of the legislation for clean air, water, and the like had already been 
accomplished before he went on, at least the policies were in place, as 
the occupant of the Chair readily knows in his distinguished career. He 
quickly became known as a real environmentalist who understood and was 
practical yet stern in his beliefs. When it came to clean air and clean 
water, pollution in general, and certainly conservation of open space, 
there was no peer during his years as chairman and even before that.
  Everybody will get up and speak, I am sure, about his distinguished 
efforts on the health care side. He happened to be on the Finance 
Committee. When you say the Committee on Finance in the Senate, many 
people don't think of health care, but they have a lot of health care 
jurisdiction, including Medicare, Medicaid, and all the tax laws as 
they relate to health care. There was no stronger advocate for getting 
more people covered in health care than John Chafee and no stronger 
advocate for the health of our children and the need to make sure we 
were taking every precaution in getting health care to our children and 
passing laws that would get it there. He was truly a staunch advocate 
for healthy Americans and Americans having a better chance to be 
healthy, to get cured when they are sick, and taken care of when they 
are sick.
  I am sure there are other things he has done of which I am not aware. 
But if we got a chance to look at his record, it would be mentioned. 
There will be plenty of opportunity. I thought if I found the Senate 
open, I would drop by and say thank you, Senator Chafee, and thank you 
to his family for all they did for our country and for the Senate; 
thanks to his wonderful wife for all the sacrifices she and their 
wonderful family have made.
  I hope, again, we will get to see that family during the next 2 or 3 
days. I hope the Senate will honor him appropriately. I hope we take 
time off and go to his funeral. I am not in charge, but I hope we do 
that. I think we ought to do that, wherever it is. Whatever we are 
doing, we ought to take time off. That is just what we ought to do for 
a real Senator and a real friend.
  I yield the floor.

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