[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 26725-26728]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    IN HONOR OF SENATOR JOHN CHAFEE

  Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to rise to express 
my thoughts about the loss of a great friend and a dear colleague, 
Senator John Chafee. The Senate has lost a great Senator and this 
country has, indeed, lost a great American. All of us in the Senate 
family have lost a great friend.
  John Chafee was a Senator who thought of what was best for his 
country first and thought about the politics, if he did at all, last. 
All of his colleagues, I know, will have great personal memories of 
Senator Chafee, how their paths crossed over the years, and the work he 
did as a leader of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. 
On our own Senate Finance Committee, when we had such historic debates, 
Senator Chafee was always in the midst of them. I know his work on the 
Environment and Public Works Committee will ensure all Americans in the 
future will breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water and have to 
worry less about their health because of the environment in which we 
all live. He always was a leader in the environmental area and will 
always be noted for that. It is true; all of us are better off for the 
services he provided in that capacity.
  I remember John Chafee and the efforts he and I undertook together. 
It was, indeed, my privilege to work with him on what became known as 
the Centrist Committee, a centrist coalition. Senator Chafee was 
enthusiastic about finding a consensus on the difficult issues that 
faced our country, but he was concerned about more than just trying to 
find a consensus; he was really concerned about creating a consensus. 
His efforts in our little coalition produced some dramatic results 
because he, in hosting these meetings with our colleagues from both 
sides of the aisle, truly recognized solutions to difficult problems 
cannot come from the far left or the far right. These difficult 
solutions must be found in the center, and that is where I think he 
found himself most comfortable.
  We used his hideaway office here in the Senate almost on a weekly 
basis, as I said, to host meetings between Republicans and Democrats 
who worked together. We talked to each other rather than merely 
listened to echoes of ourselves. We actually spoke about the issues and 
tried to find and recommend solutions that were not necessarily good 
political solutions but were the right thing to do for this country.
  I think his greatest accomplishment in this area that I remember was 
the recommendations that he helped guide in the area of health care. We 
ultimately brought them to the floor of the Senate and they were 
adopted by a very strong majority of this Senate, to a large extent 
because of the credibility John Chafee brought when he was listed as 
being one of the principal cosponsors. Unfortunately, those 
recommendations did not become the law of the land, but I am certain, 
and very confident, that one day they will.
  So John Chafee will be missed by all of us. He served his State and 
he served his Nation very well. I look to the day in the Senate when 
there will be more John Chafee's. Certainly this Nation and this 
country needs them and we deserve them.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I join my colleagues in expressing my 
profound sadness on the passing of our good colleague and our great 
friend, Senator John Chafee, and to offer my most sincere condolences 
to his wife Ginny, their 5 children, and 12 grandchildren, the entire 
Chafee family, and also people in Rhode Island, who have lost a strong 
advocate, a compassionate leader, and a true friend.
  This body and this Nation are diminished today by the loss of one of 
the finest people I have ever had the privilege to know in politics.
  Senator Chafee's life was an ode to the finest ideals of public 
service. He fought in World War II and Korea because he believed in 
freedom. He served in the State legislature and as Governor of Rhode 
Island because he loved his State. He answered the call to become 
Secretary of the Navy because he wanted us to have the best defensive 
force in the world. He ran for the Senate because he thought he could 
make a difference, and what a difference he has made.
  I had the honor of working with Senator Chafee in this body for only 
a little under 5 years, but as did everyone else on Capitol Hill, I had 
long known of his reputation for thoughtfulness and reason. Indeed, for 
anyone who really cared about the art of legislating, John Chafee was a 
household name.
  I consider myself fortunate for the opportunity to have worked with 
this great American and to have seen firsthand why he engendered such 
respect and affection from both sides of the aisle and from all 
political persuasions. He was an extraordinary man of sincere humility, 
boundless energy, and steadfast integrity. It was difficult enough 
coming to terms with his impending retirement from the Senate. Now it 
will be immeasurably more difficult to come to terms with his passing.
  Throughout my tenure in the Senate, I have felt a special kinship 
with Senator Chafee on a number of levels. For one thing, he and his 
wife Ginny have long had a home in my State of Maine, a home that has 
been in his family more than 100 years, in the beautiful town of 
Sorrento just across the bay from where my husband's family has a 
place. And we had a chance to see them during the course of the summer. 
Clearly, I knew from the start that Senator Chafee was a man of 
discerning taste.
  In fact, he would often say--only half-jokingly--he considered 
himself the third Senator from Maine. If such a thing were really 
possible, we could not have been more honored, and we certainly could 
not have had a better advocate for our great State.
  On the political front, I always saw Senator Chafee as something of a 
kindred spirit. He epitomized what it meant to be a modern, moderate 
Republican. For him, compromise was a way things got done. It was the 
way we distilled all the opinions, all the issues, all the viewpoints, 
and arrived at legislation that could change America and change lives 
for the better. For John Chafee, there was strength in compromise, 
courage in compromise, honor in compromise, and he was right. He viewed 
it not as an abdication of principle but a catalyst for constructive 
policy.
  Senator Chafee was willing to take risks in order to do what he 
believed was in the best interests of Rhode Island and our country. For 
him, leadership and the public good were two concepts forever and 
eternally intertwined. Sometimes that meant being a lone voice in the 
wilderness, and he was willing to be that voice.
  Time and again, John Chafee was there, both out in front and behind 
the

[[Page 26726]]

scenes, as Senator Breaux just mentioned, forging consensus, breaking 
deadlocks, and bringing people together on countless issues that were 
key for Americans, issues that resonate today in people's daily lives 
and will continue to resonate for generations to come.
  John Chafee always put ideas ahead of ideology. That is why he was at 
the forefront of the legislative and political debates in Congress. He 
proposed sensible, viable, and realistic alternatives. I well remember 
in the budget debates of 1995 and 1996 when Senator Chafee joined 
Senator Breaux to form a bipartisan group of Senators to bridge the 
political gulf that had opened in the aftermath of the Government 
shutdown. I was proud to be a member of that group because John Chafee 
was never about making the political points; John Chafee was about 
making the process work, and that is precisely what he did during the 
budget debate and throughout his entire 23 years in the Senate.
  He was a tireless advocate on so many issues vital to the future of 
this country, perhaps none more important than the health of our 
Nation's environment. In fact, when it comes to the protection of our 
natural resources, it can truly be said that John Chafee has left a 
lasting mark on the landscape of America.
  He was a strong voice for the environment, shepherding the Clean Air 
Act of 1990 and consistently supporting the preservation of our 
country's precious wetlands and open spaces. He has played a role in 
every major Federal initiative to control pollution and protect our 
natural resources over the past 20 years, and it is testament to his 
vision that generations of Americans not even born will have John 
Chafee to thank for a healthier world.
  Of course, it is not only the health of our environment he sought to 
protect. Until the very end, John Chafee was a champion for those less 
fortunate, and that includes health care for low-income families and 
expanded health coverage for uninsured low-income children. He was a 
visionary on the issue of child care. He knew we had to make it safer, 
more accessible, more affordable, and it was my privilege to join him 
in that fight.
  More recently, just last week, I joined him on a bill he and Senator 
Rockefeller introduced that will help foster children make the 
transition to independent living. Just shortly after I learned of 
John's passing, I had to get on a plane yesterday, and I picked up a 
newspaper and read an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, in fact, 
praising this legislation, saying this is not extending a welfare 
project but building a bridge to independence. That is the type of 
approach John would take on issues.
  I ask unanimous consent that the editorial be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 25, 1999]

                         Fostering Life Skills

       Every year 20,000 foster children, in the United States 
     turn 18 and are ``emancipated.'' It's a cheerful euphemism 
     for loss--of shelter, health care and their foster parents.
       Federal Health and Human Services statistics show that many 
     former foster children lack the resources and training to 
     make much of their abrupt freedom. In Los Angeles County, for 
     instance, fully half of the 1,000 foster children who are 
     ``aged out'' of the system every year end up homeless within 
     six months.
       Legislation now pending in the Senate Finance Committee, by 
     Sens. John Chafee (R-R.I.) and John D. Rockefeller (D-W. 
     Va.), gives Congress a chance to recognize what any parent 
     raising an adolescent already knows: Yanking the whole safety 
     net at age 18 can be a recipe for disaster.
       Since 1992, Washington has allocated $70 million a year to 
     states that want to help foster children ages 16 to 18 
     prepare for independent living by teaching them how to budget 
     money, prepare for college and find a job. The modest Chafee/
     Rockefeller bill would double funding to $140 million a year, 
     allow that money to be spent helping those over 18 and extend 
     Medicaid eligibility to those ages 18 to 21.
       This is not extending a welfare crutch; it's building a 
     bridge to independence. ``Bridges to Independence'' is in 
     fact the name of a nonprofit program in Los Angeles that has 
     successfully given older foster children the tools they 
     need--from a sympathetic ear to job-interview counseling and 
     apartment-hunting skills--to lead productive lives.
       Chafee and Rockefeller have asked Congress to approve their 
     bill by voice vote and send it to President Clinton this 
     week.
       Congress is scrambling to approve several higher-profile, 
     multibillion-dollar spending bills before recessing next 
     week. And fast-tracking the bill, which largely mirrors 
     President Clinton's fiscal year 2000 budget requests for 
     foster care, means getting the approval of fervent anti-
     Clinton Republicans like House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-
     Texas). However, the bill is gaining broad support in 
     Congress and was championed in Senate testimony last week/19 
     by none other than Delay. Delay explained that, as the foster 
     father of two adolescents himself, he understands the 
     problems of the foster children who testified before him. One 
     ``emancipated'' foster child told legislators how she ended 
     up sleeping behind McDonald's, in laundry rooms and hospitals 
     ``because they were safe and they were warm.''
       The United States can surely do better by its most 
     vulnerable youth than a ``safe, warm'' laundry room to call 
     home.

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, that was typical of John Chafee. He saw the 
potential of people--the best in people--and did everything he could to 
enhance their lives. He did not just root for the underdog; he was on 
the field helping the underdog. We can attribute more than a few upset 
victories over the years to his efforts.
  It is hard for me to believe it was just 6 days ago I saw John at the 
weekly lunch we moderate Republicans hold every Wednesday. We take 
turns holding them in our offices. Last week, it was in John's office. 
Little did we know it would be for the last time.
  It was a tradition he started in 1995. Back then, our circle included 
Senators Cohen and Kassebaum. We always looked forward to them. They 
were our refuge to discussions of what was happening on the floor, in 
the Senate, and in the country. It was a refuge from the ``hurly-
burlyness'' of the process in the Senate with like-minded Senators. It 
was a tradition we looked forward to every week. I know it will not be 
the same without him.
  At these luncheons, John always brought to the table the issues about 
which he most cared. We would also expect he would have a list of 
issues and legislation he was promoting that he thought was important 
to bring to our attention and to get our support. In fact, John was 
just speaking last week, as I said, about the foster children 
legislation, and I joined him on that issue because he was so 
passionate, as he was on all of the issues, whether it was child care, 
the environment, or families on welfare looking to make a better life 
for their family. Such talk never surprised any of us in the room 
because it was the essence of the man; it was what drove him.
  Once again, it was also revealed in words forged by deep compassion 
and unyielding humanity in so many respects. Maybe it sounds trite in 
our world at the end of the 20th century, maybe it sounds old fashioned 
in a time when cynicism is celebrated over optimism, but John Chafee 
cared. He was a good man who believed he had something to offer the 
Nation in which he felt privileged to live, and he saw public service 
as a noble calling. Ironically, perhaps, it is precisely because of 
people such as John Chafee that public service remains a noble calling.
  So today, there is a hole in the Senate where this great man once 
was. There is an empty desk on this floor where a remarkable leader 
once stood. There is a hollowness in our hearts.
  But even in the midst of our sadness, let us also celebrate the life 
of a man who brought such extraordinary credit upon himself, his 
family, his State, and this institution. Senator Chafee now and forever 
will be a part of this Chamber. His compassionate and reasoned voice 
will forever echo from these walls, and his legacy will endure. It is a 
legacy we would all do well to follow.
  We measure success in our lives and in this body by many different 
standards. But at such a solemn time as this, I cannot help but think 
of the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote:

       . . . to know even one life has breathed easier because you 
     have lived. . . . This is to have succeeded.

  So many lives have breathed easier because John Chafee lived, because 
John Chafee cared, because John Chafee was a United States Senator.

[[Page 26727]]

  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from 
Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from Florida.
  Yesterday, as I was driving with my wife to the airport in 
Springfield, IL, to catch the plane, we were listening to National 
Public Radio and heard that my friend and colleague, Senator John 
Chafee, had passed away. I turned to my wife and said: This was a 
really special guy. I am sorry you didn't get to know him.
  I have only served in the Senate for a little over 2 years. I look 
over there at his desk, which now has a bouquet of flowers, and realize 
that just a few days ago we were on the floor together talking about 
legislation and votes.
  He was such an extraordinary man. In the 2\1/2\ years I have been 
here, I came to know him and developed a friendship across the aisle, 
Democrat to Republican. I really came to respect John Chafee. He has an 
amazing story. Tom Brokaw has a famous book that is very popular called 
``The Greatest Generation,'' about the men and women who served our 
country in World War II and what special people they were. John Chafee 
was one of those people. To leave Yale and enlist at the age of 20, to 
go into the Marines and be part of the invasionary force on 
Guadalcanal, and then to come back and complete his education but to 
consider his obligation to his country so paramount he left again to 
serve in the Korean war under some very difficult circumstances, it 
shows a special, personal commitment to public service. Many of us, 
myself included, stand in awe when we consider that.
  Then, of course, he served as Secretary of the Navy during the 
Vietnam war, a very controversial period in our history, and was 
regarded as a fair and honest man in that responsibility. Three times 
Governor of his State of Rhode Island, four times elected as Senator 
from a State which has historically elected more Democrats than 
Republicans, it was quite a tribute to John Chafee that he was elected 
time and again by his neighbors and friends in the State of Rhode 
Island.
  Here on the Senate floor he played an important role. In my mind, he 
was a constant reminder of what the Senate could be on a good day; that 
there could be people of like mind on both sides of the aisle coming 
together to find bipartisan solutions. When I would have a gun control 
bill I wanted to offer to try to reduce gun violence, I would look 
across the aisle. I always knew John Chafee would stand up and come to 
the press conference. We would announce the bill. As we would leave, he 
would say: I know I am going to hear it again from the National Rifle 
Association back home but, he said, I just think this is the right 
thing to do.
  It wasn't just on issues of gun violence. You could find the same 
thing when it came to issues to protect the environment. John Chafee 
always stood out from the pack. He was always a special person, trying 
to build an alliance, trying to build a coalition.
  I recall when he came to me and asked me to do him a personal favor. 
As a junior Member of the Senate who respected him so much, I wasn't 
going to say no. But he told me he had been chosen by the Chicago 
Council on Foreign Relations to head up an Atlantic Forum that took 
place every 2 years, bringing together political leaders from Europe, 
South America, and North America to talk about the future. He asked me 
if I would be kind enough to attend that conference in Portugal.
  I thought about it and realized if it was important to him, it should 
be important to me. We went to Portugal together. John Chafee presided 
over about the 150 gathered to talk about some very involved political 
issues. He did it with such grace and style, such knowledge of the 
subject. It was one of the more successful conferences I ever attended. 
When it was over, he announced, shortly thereafter, that he was going 
to retire from the Senate. He came and asked me, as a favor, would I 
consider taking over the chairmanship of this forum.
  It was a great honor that he would even ask me to consider following 
in his footsteps, after he had written such an envious record as the 
chairman of the Atlantic Forum. I have agreed to do that. I hope it 
will continue in his memory.
  As he tried to bridge the ocean to make sure people in North America 
and South America and Europe came together to find common ground, he 
did the same thing day in and day out in the Senate.
  Just a few months ago we had a contentious debate over gun control. 
At the last moment, Vice President Gore came in to cast the deciding 
vote. An important bill left the Chamber, but before that vote was 
cast, I was talking to John Chafee about this issue on which we held 
common views. He talked to me about what we could accomplish on the 
Senate floor and how we shouldn't go too far. He said: A lot of my 
colleagues over here on the Republican side disagree with me on this 
issue. I think we ought to stop at this point. I think we have made our 
point, and we have a good bill. We should proceed.
  When I came back over to the Democratic side, I said: This is the 
advice of John Chafee. A lot of Democratic Senators looked and nodded 
because they knew it was good advice. It was not only good advice from 
the head; it was advice from the heart. That was the kind of person he 
was, respected so much for his intelligence but respected even more for 
his kindness and his compassion.
  I am honored to serve in the Senate. There are moments in public life 
when each of us think twice about whether we chose the right career. 
But there are also moments that are ennobling moments, when you feel as 
if you were part of a great institution for a great Nation. I always 
felt working with John Chafee embodied those moments. He spoke to the 
best of the Senate.
  He was a good friend, a great colleague, and he was a great American 
who served his Nation in so many ways. We are going to miss John 
Chafee, but his memory will endure.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Enzi). The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, before yielding time to the Senator from 
Minnesota, I will take a few moments to also share some thoughts about 
our departed colleague, John Chafee.
  I had the great privilege of serving with John Chafee for nearly 13 
years. We served together on the Environment and Public Works Committee 
and on the Finance Committee and had many opportunities to work closely 
together.
  John Chafee was the kind of public servant whom citizens in a 
democracy hope to have representing them. He represented a small State, 
both geographically and relatively, in population. It is the kind of 
State where the citizens have an intimate relationship with their 
elected representatives; they know them personally; they can evaluate 
their character; they are not dependent on a flickering 30-second 
television ad to give them information about the people who are seeking 
their vote.
  Election after election, in a largely Democratic State, Republican 
John Chafee received the vote of the people of the State of Rhode 
Island, a great tribute to the fundamental character of the citizens of 
that State and the man who gave his life in the service of that State.
  John Chafee's life was epitomized by the word ``service.'' As 
Governor, as Secretary of the Navy, as a Senator, he displayed wisdom, 
dedication, and patriotism. Those qualities had been molded in the 
flames of World War II and the Korean war, where he served in some of 
the most intense combat. I imagine when some people suggested that a 
vote in the Senate was a testing vote, a difficult vote, he might have 
put that in the context of what he experienced in his young adult life 
at Guadalcanal.
  As a colleague, I particularly admired the thoughtful, pragmatic 
manner in which he approached his duties in the Senate. He was a 
mentor. I remember the first committee meeting in which I participated, 
which was a markup, a meeting in which legislation was before the 
Environment and Public Works Committee for action and then 
recommendation to the full Senate. It

[[Page 26728]]

was the 1987 version of the transportation bill, always a controversial 
matter.
  I had come to that committee with a number of ideas from my previous 
State experience in Florida. I was enthusiastic and had some amendments 
to propose. On the first day of committee consideration of this 
legislation, I was fortunate to get two of my amendments adopted. After 
the vote on the second amendment, Senator Chafee, speaking across the 
committee room from his position on the Republican side, said to me: 
Good work; now I recommend you quit.
  That was good advice for that day.
  His willingness and distinctive ability to reach out to Senators with 
all points of view kept the Senate at the reasonable center of American 
politics. John Chafee was proud to be categorized a moderate, proud to 
assume the label of a centrist. He brought common sense to our 
deliberations.
  The Senate has sometimes been analogized to ``the saucer,'' as in a 
cup and saucer. It is the place where the hot tea or coffee is poured 
so that it can be cooled before it is consumed. That was one of the 
rationales of our Founding Fathers, establishing a bicameral 
legislature with one house being very close to the people and one house 
being, hopefully, a more deliberative body. John Chafee epitomized that 
concept of the place where the hot passions are reconciled.
  John Chafee was also the kind of person who was more interested in 
results than with recognition. There probably are some pieces of 
legislation that are known as the Chafee act, or have his personal name 
associated with them. But, frankly, today, I cannot recall what that 
might be. I think John Chafee is perfectly satisfied with that. His 
goal was not to have his name etched in legislative marble or stone 
but, rather, to achieve a result. He was interested in building the 
edifice, not whose name was on the cornerstone of the edifice. That was 
the kind of human being John Chafee was.
  As a result of his commitment to results rather than recognition, in 
fact, some of the Senate's most memorable achievements in recent years 
bear his imprint. Expanded environmental protections, a balanced 
budget, and an improved transportation system were the results of his 
leadership and influence.
  As with all of us, John Chafee was a good friend, a trusted 
colleague. John will be sorely missed. He leaves a legacy that adds 
distinction to this body and to the title of public servant. We all 
send our deepest sympathy and best wishes that solace will be found in 
the great accomplishments of this truly great man, and that his family 
and the thousands of persons fortunate enough to call John Chafee a 
friend will find a solace and a capacity to deal with the grief that we 
all suffer today.
  Mr. President, I yield such time as he may wish to the Senator from 
Minnesota.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from 
Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, first of all, for those who might be 
watching our deliberations, I had a chance to speak yesterday about 
Senator Chafee. I will get back to the debate on this legislation.
  As I listened to my colleagues, I was reminded of a press conference 
that we had several months ago on some work I have been doing with 
Senator Domenici. The legislation is called the Mental Health Equitable 
Treatment Act, which we very much want to pass this year. Certainly, we 
won't get it done in the next 2 weeks, but I hope we will when we come 
back. I remembered that one of the original cosponsors was Senator 
Chafee. I agree with what everybody has said about him. It will be a 
tremendous loss for the Senate and our country. Again, today, I extend 
my love to Senator Chafee's family.

                          ____________________