[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12598]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         THANKS TO SENATE PAGES

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would like to say farewell to a 
wonderful group of young men and women who have served as Senate pages 
over the last five months, and thank them for the contributions they 
make to the day-to-day operations of the Senate.
  This particular group of pages has served with distinction and has 
done a marvelous job of balancing their responsibilities to their 
studies and to this body.
  Page life is not easy. I suspect few people understand the rigorous 
nature of the page's work. On a typical day, pages rise early and are 
in school by 6:15 a.m. After several hours in school each morning, 
pages then report to the Capitol to prepare the Senate Chamber for the 
day's session. Throughout the day, pages are called upon to perform a 
wide array of tasks--from obtaining copies of documents and reports for 
Senators to use during debate, to running errands between the Capitol 
and the Senate office buildings, to lending a hand at our weekly 
conference luncheons.
  Once we finish our business here for the day--no matter what time--
the pages return to the dorm and prepare for the next day's classes and 
Senate session and, we hope, get some much-needed sleep. Even with all 
of this, they continually discharge their tasks efficiently and 
cheerfully.
  Aside from their normal day-to-day duties, this class in particular 
has had some extraordinary experiences as they witnessed firsthand the 
democratic process with all of its strengths and its imperfections. On 
their first day as Senate pages, they were thrown into the middle of 
the impeachment debate. As their semester here progressed, they 
witnessed several historic debates such as whether to send our 
country's armed forces into an international conflict far from home. 
And they watched our country struggle through the aftermath of 
tragedies such as Littleton, Colorado and the Senate's efforts to pass 
meaningful gun control legislation.
  I hope every person in this page class gained some insight into the 
need for individuals to become involved in community and civic 
activities. By living and working together, they have gained knowledge 
about the political process that they could not obtain from a textbook 
alone. The future of our nation strongly depends on the generations who 
will follow us in this august body. I look forward to the possibility 
that one or more of this fine group of young people will return as a 
member of the U.S. Senate.
  Mr. President, with your permission, I would like to insert in the 
Record the names and states of each of the Senate pages to whom we are 
saying goodbye. They are: Derek Alsup, New Hampshire; Devin Barta, 
Wisconsin; Halicia Burns, Michigan; Richard Carroll, Delaware; Micah 
Cermele, Alabama; Cathryn Cone, Missouri; Clay Crockett, Michigan; 
Danielle Driscoll, California; Mark Hadley, Virginia; Patrick Hallahan, 
New Jersey; Jessica Lipschultz, Idaho; Jennifer Machacek, Iowa; Brendan 
McCann, Virginia; Mark Nexon, Vermont; Chandra Obie, Montana; Stephanie 
Stahl, South Dakota; Marian Thorpe, West Virginia; Stephanie Valencia, 
New Mexico; and George Vana IV, Vermont.
  I'm sure all my colleagues join me in thanking these fine young men 
and women, and wishing them well in the future.

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