[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21876-21877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     TRIBUTE TO FRANK R. LAUTENBERG

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, as the 106th Congress winds to a close, I 
want to take just a moment, as it were, to say farewell and to pay 
tribute to my friend and colleague, Senator Frank Lautenberg, who, 
after serving three terms, will be retiring from the United States 
Senate. He has dutifully served the people of New Jersey, and served 
them well, for 18 years, and he has often been outspoken about the 
value of government and its ability to improve people's lives.
  This belief stems from personal experience. As the son of immigrants 
who fled poverty and religious persecution, he raised himself from 
poverty to become a world leader in computer services. Frank did well. 
He well understood the words of Thomas H. Huxley, who said, ``The rung 
of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot 
long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.'' Senator 
Frank Lautenberg has never rested, and I am sure that, for him, 
retirement from the Senate simply means that he is moving on to the 
next rung on his life's ladder.
  Frank Lautenberg was born in Paterson, NJ, on January 23, 1924, and 
during his childhood moved about a dozen times with his parents in 
their pursuit of work in New Jersey. After graduating high school, 
Frank enlisted and served in the Army Signal Corps in Europe during 
World War II. Benefitting from the GI bill following the war, he 
attended the Columbia University School of Business, where he earned an 
economics degree in 1949. In 1952 he cofounded a company called 
Automatic Data Processing and, by 1982, when he was elected to the U.S. 
Senate, his company employed 16,000 people. Think of that. His company 
employed more people than today work in the coal mines of West 
Virginia. And it was a company that processed the payroll for one of 
every 14 non-Government workers in the entire country. It had become 
one of the largest computing services companies in the world.
  Because of his working-class roots and the values instilled in him by 
his parents, Senator Lautenberg came to realize that America really was 
the land of opportunity. America had provided him with many 
opportunities, and Senator Lautenberg decided that it was time to give 
something back to this wonderful country. He therefore launched his 
career in public service, and during his tenure of three terms, Frank 
Lautenberg has fought hard to protect the health, safety, and security 
of American families.
  Senator Lautenberg has an appreciation of the Senate and its special 
place in our Nation. He has fought to preserve the prerogatives of the 
Senate and of the Congress as a whole. As the senior member of the 
Budget Committee, he actively resisted the so-called balanced budget 
amendment to the Constitution. Senator Lautenberg was also one of a 
minority of Senators to oppose the Line Item Veto Act.
  As ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Lautenberg 
helped to craft the 1997 balanced budget agreement that helped to put 
our national finances in order. His work helped to demonstrate that the

[[Page 21877]]

Constitution did not have to be amended to balance the budget and that 
hard work and hard choices are what is needed in budgets, as in life.
  Senator Lautenberg and I share a commitment to our transportation 
infrastructure and we have made it one of our top priorities. He is the 
ranking member of the Transportation Appropriations subcommittee. I 
have worked very closely with my friend from New Jersey, who serves 
with me on that subcommittee. We have toiled together on a wide variety 
of projects important to West Virginia and the Nation. And we have been 
doing this for a long time. When we were in the majority, when I was 
chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Frank Lautenberg was 
the chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee. For too long, the 
Federal Government has underinvested in our Nation's highways. As a key 
member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Frank 
Lautenberg played an active role in crafting TEA-21, the historic 
transportation bill that was enacted last Congress which is an 
important step toward fixing past mistakes and assuring Americans of 
safer, more modern highways and improved public transit. We share the 
belief that a strong infrastructure is vital and makes a profound and 
positive difference for hundreds of millions of Americans by saving 
lives, reducing injuries, increasing business investment, expanding 
employment opportunities, and producing savings to the public and to 
the private sectors.
  Senator Lautenberg has also worked to make transportation safer. He 
championed laws to make 21 the national drinking age, which has saved 
an estimated 12,000 lives since 1984. And he has sponsored 
legislation--and I have been proud to cosponsor it with him--to make 
.08 blood alcohol content the national standard for the illegal 
operation of a vehicle. In addition, Senator Lautenberg and I have 
worked together on efforts to combat underage drinking.
  Senator Lautenberg is a strong environmental leader who helped to 
write the Superfund, Clean Air, and Safe Drinking Water Acts. Most 
Americans take safe drinking water for granted; however, the sad fact 
is that, in this, the most prosperous Nation in the world, millions of 
people rely on possibly contaminated water supplies. Frank Lautenberg 
understands that. He understands that like improved highways and 
bridges, effective and efficient and clean water systems are vital to 
the continued economic expansion of our Nation and the health and 
safety of our people.
  In his statement on February 17, 1999, announcing his plans for 
retirement, Frank Lautenberg cited as one of the main factors of his 
decision his frustration with the overwhelming amount of financial 
resources needed for his upcoming reelection campaign. That is a shame; 
that is a shame. He believes--and has so stated--that without 
meaningful campaign finance reform, special interest funding will grow 
substantially, and even larger amounts of money will be necessary. That 
is a shame and a disgrace. I regret that we have not been able to 
address campaign financing in a meaningful way. I regret that the 
deplorable influence of money--filthy lucre--in politics has had such a 
detrimental impact on the Senate.
  Senator Lautenberg knows what it is like to start from nothing and 
less than nothing and make the most of every opportunity. He has worked 
to make the lives of his constituents, and all Americans, better. From 
building up our country's infrastructure, to battling those who would 
attack our constitutional liberties, to protecting our environment, 
Senator Lautenberg has worked to provide a brighter future for our 
Nation. He has worked to improve our public schools. I have no doubt 
that my good friend and colleague will not rest on his laurels after he 
leaves the halls of Congress. Frank Lautenberg will continue to serve 
so that others will have the opportunities that have lifted him to a 
place where he could serve the greatest Nation on Earth.
  I thank Senator Lautenberg for his service to the Senate and to the 
Nation. I tried to talk him out of retirement. I urged him to think 
again, change his mind, change his decision for the good of the Senate 
and for the good of the country and, I am sure, for the good of New 
Jersey, but I know that it would be for the good of the Senate. I wish 
he could still change his mind. I am sorry he made that decision, but 
he had his reasons. He did what he thought was best, I am sure.
  I thank him for his service to the Senate. He won't be leaving this 
afternoon or tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but the time for him 
with us is all too short. The Senate will have lost a good man and a 
fine, fine Member. America will have lost a good servant. But, as I 
said, it may be that he will serve elsewhere. In any event, I wish him 
good health and happiness in his retirement.
  As I say farewell to him, I recall these words from the great 
American author of the 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is 
entitled ``A Nation's Strength.''

       What makes a nation's pillars high
       And its foundations strong?
       What makes it mighty to defy
       The foes that round it throng?
       It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
       Go down in battle shock;
       Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
       Not on abiding rock.
       It is the sword? Ask the red dust
       Of empires passed away;
       The blood has turned their stones to rust,
       Their glory to decay.
       And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
       Has seemed to nations sweet;
       But God has struck its luster down
       In ashes at His feet.
       Not gold but only men can make
       A people great and strong;
       Men who for truth and honor's sake
       Stand fast and suffer long.
       Brave men who work while others sleep,
       Who dare while others fly--
       They build a nation's pillars deep
       And lift them to the sky.

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hagel). The Senator from New Jersey.

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