[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 24832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      TRIBUTE TO FRANK LAUTENBERG

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, as this Congress draws to a close, I 
want to take a moment to thank my friend Frank Lautenberg for his 18 
years of service in the body. The people of New Jersey are losing a 
skilled legislator and a gifted advocate. Whether he is fighting racial 
profiling or taking on the tobacco industry, Frank Lautenberg has 
consistently fought for a healthier, safer, more just world for all of 
us.
  After a successful career in the private sector, Frank ran for the 
U.S. Senate motivated to give something back to his state and the 
nation. And never has he had greater success than during his 18 years 
in public service. It has been a pleasure to serve with Senator 
Lautenberg on the Budget Committee, where he has provided outstanding 
leadership as the committee's ranking member. Senator Lautenberg played 
a crucial role in crafting the bipartisan budget agreement of 1997 
which led to the balanced budget, and putting this body back on the 
road to fiscal responsibility.
  I stood side by side with Senator Lautenberg in the fight to 
implement the gift ban in 1995. And I've been especially proud to work 
with him to end racial profiling--the abhorrent law enforcement 
practice that targets African Americans, Hispanic Americans and other 
minorities for traffic stops based on the color of their skin. Together 
Senator Lautenberg and I introduced S. 821, the Traffic Stops Study 
Act, to require the Attorney General to conduct an initial analysis of 
existing data on racial profiling and then design a study to gather 
data from a nationwide sampling of jurisdictions. We've worked together 
on this issue for more than two years, and I believe our legislation 
will prevail, if not in this Congress, then in the next one.
  I will proudly continue the fight to pass the Traffic Stops Study Act 
in the next Congress, but I will miss greatly Frank's leadership on 
this issue. When we do finally pass this simple bill to get an accurate 
picture of racial profiling on our nation's roadways, we'll owe a big 
part of that victory to Senator Lautenberg.
  Today I thank Frank Lautenberg for his leadership on racial profiling 
and so many other issues that matter to the people of this nation. I 
wish him and his family all the best in his retirement, and thank him 
for his many contributions to the U.S. Senate, and to the American 
people.

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