[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 26443]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              SLADE GORTON

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am delighted today to join my 
colleagues in paying tribute to a truly outstanding United States 
Senator, and that is Slade Gorton.
  During Slade's recent campaign, I had the privilege of going to 
Seattle to speak at a luncheon organized for him by women who had once 
worked for him in the Senate and in his capacity as attorney general. I 
was not at all surprised to see so many women who felt so strongly 
about Slade's reelection. He is, and always has been, an oasis of 
inclusion, encouragement, and support for women in the workplace. He is 
one of those people who know how to encourage, how to mentor, and how 
to help women and men reach their full potential.
  That certainly has been true in my own case. Even before I was sworn 
in as a new Senator some 4 years ago, Slade took me under his wing with 
advice on everything from choosing my committee assignments, to 
selecting my office space, to hiring my staff. He has continued to give 
me invaluable advice on a host of issues ranging from what our policy 
should be in Colombia and Kosovo, to how to take a different approach 
to education spending, to how to succeed in a tricky procedural 
situation.
  Slade has always been someone to whom I could turn for advice, for 
answers, for good counsel. It has also been my pleasure to work with 
Slade Gorton on a host of issues such as education, children's health 
care, and the cost of prescription drugs. What I admire most about 
Slade is his intellectually rigorous, challenging, and creative 
approach to public policy. He simply does not go along with the 
conventional wisdom; he challenges it, constantly seeking new ideas and 
innovative approaches to solve thorny problems.
  A perfect example of Slade's innovative style was his development of 
an entirely new approach to Federal education policy, one that 
recognized that local school boards, parents, and teachers know best 
what their children need.
  As the architect of the Straight A's bill, Slade has been a leader in 
education in the Senate. I was very proud to cosponsor his innovative 
effort to bring academic achievement and accountability to our public 
schools.
  Slade realized that when the Federal Government gives money to local 
schools, it should not come with dictates from D.C. on how it should be 
spent. He understood that it should, however, come with an expectation 
of results, and that is why he worked so hard to give local school 
boards, parents, teachers, and administrators, the freedom to decide 
how best to spend Federal money in exchange for holding them 
accountable for improving their schools. He changed the entire focus of 
Federal education policy from being focused on paperwork and process, 
to instead being focused on how much our students were learning, to a 
focus on student achievement and results.
  Slade has also been an advocate for children's health. Not only was 
he an early supporter of the Children's Health Insurance Program, the 
S-CHIP program, but he has also worked for years to increase Federal 
research dollars toward autism. That hard work is about to pay off 
because his autism bill was included this year in the omnibus 
children's health bill which was signed into law last month. It will 
direct more Federal dollars toward finding a cure and treatment for 
autism.
  Slade Gorton has had an impact on this Senate in so many ways. 
Whether it is serving as a valued mentor to more junior Senators, such 
as myself, or being the architect of very important legislation or 
shepherding appropriations bills through an incredibly difficult 
procedural morass, Slade has been front and center in every debate in 
this Senate.
  He has not only been a brilliant legislator; he has also been a 
wonderful friend. I will deeply miss serving with him, and I appreciate 
this opportunity today to pay tribute to a man who has not only been an 
outstanding Senator but a wonderful friend.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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