[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 27132-27133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        WRAPPING UP THE SESSION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, you know I think the world of all my 
colleagues. The distinguished Chair right now is one of my best friends 
in the Senate and one who deserves congratulations on--actually, they 
didn't have to have an election in his State; he wins by so much. I 
love being with him, as I do my dear friend from Nevada, the deputy 
Democratic whip. But I hope that neither of my colleagues takes it at 
all personally when I say I would probably rather be at home with my 
family at this time of the year. But then I suspect they would, too. I 
hope this means we are soon to wrap things up, possibly this evening or 
Sunday or Monday or sometime. We seem to be in a situation where 
wrapping up the session is like wrapping up the Presidential election 
this year. I am beginning to feel a little bit like a hanging chad of 
some sort.
  I thought of some of the other terms that have been used, but I am 
afraid sometime somebody might pull that out of context and I will be 
reminded that I will not be forgiven for what I may say because of my 
Irish nature.
  Let us hope we can wrap it up. I say that also for the sake of the 
President-elect and the leadership, both Republican and Democrat, in 
the Senate. All of us have a lot of work to do before January 3 when 
the Senate comes back into session with a number of new Senators and in 
a unique situation of a 50-50 Senate.
  Governor Bush and former Secretary Cheney need time to work with the 
Republicans in the Senate and the House as they put together their 
administration. Of course, I hope and expect they will also be in 
contact with those of us on this side of the aisle. There is a lot 
facing this Nation, and we have to work on that.


                            VISIT TO IRELAND

  I was privileged this week to spend 48 hours out of the country with 
some other Members of the Senate and the House accompanying President 
Clinton on a visit to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It 
was remarkable to see how people reacted to the President. He was 
accompanied by one

[[Page 27133]]

of our Senators-elect, in this case the Senator-elect from New York, 
Hillary Rodham Clinton, although I think she was there more in her 
capacity as First Lady.
  It was interesting to see the reaction of the people in Ireland, both 
in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, both in the Catholic community 
and the Protestant community. The President was greeted as he should 
be, as a hero in Ireland because more than any President perhaps since 
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, he has shown a real interest in Ireland.
  He has become personally and intimately involved in trying to stop 
the sectarian damage, carnage, killings, and murders in Northern 
Ireland. He sent our distinguished former colleague and former majority 
leader of the Senate, George Mitchell, on countless trips to Northern 
Ireland helping to broker the peace agreement which became known as the 
Good Friday accords.
  Whether it was standing in the small town on the northern border of 
the Republic of Ireland, bordering Northern Ireland, a town of just a 
few thousand people but where 50,000 to 60,000 people from the whole 
area came and stood in the cold, the rain, and the fog for hour after 
hour waiting for the President and those accompanying him to arrive, 
and then giving him a hero's welcome and not wanting him to leave.
  I saw the faces of those people. I saw the children who looked out to 
him with hope in their eyes. I saw the older people who said he sought 
to bring prosperity to this area because he helped us stop the fighting 
that goes back and forth across the border. He has brought hope for our 
children and grandchildren.
  I saw the same thing in Northern Ireland in Belfast the next day 
where those who had been sworn enemies a few years ago were joining in 
meetings with the President, encouraging him to stay involved and 
asking him to please come back even after his Presidency. It had to be 
an emotional time for President Clinton, but it was very much for the 
people there.
  I talked with several who again told me he brought hope for them and 
brought an understanding that their children could live in a world they 
had not known, a world where they could go to school, where they would 
not be defined by their religion but defined by who they are.
  What an improvement that was and how grateful I am for the 
opportunity to have been there, not just as an Irish American but one 
who holds deeply our sense of freedom, our sense of democracy, and our 
sense that people do not get excluded because of their religious faith 
or their ethnic background or who their parents were but are included 
because they are human beings and because they have intrinsic worth.

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