[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 27143-27145]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
resume legislative session.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I suspect you are getting weary of 
issuing that statement.
  Mr. President, just because I want to talk about 18 years of service 
doesn't mean I have to take 18 hours to do it. I will try to 
consolidate it.
  I have been talking about things that meant so much to me in the 
Senate and about the honor given when one is elected to this office. 
Too often it is denigrated in the heat of battle for victory in 
elections and again criticism of government and the bureaucrats, and so 
forth. It gets to a point where I must say I am very defensive, 
particularly for the staff who give so much of themselves to make 
things happen.
  Part of the work we have done over these years has proven to be of 
benefit. I hope I will be forgiven for taking some minutes to talk 
about things that can happen. I am proud of the work I did on gun 
safety, especially the law which takes guns away from domestic violence 
offenders who abuse their wives and their children. I am disappointed 
that more wasn't done to close the gun show loophole which permits 
people to buy weapons without any identification. I hope in the 107th 
Congress, with the new Members on both sides of the aisle, people who 
come here with good credentials, with those who have been here in the 
past from the 106th Congress, we will pass that law.
  Tobacco. Often when I am on an airplane, I am thanked by flight 
attendants and passengers for writing the ban on smoking in airplanes. 
It was a move that changed our country's cultural attitude on smoking. 
The tobacco industry has to understand that. I hope scientists have 
seen signs of understanding and cooperation that will lead them to work 
with us, through the FAA, to try to come to some kind of reconciliation 
of the position they are in where smoking brings so much damage and 
costs to our society. They are beginning to know that, and I hope they 
come up with something to permit citizens to avoid the poisons, the 
addiction that results from cigarette smoking.
  The Superfund is another program on which I worked fairly diligently 
for a long time without success, so far, in terms of getting it 
reauthorized, as it should be with a tax income that has those 
responsible, who could be responsible for that pollution, pay for the 
cleanups. We missed passing a bipartisan brownfields bill this year and 
hope that will take place next year.
  As we have reviewed tonight, transportation is one of my deepest 
interests. In working the bill to maintain our mass transit system, 
highways, airports, and ports have been a top priority for me as 
chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations Transportation 
Subcommittee. I believe we will face a serious transportation crunch in 
the future, as discussed, unless we develop high-speed rail wherever we 
can throughout this country. That is why this passage of the High Speed 
Rail Investment Act is so critical. And, once again, I thank the 
leaders for agreeing. I include the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, Senator Stevens, and the ranking member, Senator Byrd, for 
their willingness to cooperate getting that Amtrak bill in place next 
year.
  Also, I am delighted to have served with our friend, Senator Connie 
Mack from Florida, who is also in the process of retiring from the 
Senate. He and I worked very hard to get passage of a bill that 
punishes those who would commit terrorist acts and to help the victims 
of terrorism. We came to a

[[Page 27144]]

conclusion, before we left on our last break, that we will have these 
people receive compensation directed at having those nations that 
support terrorism pay for it. We are trying to get an understanding 
that, no matter what you do, if you support terrorism or you commit an 
act of terrorism, you are going to have to pay for it, and pay 
severely.
  I am proud of the work, also, I was able to do on the Budget 
Committee, especially the 1997 balanced budget agreement that laid the 
foundation for some of the surpluses we are now enjoying. I must say, 
when I walked across the lawn with the President of the United States 
and watched him sign that bill, I thought it was a moment I only wished 
my parents could have seen.
  I have served with many great men and women in the Senate. I have 
respect for all of them. I cannot name them all at this time, but I do 
want to mention some of the special ones. I worked with great majority 
and minority leaders. When I came here in 1983, Senator Howard Baker 
was the majority leader. I found him to be one of the most honorable 
people I have met. His word was his bond, and he taught me some early 
lessons when I asked him for a letter confirming a statement he had 
made to me, a promise he had made to me about a piece of legislation. 
So I said: May I have a letter to that effect? He said: If you need a 
letter from me, we are all in trouble.
  I was startled for a moment. But I could see then that Senator Howard 
Baker was a man of his word, as I have seen with other leaders on both 
sides.
  Senator Robert Byrd was minority leader when I came; later in the 
1980s, Senator George Mitchell, Senator Bob Dole, distinguished leaders 
of our two parties. In the 1990s, I had the privilege to work under the 
stewardship of Senator Trent Lott and my good friend Senator Tom 
Daschle, among the very good people who served in leadership roles. It 
is not an easy place to manage. I don't know whether there is ever 
going to be a school of hard knocks that is going to teach people how 
to run the Senate. But I think it has to be learning under fire with an 
occasional singeing here and there.
  As a long-time member of the Appropriations Committee, I served under 
terrific leadership: Senator Hatfield, Senator Stennis, Senator 
Stevens, and Senator Byrd. I don't think anyone of either party would 
quibble with my opinion that our friend Senator Byrd has been one of 
the great Senators in the history of this Republic.
  I have served for almost 16 years on the Senate Environment and 
Public Works Committee. That committee was led by extraordinary 
leadership, Senators such as Bob Stafford, Lloyd Bentsen, Quentin 
Burdick, John Chafee, Pat Moynihan; and Bob Smith has taken over the 
reins there. Max Baucus is the ranking member, and their leadership has 
been excellent. We worked hard to get things done. The funny thing is, 
it seemed that a spirit of bipartisanship just emerged without it being 
put into a record book or a program design. It just worked that way.
  I served on the Budget Committee. I did see Senator Pete Domenici 
here. I did that for 16 years. I worked with the best. Pete Domenici is 
an outstanding chairman. We disagree on some of the policy things, but 
I wanted Senator Domenici to know how much I respected his work as 
chairman of the Budget Committee. I finally got his attention.
  Senator Domenici and I had some disagreements--we had many 
agreements. But above all, we maintained respect for one another. That 
even developed, if I might describe it, as affection for one another, a 
respect for the turn our lives have taken and the problems we both 
would like to solve in our society.
  We had Jim Exon, Jim Sasser, Senator Stevens, we had some really good 
people--Lawton Chiles--who worked to chair these committees. There are 
others who left us with a memory of some greatness: People such as Ted 
Kennedy, Pat Moynihan, fighters such as Howard Metzenbaum, Dale 
Bumpers, statesmen such as Joe Biden, Lloyd Bentsen, and my colleague 
Bill Bradley; and American heroes such as Danny Inouye, Bob Dole, Bob 
Kerrey, and John Glenn--people who paid, in many cases, steep prices 
for their service to country.
  We worked with Presidents from both parties. Despite our differences, 
I was able to get things done with Presidents Reagan and Bush. 
Particularly with President Reagan, as I noted, I was able to get the 
legislation in place that raised the legal drinking age to 21. 
President Bush signed my legislation to ban smoking on all domestic 
airlines. I don't know whether that says something about the old saw 
that divided leadership in the various parts of government maybe 
produces good results. I wish I could have tried it all my way, but it 
did not get to work. But the system does work.
  I cannot leave this place with any criticism of the place not working 
or so forth. Sometimes the work goes slower than you would like. 
Sometimes it is more painful than you would like. But the fact is, this 
institution of government does work, and the people across the country 
have to know that, even as we looked at this kind of torturous process 
that followed the election we just completed. We are on to a new 
Presidency. We are on to the hope for the next century, for the next 
administration at least, that America will be able to continue to 
enforce its leadership in the world, not only militarily or 
functionally, but morally as well.
  So, Mr. President, it has been quite a go that I have had, to use the 
expression. I worked very hard for my State. I love New Jersey. I was 
born there. We have had Members in Congress there from both parties, 
and we worked together on a variety of joint Federal and State matters 
such as transportation, health care, and welfare. We had Governors such 
as Tom Kean, Jim Florio, and the present Governor Christine Todd 
Whitman. We were able to put politics aside and work together for the 
good of the people of the State of New Jersey. I am deeply grateful to 
the people of New Jersey. I thank them for putting their trust in me by 
sending me to the U.S. Senate for three terms. I hope I have made good 
on their trust and did the job they elected me to do.
  I welcome John Corzine, who is going to take this seat in the 107th 
Congress. He is a terrific fellow. He is going to do an excellent job, 
in my view. I was pleased to work with him in the election and, as a 
matter of fact, through these past couple of weeks as well, to see if I 
could be of help to him as he gets himself established, ready to take 
on the assignments of the Senate as Senator from New Jersey.
  I also extend my thanks to President Bill Clinton and Vice President 
Al Gore. Their leadership in the past 8 years has resulted in 
unprecedented growth and prosperity for our country. For that I am 
grateful. Their leadership also helped us solve some of the problems 
that beset the world, whether it was in Kosovo or Ireland, where 
division and torment and violence existed for so many years. It is 
working its way slowly to a peaceful coexistence between the parties 
there. President Clinton deserves enormous credit for that and our 
intervention in Kosovo to stop the killing and abuse of people there.
  We look at the Clinton years as years of good government, of good 
accomplishment, to say President Clinton and Vice President Gore will 
be remembered for the good things they brought to this country.
  I thank my staff, perhaps the most loyal anyone could have, and many 
of them are here tonight and have stayed with me, as they say, to the 
end. Many of them have their own concerns, their own families, their 
own futures, their own careers to look after, but they stuck by, and we 
continued to get things accomplished--even this, though it is my last 
active day as a Senator, though I will be a Senator until January 3. My 
staff and I are showing we are still fighting to get things done.
  I was pleased with the outcome for Amtrak. Our people have worked 
long hours with great energy. They are talented, professional, bright, 
skilled people who are totally committed to our common view of public 
service. Whether it was in my personal office, State offices, Budget or 
Appropriations Committees, my people made enormous

[[Page 27145]]

contributions day in and day out, and my service has been enriched and 
made more effective by their contribution.
  I have had some great people on the staff over the years who have 
dedicated their time and energy to advance our agenda. They have been 
outstanding public servants, anonymously serving the public interest, 
not elected but just as dedicated as anyone who has been elected to 
office.
  I want to take a few minutes to name for the Record people such as 
Eve Lubalin, my first legislative director, who served for many years 
as my chief of staff and campaign manager as well. She worked on so 
many of our accomplishments in 17 years in my office.
  Mitchell Oster worked on my 1982 campaign and later was my 
legislative director. He was an excellent, smart, aggressive staffer.
  A friend of mine who worked with me as a press secretary and State 
director is Jim McQueeny.
  James Carville and Paul Begala managed my campaign in 1988. I hope 
that was part of the propulsion that led them to the lofty positions 
they had in campaign logistics and successes.
  Karin Elkis has been on my staff since 1983.
  Bruce King is the staff director of the Senate Budget Committee.
  Sandy Lurie, my current chief of staff, has been on the staff for 10 
years and has been involved in so many of my initiatives.
  Maggie Moran is my State director.
  Dan Katz, my outstanding legislative director, has helped me with so 
many public health issues.
  Tom Dosh has worked for me for 18 years, skillfully running the 
administrative and financial management side of all my offices.
  And my long-time assistant Eleanor Popeck has worked for me for over 
35 years. She was with me as an assistant when I ran ADP and has worked 
in my Washington office and Newark office as well. She is an 
outstanding public servant. Her contributions have been significant.
  Peter Rogoff has worked with me on the Appropriations Transportation 
Subcommittee for over 10 years and has assisted me with so many major 
transportation accomplishments.
  There are many others over the years, and I wish I had time to 
mention them all. That would be disagreeable with some of the people in 
the Chamber. I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record a list of 
my key staffers over the years.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              Staff Since January 1999 and Other Key Staff

       Amy Abraham, Jeff Acconzo, Sharon Anderson, Nisha Antony, 
     Claudia Arko, Renee Ashe, Bill Ayala, John Bang, Lisa 
     Baranello, Frederic Baron.
       Karyn Barr, Gabrielle Batkin, Steve Benson, Maggie 
     Bierwith, Patrick Bogenberger, Natalie Broadnax, Dana 
     Brookes, Aaron Brusch, Scott Campbell, Cathy Carpino.
       Rock Chueng, Sally Cluthe, Todd Coleman, Bill Crawley, 
     Debbie Curto, Christy Davis, Sallie Derr, Nicole Di Lella, 
     Tom Dosh, Andrea Edwards.
       Karin Elkis, Val Ellicott, Rob Elliott, Ron Eritano, Jim 
     Esquea, Kyra Fischbeck, Alex Formuzis, Alison Fox, Lorenzo 
     Goco, Lisa Haage.
       Heidi Hess, Melissa Holsinger, David Hoover, Louis Imhof, 
     Dan Katz, Bruce King, Lisa Konwinski, Peter Kurdock, Lou 
     Januzzi, Andrew Larkin.
       Vanessa Lawson, Josh Lease, Steve Leraris, Mada Liebman, 
     Julie Lloyd, Ruth Lodder, Eve Lubalin, Sander Lurie, Amy 
     Maron, Colleen Mason.
       Denise Matthews, Katie Melone, Melissa Miller, Maggie 
     Moran, Courtenay Morris, Marty Morris, John Mruz, Sue Nelson, 
     Mark Nevins, Liz O'Donoghue.
       Tony Orza, Deborah Perugini, Blenda Pinto, Lisa Plevin, 
     Michael Pock, Ellie Popeck, Peter Rogoff, Mike Rose, Nadine 
     Rosenbaum, Jon Rosenwasser.
       Nikki Roy, Peter Saharko, Laurie Saroff, Dawn Savarese, 
     Jack Schnirman, Paul Seltman, Jeff Siegel, Retha Sherrod, 
     Tralonne Shorter, Lisa Singleton.
       Monica Slater Stokes, Arvind Swamy, Beth Tarczynski, Keith 
     Totaro, Kathy Unzicker-Byrd, Chip Unruh, Raj Wadhwani, 
     Barbara Wallace, Mitch Warren, Sharon Waxman, Ted Zegers.

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Finally, Mr. President, this is not a day without 
emotion. Eighteen years of my life have been spent here, 18 of the most 
satisfying years one could imagine. Couple that with some 3 years in 
the Army, and I have served the Government for 20 years.
  I have enjoyed it all. It has been an incredible learning experience 
for me, but I owe a special thanks to four people: My four children, 
Ellen, Nan, Lisa, and Josh. I asked them in the early stages what they 
thought about my running for office. I was chairman of a very large 
company, and life was pretty good. They all agreed that it was 
something I ought to do. We did not realize at the time what kind of an 
interference with normal family life it would be. It has taken lots of 
time away from our enjoyment of doing things together.
  I came to the Senate because I love them so dearly that I wanted to 
make sure their lives would be safer and fuller. How was that to be 
accomplished? It was not by earning more assets and resources. I knew 
my children and my grandchildren could never be as safe as I would like 
them to be unless everybody's children were as safe as they should be 
by getting rid of violence in the streets, in the communities, in the 
neighborhoods, in the schools.
  How does one do that? I could not single my kids out and say, OK, 
let's make sure they are safe and protected. No, I had to say all 
people's children have to be safe and protected, and that is what I 
have tried to do here.
  That was my inspiration. That outlined the goals I set for myself. 
That is why I wanted to raise the drinking age, lower the blood alcohol 
content, get guns out of people's houses, reduce smoking in public 
areas, make sure toxic chemicals were known throughout the communities 
in the Right To Know Act, and make sure terrorists did not run freely 
through our society or through the world chasing American citizens, 
abusing them, killing them.
  I tried. I have not accomplished all of those things, but a lot of 
them have been accomplished. I wanted the highways to be safer and the 
skyways to be safer because of the belief I had that people around the 
country would share my view on that.
  Now the pictures are off the wall, the furniture is moved out, the 
day is closing for the end of my Senate service. I will acknowledge 
that it was more than skills and knowledge that brought me here. Some 
of that was the pure good fortune of the people of New Jersey electing 
me the first time I went out to run for office. They did not know me 
from anybody else, but they looked at the record my company had and how 
we built it from nothing to something important. They looked at my 
service as commissioner of the Port Authority of New Jersey and New 
York that controls the bridges, tunnels, terminals, and buildings in 
New York that was an appointed post. People looked at me and said: 
Well, we don't know this guy, but it looks like he has done some things 
correctly. They saw pictures of my family. They know how devoted I am 
to them. I also was chairman of one of the largest charities of the 
world for 3 years. They entrusted me with this seat, the New Jersey 
seat, that I occupied for 18 years. I always refrain from calling it 
``my seat'' because it is not; I filled it for a while.
  In closing, I thank the occupant of the chair for the opportunities 
we have had to share common goals and for his decency in reviewing 
those with me and having an open mind on many of the issues. I thank my 
friend from Nevada who stands as the guardsman of the floor in his 
assignment for the Democrats as the whip, and I note the respect I felt 
for him when I saw how arduously he worked to protect his State from 
becoming a nuclear dump, even when we struggled to find a place to put 
that material --and we do have to find a place. The fact of the matter 
is, if we defend the interests of our States in concert with the 
interests of our country, we will have done our jobs correctly.
  I hope the legacy I leave will create a brighter future for the 
people who sent me here, for my eight wonderful grandchildren, and for 
all of those I took the oath to serve.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.




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