[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1291]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                     RETIREMENT OF HERSCHEL CUTLER

 Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the 
retirement of Dr. Herschel Cutler from the Institute of Scrap Recycling 
Industries, ISRI. Dr. Cutler, ISRI's former Executive Director, spent 
the last 33 years of his life teaching the Nation, including the 
Congress, about the environmental and economic benefits of recycling. 
In the course of his tenure, ISRI has become a highly respected trade 
association known for its dedication to both environmental protection 
and private sector entrepreneurialism. He had a wonderful knack for 
hiring extraordinary staff. And, by example, Herschel taught them to do 
their homework, acquire a deep understanding of their issues, keep 
their standards high, develop reasonable solutions to problems and, 
with regard to public policy, to never overreach.
  Herschel Cutler is not an Arkansan. But, shortly after my first 
election to serve as a member of the other body, I met him over dinner 
through fellow Arkansans whose family recycling business was an ISRI 
member company. During that dinner Herschel gave me a succinct but 
thorough description of a serious dilemma facing the scrap recycling 
industry and its possible resolution. After listening to him discuss 
the concerns facing the many families in the recycling industry, 
including many Arkansas families, it was easy for me, a farmer's 
daughter, to identify with a key concern facing them. That is, certain 
government policies were, inadvertently, having the effect of causing 
many recycling families to wonder whether they should remain with their 
businesses.
  That dinner was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship 
between me, Dr. Cutler, and the entire scrap recycling industry. 
Herschel Cutler's earnest integrity convinced me that the recyclers' 
cause was worth fighting for. I began that fight in 1993. It ended in 
1999, after I teamed up with Senators Daschle and Lott, Baucus, and 
Chafee to amend the Superfund law to correct a mistake directed at 
recyclers that nobody had intended.
  Dr. Herschel Cutler and I have been fast friends ever since. As he 
retires on January 31, 2001, I cannot thank him enough for his guidance 
and his counsel to me over the years since we first met. He is truly a 
modest man of great wisdom, integrity and intellect. Upon his 
retirement the Washington association community is much the poorer. And 
with his counsel absent from the daily give and take of public policy 
discussions in the Congress, so are all of his many friends in both 
houses.
  Herschel, I wish you the best fishing, reading, writing, and teaching 
in your retirement. I'm sure your legions of friends would agree, your 
friendship has been a blessing to us all.

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