[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WOMEN IN THE SENATE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we were finally able to get the military 
construction appropriations bill completed. We will vote on it in the 
morning, but basically it is completed. That is our first 
appropriations bill. We will vote on that tomorrow. We will have 12 to 
go. I hope we can make good progress in the next couple of weeks and 
get more of those done. But before we leave the military construction 
appropriations bill, I want to make a few comments.
  I had the good fortune of being able to chair that subcommittee for 
some time. I was ranking member after that. It was a great experience. 
It is a wonderful bill, to work on programs that directly affect 
military personnel. It affects them all over the world.
  Construction takes place in Nevada at Nellis Air Force Base, Fallon 
Naval Air Station. Indian Springs, that used to be a full-fledged air 
base and now it is a base that deals principally with the drones, 
unmanned vehicles. It is not only a bill that is for Nevada, it is good 
for every State in the Union. As I indicated, construction takes place 
around the world.
  The reason I wanted to comment on this is, I know this bill very 
well. I have to say Senators Feinstein and Hutchison have done a 
remarkably good job.
  I talked to Senator Feinstein after she completed debate. I said: 
Dianne, I just think you have done such a good job on this, you and 
Senator Hutchison. I don't want to say anything that is wrong, that 
will be untoward, but I think it speaks volumes that two women are 
handling the legislation dealing with the military personnel of our 
country.
  She said to me that she recognized that.
  And I said: Would you be offended in any way if I talk about that a 
little bit, the fact that here we have this multibillion-dollar bill 
that has been handled as well as any bill could be handled, and I think 
the American public should understand the great contribution made by 
these two female Senators.
  I have seen the Senate change since I came here. Twenty percent of 
the Democratic caucus now are women. The Senate is a better place 
because of women serving here. Things have been accomplished that would 
not have been accomplished but for them.
  I go back to something that really struck home with me. I was touring 
a ranch in northern Nevada. The ranch was run by the Glaser brothers. I 
know them well. One of them I served with in the State legislature for 
many years. He had retired at the time. He is now deceased.
  We were out looking at this bird sanctuary he had created on his own 
with no Federal help, no State help, in the middle of this vast, 
beautiful ranch of his. We were talking about how much farm equipment 
costs.
  Farm equipment is very expensive. But he said something to me I have 
never forgotten. He said: You know, Harry, any time that I can hire 
women to run these big pieces of heavy equipment, I do so.
  I said: Norm, why is that?
  He said: Because they take better care of it. I have found over the 
years that they are more gentle with the equipment. They don't do 
things to hurt the equipment. Any chance I get that I can hire women to 
run these big pieces of equipment, I do, because they do a better job 
than the men.
  Well, I don't want to concede anything at this time, that these two 
Senators did a better job than has been done in the past. But I will 
have to tell you, it wouldn't take much to convince the rest of the 
Senate that they probably did a better job than has ever been done 
before.
  I say the Senate and the country are better for having these women in 
the Senate. I hope that as the years go by there will be more women 
elected to the Senate. There are a lot of women around the country 
running for the Senate this year. In the years to come, there will 
certainly be more than 20 percent of the Democratic caucus that are 
women.

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