[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21138]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                THANKING THE PRESIDING OFFICER AND STAFF

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have, I am sure, a few other items to do 
before we close until later next month. I just want to say, first of 
all, the Presiding Officer is so available and I appreciate that very 
much. We all do. As I am sure everyone in this Chamber knows, it is 
difficult late at night to find people willing to preside, and the 
Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Dayton, is always so courteous and willing 
to preside. I told him personally what an excellent job he does. 
Presiding is more than just being here. The Presiding Officer has to be 
firm and consistent, as he is.
  Also, Mr. President, it took a lot to get to where we are tonight. I 
read through these items very quickly, but people work for days, weeks, 
and months on some of this legislation. As I read the titles, some may 
not seem too significant, but they are important, and we were able to 
pass them tonight.
  Also, it is hard to describe to the viewing public how hard the staff 
works, without the attention we get, to get us to where we are. The 
staff certainly deserves more attention than they get. Anything that 
happens in the Senate, we take the credit, but we should give them some 
recognition. We would not be where we are without them.
  To do all this takes a lot of people: the Official Reporters, those 
who are experts on different legislation. Senators' staff have been 
waiting here for days, it seems, but it has only been hours, to see 
what happened to legislation on this final day before a somewhat long 
break. In addition we have the Parliamentarians, the legislative and 
Journal clerks, and all the various staff. The staff who are here 
tonight--Senators are going to go home at 10:25 p.m.--will be here for 
hours working on the Record, and other issues. We have the pages who 
are juniors in high school, but they are here with us doing what we ask 
them to do.
  This is really a team effort. To all the security people, and the 
others, I express my personal appreciation for everything everybody 
does to allow us to get our work done.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair fully concurs.

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