[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24173-24178]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                FAREWELL

  Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, I rise with some sadness on my last 
time to speak on the Senate floor. It is a very bittersweet occasion 
for me because I have loved every minute of the last 6 years, and I 
will miss this body greatly. I am sure I will think about it every 
remaining day in my life hence forward. The past 6 years have been 
amongst the most thrilling in my life, and it has been a privilege and 
honor to serve here.
  I rise really to thank my colleagues for their kindness to me over 
the years and to thank my staff and my family and the entire Senate 
staff and everyone who is part of this institution for the wonderful 6 
years I have had here.
  I was first elected to the Senate from Illinois in 1998. I was sworn 
in in 1999, and almost immediately thereafter, the first Presidential 
impeachment trial in 130 years began. For my first 35 days, I think it 
was, or 38 days, on the Senate floor, I was immersed in the impeachment 
trial of former President Clinton. Thereafter, we had times of war, war 
in Kosovo and Afghanistan and now Iraq. We had the events of 9/11. I 
have served in times of war and peace, in times of great prosperity, as 
well as in times of recession. I have seen a whole lot.
  What I will remember most probably is the wonderful people who are 
part of the Senate. When I entered the Senate in 1999, I came in as the 
youngest Member. I was 38 at the time. I am older now, obviously, and 
have probably less hair and more gray hair. The oldest Member of the 
Senate at that time was Strom Thurmond. He was 96 years of age. I will 
never forget Strom Thurmond telling me, when he was 96, about how he 
used to work out 45 minutes every day, and I was thinking about whether 
I might be as active as Strom when I am 96, if I make it that long. 
Even at that age, I remember Strom giving me advice, telling me about 
how I could help the coal industry in southern Illinois. It was 
remarkable to meet someone like that.
  There are many who have retired. There are others like Strom who have 
passed away. There are some giants who are still with us, such as 
Senator Robert Byrd. One of my first memories of meeting Senator Byrd 
is going in to talk to him after I first got elected and asking him to 
sign for me a copy of his book on the history of the Roman Republic. 
Early on in my term in the Senate, I actually read Senator Byrd's whole 
book on the history of the Roman Republic. I have to say it is a 
marvelous book, and any Member of the Senate who has not read that book 
should please go out and get it because it has bountiful lessons for 
every Member of the Senate. It traces the decline and fall of the Roman 
Republic. It traces the decline of the Republic to the Roman Senate 
giving up more and more of its powers to the Executive, finally to the 
point where the Senate became meaningless and Rome was just governed by 
Caesers, dictators, and kings. It is an outstanding book.
  To meet the man who wrote this book and to realize that book was 
taken from a series of speeches that he delivered on the Senate floor, 
without notes, as to the hundreds of thousands of names and dates in 
that book, is truly astonishing.
  Senator Byrd has written a much larger four-volume history of the 
Senate, which when I retire from this body I hope to have time to 
tackle. But just to think of someone who could be so productive not 
only in the Senate for so long but accomplish so much in other areas 
writing such scholarly books, I will miss people like Senator Byrd and 
Senator Thurmond and all the others, the leaders with whom I have had 
the privilege to serve.

[[Page 24174]]

  Senator Trent Lott was the majority leader when I entered. For a 
period of time, Tom Daschle was the majority leader. Now Senator Frist 
is the majority leader, and soon Senator Harry Reid will be the 
minority leader. Each one of those individuals is remarkable, in my 
judgment. They have always been gentlemen of the highest order, and 
they work very hard. They are very good at what they do in representing 
their perspectives. They are good and honorable people whom our country 
is lucky to have.
  Our whips on the Republican side, Don Nickles and Mitch McConnell, 
Don Nickles has done such a good job for the taxpayers of this country. 
It has been an absolute pleasure to watch him fighting excessive 
spending and confiscatory taxation. I have been pleased to join him 
over and over again to hold the line on spending and to vote against 
tax increases and for tax relief, something that I view as very 
important.
  I am retiring at the same time as Senator Nickles. I will miss him 
greatly as part of this body, but I hope to see him often in life 
outside of the Senate.
  Other colleagues of mine are so important to me for reasons one might 
not think of. I did not know what I might have in common with Senator 
Bunning from Kentucky. He was elected at the same time I was in 1998. 
Senator Bunning is always so kind in giving me advice, as I advise my 
own son how to practice his pitching for his Little League games.
  The other night, I saw Senator Bunning in his car, and I said: Jim, 
having been a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher--where else can you get 
that kind of advice for your son's pitching lessons--I am not going to 
be able to ask you for advice on how to coach my son on pitching.
  He said: You know what. You can still call me afterwards. I will 
always be there.
  It is comments like that and the friendships like that, where I have 
spent so much time with the other 99 Members of this body, so many late 
nights and long weekends and sometimes retreats together, all of us 
really have become almost kind of like a family. It is much more family 
like than I think the media in America recognizes because so often the 
differences between the parties or the personalities get emphasized by 
the media. But I will miss them all.
  John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee on which I 
have been privileged to serve the last 4 of my 6 years, a man I admire 
greatly. Most Americans know about his heroism as a prisoner of war 
during the Vietnam War, where he was in the Hanoi Hilton for 5 years 
and the enemy forces tortured him, crushed his bones and could never 
get him to buckle or back down. Few men have the kind of courage that 
John McCain has. It is not just physical courage but the courage he has 
had to always fight for what he believes is right. Sometimes I have not 
agreed with him, but when he believes he is right he is willing to 
stand up to some very powerful forces that often threaten him 
politically, but nothing scares this American hero, John McCain. I am 
so thankful to him for the opportunity he gave me to chair the Consumer 
Affairs Subcommittee on the Senate Commerce Committee where I have been 
able to work on child safety and booster seat safety and automobiles 
and also to play a very critical role in the corporate governance 
hearings that we had a few years back first with Enron, Adelphia, 
WorldCom and those other corporate scandals.
  We have also worked on aviation and transportation, the Internet, 
telecommunications. There is never a dull moment with Senator McCain 
chairing the committee, and for the seven new Senators who are coming 
in who are thinking of what committees they might want to serve on, 
that is one I have always loved. With Senator McCain, there is never a 
dull moment.
  Susan Collins, the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs 
Committee--what a great American, what a hard-working American. We all 
saw that recently with her hard work on putting together the 
Intelligence bill under very difficult circumstances with a very short 
time to work. I thank her for giving me the opportunity to chair the 
Financial Management, the Budget, and International Security 
Subcommittee of the Governmental Affairs Committee, together with my 
friend and colleague Danny Akaka, from Hawaii, who has been my ranking 
member on that subcommittee. Danny is such a gentleman. I tell you, I 
am going to miss him personally, and I am also going to miss the 
macadamia nuts that he regularly sent over to me. But I may have time 
to visit him on a beach in Hawaii, now that I think about it. Maybe 
that is where I will see him and Senator Inouye next.
  But Senator Akaka and I were able to wake up what might normally be 
thought of as a very sleepy subcommittee of the Governmental Affairs 
Committee, where we dealt with improving accountability of Government 
financial reporting. We increased audit requirements on Federal 
agencies, we extended the Chief Financial Officers Act to the Homeland 
Security Department, and we put it in to apply to the new Intelligence 
Directorate. But, also, we have worked very hard in that subcommittee 
to spotlight some of the great challenges our country confronts.
  I think in that regard, with the staff on that committee on both 
sides of the aisle being so able, we have been able to put together 
some of the best hearings the Senate has had on issues such as our 
defined benefit pension problem in this country. The Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation has a massive deficit with no end to increasing 
deficits on the horizon.
  We have had hearings on the Government-sponsored entities such as 
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Homeowner Bank Boards and other 
entities that are privately owned but have Government charters, and 
what risk they may or may not pose to the system.
  We had a series of hearings on huge funds and the problem of high 
fees. Mr. President, I was honored to have your cosponsorship on a 
landmark bill to reform the mutual fund industry. While we were not 
successful in passing that legislation this year, the Securities and 
Exchange Commission has adopted many of the items in that bill, 
including requiring independent chairmen of the boards of mutual funds 
in America.
  Just this week we did a hearing on the problems that we have seen in 
the insurance brokerage industry in which we heard from experts on all 
sides and got Washington's first perspective on the indictments that 
have come out of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office in New York. 
We had a hearing on the issue of the expensing for stock option 
compensation, which has been so actively debated amongst accountants in 
our country.
  Finally, the Accounting Financial Standards Board is going to require 
publicly traded corporations to expense stock option compensation on 
their earnings statements.
  On the Agriculture Committee, if I think of the word ``gentleman,'' I 
would think of Senator Lugar, who was the chairman of the Agriculture 
Committee when I first came in, and Senator Cochran, from Mississippi, 
who is the current chairman of the Agriculture Committee. It is 
regretful I will not be here a second term because I now have enough 
seniority on the Agriculture Committee to chair it in the second term, 
believe it or not.
  But Senators Lugar and Cochran have been a pleasure to work with. We 
passed a number of measures to make life better for our Nation's 
farmers, some very simple but important allowing farmers to file all 
their USDA paperwork on the Internet.
  We improved child nutrition and passed legislation to make it easier 
for people who depend on Government assistance for their nutrition and 
food needs, that those people through the Food Stamp Program can now 
get their benefits across State lines--somebody who may live in St. 
Louis and goes back and forth to Illinois, or somebody living in 
northwest Indiana and goes back and forth to Chicago.
  Also, a very important industry in my State, Mr. President, and in 
your State as well, is the commodity futures industry. In Chicago, we 
have the

[[Page 24175]]

Board of Trade and the Chicago Merchantile Exchange. We also have the 
Chicago Board Options Exchange. I am told, directly and indirectly, in 
Chicago we employ some 200,000 people in the futures industry.
  The Agriculture Committee has given me the opportunity to work on the 
rewrite of our commodity trading laws. I was pleased to be an active 
participant in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, where we first 
allowed the trading of futures on individual stocks in this country. 
That market is now developing. I hope to see it come back.
  I want to say some words of thanks to the senior Senator from 
Illinois, Mr. Dick Durbin. He referred to us as the political odd 
couple--one conservative Republican, one liberal Democrat, from the 
land of Lincoln.
  More often than not, we probably disagreed from a policy perspective 
on some of the key issues confronting our Nation, but it never 
prevented us from working well together. In fact, we jointly held 163 
breakfasts, constituent breakfasts together. Every Thursday morning at 
8:30 when the Senate was in session, Senator Durbin and I would host a 
breakfast, allow constituents who were visiting Washington from 
Illinois to ask us any question that was on their mind, whether it was 
political or policy related, and we paid for the breakfast. My 
understanding is, there are not many other examples of bipartisan 
breakfasts where you have one Republican and one Democrat who have such 
a weekly gathering for their constituents.
  We worked well together on the selection of judges. We almost never 
had an open vacancy that we couldn't resolve on the district courts in 
the northern, central, or southern Illinois districts.
  Senator Durbin was terrific in supporting me in my effort to clean up 
corruption in Illinois. One of the most important things I did in that 
regard was to bring in independent U.S. attorneys to the State of 
Illinois who were not beholden to the political class in the State. 
That was something new. When I went to appoint U.S. attorneys, I found 
everybody and their brother, particularly all the local politicians on 
both sides of the aisle, trying to influence the selection of my U.S. 
attorney.
  I didn't want to lay awake at night wondering who was trying to 
influence my U.S. attorney, either to go after someone unjustly or to 
protect someone wrongly from prosecution. I, ultimately, decided for 
that reason to do a nationwide search for our U.S. attorneys, which 
yielded, I think, amongst the best U.S. attorneys anywhere in the 
country: Patrick Fitzgerald in the Northern District of Illinois, Jan 
Paul Miller in the Central District of Illinois, and Ron Tempas, in the 
Southern District of Illinois. They are doing a tremendous job and no 
one is asking whether they are influenced politically or what their 
motivation would be. I thank Senator Durbin for supporting that effort 
to bring independent U.S. attorneys to Illinois.
  Senator Durbin is a man whose stamina, hard work, and intelligence I 
greatly admire. He is very devoted and hard working. He travels back to 
his hometown of Springfield every weekend. That is a harder commute 
than my commute. I travel back to Palatine, IL, which is only about 12 
miles northwest of O'Hare. So I had a fairly easy commute; I just had 
an hour and a half plane flight and then a short drive and I was at my 
house. But Senator Durbin would go back to O'Hare every weekend and 
then catch another flight down to Springfield and he does that every 
weekend. He is constantly back in the State of Illinois.
  I think we worked well on just about everything, except aviation. We 
had a disagreement over O'Hare Airport. I think I am right. He thinks 
he is right. But aside from that difference of opinion, it has been a 
pleasure to work with him.
  I am sure Senator Durbin will be an effective spokesman for his side 
of the aisle as the whip for the incoming Democratic caucus in the 
109th Congress. I do not necessarily wish Senator Durbin success in 
that role, but I do wish him well.
  Barack Obama, my successor, I wish him well. It was a privilege to 
have lunch with him yesterday in the Senate dining room. I served with 
Barack Obama in the State senate for 2 years. He was coming in, in the 
legislature in Springfield, in my last 2 years of service there. He is 
an uncommonly bright and talented young man. He is 1 year younger than 
I. He is the first African-American president of the Harvard Law 
School. He is almost unequaled in his potential and promise. I am 
confident he will be a credit to the State of Illinois. I think he may 
surprise the political pundits by voting, crossing party lines at times 
that you don't expect him to. It may be a challenge for him with 
Senator Durbin as his whip. But I see Barack Obama as possibly being a 
fairly moderate voice, more moderate than many people suspect.
  To my staff, many of whom are gathered in the Senate Chamber, I could 
not have been blessed with a more wonderful staff to have gotten me 
through the last 6 years. I first need to start by thanking former 
Senator Bob Dole and the current Senator Elizabeth Dole for 
recommending to me the man who is my chief of staff, Gregory Gross. 
Greg worked for Senator Bob Dole when he was the leader in the Senate 
and during his Presidential campaign in 1996. He worked for Mrs. Dole 
when she was at the American Red Cross. He is extremely bright, as Bob 
Dole told me when I first called for a reference on Greg Gross.
  Bob Dole said to me: Greg is what you call a genius. And I thought, 
that is the kind of person I want, a genius on my staff. But he is more 
than just a brilliant and talented and knowledgeable chief of staff.
  He is also incredibly devoted and incredibly loyal, and I thank him 
for that.
  For the first 3 years, my chief of staff was Richard Hertling. He is 
now at the Justice Department. Richard did an outstanding job in 
getting us up and running. It is very hard when a new Senator is coming 
in and assembling a new staff, as some of the new Senators are finding 
out.
  I have been blessed to have had an outstanding legislative director, 
Terry Van Doren from Macoupin County, IL, whose father owns a cattle 
operation in Macoupin County. Terry started out doing agriculture 
policy for me. Terry was just what the doctor ordered. He had straight 
A's from the University of Illinois in agriculture sciences. Then he 
got a master's in agriculture policy from Colorado State University. He 
had a 4.0 there. I was called by the dean of the University of Illinois 
Agriculture School. He told me what an outstanding young man Terry is. 
Terry has been instrumental in agricultural policy. He has been my 
legislative director.
  Before him, Joe Watson was my legislative director, a brilliant young 
Harvard Law School graduate whom I pocketed out of the Sutter and 
Hopkins law firm. He is now at the Commerce Department serving under 
Secretary Evans.
  My office manager, Sherri Hupart, has done such an outstanding job; 
always pleasant and kind and willing to help, and calm under pressure.
  Her predecessor, Tina Tyrer, came to me from Senator Fred Thompson's 
office. She had some 20 years of experience in Washington running 
Senate offices.
  My Chicago chief of staff, Maggie Hickey, is a one-woman army, 
entirely devoted, very hard working. I want to thank her.
  My staff director for my Financial Management and Budget and 
International Security Subcommittee, Mike Russell, and the team he has 
put together, which I think enabled us to do the best hearings on some 
of the key issues confronting our financial markets in this country, I 
can't thank them enough.
  I thank my schedulers and executive assistants, Lanae Denney, Julie 
Cate, Julie Crisolano, and Doris Gummino. Scheduler has to be the 
toughest job on Capitol Hill because you know how busy Senators' 
schedules get and how it is for them to hear when a Senator is tired, 
or frustrated, or thinks he is overscheduled. Senators hear about it. 
There is no question about that. I thank my schedulers for being there,

[[Page 24176]]

 staying here working late into the evening. They have to be here even 
when the rest of the staff has gone home.
  My campaign manager and first communications director, Mike Cys, is 
now in the private sector. He is brilliant and energetic and 
enthusiastic. I thank him for all his support.
  I thank my communications, legislative assistants, legislative 
correspondents, receptionists, front office and back office, duty entry 
personnel, the interns, the kids we have had serve over the years.
  My staff handled 6,000 to 10,000 letters a week for the past 6 years. 
The first year we came in, we were getting some 22,000 e-mails a day on 
the impeachment. My State office has handled over 22,000 individual 
constituent cases. They conducted traveling office hours all over the 
State, 1,574 traveling office hours in 675 towns. My State staff met 
individually with 831 mayors and village clerks telling them how to 
apply for Federal grants for sewer and water.
  I thank the staff on the floor of the Senate: Dave Schiappa, the 
floor staff; Myron Fleming, the chief doorkeeper, the cloakroom staff, 
the Parliamentarians, leadership and Sergeant at Arms staff, and the 
pages who come and go every semester. I always look at them. They have 
to get up at 5 in the morning to do school work before they can come 
here. But they work so hard. I hope their experience has been as 
wonderful as we want it to be for them.
  And, finally, I would be remiss if I didn't thank the most important 
people in my life, my family, my mother and father, who always 
supported me through my 12 years in public service, but through all the 
years of my life. It was always clear they would have been there to lay 
their lives down for their son.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I would like to 
thank him for his kind words and wish him very well. We have served 
together for 6 years. Every Thursday morning when we were in session we 
had free coffee and doughnuts, a tradition that was started by Senator 
Paul Simon. I believe we were the only two Senators, being Democrat and 
Republican Senators, offering this opportunity for the visitors who 
come to Washington to ask a few questions and take a few photographs. 
But it worked very well. It became a very interesting experience for 
Illinoisans and others coming to Washington. We did it many times. It 
reached the point where I would give his answers to the questions and 
he would give my answers to the questions. We distinguished ourselves 
as being the only two Senators offering free coffee and doughnuts, 
which may account for the crowds that showed. But we did that for 6 
years. We have worked closely together and effectively and successfully 
together on the appointment of judges, U.S. attorneys, and many 
projects that were local to Illinois. We disagreed on some issues but 
managed to maintain our friendship and warm relationship throughout.
  Senator Fitzgerald announced his retirement for the right reasons. He 
said he wanted to spend more time with his family. That is something 
which we all admire very much.
  I have enjoyed serving with Senator Fitzgerald, and I wish him the 
very best, whatever the next venture might be, and I hope we will 
continue to work together.
  Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, I thank Senator Durbin for the kind 
words. I hope to come back to his breakfasts and get some of those free 
doughnuts myself. I might not have to pay for them. But I will miss it.
  I thank Senator Durbin.
  Finally, I thank my brothers and sisters, Gerry, my older brother, 
Jim, Tom, my sister Julie. A lot of people in public office worry that 
their siblings might embarrass them. I have never had to worry because 
they are wonderful, upstanding people, all of whom I think are probably 
worried about what I might do that they might worry about. They are 
wonderful people.
  I thank my wife Nina. We met together in D.C. when we were interns 
back when we were 19 years old, and after college and law school we got 
married. I moved her, plucked her from her home State of Colorado. She 
came to Illinois. I want to thank her for her steadfast support through 
all my years in public office.
  Finally, last but not least, I thank my 12-year-old son Jake. Jake 
missed his father at baseball and basketball games. I have been in 
public office for his entire 12 years. I am going to make it up to Jake 
now. I am pleased that he is doing so well as a baseball pitcher. I 
thank Jim Bunning and others for their advice.
  And finally, the people of Illinois from one end of the State to the 
other, to the south, from Rockport to Freeport in the north, thank you 
for your kindness to me. I have loved every minute of it. You gave me 
your trust, and I worked hard every day to keep it safe.
  Thank you all. God bless. I will miss you all.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, like the distinguished Senator from 
Illinois, I take a couple of minutes this afternoon to come to the 
floor to express in the most heartfelt way, as he just has, my profound 
thanks for the opportunity I have had to serve in the Senate.
  I congratulate him on his successful career and wish him well in all 
of his endeavors.
  I would like to begin where he ended--by thanking my family: my wife 
Linda, my mother, my daughter Kelly, Eric, our son Nathan, and Jill, 
and our daughter Lindsey.
  I thank my staff. I actually believe--and I am sure each of our 
colleagues shares this view--that I have the finest staff the Senate 
has ever assembled. They have served me, they have served this 
institution, they have served the people of my State, and they have 
served this country with remarkable professionalism, dedication, 
loyalty, patriotism, and commitment in ways that nobody could possibly 
register.
  I thank the people of South Dakota, most importantly, for the 
opportunities they have given me to live my passion for these past 26 
years. No Senator has ever been more grateful, more fortunate than I.
  I thank my colleagues for their friendship and their loyalty, their 
support, and the remarkable strength they have given me each and every 
day.
  I congratulate the man on my left, Harry Reid. No Senate leader has 
ever had the good fortune I have had to have an assistant like the man 
from Searchlight. He is a profoundly decent man who loves his State, 
this institution, and his country. If friends are relatives that you 
make for yourself, then he is my brother.
  I thank Dick Durbin and congratulate him and Debbie Stabenow and 
Byron Dorgan and Hillary Clinton for their willingness to take on the 
leadership roles in the 109th Congress. I will say that this Senate and 
the caucus could not be served better.
  I congratulate especially Chuck Schumer for taking on what may be one 
of the most challenging of all leadership positions. I know that he 
will serve us well.
  I can remember so vividly 10 years ago when I was elected by one 
vote. I came to the Senate very nervous and filled with trepidation, 
but I recognized that we had a job to do. I wanted to use the power I 
had been given wisely, recognizing that it was entrusted to me so we 
might make the lives of all people better.
  Shortly after I was elected leader, I was asked to come to dinner 
with a good friend of mine, a man in his eighties, whose name was 
Reiners, from Worthing, South Dakota. Dick was a farmer, had been one 
of my strongest supporters, most loyal and dedicated friends, one of 
those people we can all identify with. He asked me to come to dinner 
that night and I went out to his farmhouse. We had dinner. I asked him 
for advice. He paused and he looked at me and he said, ``There are two 
things I will hope for you. One is that you never forget where you came 
from. Come home. Remember us.''
  And then he pointed to some pictures on the wall that I recognized 
very readily. They were pictures of his grandchildren. He said, ``You 
have held each

[[Page 24177]]

one of those grandkids, as have I. Give them hope. Every day you walk 
onto the Senate floor, give them hope.''
  We hugged each other and I left. Later on that night, I got a call in 
the middle of the night that Dick Reiners had passed away. I never, 
ever, have been given better advice in all the years before or since 
and I remember it now.
  We come to this body with great goals, and our challenge is to stay 
focused on those goals, to never lose sight of them in the daily 
challenges and the battles we take on as we come to these desks.
  Two touchstones, in particular, have helped me remember my goals.
  The first touchstone is this desk, the leader's desk. You pull open 
this drawer and you see the names of all the leaders carved in it. It 
is a constant reminder that we are part of a continuum, a continuum 
that makes us the heirs and the guardians of a miracle. That miracle is 
democracy--a government founded on the ideal of freedom.
  We have sworn to protect that ideal. We have a challenge, as we sit 
at these desks, to do what soldiers have done for 200 years. We either 
have to fight for this freedom or work at it. In more than 30 wars, 1 
million men and women have given their lives for that freedom, and our 
job is to work at it as if we have given our lives, too--every day. We 
have to protect and defend that freedom and we must pass it on to 
future generations undiminished.
  My second touchstone is a practice I acquired many years ago, making 
it a habit to get into my car and drive without a schedule to all the 
counties of South Dakota. There are 66 of them. I do it to be 
energized, to refresh, to touch the land, to watch the sunsets and the 
sunrises, the majestic beauty of my State. But more than anything else 
I do it to be inspired, and to remember how what we do here touches the 
lives of those I represent.
  It is an amazing feeling to drive from one county to the other and to 
see the results of our work in this body. I am honored and very 
grateful that there is not one county in the State of South Dakota that 
has not been touched by our work and our efforts these years I have 
been here, touched in ways large and small.
  We now are an energy-producing State, which means a lot to me. People 
said that would never be possible. We have little oil, very little 
natural gas, no coal--but we now produce 400,000 gallons of fuel a year 
that otherwise might be imported. We passed farm legislation that is 
truly giving our farmers and ranchers hope for a better future.
  My State suffers from poorly distributed water. Our challenge has 
always been to find a way to take the good water and get it to those 
locations where they have none. One of the most emotional experiences I 
have ever had was to watch a family turn on a tap for the first time 
and cry and embrace each other and pass around a glass and look at it 
and say ``thank you.''
  I am honored to have been a part of creating a new future for Indian 
students who had long ago given up any hope of graduating in a 
traditional way, but who now can walk through the doors of tribal 
colleges with a true sense of fulfillment and optimism that they only 
dreamed of just a few years ago.
  The joy of walking into a town and talking to people and being 
embraced by total strangers who tell you that saved their lives because 
of something your staff did, recognizing that if it had not been for 
you, perhaps there would be no life to save. What an honor. What a 
sense of gratitude.
  As leader, I have been privileged to meet some of the greatest 
leaders of our time. I believe that Nelson Mandela would probably rank 
in a class by himself. Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, Mother Teresa, Rosa 
Parks, Presidents and kings: I have been inspired by them--but not as 
inspired as I have been by people who are not well known:
  Carolyn Downs, who runs the Banquet in Sioux Falls, SD, touching 
lives every day and giving them hope.
  Louie and Melvina Winters on the Pine Ridge Reservation, who had 
absolutely nothing to their name and took a burned out trailer house, 
rebuilt it, and have literally saved the lives of hundreds, if not 
thousands, of children who had no other place to go, whom they found on 
their doorstep when the word got out that somehow they were the ones to 
whom children could turn.
  Chick Big Crow, who witnessed the death of her daughter, only to make 
the lives of young people on Pine Ridge richer with her steadfast 
determination to build a Boys and Girls Club.
  And there are those like Elaine, who gets up at 4:30 in the morning 
to go to work. She's 77 years old, with $900 a month in Social Security 
and $900 a month in drug bills. She works at McDonald's to be able to 
pay for the rest of her living expenses, and says she is proud to do 
so.
  And Mary Ann, who works three jobs, has a blood disease and no health 
insurance. She says: ``I want you to know something, Senator Daschle. 
I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it, but I would like a little 
help along the way, if you can find a way to remember me.''
  They are the heart and soul of America, and they need us now maybe 
more than ever before.
  We are each given a number when we come to the Senate. I think it is 
a wonderful tradition. And I have always been so proud of my number. My 
number is 1776, the year of our Revolution.
  I think of that number not just because of its unique nature, but it 
reminds me every day that we are still part of an American revolution.
  As a nation, we are making monumental decisions about what kind of 
country this will be.
  Will we use our powerful might as a force just for vengeance and 
protection against those who would destroy us, or will we use it for 
progress the world around?
  Will we recognize that power is not just our arms, but our wisdom, 
our compassion, our tolerance, our willingness to cooperate not just 
with ourselves but with the whole world?
  Will we honor the uniquely American ideal that we are responsible for 
passing onto our children a future that is better, or will we forfeit 
the promise of the future for the reward of the moment?
  These are questions that we will continue to face.
  Several months ago, I came to the floor and gave a speech at this 
desk expressing the hope that regardless of how the election turned 
out, we could continue mightily to search for the politics of common 
ground.
  I am proud of those times in this body when we showed our very best.
  I am proud of that moment on the Capitol steps when we joined hands 
and sang.
  I am proud of the effort we made after 9/11 to come together to pass 
legislation that our country so desperately needed, not just for what 
it said, but for the message it sent.
  I am proud of that moment, on October 15, when we were the target of 
the greatest biological attack in our Nation's history and again we 
came together.
  I am proud of those moments when we found common ground on campaign 
finance reform and the farm bill and Patients' Bill of Rights, 
highways, measures that in some cases have not yet become law but 
demonstrated that here, collectively, with common will, there is common 
good.
  I know we can continue to find common ground because we have found it 
in the past, as those instances have demonstrated.
  If I could leave this body with one wish, it would be that we never 
give up that search for common ground.
  The politics of common ground will not be found on the far right or 
on the far left. That is not where most Americans live. We will only 
find it in the firm middle ground of common sense and shared values.
  Ten years ago, my wise friend pointed to his grandchildren and asked 
me to give them hope. Linda and I now have two beautiful grandchildren. 
I implore my colleagues to give my grandchildren, Henry and Ava, hope; 
give all the children and grandchildren of this Nation hope.
  Let us treasure and protect the great freedoms that we have 
inherited, and

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let us always promise and commit that we will pass them on 
undiminished.
  I said a moment ago that one of my touchstones is my unscheduled 
driving. I make notes constantly on these trips. A couple of days ago I 
was telling my colleagues about how I had been looking through the 
notes of a trip I made a few years back. I noted I had met with some 
tribal leaders, and met with a businessman who was trying to find a way 
to provide childcare for his family as well as his employees. I met a 
couple who wanted to tour the White House. At the end of all my notes, 
I made the comment: ``Everything was worth doing.''
  The same could be said for my service here. It has had its 
challenges, its triumphs, its disappointments, but everything was worth 
doing. And I am grateful for every moment.
  I love history, and there is wonderful history about the relationship 
between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They were rivals, but they 
respected each other. And that respect grew as they left office and 
began correspondence that today is some of our most treasured writing.
  In one letter to John Adams, Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``I like the 
dream of the future better than I like the history of the past.'' So it 
is with me. I have loved these years in the Senate, but I like the 
dream of the future.
  It is with heartfelt gratitude to the people of South Dakota, with 
great respect and admiration for my colleagues, and with love for this 
institution and the power it has to make this Nation even greater that 
I say farewell and look to the future with great optimism, with hope 
and anticipation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip is recognized.

                          ____________________