[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 24207-24212]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO RETIRING SENATORS

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, while the Senate is holding in 
abeyance for the final Omnibus appropriations bill that the House is 
getting ready to file sometime tonight, I want to take the opportunity 
to pay tribute to our retiring Senators: Tom Daschle, Fritz Hollings, 
Don Nickles, John Breaux, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, John Edwards, Peter 
Fitzgerald, Zell Miller, and Bob Graham.
  I wish to make a speech about each one of these Senators who has 
become a dear friend, in some cases, over the years, such as Fritz and 
Peatsy Hollings, who took special interest in me as I came to the 
Senate and made sure I got on his Commerce Committee, which has been 
just an extraordinary experience with him as chairman, as well as with 
the present chairman, John McCain.
  Don Nickles, whom I have known over the 24 years he has been in the 
Senate, for I was in the House at the time, has been a regular in our 
Wednesday morning Senate prayer breakfast. He is a good friend.
  John Breaux, the very mention of his name brings a twinkle to your 
eye as you recall the wonderful good times and the great sense of humor 
that John Breaux has. He is the most popular politician in the State of 
Louisiana. He is going to be sorely missed as the dealmaker of the 
Senate.
  Ben Nighthorse Campbell has this wonderful new museum for Native 
Americans which would not have happened--just a stone's throw from this 
Capitol--had it not been for his leadership. There is, as you go 
through this museum, a special display on the artwork of Ben. I commend 
it to our colleagues.
  Peter Fitzgerald is a very active member of our Commerce Committee, 
who, in the comments by his colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin, 
today said it very well, could work so well with Members of both sides.
  A southern icon, Senator Zell Miller, will go down in southern 
history as one of the great progressive Governors of the new South. He 
is one who has always extended wonderful courtesies to me.
  I wish to say a special word about John Edwards, for he came to the 
Senate in a seat that was already held by an incumbent Senator, and 
they said it could not be done. They said a Democrat could not win in 
North Carolina. Of course, John did and took the national stage by 
storm.
  I spent several days with him over the course of the past several 
months in the campaign. I can tell you it was a wonderful inspiration 
to see the amount of energy, focus, discipline, and intelligence he 
brought not only as a Senator but as a candidate for Vice President of 
this great country.
  And then, of course, we all know the story of how on the very day 
that John had to concede the election, along with our colleague, the 
Senator from Massachusetts, his wife told him that she had breast 
cancer. I want Elizabeth and John to know that our prayers are with 
them and that we are all sharing a great deal of optimism about her 
complete recovery.
  I had the wonderful privilege of observing their three loving 
children on the campaign trail--their daughter Kate, and then, of 
course, the two young ones, Jack and Emma Claire, as they would bounce 
with such boundless enthusiasm on that campaign plane.
  There is a special part in my heart for Tom Daschle. We came to the 
Congress together in 1978. Among the freshman class in the House of 
Representatives that year, we knew Tom as ``Landslide'' Daschle. He won 
his race for Congress by 14 votes. Of course, he says that was a big 
percentage of the total vote in South Dakota at that time.
  We saw him grow over the years into a great Democratic leader, both 
minority and majority leader of the Senate, and we saw the pressure 
that Tom was under.
  Who here would not remember exactly where you were and what you were 
doing on September 11, 2001. We were in a leadership meeting only a few 
feet from here on the West Front of the Capitol watching the television 
of the World Trade Center, and had tried to resume our meeting when 
someone burst through the door and said: The Pentagon's been hit.
  We leapt to the window looking west across the Mall in the southwest 
direction of the Pentagon and saw the black smoke rising.
  People went their separate ways. I leapt to a telephone to try to get 
word to my wife because we had just moved into an apartment overlooking 
the southwest corner of the Pentagon.
  That day I remember so vividly seeing the Constitution at work, 
because as I came back into the room and saw the people pouring out of 
the majority leader's office, under the orders of the Capitol Police to 
get out of the building, evacuate immediately, I saw the security 
people of the Capitol Police take Tom in a different direction to an 
undisclosed location where he, along with the rest of the congressional 
leadership, was to be sequestered as a protection of this 
constitutional government and its continuity.
  Tom grew a lot in those ensuing days. That was in the morning, 
sometime right after 10 on September 11. I remember that evening, as 
dark fell, Members of the House and the Senate of all parties on the 
east front steps of the U.S. Capitol holding hands and singing ``God 
Bless America'' to demonstrate in what little way we could that those 
who sought to strike us down were going to see the resolve and the 
unity of the Government of the United States.
  I could keep going on about Tom, but we heard his comments today. Of 
course it is with a heavy heart that we see Tom leave this Chamber. It 
is under circumstances that I hope we never see replicated.
  There has to be civility in this body. There has to be a mutual 
respect. There has to be a respect for the truth. There has to be 
respect for the dignity of individuals and their families. Have we lost 
our compass? Have we lost our anchor? Have we lost our sense of human 
beings?
  This Senator can do something about that, as I have tried in the 
past, by the way I conduct myself with regard to my relationship to 
other Senators in wanting to treat others as I would like to be 
treated. Now that the fractiousness and the divisiveness of this highly 
partisan, highly ideological, rigid time of debate is behind us, it is 
my hope this Senate can start to come together for the good of the 
people, even as we approach another election time. It is for the sake 
of the Nation that we must do this.


                               Bob Graham

  I conclude my comments about my colleague from Florida, my mentor, my 
friend of many years. It is hard to believe Bob Graham has been elected 
to serve almost 40 years--38 years to be exact. From when he was first 
elected to the State legislature in 1966, he has been in elected office 
ever since--two

[[Page 24208]]

terms in the State house, two terms in the State senate, two terms as 
the Governor of Florida, where he had a magnificent record, where he 
has put his stamp as one of Florida's great Governors, starting 
programs to save the Florida Everglades, the River of Grass, the 
Kissimmee River, and the Everglades restoration that has now started 
that is an $8 million project shared half and half between the State 
and the Federal Government. That is a great legacy for Bob.
  Then, of course, his three terms in the Senate, 10 years of which he 
served on the Senate Intelligence Committee, the last 2 of which he 
served as chairman of that committee. Of course, with that great 
knowledge and expertise, in the course of the debates here, Bob has 
given us great insight and wisdom.
  Finally, some of his fellow Senators convinced him that he ought to 
sit down and write a book and that book is entitled ``Intelligence 
Matters.'' It is my hope that with other Senators on this floor that we 
are going to be able to help Bob fulfill one of his dreams, which is 
that in an intelligence service that has been decimated from time to 
time as a result of the whims of appropriations, that a professional 
core of career intelligence officers can be enhanced by starting an 
ROTC for intelligence officers.
  We are going to try to get the appropriations to start that and to do 
it at one of our Florida universities named for Bob Graham. Let that 
little incubator show the way to see whether that is a system we can 
adopt around the country to give an ample supply of officers who are 
ready for service in the intelligence service.
  So it is again with a heavy heart that I see my colleague, Senator 
Graham, retire after a distinguished career. He will not be retiring as 
a public servant, because whether it be from the position of a 
university--and it is my understanding he will be going to Harvard for 
a year at the Kennedy School--or whether it be back in our State 
affiliated with several of our universities in Florida, Bob will be 
rendering public service to the people of this country for some period 
of time.
  So for all of these names I have mentioned, in the great poem 
``Ulysses,'' he says, ``I am a part of all that I have met,'' and I am 
a part of all these great Senators. I am much richer for it and for 
having been their friend.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                              Tom Daschle

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, in these final working days of the 108th 
Congress, as so many speakers before me have said, we are saying 
farewell to a number of our retiring colleagues. I intend to speak 
about a couple of them this evening and will have more to say about 
some of the others tomorrow.
  A most painful farewell will be to my good friend Senator Tom 
Daschle. I do not know that I have heard a more heartfelt, soul-
searching, and inspirational speech about what a Senator should be, 
ought to be, and must be than the speech given by our great leader 
Senator Daschle earlier this evening.
  As I sat and listened to that speech, especially when he talked about 
Dick Reiners, my mind went back to 1978 when I was just a second-term 
Congressman from the State of Iowa and I was asked to go campaign in 
South Dakota for this young guy running for the House whose name was 
Tom Daschle. His former employer, Senator Jim Abourezk, came to Iowa to 
campaign for me and asked me to reciprocate. Because I had been active 
in some farm issues and agricultural issues, he asked me to campaign in 
South Dakota, and I did.
  I struck up a friendship with Tom Daschle at that point that endures 
to this day and will endure forever. So I would go out and campaign for 
him and then he would come and campaign for me and I would campaign and 
we would go back and forth from Iowa to South Dakota. Of course, we 
shared a common border up at Sioux City. Much of Sioux Falls's 
television comes into Iowa. Much of Sioux City's goes into South 
Dakota. So we have shared kind of a common area there of constituents, 
constituencies over all these years.
  So it is a painful farewell to my good friend Tom Daschle. These 
days, there are fewer and fewer bipartisan agreements in this body. But 
I sense today that there was bipartisan agreement about Tom Daschle. We 
respect his decency, his fairness, his courage and leadership, his 
extraordinary capacity for hard work. I cannot imagine a more difficult 
job in the Senate than being leader of the Democratic caucus. We have 
all heard Will Rogers quip that he belonged to no organized party, he 
was a Democrat.
  Those independent, hard-headed habits flourish within our caucus. For 
the last decade, Tom Daschle's amazing skills and unlimited patience 
have brought us together as a team. That is an accomplishment of which 
he can be very proud.
  The President of the United States, it is said, has the persuasion of 
power. But the leader of our Senate Democratic caucus has only the 
power of persuasion. I cannot imagine anyone more persuasive than 
Senator Tom Daschle. He has always been willing to talk with us, 
accommodate us whenever possible, to do whatever it takes, however long 
it takes, to forge a consensus and move us ahead. We are grateful. I am 
grateful for his leadership, his diligence, for his grace that he has 
unfailingly brought to this job as our leader. I cannot emphasize 
enough this fairness and this underlying grace of this wonderful human 
being. Unfailingly fair to all.
  When Democrats were in the majority, Majority Leader Daschle was 
respectful of the rights and the prerogatives of our Republican 
minority. Conversely, as our minority leader, he has steadfastly 
defended the rights and the prerogatives of the Democratic minority. In 
the heat of a partisan campaign, some have labeled this 
``obstructionism,'' but that characterization is incorrect. The duty of 
the opposition party is present compelling alternatives, and to do so 
fairly, forthrightly, and within the rules of the Senate. The duty of 
the leader of our opposition is to protect the rights of the minority 
so that our voice and our votes can be heard; so that we can speak out 
and offer a different way, a different path. That is our duty as 
opposition. Senator Daschle protected the rights of the minority, so 
important in our country, not just in the Senate, but important for us 
as a country.
  If there is one thing that is pervasive in our Constitution and our 
Bill of Rights, it is just that; it is the protection of the minority 
so the minority can be heard. That is so the minority's voice and votes 
will be counted. That is exactly what Senator Daschle has done. There 
is not one hint of obstructionism. What he has done is to protect and 
enhance the rights of the minority, and he did it with skill and 
persistence, with fairness and with grace.
  Over all these years of service with Tom Daschle in the House and in 
the Senate, I have always respected how he fought and advocated for his 
constituents in South Dakota. No one has fought harder in the House and 
in the Senate for the revitalization of rural America than Tom Daschle. 
No one has fought harder to bring health care and good schools and 
economic opportunity to Indian country. No one has fought harder to 
increase the income of family farmers and give them a fair shake in the 
marketplace.
  Another jewel in the crown of Tom Daschle's legacy is the emerging 
ethanol industry in the United States. Since Tom arrived in Congress in 
1978, he has been a relentless champion of ethanol. He mentioned that 
in his farewell speech today. I know he was a relentless champion 
because I was there, too, during those early years. People said those 
of us who were advocating the expanded use of ethanol didn't have a 
chance against big oil. But Senator Daschle persevered. He used the 
1990 Clean Air Act to put in place policies that gave birth to the 
ethanol industry in our country. He continued to promote tax incentives 
and a renewable fuel standard to advance ethanol and to move our 
country towards energy independence.
  No doubt about it, Senator Daschle's leadership on ethanol brought us 
to

[[Page 24209]]

where we are today in the production of this renewable and clean fuel 
in America. His leadership on ethanol will be greatly missed in the 
future.
  It has been a privilege to serve in this body with Tom Daschle. I 
will miss him as a colleague. I will miss his leadership, that 
fairness, that gentleness of nature, but that steely determination to 
make sure that our views and our votes were counted; that steely 
determination to make sure that people who live in small towns in rural 
America are not forgotten, that their interests are protected here. I 
will miss him as a friend. Oh, I am not going to lose contact with Tom 
and Linda. My wife and I will continue to count them as good friends. 
But I will miss him as a friend here in the Senate.
  As Tom Daschle said today, he has always been an optimist. I have 
never known Tom Daschle to ever utter a pessimistic word. For him the 
sunrise was always better than the sunset. So the Sun rises on a new 
chapter in Tom Daschle's life. That Sun is going to be bright. It is 
going to be bright because of who Tom Daschle is, what he is. So there 
are going to be some new days and important chapters ahead written in 
the life of Tom Daschle. Both Ruth and I wish Tom and Linda and his 
family the very best in the years ahead.
  We will continue to look forward to his input into the political life 
of America and into the common wheel that binds us as a country.


                              John Edwards

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I would also like to express my respect to 
and admiration for the retiring senior Senator from North Carolina, 
Senator John Edwards, who also spoke earlier. We will miss his unique, 
skillful, and persuasive voice in the debates here on the Senate floor. 
Time and again we have seen his knack for taking complex arguments and 
making them accessible and persuasive to ordinary people. Time and 
again his skills have carried the day.
  I fully understand the advice uttered by one of my Republican 
colleagues one time, when he said, ``Never yield the floor to John 
Edwards.''
  Over the last year and a half, people in my State of Iowa have gotten 
to know John and his wonderful wife Elizabeth very well. As I have 
often said, John Edwards was the only person to run for national office 
as a Vice Presidential candidate who visited each one of Iowa's 99 
counties. He has been all over our State, in our schools, in our coffee 
shops, and in our living rooms. In fact, we have often said in Iowa if 
it weren't for that southern accent, you would think John was born and 
raised in Iowa.
  I can say that we on the Democratic side, we Democrats in Iowa and 
all over the country, are proud of his race to secure the nomination of 
our party, which he did not get, which went to another of our 
colleagues, Senator John Kerry. But we were proud of how John Edwards 
sought that nomination. And we are doubly proud of his conduct as our 
nominee for Vice President of the United States.
  He always comes across as just folks, which is what you would expect 
from a person raised in very modest circumstances, the first in his 
family to go to college. That humble background was an enormous 
strength for John Edwards. It is a strength we saw on that campaign 
trail that allowed him to understand people and to communicate 
powerfully with ordinary people. People responded in kind. All over 
this country, people just plainly liked John Edwards. They trusted him 
because he spoke to them in a language they understood.
  But if Iowans and other Americans see just plain folks in John 
Edwards on the campaign trail, Senators here have been privileged to 
see a different side of him, hard at work in this Senate. He has only 
been here one term. He surely made his mark. He made his mark first by 
challenging an incumbent Senator, and took on the Jesse Helms machine 
in North Carolina, and he beat it. That is no small feat in North 
Carolina.
  He made his mark here as lead cosponsor of the Patients' Bill of 
Rights, along with Senators Kennedy and McCain. He managed the bill on 
the floor. He was the lead negotiator in hammering out a bipartisan 
consensus on the bill.
  He made his mark by sponsoring and passionately advocating for a bill 
to speed up the approval of generic drugs.
  As I said in my State of Iowa, John Edwards made his mark and won 
people's hearts with his big smile, his friendly manner, and his 
boundless optimism.
  He won our respect with a campaign that was always positive. Even 
under provocation, even when stakes were the highest in the final weeks 
of the campaign leading up to the caucuses, John never wavered from his 
positive message of hope and opportunity for ordinary Americans.
  We are proud of our colleague Senator Edwards, and we know we will 
not hear the last of him as he leaves this body.
  We say farewell to Senator John Edwards. I know and I hope and I 
trust we will hear more from him in the future. We wish him the very 
best. Of course, we all hope--and our prayers are with him and with 
Elizabeth--for a full recovery for his wonderful wife Elizabeth. We 
will miss them both here. But our friendship endures, and I know that 
Senator Edwards, Elizabeth, and his family will be heavily involved in 
the course of our political life and our Democratic Party in the 
future.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.


                              Tom Daschle

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues in saying 
thank you to a great senator, a great American, a wonderful leader, and 
a dear friend, Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. In Hawaiian we say, 
mahalo nui loa. ``Mahalo'' means thank you; ``nui'' means large; and 
``loa'' means wide. It is used to convey profound and deep gratitude. I 
want to say mahalo nui loa to Tom Daschle for his great service to our 
country and to the Senate as an institution.
  During his 26 years in the House and Senate, Tom Daschle has 
epitomized the ideal that we can disagree without being disagreeable. 
His prairie optimism and can-do attitude served his constituents well 
and served our Democratic caucus well.
  I have always marveled at the fact that despite his responsibilities 
as majority leader and Democratic Leader, Tom Daschle always kept the 
needs and interests of South Dakotans as his top priority. He never 
lost sight of the people back home. Perhaps that is best reflected by 
his annual ``unscheduled driving'' tour, when he drives across his home 
state, visiting every county, with no staff and no schedule, just Tom, 
stopping to visit his constituents and hear what is on their minds.
  As Senator Daschle has said, these visits remind him of where he came 
from, and why he came to Washington--to put the priorities of America 
first. For that, and for so much more, I say mahalo nui loa, Tom 
Daschle. Godspeed. God bless Tom and his wife Linda.
  This comes from me and my wife Millie. Aloha.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, our colleague from Alabama was 
generous enough to step aside and permit me to make a few remarks. I 
deeply appreciate it.
  I talked before about Tom Daschle. I also will discuss the rest of 
our colleagues who are leaving the Senate.
  When the 109th Congress convenes in January, nine of our current 
colleagues will not be here. I take a few moments to pay tribute to 
them. Collectively, our colleagues have served in the Senate for 144 
years. We will miss them.


                             Fritz Hollings

  First of all, Fritz Hollings, the most senior Member leaving the 
Senate at this time, had a distinguished career in public service. It 
started in 1942, the same year I joined the Army. After he graduated 
from the Citadel and he received a commission from the U.S. Army, he 
served as an officer in the North African and European campaigns in 
World War II. He had a lot of time in combat. He got the Bronze Star 
and seven campaign ribbons.
  In 1948 he was elected to the South Carolina House of 
Representatives. Ten

[[Page 24210]]

years later, and still only 36, Fritz Hollings was elected Governor of 
South Carolina. As Governor, he showed his fearlessness and 
independence as a progressive southern Democrat, especially when he 
integrated Clemson University.
  In 1966, Fritz was elected to the Senate. I don't have time to list 
all of the things he has done in 30 years in the Senate or 56 years in 
public office, but early in his Senate career Fritz focused on poverty 
and hunger that gripped the rural South and urban areas of the country. 
In 1968, he embarked on his now famous hunger tours. In 1970, he wrote 
about what he saw in a highly acclaimed book entitled ``The Case 
Against Hunger: A Demand for a National Policy.'' What a wonderful 
program that was.
  He followed up by coauthoring a bill that created the special 
supplemental food program for Women, Infants and Children. We call it 
WIC.
  In 1972, continuing this very active campaign of writing legislation, 
he wrote the National Coastal Zone Management Act, the Nation's first 
land use law designed to protect coastal wetlands. He played a pivotal 
role in establishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Ocean Dumping 
Act, and the Fishery Conservation Management Act.
  Perhaps he is best known for his tireless fight for fair trade and 
being a true fiscal conservative. Who can forget Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. 
I served with him many years on the Committee on the Budget and I can 
attest to his determination to put our Nation on the pay-as-you-go path 
rather than burdening future generations with escalating Federal 
deficits and debt.
  On a parochial note, I thank the Senator from South Carolina on 
behalf of the people of New Jersey. After September 11, he made our 
ports safer by helping to get security funding for our ports. Fritz 
Hollings gallantly laid out an inspiring vision for the future of 
passenger rail service in our country. Through it all, Fritz Hollings 
has always been a southern gentleman and a Senator's Senator.
  Fritz's remarks in committee and his speeches in the Senate have 
always been worth listening to even if some of us had difficulty 
deciphering them. He has been a true original and the Senate will be 
poorer for his departure.
  I know he wants to spend more time with his beloved Peatsy, his four 
children, and his seven grandchildren.
  Fritz, we will miss you. I never stop being surprised when Fritz 
Hollings recalls things he did 20 or 40 years ago and recall them with 
fairly precise detail. He always has colorful language--except in 
places like the Senate--that attract attention and yet he completes his 
serious mission with humor, candor, and courage.
  I ask unanimous consent a press release entitled ``38 Years in the 
Senate, 38 of His Greatest Hits'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                        [Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004]

            38 Years in the Senate, 38 of His Greatest Hits

       Washington, DC.--In 38 years in the U.S. Senate, Fritz 
     Hollings has compiled one of the most remarkable legislative 
     records of any Senator in the last century. From his first 
     days in office to his last, he has written legislation that 
     has changed America. Following are 38 ways the nation will 
     remember him:
       1. Started the Women Infants Children (WIC) program, one of 
     the most successful government health care measures ever 
     undertaken. It has reduced infant mortality, low birth rates, 
     and premature births. Today, WIC provides nutritional 
     counseling and access to health services for low-income women 
     and children in 10,000 nationwide clinics. Impetus for the 
     program came from Senator Hollings' 1970 book ``The Case 
     Against Hunger.''
       2. Championed the Community Health Center Program to bring 
     medical care to low-income Americans. In 1969, South Carolina 
     opened one of the first community health centers in the 
     nation, and today the centers nationally provide primary and 
     preventive health services for 10 million patients in under-
     served communities.
       3. Initiated the nationwide breast and cervical cancer 
     screening program. Begun in 1990 as a project in South 
     Carolina and five other states, the program quickly expanded 
     to a highly successful national effort. Through the years, 
     Senator Hollings also has led efforts to significantly boost 
     funds for cancer research and to double the National 
     Institutes of Health's budget.
       4. The father of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) 
     Standards, Senator Hollings wrote the law in 1975 forcing 
     automakers to build more fuel efficient cars. Thirty years 
     later, CAFE standards save more than 3 million barrels of oil 
     per day.
       5. Authored the Aviation Security Act, immediately after 
     September 11th. It created the Transportation Security 
     Administration and set up the screening system now underway 
     for airport passengers. Always a strong believer in the need 
     for security, Senator Hollings knew the aviation system, and 
     America's economy, would not recover without government's 
     help. He authored the legislation at age 80.
       6. Authored the Maritime Security Act, also immediately 
     following September 11th. Concerned for many years that ports 
     and borders were the weak link in America's security system, 
     he pushed the legislation through--the first ever aimed at 
     increasing security at America's ports.
       7. The father of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
     Administration (NOAA), he established the agency in just his 
     fourth year in office. He did it at a time when the ocean was 
     not the popular topic it is today. In 2000, he created the 
     U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, to help Congress determine 
     the future of the nation's oceans.
       8. Authored the National Coastal Zone Management Act of 
     1972, which established federal policy for protecting coastal 
     areas. It also authorized grants to states to establish and 
     operate coastal zone management programs.
       9. A friend of marine mammals, he wrote the legislation in 
     1972 to protect whales, dolphins, sea otters, and other 
     mammals. It became the model for other countries.
       10. Authored the Ocean Dumping Act of 1976, which extended 
     federal authority over previously unregulated dumping of 
     pollutants in the ocean. It banned dumping by U.S. vessels, 
     or vessels sailing from a U.S. port.
       11. Wrote the Oil Spill Bill in 1990, following the 
     disaster of the Exxon Valdez. Senator Hollings led the Senate 
     investigation of the oil spill, and pushed the legislation 
     requiring more effective clean-up, and forced oil companies 
     to use double-hull ships, which are less likely to have a 
     spill.
       12. At the forefront of promoting American technology, he 
     created the Advanced Technology Program in the Commerce 
     Department, which invests in high-risk research projects that 
     promise big payoffs and widespread benefits to the nation.
       13. Co-authored Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, the landmark 
     legislation that broke budget gridlock in the mid-`80s. By 
     making automatic spending cuts, it reversed 20 years of 
     increased federal spending and cut tens of billions from the 
     budget deficit.
       14. Was the first Senator to decry the practice of looting 
     Social Security, and made truth in budget reporting a 
     priority. In 1990, his legislation required that the 
     President and Congress, when reporting a budget, do not count 
     Social Security surpluses to mask the true size of the 
     deficit.
       15. Has been the voice for fiscal sanity on the Senate 
     floor for three decades, but too often the lone voice. 
     Twenty-two years ago, he was the first to offer a budget 
     freeze, and has offered them many times since. He has slammed 
     tax-cutting Republicans for voodoo economics. He promised he 
     would jump off the Capitol Dome if ever there was a balanced 
     budget, but because too few listened to the only original 
     member of the Senate Budget Committee, the country has a $600 
     billion deficit, and Senator Hollings retires without 
     jumping.
       16. The Senate's loudest voice on trade issues, he opposed 
     NAFTA, GATT, and trade deals with China and Africa--all of 
     which have sent massive jobs overseas. Time has proven him 
     right. He opposed giving the President fast-track negotiating 
     authority, constantly reminding his colleagues of Article 1, 
     Section 8 of the Constitution: ``Congress shall have power to 
     regulate commerce with Foreign Nations.''
       17. Textile's best friend in the Senate, he has pressured 
     every President since Lyndon Johnson to protect the industry 
     so important to South Carolina.
       18. Created the Manufacturing Extension Partnership 
     Centers, in 1988 to help small manufacturers survive and 
     grow. Now with 350 locations around the country, they 
     annually help almost 20,000 companies. In honor of the 
     Senator, federal legislation was passed to rename them the 
     Hollings Centers.
       19. A friend of the consumer, he created a competitive 
     telecommunications industry through the Telecommunications 
     Act of 1996, the first major rewrite of the Communications 
     Act of 1934. He fought to ensure it provided new services to 
     consumers at affordable rates.
       20. Strengthened on-line privacy and gave Internet users 
     control over their own personal data with legislation he 
     authored in 2000 and 2002.
       21. Gave millions of Americans freedom from telemarketers, 
     by co-authoring the do-not-call list law in 2002, and the law 
     that banned computer voiced telephone calls and

[[Page 24211]]

     restricted junk faxes in 1991. Calling it ``telephone 
     terrorism'' Senator Hollings has given tens of millions of 
     Americans quiet evenings at home.
       22. Reined in the cable TV monopolies, as the driving force 
     in the early 1990s for the Cable and Consumer Protections 
     Act. Persistent service and rate abuses by TV cable companies 
     around the country prompted Senator Hollings to lead the 
     charge in giving the Federal Communications Commission 
     authority to regulate basic cable TV rates and set minimum 
     service standards.
       23. Authored the 1990 Children's TV Act, requiring stations 
     to carry educational programming for children and limiting 
     the amount of commercials aired during children's 
     programming.
       24. Wrote laws to drug-test transportation employees and 
     military enlistees. By requiring mandatory random drug and 
     alcohol testing for safety-sensitive transportation 
     employees, he has made America's roads safer. The law has 
     allowed the military to confront drug abuse in uniform and 
     has significantly increased overall readiness.
       25. Was one of the first to re-build America's defense in 
     the '80s, authoring amendments in the 1980 budget that 
     provided the first significant increase in defense spending 
     in the post-Vietnam era.
       26. Saved the Department of Education through budget 
     amendments, after Ronald Reagan took office with the express 
     purpose of abolishing the Department. In the mid-1990s he 
     stopped House Republicans from radically cutting student loan 
     programs.
       27. Authored energy conservation standards for federal 
     buildings, during the 1970 energy crisis, resulting in 
     millions of dollars of savings for taxpayers.
       28. Led the efforts to fund innovative law enforcement 
     programs, such as Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
     that put more than 100,000 police officers on the streets in 
     13,000 communities across the country.
       29. To prevent crime that has hit American schools, he 
     steered through the Senate his Safe Schools Initiative, 
     putting police officers on patrol in schools nationwide.
       30. Authored legislation to nail criminals involved in 
     church burnings, by strengthening federal authority to 
     prosecute them.
       31. For the first time in American history, he got the full 
     Congress to give its highest honor, the Congressional Gold 
     Medal, to a farmer, gas attendant, maid, and preacher for the 
     hardships they faced in desegregating South Carolina's 
     schools. The medals were presented in 2004, the 50th 
     anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.
       32. Champion for American Embassies across the world, he 
     fought hard to ensure government preserves their historic 
     significance.
       33. The longest serving junior Senator in American history, 
     he served 36 years as a junior Senator before becoming South 
     Carolina's Senior Senator at age 81 in 2003.
       34. As governor of South Carolina from 1959-1963, he was 
     the first modern southern governor to bring about economic 
     and social progress. He started South Carolina's technical 
     education system that now trains 235,000 students annually; 
     balanced the state's budget for the first time in 65 years; 
     obtained the state's first AAA bond rating; traveled 200,000 
     miles around the world to bring industry to South Carolina; 
     and peacefully integrated Clemson University while other 
     southern governors resisted the civil rights movement.
       35. Was the Senator with no poll in his pocket, He gave 
     unforgettable floor speeches, where he spoke his mind and 
     told the truth. No one dared debate him, because they'd lose.
       36. He brought different points of view to complex 
     situations and identified solutions long before others 
     recognized there were even problems.
       37. Though many of his favorite bills never passed, he 
     never stopped pushing for what he believed, He is still 
     calling for tax hikes to pay for the War on Terrorism; 
     legislation to protect children from violence on television; 
     and a constitutional amendment permitting limits on campaign 
     expenditures, preventing wealthy candidates and their friends 
     from buying elections.
       38. He leaves at the top of his game, writing meaningful 
     legislation for America and working for his constituents 
     until his last day in office.

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. It is amazing to see how many things Fritz Hollings 
has touched in his life. Once again, he will be sorely missed.


                              John Breaux

  Another dear friend from the south, John Breaux, senior Senator from 
Louisiana, probably the Senate's consummate deal maker. I don't think 
anyone in this Chamber has ever worked harder to bring the two parties 
together on taxes, on health care, and especially our two biggest 
entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare.
  He is the logical choice to chair the National Bipartisan Commission 
on the Future of Medicare and the cochair of the National Commission on 
Retirement Policy. He has always been an effective champion for 
Louisiana's oil and gas, agriculture, and tourism industries, which is 
why his constituents have sent him to Washington with 60, 70, or even 
80 percent of the vote. He was only 28 when he first won a seat in the 
House in 1972. With 14 years in the House and 18 years in the Senate, 
he spent more than half of his entire life as a Member of Congress 
doing the public's mission.
  We will miss his Cajun humor, his legislative savvy, and his tireless 
dedication of bringing Republicans and Democrats together for the good 
of all America.


                               Bob Graham

  Another esteemed colleague from the South, Senator Bob Graham, the 
senior Senator from Florida, is clearly one of the State's most popular 
elected officials. He won two terms as State representative, two terms 
as a State senator, two terms as a Governor, three terms as a U.S. 
Senator, with a 9-9 record. For a short time he put his hat in the ring 
in the recent Presidential race. He had a 9-9 record of elections 
dating back 38 years.
  Like Senator Breaux, Bob Graham has worked diligently to forge 
bipartisan solutions to the most pressing problems. He is a fiscal 
conservative, dedicated to strengthening and improving Social Security 
and Medicare. Bob Graham is the author of a comprehensive, bipartisan 
plan to restore the Everglades, a plan that created an unprecedented 
partnership among Federal, State, and local governments and private 
industries to reverse the damage done by fragile ``River of Grass'' 
decades of dredging, dumping, and destruction. He has fought hard to 
protect Florida's coastline from oil and gas exploration.
  One of the things that made Bob Graham so popular has been his 
determination to spend time working side by side with people he 
represents. Over 30 years he has worked 400 workdays. On those 
workdays--and most have seen him in costume--he has worked as a police 
officer, railroad engineer, construction worker, fisherman, garbage 
man. I don't think I would have taken all the jobs he did, but he did 
them wonderfully and endeared himself to his constituents. He was a 
factory worker, busboy, teacher. If Bob does not want to retire, I am 
sure he will be able to find some kind of work. He is experienced in so 
many fields.


                              John Edwards

  The senior Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards, has streaked 
across the political firmament like a shooting star. Six years ago, he 
was a trial lawyer who won a Senate seat in his first try at elected 
office and 2 weeks ago he was very nearly elected Vice President.
  John Edwards, like Tom Daschle, was the first person in his family to 
graduate from college. His father worked in the textile mills. His 
mother held several jobs, working in a post office, running a furniture 
refinishing business. After he graduated from the University of North 
Carolina Law School, he put his formidable legal skill to work for 
ordinary people as a trial attorney. He was good at it. In 1997, he won 
the largest personal injury verdict in North Carolina history, $25 
million, for a 9-year old girl injured by a swimming pool drain the 
manufacturer knew was faulty.
  John proved if there is injury or damage, take it to a jury of your 
peers. Let them make the judgment regarding careless operation of a 
piece of machinery or automobile. The damage is incalculable in terms 
of a monetary value. So John Edwards did what he ought to do. He 
protected those who had recourse for terrible damages that they 
incurred.
  John knew what it was like for that little girl's parents I just 
talked about because he and his wife lost their 16-year-old son. His 
name was Wade. He died in a car accident.
  When he got to the Senate, John continued to fight for working-class 
Americans, and despite being a freshman Member, he was a principal 
author of a Patients' Bill of Rights bill which passed the Senate in 
June of 2001.
  He also fought hard for his constituents, securing more than $250 
million in disaster funds following Hurricane Floyd in September 1999.

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  I don't know what the future holds for John. One looks at that face, 
and sees such a young man. He is only 51 years old, and to me that is 
like a child. But somehow or other I do not think we have seen the last 
of him.
  Of course, his first task is to help his wife Elizabeth get through 
her bout with breast cancer. We send our prayers to both of them, for 
her quick and complete recovery. He and Elizabeth have the good wishes 
and prayers of each and every one of us here in the Senate.
  Mr. President, I will talk about a couple of my friends on the 
Republican side.


                              Don Nickles

  I have had my differences with Don Nickles. We both have served on 
the Budget Committee, and it is hard to believe that he, at his tender 
age, has been here for 24 years. He is still so youthful looking. As a 
matter of fact, the two Senators from Oklahoma at one point in time did 
not equal the age of one of the Senators from South Carolina. They are 
both very young. But he was so young when he came here in 1981. He was 
barely 32.
  On the subject of age, if I might digress, after 30 years of business 
I never dreamed I was going to be here 24 years, Lord willing. And for 
my friends on the Republican side, don't count me out at the end of 24 
years.
  I worked with Don Nickles for many years on the Budget Committee. He 
has been a passionate, articulate spokesman for conservative causes, 
but he has always been a good opponent, a gracious opponent. The Senate 
is going to miss his energy and his knowledge.


                        Ben Nighthorse Campbell

  Another friend from the other side of the aisle is Ben Nighthorse 
Campbell, the senior Senator from Colorado. He is one of the true 
originals in the Senate. He is one of 44 chiefs of the Northern 
Cheyenne Tribe. He served our country in Korea. He is a renowned 
jewelry designer, athlete, trainer of champion quarter horses. He 
participated in the 1964 Olympics as a member of the U.S. Olympic judo 
team.
  He was elected to the Colorado State legislature in 1982, serving for 
4 years before coming to Washington. He has livened up the place with 
his string ties, beautiful jewelry, and his Harley Davidson 
motorcycles. And he has been our conscience when it comes to meeting 
our treaty obligations to Native Americans.


                            Peter Fitzgerald

  Peter Fitzgerald, the junior Senator from Illinois, like me, came to 
the Senate after a good business career. He has been here only for one 
term but in those 6 years he established a solid reputation as an 
independent Member, committed to doing what he thinks is right, even if 
it puts him at odds with other members of his party.
  He and I serve on the Governmental Affairs Committee, and I have been 
impressed by his willingness to hold hearings on scandals and 
malfeasance in the mutual fund and insurance industries. Perhaps 
because of his business background, he understands the importance of 
effective oversight by the Federal Government.
  I regret he is leaving. He has been a gentleman, and it is too bad 
that we do not have more like Peter Fitzgerald. He is a wonderful 
person to work with. He has got a ready smile, and he is a gentleman at 
all times.
  I close my remarks by noting that these men have made remarkable 
contributions to our society, and all Americans should be grateful. I 
would tell those who are retiring, I retired 4 years ago, and I did not 
like it. So here I am. Perhaps there is hope for any of them who want 
to rejoin. If you want to come back, I am here to tell you it can be 
done. Just make sure that you get to keep your seniority.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and thank my colleagues for their 
indulgence while I made my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, let me say--this is probably the first and 
only time I have ever said this--I have been listening carefully to my 
friend from New Jersey, and I agree with everything he said.
  I have had a chance to talk a little bit about some of these people 
who are retiring, and at some length about Senator Nickles, and I 
certainly appreciate the Senator's remarks about him.

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