[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Pages 23452-23454]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING SENATORIAL SERVICE

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I have a few more minutes before the 
10:30 vote, and I take this time to say a few words about some of my 
colleagues who are retiring. We had a good bit of time yesterday 
devoted to

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their tremendous contributions, and as each of us, the 100 of us, do 
know each other pretty well, I have come to the floor to say a few 
things about several of the colleagues I have had the distinct pleasure 
of working with very closely.


                               Bill Frist

  Mr. President, one is, of course, Senator Bill Frist, our retiring 
majority leader. I had the wonderful opportunity to be invited to 
travel with Senator Frist. I guess you could say it was clearly an 
opportunity. It was not necessarily a pleasurable trip in the sense 
that the first trip I took with him was to tour the devastation of the 
tsunami. Soon after he assumed the role of leader, the tsunami hit the 
Indian coastline. It was one of the largest disasters in the recent 
history of the world.
  I had a chance to go to that region with Senator Frist. I actually 
saw him firsthand don his doctor's coat and take off, if you will, his 
hat as Senator and put on his coat as doctor and operate. I agreed to 
go on that trip with him under one condition, that I myself would not 
have to go with him into the operating rooms. So I stayed outside and 
talked with people while he went in and actually did the hard work of 
saving people's lives and bringing them back to health.
  But what I will most remember about that trip--and there were about 
six of us on it--is that he was the first one awake in the morning, the 
last one to go to bed at night, constantly working until the point 
where those of us said we are unlikely to ever travel with him again 
because we could not get any rest through the entire week and were so 
exhausted when we got back. We said: If he calls again to ask us to 
travel, tell him I am doing something else. I am kidding, of course. 
But I say that with the greatest admiration for a man who has an 
extraordinary work ethic. And through so many ups and downs, literally, 
of these helicopters and trips, I remember him staying so steady and so 
calm, even when we saw some of the most horrific sights you can 
imagine.
  But he has led this Chamber and brought his own style of leadership 
and his own gifts that God has given him to this Chamber. I am a 
Senator who truly admires that particular aspect of his service and 
wanted to put that into the Record in a small way this morning.


                              Jim Jeffords

  Mr. President, I also want to remember for a minute the good work of 
Senator Jeffords. Senator Jeffords tends to be one of the quiet Members 
of the Senate. Some of us talk a lot more than others. He does not do 
much talking, but he sure gets a lot done. I will never forget, and the 
people of Louisiana are so grateful to Senator Jeffords, as he chaired 
the EPW Committee, for being one of the first Senators in this Chamber 
to recognize the extraordinary loss of our wetlands and what it would 
mean to south Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. And ultimately, of 
course, we saw the tragedy unfold before our eyes. Had we listened to 
Senator Jeffords, and the other few voices who were calling out years 
ago, perhaps some of that loss of life and billions of dollars of loss 
of property could have been averted.
  Senator Jeffords came down to Louisiana on several occasions. One I 
will never forget is standing with him in this very southern part of 
the State in Lafourche Parish, literally almost into the gulf waters, 
we were so far down south. I was explaining to him--and this is far out 
from New Orleans. You have to try a little hard to get there. You fly 
into the big airport, and then you have to go by either bus or 
helicopter, and it is difficult. And, of course, Senator Jeffords' 
health has not been great lately. But he was a real trooper, and he 
said: No, Mary. I want to go, and I want to see it.
  So we flew him way down to the wetlands, and he and I were standing 
there, and I was explaining to him how his work in the Senate was 
affecting the lives of my constituents down in the bayou and was 
saying: Senator, almost once a week or so some fishing vessel or shrimp 
trawler runs into this bridge. And when the bridge shuts down, we 
literally not only keep schoolchildren from getting to school and 
parents from getting to their children, but we literally shut down the 
whole offshore oil and gas industry or a big part of it, because when a 
bridge shuts down, none of the trucks can move, no supplies can get out 
to the rigs. Don't you think this country, which spends trillions of 
dollars every year, can spend a few million dollars to fix this bridge?
  The words had not gotten out of my mouth when a shrimp trawler hit 
the bridge, and the bridge moved slightly. The big wings of the shrimp 
trawler collapsed, and Senator Jeffords looked at me and said: Now, 
Mary, you have gotten way too dramatic on this point. You did not have 
to set that stage for that boat to hit that bridge. He said: I get the 
message. So we, of course, had a laugh about that.
  But his sense of humor, his commitment, and his passion for the 
environment and the people who live on the land, the people who live in 
this natural environment, is what has always made me a real fan of his. 
I want him to know I am going to miss him and his staff who have also 
been extremely kind to me and my staff in the Senate.


                              Mike DeWine

  Mr. President, I wish to speak about Senator DeWine, my distinguished 
colleague from Ohio, and a good friend, and a man whom I have worked 
very closely with in our capacity as appropriators. Also, we share a 
passion for the child welfare system in this Nation, trying to improve 
it--of course, promoting adoption, the notion that there is no such 
thing as unwanted children, just unfound families.
  I could not but come to the floor and say that Mike DeWine is 
literally one of the most compassionate men I have ever known. That 
compassion is obvious to anyone who works closely with him day in and 
day out. It is not fake. It is very real. And the spiritual depths of 
which he and his wife Fran and their children live their faith--not 
just talk about it, not just use it as a shield to protect them, but as 
a way to serve others--is quite extraordinary.
  This Senator has seen that in him and his work, side by side with 
him. I want my other colleagues to know that if it were not for Senator 
Mike DeWine, the District of Columbia would not have their family 
court, the country would not have the stable families legislation he 
and Senator Rockefeller pushed through this Chamber at a time when not 
that many people understood the consequence of a foster care system in 
disrepair and what happens to children when they get stuck in a system 
that does not appreciate their dignity or respect their right to a 
family.
  Senator DeWine, a family man himself, most certainly understands that 
and pushed that legislation through, and dozens of other pieces of 
legislation that I had the privilege to help him with, and to assist 
him with, and to watch him lead on. So I am certainly going to miss his 
leadership. But I will commit to him my focus on Haiti. I will never be 
able to fill the shoes he has laid out with the work he has done, but 
several of us intend to continue his work with Haiti, the poorest 
nation on the Earth, and continue his great passion, as much as we can, 
in our time here in the Senate.


                             lincoln chafee

  Mr. President, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has been an 
independent voice for his State and the issues he believes in, 
regardless of partisan consideration. He will be missed by all of us.


                              conrad burns

  Mr. President, Senator Conrad Burns has represented his State of 
Montana for three terms. He has been a stalwart on behalf of his 
constituents and his philosophy of government. We thank him for his 
public service.


                              george allen

  Mr. President, finally, I want to recognize the Senator from 
Virginia, George Allen, for his service as Senator and as Governor of 
his State. We have worked together on a range of issues on the Energy 
and Small Business Committees as well as on the historic antilynching 
bill.
  To all of our retiring Members, I say thank you. Thank you for your 
efforts on behalf of my State when you were

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needed and thank you for your service to America.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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