[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14481-14483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS

  Mr. ENZI. Madam President, when my plane touched down last night, I 
received an e-mail that told of the fate of a great man. It was a 
tremendous surprise to me. I just completed a week in Wyoming of 
explaining to people that he even timed his chemotherapy so he didn't 
have to miss votes, and what a tough and strong man he was.
  Craig Thomas was a marine at heart, but he was a cowboy in his soul. 
He was quiet, he was focused, he was independent, he was hard-working. 
He loved the Senate and he loved the Marines and he loved his horses. 
The flags have been lowered, and there is a great deal of sadness in 
our hearts today as we mourn his loss and celebrate his life. I have 
had a lot of thoughts, but I haven't had a chance to put them together. 
They come gushing back, together with a lot of tears.
  For those of us from Wyoming, Craig Thomas was more than just our 
Senator. He was our voice in the Senate, and he was never one to back 
off from a fight, especially when he was battling for two things most 
dear: what was best for Wyoming and what was best for America.
  Craig had long Wyoming roots, and he was very proud of them. He grew 
up in Cody and became friends with Al Simpson. Later on the two of them 
would serve together in the Senate. After he graduated from the 
University of Wyoming, he immediately began his service to the country 
he loved. He joined the Marine Corps. I am convinced that experience 
helped to shape his character and molded his destiny. I think his 
steely resolve and firm will took shape during those days that helped 
guide him and prepare him for the battles that would come later in his 
political life.
  When Craig's service in the Marine Corps was through, he began what 
was to be his life's work, which was serving the people of Wyoming to 
ensure their best interests were taken care of and their needs were 
addressed.
  His first efforts for Wyoming brought him to the Wyoming Farm Bureau 
and the Wyoming Rural Electric Association.
  He was proud of his service with both of these organizations. It kept 
him actively involved in issues that meant a great deal to him and, 
more importantly, it kept him in touch with the people of Wyoming and 
their day-to-day problems. It also set him on the road to doing 
anything and everything he could to make life easier for his fellow 
citizens in Wyoming.
  I remember the days we served together in the Wyoming House. I was a 
mayor and had municipal electrical experience. He was with the rural 
electric association. We worked a lot of electrical bills together at 
that time. We could bring in both perspectives, find the middle ground, 
and make sure all of the people, rural and urban--I use the term 
``urban'' for Wyoming rather loosely, but urban--would be able to have 
low-cost and consistent electricity.
  Nobody knew energy or electricity better than Craig. That led him to 
run for the Wyoming House. Dick Cheney was appointed Secretary of 
Defense, and Craig ran for it and won his seat. It was not an easy 
victory, but it showed what a fighter and battler he was as he took on 
that challenge, which was done in a relatively short period of time. 
The executive committee just has a few days to select candidates, and 
then there is a very short time for an election for the position in the 
Wyoming House. He used his usual toughness, went around the State, 
talked to everybody, and won that election.
  Incidentally, the person he ran against in the primary, Tom 
Sansonetti, became his chief of staff, which shows how people get along 
in Wyoming.
  To no one's surprise, Craig focused on Wyoming issues in the House 
and he was reelected. Then when Malcolm Wallop decided to retire, Craig 
was such a popular choice he didn't have any opposition in the primary. 
He did face another battle in the general election, but once again his 
fighting spirit prevailed and he found a way to win. Interestingly 
enough, the person he defeated in the general election was a

[[Page 14482]]

very popular Governor of Wyoming who was just ending his term. That 
Governor was later appointed Ambassador to Ireland by President 
Clinton. To Craig Thomas's credit, the hearing was scheduled for that 
ambassadorship before the papers ever got to the Capitol. Ambassador 
Sullivan did a fantastic job in Ireland.
  He won the Senate seat, and 2 years later I ran for the Senate and 
serve. He is one of the few Wyoming residents who ever served both in 
the House and in the Senate. It has not been a tradition in Wyoming to 
move from the House to the Senate. I was elected and then got a chance 
to work with him again. He was a remarkable man of vision on how to 
make Wyoming and our country better places to live. He spent a good 
deal of his time traveling Wyoming. He was one of the most ardent 
travelers we have ever had in the Senate, going back virtually every 
weekend, traveling to a different part of the State, talking to people 
and trying to get their vision for the future.
  One of his efforts on that was called Vision 2020. He challenged the 
people of Wyoming. He stretched the people's imagination on what our 
State ought to be like in the year 2020. That was in 1998, but we are 
getting a lot closer to 2020, and I think the State is moving toward 
the vision that he predicted at that time. It was a goal he cherished 
and fought for. Many of the things he envisioned, or the people of 
Wyoming envisioned, have been achieved through his efforts on the 
Senate floor.
  Craig Thomas will long be remembered as one of Wyoming's toughest and 
fiercest advocates. Craig knew that much of our work gets done in 
committees, so he pursued those committees that would help him fight 
for Wyoming in the Senate. He served on the critical Finance Committee. 
He was a staunch fiscal conservative, and he believed very strongly 
that people in Wyoming and across the Nation know better how to spend 
their hard-earned money than does the Federal Government. He used his 
position on the committee to lighten the tax burden and to make our Tax 
Code more fair.
  He was the ranking member on the Indian Affairs Committee. He served 
as chairman of the National Parks Subcommittee where he was a tireless 
advocate for our park system. I think he visited most of the parks. 
Earlier, when our Republican leader was talking about horseback, it was 
even possible sometimes to see him with the park policemen on horseback 
taking a look at the parks of the Capitol.
  I would mention also that usually when you saw him on horseback you 
also saw his wife Susan on horseback. She was a tireless traveler and 
an outstanding campaigner and another person who searches for the 
visions of Wyoming. In parades, they always rode horses. They had 
special saddle blankets that helped to say who they were--as if people 
in Wyoming wouldn't know who they were. I would mention that she was 
thrown from a horse a couple of times, too. Bands and horses don't 
always go well in hand. But, as Craig always said, she was the real 
campaigner in the family. She actually liked it. She does a marvelous 
job for our State, as well as did Craig.
  Craig was very active on all of the agricultural issues and 
international trade, particularly country-of-origin labeling. He 
supported our cattlemen with grazing rights and responsible 
environmental quality incentive programs for runoff issues. He has 
worked tirelessly to get changes in the Endangered Species Act. He 
realized that was a national program with national goals and it should 
not punish individuals or counties or even the States, and that there 
ought to be responsibility at the Federal level.
  With energy, he was the lead sponsor of our soda ash royalty relief 
bill. He was the lead sponsor on the recreational fee demonstration 
program that allowed the national parks to keep a higher percentage of 
the receipts that were received on public lands where they were 
collected, and he specifically made efforts to include section 413 of 
the Energy Policy Act, which authorizes Federal cost-share for the 
building of a coal gasification project above 4,000 feet. That would 
help get a clean coal plant built in Wyoming, which would prove the 
technology with Wyoming coal at high altitude. We have huge resources 
of coal. We ship over one-third of the Nation's coal--over 1 million 
tons a day.
  The reason we ship so much coal is because it is very low sulfur. He 
was providing a mechanism to be able to have some assurance that coal 
gasification of this clean coal would be included in projects that we 
did in the United States. It would help to prove the technology at high 
altitude and show its viability and would make a difference for all the 
United States in all their energy in the future.
  He was also instrumental in writing the electricity title of EPAct. 
Recently, his efforts to get a coal-to-liquids section of whatever 
Energy bill we will be debating, although unsuccessful thus far, 
advanced the debate to the furthest point it had moved.
  During the last FAA reauthorization, Craig was very instrumental in 
radar upgrades for the Jackson airport, which was imperative for the 
growth of the city and airport, especially related to tourism. I think 
Jackson is the only city in Wyoming that has long distance direct 
flights. Most of them come through Salt Lake or Denver or Minneapolis. 
But Jackson actually has flights that come from Houston and Atlanta 
direct.
  He also did a lot for Wyoming with two big transportation 
authorization bills to ensure that the large land area, low-population 
States, received a fair amount of highway funding. As I mentioned, on 
fiscal issues he was a staunch conservative who believed the people 
knew how to spend their money better than the Federal Government.
  A few months ago, Craig shared his medical situation with us. He was 
in for another difficult fight, but he was used to them. He has been a 
battler all his life. He took the fierce determination that he learned 
as a marine and brought it to this latest battle against leukemia. 
Unfortunately, it was a battle this great fighter was not to win.
  Although that last battle of his life was lost, there were so many 
victories in his life that we will long remember. Craig died as he 
lived, with his spurs on, fighting for Wyoming to the very end. I am 
sure we all have our favorite instant replay memories of Craig and his 
unique style.
  I have always believed you can get a lot done if you don't care who 
gets the credit. That was Craig--never one to seek the limelight or to 
draw attention to himself. He was the one working in committee to 
assure that the voices of the Wyoming people and America were heard and 
heard clearly.
  For me, I will always remember Craig's spirit, for his spirit in life 
was a great illustration of the spirit of Wyoming. His life became a 
living portrait of the American West. He saw the world from the saddle 
of his horse and from under the brim of his cowboy hat. He was proud of 
Wyoming and Wyoming was proud to be represented by him.
  Craig was my senior Senator. He was my confidant and mentor. But most 
of all, he was a very good friend. Diana and I will always feel 
appreciation for the fact that Craig and Susan made us part of their 
family. Our prayers are with Susan and their family during these 
difficult times.
  I will miss him. But because he was such a special presence in my 
life and the lives of so many others, I have a long list of instant 
replay memories I will always cherish of him: the times we were out on 
the campaign trail, the legislation we worked on together and, more 
importantly, the impact he had on my life personally, as he had on so 
many others.
  Wyoming is a different place today because of this great loss of 
ours. There is great sadness in the State and also great joy as we 
celebrate the life of one of our special citizens. He was with us for 
all too short a time, but he will never be forgotten.
  I received a book called ``give me Mountains for my Horses,'' by Tom 
Reed. But what I always ask for is that they give us men to match our 
mountains and our horses--and that would be Craig.

[[Page 14483]]

  I want to share just a little piece of this because I know that Craig 
is already riding in a far better place. It says:

       There is a taste to this place, this time. Nothing is 
     behind you. Everything is ahead. But you don't really think 
     about what is ahead, you only think of now, for this 
     partnership you have entered into is one of the moment, of 
     now. Now has you in a saddle on a bay horse, heading up a 
     trail of pines and spruce and mountain, of stream and meadow.
       Behind you, connected by only your hand and a lead rope but 
     carrying everything important to you, is another bay horse, 
     an almost identical match to the one you are riding. You call 
     them nicknames as if they were human compadres, drinking 
     buddies. You cluck and coo and talk to them as if they give a 
     damn about what you have to say. You think they do and maybe, 
     just maybe [they do].
       Right now they are stepping out, heads nodding, down the 
     trail and through the stream and all you have to do is ride. 
     So you ride.
       That evening as dusk brings the mosquitoes out of the 
     willows--the same dusk that put the horse flies to bed--you 
     choose a camp. It is a good place, save for the bugs, with 
     room for the horses in the broad, deep green meadow and camp 
     back against the lodgepoles and your kitchen down a ways. So 
     you ease off the bay's back and stretch your muscles with 
     that stiff-good, worked-hard feeling, and you begin to unload 
     the packhorse, talking to him, thanking him. In a while he 
     has on his hobbles and is out there with his buddy, snorting 
     contentedly in the tall grass and swishing a long, coal-black 
     tail at the mosquitoes.
       It goes like this for days, the ride, the squeak of the 
     saddle leather, the smell of dust, the taste of it on your 
     tongue. The smell of horse sweat and your own and the soft 
     muzzles nuzzling you after a long day. Good camp after good 
     camp. Muscles turning hard. Eyes becoming sharp for wildlife. 
     And riding, always riding.
       One evening a big sow grizzly and her cub cross a broad 
     meadow far out there. A tough gal, rambling, giving you and 
     your horses a wide berth. But still the binoculars sweat in 
     your hands and your mouth is dry.
       ``Boy, what a beautiful animal.''
       The next morning a moose walks the same path. You have not 
     seen another human in days but there's a jet contrail 
     reminding you that yes, this is the modern world. You ride.

  Craig loved the modern world. He worked hard in this body. He would 
have liked to have been out there in those mountains on those horses 
enjoying the smell and the sounds. Now he is riding. Ride on my friend, 
ride on.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________