[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10429-10430]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    GOOD WISHES FOR SENATOR KENNEDY

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, in my 11\1/2\ years in the Senate, I have 
worked closely with a very special man, a very caring man, a very 
liberal man, a very energetic man, a very thoughtful man, and a man who 
has become my dear friend. That man is Senator Ted Kennedy, the Senator 
from Massachusetts.
  A great blow was dealt to the Senate when we found out Senator 
Kennedy had a malignant brain tumor. This blow is not because of what 
may or may not get done in his absence. No, this blow went straight to 
the heart of anyone who has known this man as a friend.
  Many find it hard to believe that Senator Kennedy, the third most 
liberal Senator in the Senate, and I, the fourth most conservative 
Senator in this body, could get along or actually enjoy each other's 
company. But we do.
  When I was chairman of the HELP Committee, I worked under what I 
called my 80 percent rule. I always believed we could agree on 80 
percent of the issues and on 80 percent of each issue, and that if we 
focus on the 80 percent, we can do great things for the American 
people. Senator Kennedy and I worked together on proposals using that 
rule, and we found that 80 percent in the things we undertook. We also 
found friendship.
  In those 2 years, we passed 35 bills out of the Health Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the President signed 27 of those 
into law. Most of them passed almost unanimously. Again, it was kind of 
the belief that if two people that far apart could come together on an 
issue, it must be OK. The HELP Committee used to be the most 
contentious committee in the Senate, but in our 3 years of working 
together as chairman and ranking member, we turned it into the most 
productive committee in the Senate. I remember being in the President's 
office at a bill signing and having him say, ``You know, you are the 
only committee sending me anything.'' We got to checking on it, and he 
was right.
  I could not help but think of my friend as I stood next to the 
President while he signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act 
a few weeks ago. That bill was the fourth bill that month Senator 
Kennedy and I sent to the President. We had worked on it for several 
years, and we are glad it finally passed, almost unanimously. We 
briefly conferenced it with the other side, so the differences are 
already worked out before they vote on the bill. It went to the 
President's desk. That is a perfect example of how we worked together 
to pass legislation that had been held up for years.
  Another example is the mine safety law. In 6 weeks, we worked 
together to pass the first changes to mine safety law in almost 30 
years. The average bill around here takes about 6 years to pass. That 
one happened in 6 weeks.
  We share an incurable optimism, and if you add that in with Ted's 
work ethic and my persistence, you have a great recipe for success.
  When we don't get along, you will see us come to the Senate floor and 
debate our policy differences passionately. Once the votes are cast and 
we walk off the floor, we move on to tackle the next issue, and we do 
that as colleagues with a deep respect for the other person and his 
beliefs.
  We have taken trips around the country together to look at mine 
safety and hurricane damage. I have also invited Vicki and Ted to come 
to Wyoming to dig fossils with Diana and me when our schedules can work 
it in. We have some 60-million-year-old fossil fish in Wyoming. If you 
ever see the brown bones of a fish in a piece of white rock, it 
undoubtedly came from Wyoming. If you see brown bones in a brown rock, 
it probably came from the other place, which would be China. But I have 
invited him out to do a little fishing in the fossil field with me. 
This week I even sent him a very small one that we might be able to use 
for bait if we get to do that.
  Mr. Chairman, if you are listening, I do still expect you to make 
that trip to Wyoming for the fossil dig.
  Senator Kennedy has a very deep human side. Although he has one of 
the busiest schedules of any Senator, he makes time to do small things 
for those around him. There is a program called Everybody Wins; it is a 
reading program, where an individual who is willing to volunteer their 
time meets each week with a young person and they read. One reads to 
the other, and the other reads back. It is a tremendous help to kids in 
reading. But to do that, you have to sacrifice an hour each week, and 
you work with the same child each week. Senator Kennedy does that. Not 
many people make that kind of a time commitment.
  Senator Kennedy is also thoughtful. I will always remember when he 
brought me a gift when each of my grandchildren was born. One happened 
to be a little pair of training pants that said ``Irish Mist'' on the 
back. He even treats my staff like family. He made a copy of the 
painting he made for Vicki on their wedding day and presented it to my 
scheduler when she got engaged. He always makes a special point to 
thank my staff on the Senate floor for all their hard work to get their 
bills through. He somehow finds time for all these things. He also came 
to a staff coffee in my office. Every month, we do a staff coffee, and 
that means I invite two Democratic Senate offices and two Republican 
staff offices to come to my office, so people can meet their 
counterparts in a less violent situation than working on a bill. If 
they know their counterparts--if you get to know somebody, it is pretty 
hard to work against

[[Page 10430]]

them when you actually have to do the work. On this particularly rare 
occasion, the Senator showed up also. He came to my office and 
dramatically presented me with a photo of a University of Wyoming 
football helmet and a Harvard football helmet next to each other, with 
a note that said, ``The Cowboys and the Crimson make a great team.'' I 
agree.
  Senator Kennedy has quite a few friends from Wyoming, one of which is 
the former Senator Al Simpson. Al and Senator Kennedy worked together 
for many years. They even did a little radio program. So when I was 
elected, my first bill was one dealing with OSHA. That is one of the 
primary areas of interest of Senator Kennedy. He was ranking member on 
the committee. After I got it drafted, I went around to every member of 
the committee and I pleaded with them and they sat down and went 
through the bill with me, a section at a time, and asked questions. I 
answered them. The last person I had on the list to talk to--and the 
most formidable, in my view, because I knew his history--was Senator 
Kennedy. So to get permission to meet with him, I called Al Simpson and 
said: Could you talk to Senator Kennedy for me and see if he would meet 
with me to go through this bill?
  The next day I got a call from Senator Kennedy, who said: Yes, come 
on down to my office. I will meet with you. So I went down there. My 
mother had been named ``Mother of the Year'' for Wyoming the day 
before, and he presented me with clippings of my mother's award. He 
went through that bill with me, a section at a time.
  It wasn't until the markup of the bill that I found out that was not 
the way you did things around here. He explained that in his, I think, 
35 years at that time, he had never had a Senator ask him to sit down 
and go through a bill a section at a time. The bill did not pass, but 
several sections of the bill are now law. It was the first eight 
changes in OSHA in the history of OSHA. After we did those eight 
changes, he came to me and said: I have this needle stick bill I have 
been trying to get through. Would you take a look at it?
  I did. We made some changes to get to the 80-percent rule, and it 
passed unanimously here and in the House and the President signed it. 
The nurses were appreciative and the janitors were appreciative because 
either of them could get an accidental needle stick and they wouldn't 
know where it had been and they would have to wait months to find out 
if they were going to get something from it.
  I learned a lot from each of these opportunities to work with Ted 
Kennedy. I had no idea I would be chairman of the committee, and he 
would be the ranking member. Then I had no idea the majority would 
change and he would become chairman and I would become ranking member. 
I remember meeting with him after he became chairman, where we took a 
look at the bills we intended to get done during these 2 years, and we 
have had pretty substantial progress on that. I told him I was glad he 
was chairman because after I had studied under him for 2 years, I would 
be able to do a much better job when I became chairman again. He 
laughed.
  A week ago today, we were resolving some issues on the floor and 
several other things we are trying to get done, and I remember being 
over in that corner where he was telling me about his dad's recipe for 
daiquiris, and earlier this week we passed the National Day of the 
American Cowboy, and that reminded me of an incident in Montana when 
Senator Kennedy was helping his brother, he actually went to a bucking 
horse sale and rode a bucking horse and wound up on the cover of LIFE 
magazine--to get the Kennedy name out to help get his brother 
nominated. As a result, Montana and Wyoming both went for Senator John 
F. Kennedy and put him over the top for the nomination to be President.
  There are a lot of other stories I would like to tell, but I will not 
because of the time.
  Ted, my chairman, Diana and I are praying for you and your family 
during this trying time. ``Cancer'' is the last word any family wants 
to hear. I know you will fight it; you have that fighting spirit. I 
wish to see you at the next bill signing in the President's office and 
with me again in the HELP Committee hearing room. We have more bills to 
pass, fossils to dig, fights to battle, and laughs to enjoy together. 
We have to keep up our bill-of-the-month club for the President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Whitehouse). The Senator from Ohio is 
recognized.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I echo the words of my friend, Senator Enzi 
from Wyoming, about Senator Kennedy. I have had the honor for only 15 
months now to serve on his and Senator Enzi's HELP Committee. Even more 
important than Senator Enzi points out and even more important than 
Senator Kennedy's passion for his work, his commitment to social and 
economic justice and his never, ever giving up in fighting for those 
things he believes in, is what Senator Kennedy does personally for all 
kinds of people, including people who don't live in his State, people 
whom he has never met, people who walk down the hall. He brings them 
into his office and gives them a book, written by Senator Kennedy, but 
in the name of his dog Splash. And he talks to children. Again, they 
are people Senator Kennedy doesn't even know, who can do nothing for 
him politically. He gives so much in those ways.
  As Senator Enzi does, I hope Senator Kennedy will be back here as 
strong as ever. He has used that energy and passion for so many others, 
and he will put that same energy and passion into being cured. We all 
look forward to that day in the fairly near future.
  (The remarks of Mr. Brown pertaining to the introduction of S. Res. 
574 are located in today's Record under ``Submission of Concurrent and 
Senate Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BROWN. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming is recognized.
  Mr. BARRASSO. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Barrasso pertaining to the introduction of S. 
3071 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

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