[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 26794-26795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATE BIPARTISANSHIP

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, one thing this body needs is more 
bipartisanship. The Presiding Officer has done a wonderful job in 
reaching out during his tenure as a Senator to other Senators, 
Democrats and Republicans. Legislation is the art of compromise, 
consensus building. The Presiding Officer certainly has filled that 
role very well. I want to spend a few minutes talking about this.
  We have had some dramatic developments take place in the last several 
weeks. That is as a result of two men who are working very hard to come 
up with something that would be landmark legislation. We are working so 
hard on health care reform. It has been extremely difficult to arrive 
at the point where we are. But we are further now than we have ever 
been since 1948 in coming up with health care legislation that will 
make health care more available for all Americans.
  Switching from health care to energy and the problems we have with 
the warming of the Earth, I have known John Kerry for a long time. We 
were both Lieutenant Governors. We came to the Congress the same year. 
As a relatively new Senator, I was on a select committee he cochaired, 
dealing with prisoners of war and those missing in action. I noticed at 
that time what a fine leader and fine legislator John Kerry was. As a 
result of his good work with others on that committee, including Bob 
Smith of New Hampshire, we came up with an outstanding work product in 
that committee. John Kerry, as we all know, became the Democratic 
nominee for President of the United States and came very close to being 
elected President. But he put that aside and went on to become the fine 
Senator he is. He is filling that role now as chairman of the Foreign 
Relations Committee. He has worked so hard on doing something on a 
bipartisan basis to move forward on this most important legislation. 
With what he has done in reaching out to Republicans--I say that in the 
plural--we have had one brave Republican step forward to work with him, 
Lindsey Graham. I first saw Lindsey Graham in action when we had the 
impeachment trial of President Clinton. He was one of the impeachment 
officers from the House. He was very good. I learned at that time what 
an outstanding trial lawyer he had been in South Carolina. I recognized 
that from the presentation he made right in the well of this Senate.
  As we learned with the work we completed dealing with unemployment 
insurance, net operating loss, first-time home buyers, it only takes 
one person to break from the pack, for lack of a better description, to 
develop bipartisanship. That was done along with Senator Isakson from 
Georgia. On this most important issue dealing with climate change, it 
is Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. He is bravely stepping forward.
  What Senators Kerry and Graham have done is quite remarkable. They 
have reached out to the coal interests. We have a number of coal 
Senators who have said: No way will we ever agree to anything, and they 
are working toward having them as part of the agreement. Nuclear power, 
which when this all started, I think it is fair to say, people on this 
side of the aisle wanted no part of that--most people on this side. Now 
that will be part of the mix. The production of oil in our country--
people say, does that mean you have given up on all these great things 
we believe in? Legislation is the art of compromise. We need to have 
legislation that is bipartisan. I believe what Lindsey Graham and John 
Kerry have done will

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allow us to move forward on this legislation. It is important that we 
do things on a bipartisan basis.
  I compliment and applaud and recognize the good work these two brave 
men are doing in setting an example for the rest of us in moving 
forward on legislation that will be dramatic not only for our country 
but for the world.

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