[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 19425-19428]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FAREWELL TO THE SENATE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, those of us who are leaving the Congress 
at the end of this year are given the opportunity to make a farewell 
speech. But more, it is an opportunity to say thank you to a lot of 
people to whom we owe a thank-you, and to colleagues, to family, to the 
staff here in the Senate and our state staff, and the people of North 
Dakota, in this case, who gave me the opportunity to serve. It is the 
opportunity for me to say thank you.
  One of my colleagues the other day talked about the number of people 
who have served in the Senate. Since the beginning of our country, 
there have been 1,918 people who have served in the Senate. When I 
signed in, I signed on the line, and I was No. 1,802. There have been 
212 Senators with whom I have served in the years I have been in the 
Senate. It is hard to get here and it is also hard to leave. But all of 
us do leave, and the Senate always continues. When finally you do 
leave, you understand this is the most unique legislative body in the 
world.
  I arrived 30 years ago in Congress, and when we all show up the first 
day, we feel so very important and we believe the weight of the world 
rests on our shoulders. Then we begin getting mail from home.
  I have long described a letter that was sort of leavening to me, sent 
to me by a schoolteacher early on after I arrived here. Her class was 
to do a project to write to Dorgan in Washington, DC. I paged through 
the 20 letters from fourth grade students, and one of them said: Dear 
Mr. Dorgan, I know who you are. I see you on television sometimes. My 
dad watches you on television too. Boy, does he get mad.
  So I knew the interests of public service, of trying to satisfy all 
of the varied interests in our country. It is important, it seems to 
me, that we do the right thing as best we can and as best we see it. 
That dad from that letter showed up at a good many of my meetings over 
the years, I think. He didn't introduce himself. But in most cases, the 
people I represented over these many years were people, ordinary folks 
who loved their country, raised their families, paid their bills, and 
wanted us to do the right thing for our country's future.
  I have a lot of really interesting memories from having served here, 
12 years in the House and 18 years in the Senate. The first week I came 
to Washington, in the House, I stopped to see the oldest Member of the 
House, Claude Pepper. I had read so much about him, I wanted to meet 
him. I walked into his office, and his office was like a museum with a 
lot of old things in it, really interesting things. He had been here 
for a long, long time. I have never forgotten what I saw behind his 
chair--two photographs. The first photograph was of Orville and Wilbur 
Wright, December 17, 1903, making the first airplane flight, signed 
``to Congressman Claude Pepper with admiration, Orville Wright.'' 
Beneath it was a photograph of Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface 
of the Moon, signed ``to Congressman Pepper, with regards, Neil 
Armstrong.'' I was thinking to myself, here is a living American and in 
one lifetime, he has an autographed picture of the first person who 
learned to fly and the first person who walked on the Moon. Think of 
the unbelievable progress in a lifetime. And what is the distance 
between learning to fly and flying to the Moon? It wasn't measured on 
that wall in inches, although those photographs were only 4 or 5 inches 
apart; it is measured in education, in knowledge, in a burst of 
accomplishments in an unprecedented century.
  This country has been enormously blessed during this period. The 
hallmark, it seems to me, of the century we just completed was self-
sacrifice and common purpose, a sense of community, commitment to 
country, and especially, especially leadership. In America, leadership 
has been so important in this government we call self-government.
  There was a book written by David McCullough about John Adams, and 
John Adams described that question of leadership. He would travel in 
Europe representing this new country, and he would write letters back 
to Abigail. In his letters to Abigail, he would plaintively ask the 
question: Where will the leadership come from for this new country we 
are starting? Who will become the leaders? Who will be the leaders for 
this new nation?
  In the next letter to Abigail, he would again ask: Where will the 
leadership come from? Then he would say: There is only us. Really, 
there is only us. There is me, there is George Washington, there is Ben 
Franklin, there is Thomas Jefferson, there is Hamilton, Mason, and 
Madison. But there is only us, he would plaintively say to Abigail.
  In the rearview mirror of history, of course, the ``only us'' is some 
of the greatest human talent probably ever assembled. But it is 
interesting to me that every generation has asked the same question 
John Adams asked: Where will the leadership come from for this country? 
Who will be the leaders?
  The answer to that question now is here in this room. It has always 
been in this room--my colleagues, men and women, tested by the rigors 
of a campaign, chosen by citizens of their State who say: You lead, you 
provide leadership for this country.
  For all of the criticism about this Chamber and those who serve in 
this Chamber, for all of that criticism, I say that the most talented 
men and women with whom I have ever worked are the men and women of the 
Senate on both sides of this aisle. They live in glass houses. Their 
mistakes are obvious and painful. They fight, they disagree, then they 
agree. They dance around issues, posture, delay. But always, always 
there is that moment--the moment of being part of something big, 
consequential, important; the moment of being part of something bigger 
than yourself. At that moment, for all of us at different times, there 
is this acute awareness of why we were sent here and the role the 
Senate plays in the destiny of this country.
  The Senate is often called the most exclusive club in the world, but 
I wonder, really, if it is so exclusive if someone from a town of 300 
people and a high school senior class of 9 students can travel from a 
desk in that small school to a desk on the floor of the Senate. I think 
it is more like a quilt-work of all that is American, of all the 
experiences in our country. It allows someone from a small town with 
big ideas to sit in this Chamber among the desks that were occupied by 
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and so many 
more, and feel as if you belong. That is the genius of self-government.
  I announced about a year ago that I would not seek reelection after 
serving here 30 years, 12 in the House and 18 years in the Senate. I am 
repeatedly asked, as is my colleague Senator Dodd, I am sure, who is 
leaving at the end of this year, what is your most significant 
accomplishment? While I am proud of so many things I have done 
legislatively, the answer is not legislative. I have always answered it 
by saying: Well, the first month I was here, 30 years ago next month, I 
stepped into an elevator on the ground floor of the Cannon Office 
Building of the U.S. House of Representatives. That step into that 
elevator changed my life. There was a woman on that elevator, and 
between the ground floor and the fourth floor, I got her name. And that 
is a pretty significant accomplishment for a Lutheran Norwegian. This 
year, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. My life has been so 
enriched by my wife Kim and children, Scott and Shelly and Brendon and 
Haley; grandchildren Madison and Mason--they serve too. Families are 
committed too, to this life of public service, weekends alone, and I am 
forever grateful to the commitment and sacrifice of my family.
  I wish to say two things about some other people as well.

[[Page 19426]]

  First, there is our staff. All of us would probably say--but, of 
course, I say with much greater credibility--I have the finest staff in 
the U.S. Senate. I have been so enormously blessed. I am so proud of 
all of them. They are talented, they are dedicated to this country, and 
I have been blessed to work with them. In fact, I have worked with most 
of them for many, many years.
  Then I wish to say to the floor staff of the Senate that I come here, 
as do my colleagues, and we say our piece and we get involved in the 
debates, and the floor staff does such an unbelievable job. When we are 
done speaking, we often leave. They are still here. They are the ones 
who turn out the lights. They refrain from rolling their eyes when I 
know they want to during these debates. Boy, are they professional, and 
all of us owe them such a great debt of gratitude.
  To my colleagues, I kind of feel like Will Rogers: There is nobody in 
here I do not like.
  It is a great place with some terrific colleagues, especially Senator 
Kent Conrad. We have been friends for 40 years. For 40 years we have 
been involved in the political fights and the political battles in 
North Dakota. He is a great Senator. I said last night at a reception: 
He is the best Senator in the United States Senate come January. But 
what I should just say right now is, he is an outstanding Senator and 
makes a great contribution to this body. Congressman Pomeroy, with whom 
I have served, the other part of Team North Dakota, three of us who 
worked together on campaigns 40 years ago, in North Dakota and who then 
for 18 years were the only three members of North Dakota's 
Congressional Delegation. It has been a great pleasure. We will 
continue these friendships. But I say thanks to Senator Conrad 
especially for the work we have done together.
  Now, you know--and it shows--I love politics. I love public service, 
always have. John F. Kennedy used to say every mother kind of hopes her 
child might grow up to be President, as long as they do not have to be 
active in politics. But, of course, politics is the way we make 
decisions about America. It is an honorable thing. I have always been 
enormously proud of being in politics. I have run 12 times in statewide 
elections since age 26. I have served continuously in statewide 
elective office since the age of 26--never outside of statewide 
elective office--for a long time, 40 years. It has been a great gift to 
me to be able to serve, and I am forever grateful to the people of 
North Dakota who have said to me: We want you to represent us.
  Now it is time for me to do some other things that I have long wanted 
to do. That is why I chose not to seek reelection this year.
  Let me be clear to you. I did not decide not to run for the Senate 
because I am despondent about the state of affairs here. That is not 
the case. These are difficult and troubling times. But I did not decide 
not to run and to criticize this institution, although there is plenty 
of which to be critical. I do not want to add to the burdens of this 
institution. This institution is too important to the future of this 
country.
  I could talk, by the way, for hours about the joys of serving here 
with all of my colleagues.
  I was thinking about the late Ted Kennedy, when I was jotting a few 
notes, standing at his desk back in that row for many years. I know no 
one will mind me saying this: I think he is the best legislator I have 
ever seen in terms of getting things done. Ted Kennedy, full of 
passion, and on certain days when he was agitated and full-throated, 
you could hear him out on the street fighting and shouting for the 
things he knew were important for America.
  I think of Bob Dole who would saunter onto this floor, and he almost 
seemed to have an antenna that knew exactly what was going on, what the 
mood was, and what he could and could not do and how you must 
compromise at certain times. He had a knack like that, unlike any 
others I have seen.
  I think of Strom Thurmond, who left us at age 101. If anybody could 
know his life story, what an unbelievable, courageous story. One of the 
things that I remember about Strom Thurmond is my involvement with 
legislation for organ transplantation to save people's lives. I did a 
press conference on a bill I was introducing on organ transplants, and 
Strom Thurmond showed up. I think he was 90 years old. He signed an 
organ donor card. He said after he signed the organ donor card at age 
90: I do not know if I've got anything anybody wants, but if I am gone, 
they are welcome to it.
  Robert C. Byrd, who sat where my colleague is sitting now--they do 
not make them like Robert C. Byrd anymore. I recall one day when 
another colleague was on the Senate floor, Robert C. Byrd got very 
angry about what the other colleague was saying. He believed it was 
disrespectful. So he rushed up to the Chamber, and the other colleague 
had left by that time. I do not know that our colleague ever understood 
what happened to him. But Senator Byrd, being very angry at what the 
other Senator had said, said simply this: I have been here long enough 
to watch pygmies strut like Colossus. He said: They, like the fly in 
Aesop's Fables, sitting on the axle of a chariot observe, my, what dust 
thy do raise. Then he sat down. And I thought, you know, they do not 
make Senators like that anymore. The Senator who left did not 
understand what Senator Byrd had just done, cutting him off at the 
knees.
  But I take a treasury of memories. I should mention as well one of my 
best friends, Tom Daschle, who served here, a wonderful friend and a 
great leader for a long while as well. I just take a treasury of 
memories from this place.
  This place, however, has substantial burdens ahead of it, and will 
have to make good decisions, tough decisions, and exhibit the courage 
needed for the kind of future we want; we are going to have to put some 
sacrifice on the line for our country's future.
  I want to talk for a bit about a couple of those issues. While there 
are always big issues, and I have always been interested in debating 
the big issues, my principal passion has been to support family 
farmers, small business folks, and the people who go to work every 
morning at a job; the family farmers out there who live on hope, plant 
a seed, and hope it grows, who risk everything; the Main Street 
business owner who this morning got up and turned the key in the front 
door and went in and waited because they have everything in their 
financial lives on the line, hoping their small business works; and the 
worker who goes to a job in the morning every day, every day, and they 
are the ones who know ``seconds,'' those workers at the bottom of the 
economic ladder. They know second shift, secondhand, second mortgage. 
They know it all. The question is, who speaks for them? The hallways 
outside the Chamber are not crowded with people saying: Let me speak 
for those folks.
  In the first book I wrote, the first page, a book called ``Take This 
Job and Ship It,'' about trade, on the first page of that book I 
describe a story that was told about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 
funeral. As they lined up in this Capitol to file past the casket of 
the deceased President, a journalist was trying to capture the mood of 
people who were waiting in line. He walked up to a man, a worker who 
was holding his cap in front of him standing there with tears in his 
eyes, and the journalist said to this working man: Well, did you know 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
  The man said: No, I didn't. But he knew me.
  The question is, it seems to me, for every generation in this 
Chamber, who knows American workers? Who stands up for the people who 
go to work every morning in this country? As I said, there are big 
issues that relate to workers and farmers and businesspeople and others 
in this country.
  Let me just mention a couple. We know that for America to succeed we 
have to fix our schools. Thirty percent of the kids going to schools 
are not graduating. That cannot continue. We cannot have schools that 
are called dropout factories. We need the best schools in the world 
with the best teachers in the world if we are going to

[[Page 19427]]

compete. We need substantial education reform.
  We also have to get rid of this crushing debt. We know we cannot 
borrow 40 percent of everything we spend. We know better than that. All 
of us know that. We have been on a binge, and it has to change. We 
cannot borrow money from China, for example, to give tax cuts to the 
wealthiest Americans. Somehow we have to change all of these issues. It 
is time for this country to sober up in fiscal policy and leadership 
from this Chamber as well.
  We need a financial industry that stops gambling and starts lending, 
lending especially to those businesses that want to create jobs and 
want to expand. We need a fair trade policy that stands up for American 
workers for a change and promotes ``made in America'' again. We are not 
going to be a world economic power if we do not have world class 
manufacturing capability. It is dissipating before our eyes. This is 
all about creating good jobs and expanding opportunities in this 
country. It is not happening with our current trade policy. It is 
trading away America's future, and we know better than that.
  On energy, we have ridden into a box canyon. Sixty percent of the oil 
we use comes from other countries, some of it from countries that do 
not like us very much. That holds us hostage, and we cannot continue 
that. We need to produce more of all kinds of energy at home. We need 
to conserve more. We need more energy efficiency. We need to do all of 
these to promote stability and security in this country.
  Another issue that I have spent a lot of time working on deals with 
American Indians. They were here first. We are talking about the first 
Americans. They greeted all of us. They now live in Third World 
conditions in much of this country, and we have to do better. We have 
to keep our promises and we have to honor our treaties. In this 
Congress, I have had the privilege of chairing the Indian Affairs 
Committee. This Congress, however, as tough as it has been, has done 
more on Indian issues than in the previous 40 years. We passed the 
Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the first time in 17 years. We 
passed the Tribal Law and Order Act that I and others helped write, 
which is so very important. We just passed yesterday the special 
diabetes provisions that are so important to the Indians. We put $2\1/
2\ billion in the Economic Recovery Act to invest in health care 
facilities and education and the other things that are necessary in 
Indian Country.
  We just passed the Cobell settlement which deals with a problem that 
has existed for 150 years in which looting and stealing from Indian 
trust accounts went on routinely. President Obama signed the bill last 
night at the White House.
  Those five things are the most important elements together that have 
been done in 40 years by a Congress dealing with Indian issues. But the 
work is not nearly over, and we have to keep our promises and honor our 
trust agreements.
  We face some pretty big challenges. But the fact is, our grandparents 
and great-grandparents faced challenges that were much more significant 
as well, and they prevailed.
  All of us in politics especially know the noise of democracy is 
unbelievable. It is relentless, incessantly negative, and it goes on 
24/7. We have bloviaters all over the country who are trying to make 
sounds from the chest seem like important messages from their brain. 
They take almost everything they can find in any paper from any corner 
of this country that seems stupid and ugly and just way out of line, 
and they hold that up to the light on their program and they say: Isn't 
this ugly?
  Sure it is ugly, but it is not America. It is just some little 
obscene gesture somewhere in the corner of our country. It is not 
America. There is this old saying, ``bad news travels halfway around 
the world before good news gets its shoes on.'' That is what is 
happening all the time. This country is full of good. It is full of 
good things, good people, and good news. Every day people go to work to 
build, create, and invent, and they hope the future will be better than 
the past.
  There was a book titled ``You Can't Go Home Again'' by Thomas Wolfe. 
He said there is a peculiar quality of the American soul, a peculiar 
quality of the American soul that has an almost indestructible belief, 
a quenchless hope that things are going to be better, that something is 
going to turn up, that tomorrow is going to work out, and somehow that 
has been what has been the hallmark of American aspirations.
  When I graduated college with an MBA degree and got my first job in 
the aerospace industry at a very young age, the first program or 
project I worked on was called the Voyager Project. We were, with 
Martin-Marietta Corporation, building a landing vehicle for Mars. That 
was 40 years ago. That program was discontinued after about 4 years.
  But 5 years ago, the new program resulted in firing two missiles, two 
rockets from our country, 1 week apart. We aimed them at Mars. One week 
apart the rockets lifted off with a payload. When they landed, 200 
million miles later, they landed 1 week apart on the surface of Mars. 
The payload had a shroud and it opened and a dune buggy drove off the 
shroud and started driving around on the surface of Mars. First one 
did, and then a week later the second arrived. They were named Spirit 
and Opportunity. Five years ago, we began driving Spirit and 
Opportunity on the surface of Mars. They were American vehicles. They 
were supposed to last for 90 days. We are still driving those dune 
buggies on the surface of Mars 5 years later.
  Spirit, very much like old men, got arthritis of the arm. So they say 
it hangs at kind of a permanent half salute.
  Spirit also has five wheels, and one wheel broke. So the wheel didn't 
break off, but now it is digging a trench about 2 inches deeper on the 
surface of Mars and the arthritic arm just barely gets there, but it 
does. It gets back to sample even a slightly bit deeper into the soil 
of Mars to tell us a little bit about what is going on. Spirit, by the 
way, also fell asleep about 1 year ago. They couldn't reach it. It 
takes 9 minutes to communicate electronically, by radio, with these 
dune buggies on Mars. So they sent a signal to a satellite we have 
circling Mars and had the satellite send a signal to Spirit and Spirit 
woke right up. So two dune buggie-sized vehicles are traveling on the 
surface of Mars driven by American genius.
  My point in all this is, first of all, they are very aptly named 
during challenging times--``Spirit'' and ``Opportunity,'' manufactured 
to last only 90 days but still driving around on the surface of Mars 5 
years later. If American invention and American initiative can build 
rockets and dune buggies and drive them on the surface of Mars, surely 
we can fix the things that are important on planet Earth. I was going 
to say this isn't rocket science, but I guess it is.
  This country is an unbelievable place. This is all a call to 
America's future. Where we have been and what we have done, all these 
things together ought to inspire us that we can do so much more.
  George Bernard Shaw once said:

       Life is no brief candle to me. It is a splendid torch which 
     I am able to hold but for a moment.

  This is our moment. This is it.
  About 15 years ago, I was leading a delegation of American 
Congressmen and Senators to meet with a group of European members of 
Parliament about our disputes in trade. About an hour into the meeting, 
the man who led the European delegation slid back in his chair, leaned 
across to me, and he said: Mr. Senator, we have been speaking for an 
hour about how we disagree. I want to tell you something. I think you 
should know how I feel about your country. I was a 14-year-old boy on a 
street corner in Paris, France, when the U.S. liberation Army marched 
down the Champs-Elysees. An American soldier reached out his hand and 
gave me an apple as he marched past. I will go to my grave remembering 
that moment, what it meant to me, what it meant to my family, what it 
meant to my country.
  I sort of sat back in my chair, thinking, here is this guy telling me 
about who we are and where we have been

[[Page 19428]]

and what we have meant to others. It was pretty unbelievable. Our 
problems are nothing compared to where we can go and what we can be as 
a country, if we just do the right thing.
  This Senate has a lot to offer the American people. I know its best 
days are ahead. That splendid torch, that moment, that is here. That 
torch exists in this Chamber as well.
  I feel unbelievably proud to have been able to serve here with these 
men and women for so long. I am going to go on to do other work. But I 
will always watch this Chamber and those who will continue to work in 
this Chamber and do what is important for this country's future. I will 
be among the cheerleaders who say: Good for you. Good for you. You know 
what is important, and you have steered America toward a better future.
  I thank my colleagues.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  Mr. DURBIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CONRAD. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we have just heard from Senator Dorgan, an 
extraordinary Senator and even more extraordinary as a friend. He has 
served in the Congress for 30 years. He has served in public office in 
my State for more than 40 years. It has been my privilege to call him 
my best friend for 42 years. We just heard the remarkable ability he 
has, a gift, to paint word pictures that communicate with people, that 
help us understand the consequences of the actions we take here.
  In recent weeks, I have become very interested in the universe and 
the vastness of what surrounds us. One of the things I have found most 
striking is that 1 light-year takes light 1 year, it goes 5.8 trillion 
miles and the universe is 12 to 15 billion light-years across. This is 
a vastness that is hard for us to calculate. Scientists tell us it all 
started with a big bang almost 14 billion years ago. Now scientists are 
saying it may not just be one big bang but there is a cycle that takes 
place over 1 trillion years that leads to repeated big bangs. Byron 
Dorgan has been a big bang in the Senate. He has made a difference 
here. He has made an enormous difference in our home State of North 
Dakota. He helped build a foundation that has made North Dakota, today, 
the most successful State in the country--the lowest unemployment, the 
best financial situation, the fastest economic growth. Byron Dorgan 
helped build a foundation that has transformed our State. We are 
forever in his debt.
  As his friend and colleague, we are forever grateful to the 
contributions he has made to North Dakota and to the Nation.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of the 
Senator from North Dakota and add my voice as well to celebrate Senator 
Dorgan's tenure in the Senate. I wish he was going to stay. He has been 
someone about getting things done. As somebody who has sat in the 
presiding chair a number of times, I have heard Senator Dorgan. Even 
when I don't fully agree with him, no one is more persuasive in arguing 
his case.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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