[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18648-18649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS


                 Olympia Snowe and Kay Bailey Hutchison

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to my 
colleagues, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Olympia Snowe.
  We have served together in the Senate for two decades and I will 
dearly miss their grace and their friendship. I know that whatever the 
next chapter brings, both Senator Hutchison and Senator Snowe will 
leave a lasting and important legacy.
  Both of these Senators are true pioneers. When she first entered 
Congress,

[[Page 18649]]

Senator Snowe was the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the 
House of Representatives. Senator Hutchison graduated law school in 
1967 as one of only 5 women in a class of 445 men. When she arrived in 
the Senate in 1993, she became the first woman to represent Texas in 
this Chamber.
  Throughout her career, Senator Snowe has been a strong advocate for 
the people of Maine. Whether they were children, families, consumers, 
or small business owners--the people of Maine knew they had a great 
champion in Senator Snowe.
  Senator Snowe always worked across party lines to get things done for 
the American people. During her time in the House, she worked with 
Senator Mikulski to lead the fight to end the exclusion of women in 
health trials at the National Institutes of Health. She worked with 
Senator Rockefeller to help bring the internet to America's libraries 
and classrooms. She worked with Senator Ted Kennedy to pass the Genetic 
Nondiscrimination Act.
  Senator Snowe and I worked together on many, many bills over the 
years, but I will especially remember our work on the passengers' bill 
of rights to provide basic protections for airline passengers. I will 
also remember the many times we fought together to ensure equality for 
women around the world.
  Senator Snowe was a true leader and her presence in the Senate will 
be greatly missed.
  Senator Hutchison was a strong and passionate voice for the issues 
important to her beloved State of Texas.
  She played an critical role in so many of the important issues facing 
our country over the years, from her work ensuring the safety of our 
Nation as a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to her 
leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee.
  We worked together to promote safety and security for Afghan women 
and girls, and she played such a key role last during consideration of 
the transportation bill. I am so grateful for Senator Hutchison's 
bipartisan efforts to preserve and protect our critical transportation 
infrastructure.
  Senator Hutchison has always noted that we women Senators have 
repeatedly come together across party lines to achieve action on 
women's issues: things like pay inequality and creating tax-free 
individual retirement accounts for spouses who work at home.
  I will miss my colleagues, both on the Senate floor and at our 
monthly women Senators dinners.
  I wish them both well in all their future endeavors.


                              Kent Conrad

  Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to my colleague, Senator 
Kent Conrad, whom I have been fortunate to call a colleague and a 
friend. I have served with Kent for 20 years and my husband Stewart and 
I have valued the friendship of his and his wonderful wife Lucy 
Calautti.
  From helping North Dakota recover from devastating natural disasters 
to promoting North Dakota agriculture as a key member of the Senate 
Agriculture Committee, Kent Conrad has been a leader for North Dakota 
for more than 30 years.
  No Senator knows budget and economic issues better than Senator 
Conrad and he used his knowledge to great effect as chairman of the 
Senate Budget Committee. His exacting and precise assessments of our 
Nation's fiscal health added wisdom and maturity to a debate that was 
often difficult and divisive. His many budget charts alone are famous 
in the Senate--in fact, he uses even more charts on the floor than I 
do, which is saying something.
  He refers to his policymaking approach as ``extreme moderation''--an 
approach that perfectly sums up Senator Conrad's philosophy and 
demeanor. Senator Conrad is one of our most respected members, for his 
steady temperament, his open mind, and his willingness to reach across 
the aisle in search of policy solutions.
  The Senate is losing a powerful voice, and great friend to us all in 
Kent Conrad.

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