[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8627-8628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING THE SPRING PAGE CLASS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have worked hard. Not as hard as I would 
have liked or not as long hours as I would have liked and not as much 
accomplished as I would have liked, but this is the last day for this 
group of pages.
  These spring pages have been exemplary. I really enjoy walking past 
them. They are out there studying. They are sitting here as we speak 
now. I wish I could have been a page. I really do. I think it would 
have been a great life.
  We have done a much better job of making sure they are safe and 
happy. When I first came here, the pages lived wherever they could find 
a place to live. Now we have wonderful, safe, secure dormitories for 
those young men and women. We have a wonderful educational program for 
them. It is hard; no one can say it is easy. They learn a lot.
  Two of my granddaughters have been pages. It changed their lives. 
They came here not having much interest in government. By the time they 
left, they had started reading the newspapers--not like the Presiding 
Officer and I, they did most of their reading online. But they were 
interested in government, and they still are. I guess they are both 
seniors now, one at New York University and one at the New School in 
New York.
  One of my prized possessions in my office is a picture of my first 
two grandchildren, these two little girls, Ryan and Mattie. They are in 
diapers, and they are hanging onto each other. Then I have a picture 
right on the same little table of them in their page uniforms. That is 
a wonderful picture for me. It shows the progress of people's lives. It 
is really meaningful to me.
  I can say this to these pages: This will be an opportunity they will 
never forget. They will make friends here who will be friends for the 
rest of their lives. The Presiding Officer and I know the friends you 
make when you are young are just so important to you as you proceed 
through life. I still love to pick up the phone and call some of the 
young men and--in fact, I talked to a woman today with whom I went to 
school. That is good. That is what life is all about. Make good friends 
and maintain that friendship.
  Now, they have seen some things in the Senate that I think will be in 
the history books forever. We passed the surface transportation bill, 
we passed the Violence Against Women Act, we passed the Ex-Im Bank 
reauthorization, Iran sanctions bill, FDA Modernization Act, postal 
reform--we passed that.
  We are in the process of trying to resolve the student loan debate, 
but we worked on that. That was something we were able to move on 
through this body. We did not pass the paycheck fairness--we did not, 
but we have been involved for a long time on the Paycheck Fairness Act. 
They have been

[[Page 8628]]

able to watch all of this, and they can go home and tell their friends 
and family that they all relate to this stuff all of the time because 
they know now how the foundation of the government works. They have 
been here.
  So I appreciate personally everything they have done. Senator 
McConnell is going to speak to the pages tomorrow. I am not going to be 
able to be here. But he will tell those assembled that he is speaking 
on our behalf. I appreciate that very much.

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