[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16914]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THANKING THE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the esteemed senior Senator from 
Vermont leaves the floor, I want to say a few words.
  I appreciate the guidance and leadership my friend has given over 
these many years in leading the Judiciary Committee. It is a committee 
where most all of the legislation is funneled, and what we have focused 
on in recent months is the problem we have with judges.
  Yesterday my friend did a remarkably good job in leading a precedent 
indicating the issues we have with the D.C. Circuit, and I so 
appreciate his leadership on this issue and all the other issues on 
which the Judiciary Committee works. It is too bad we cannot have the 
Judiciary Committee as it was in our earlier years in the Senate where 
the productivity of that committee is not thwarted by not being able to 
bring items to the floor.
  The Judiciary Committee has a wide range of jurisdiction over matters 
that are so important to our country, such as our national security 
agencies and cyber security. There is a multitude of issues the 
Judiciary Committee deals with, and I wish we could be doing more 
legislation on the floor which comes from that committee.
  I wanted to extend my appreciation to the Senator for the good work 
he has done, and I also want to send accolades to the people of Vermont 
for having this good man leading the Senate in many different ways, not 
the least of which is being the Senate President pro tempore.

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