[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17201-17202]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING SENATORS

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, in the waning days of the 113th Congress 
it is a bittersweet moment as many of us are saying goodbye--although 
not on a permanent basis but at least in terms of our official 
relationships working together as Senators--to so many of our good 
friends and valued colleagues. Every other December we find ourselves 
bidding farewell to some of the most admired and respected Members of 
this Chamber. Today I want to say a few words about three of these 
esteemed Members, starting with my good friend, the senior Senator from 
Georgia.


                            Saxby Chambliss

  Saxby Chambliss and I arrived in the Senate at the same time 
following the 2002 elections. At the time, the war on terrorism, as we 
all know, was barely a year old, and it was by far and away the biggest 
issue on the minds of Americans across the country and in the Halls of 
Congress. Senator Saxby Chambliss immediately established himself as 
one of the Senate's most important leaders on national security issues, 
which came as no surprise to anyone who watched his career in the House 
of Representatives. Indeed, in his capacity as chairman of the House 
Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, he 
oversaw the first official investigation of the 9/11 attacks. It is 
hard to believe it has now been more than 13 years since that fateful 
day, but Senator Chambliss has never lost sight of the continuing 
threat posed by radical Islamic terrorists and he has never stopped 
working to uphold bipartisan support for strong national security 
policies. He has been a consistent leader on important pieces of 
legislation such as the PATRIOT Act and on the detention facilities at 
Guantanamo Bay. He has also been a leader on the Armed Services 
Committee on the annual Defense authorization bill which we will be 
taking up later this week and on controversial but important topics 
such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Most recently on the 
campaign to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Senator 
Chambliss again has been one of the leading voices helping us find our 
way to the right strategy and the right policy. In short, name any 
high-profile national security issue and there is a good chance Saxby 
Chambliss has been driving the debate and working to move the United 
States in the right direction. I know he is also especially proud of 
his efforts to improve current retirement policies for members of the 
National Guard and military Reserves.
  Senator Saxby Chambliss comes from a State where agriculture is the 
single largest industry and he spent 6 years as chairman or ranking 
member of the Senate agriculture committee. He was one of the first 
Members of our class in 2002 to serve as a chairman of any standing 
committee, something we were all a little bit envious of, early on in 
his first term of office. But he has worked on several tough farm bills 
during the time he has been in Congress and he has been our go-to 
Member on all related issues.
  In fact, Senator Chambliss understands these issues almost better 
than anyone on both sides of the aisle, which is another way of saying 
he understands the challenges facing American farmers better than 
almost anyone here. That understanding allowed him to play a key role 
in reforming Federal crop insurance.
  Folks down in Georgia have been justly appreciative of Senator 
Chambliss's work on agriculture policy, and they also appreciate his 
efforts to accelerate the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project through a 
Federal-State partnership, which was officially signed back in October. 
It is an impressive list of accomplishments, and I know I speak for all 
of our Members on both sides of the aisle and staffers alike, when I 
say that Saxby Chambliss will be missed as much for his warmth and 
friendship as for his policy work.
  As a diehard Atlanta Braves and Georgia Bulldogs fan, he is equally 
at ease discussing baseball, football, quail hunting or national 
security. He is unfailingly kind, thoughtful, and considerate to 
everyone with whom he works in this Chamber--whether Senator, staffer 
or casual visitor.
  Saxby is now preparing for his life's next great chapter, which he 
will spend with his wife Julianne, to whom he has been married for 
nearly half a century, their two children, and six grandchildren, which 
I know bring them a lot of joy.
  I wish my good friend all the best in his retirement, and I wish the 
entire Chambliss family a never-ending supply of health and happiness.


                              MIKE JOHANNS

  Next, I would like to turn to my colleague from Nebraska, the senior 
Senator Mike Johanns. Even if Mike Johanns had never been a Senator, he 
would have compiled an extraordinary career of public service. It 
started with a stint on the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners and 
continued with 2 years on the Lincoln City Council, followed by 8 years 
as mayor of Lincoln, NE.
  In 1999 Mike left the mayor's office and moved over to the Nebraska 
State Capitol, where he served for 6 years as Governor. He said one of 
his proudest gubernatorial accomplishments was enacting a mental health 
reform law that helped improve the lives of some of Nebraska's neediest 
and most vulnerable residents. That to me tells a lot about his 
character and sense of compassion.
  Born and raised as a farm boy, Mike was named America's 28th 
Secretary of Agriculture in 2005. Over the next 3 years, he held more 
than 50 separate forums on the farm bill--more than 50. Not 
surprisingly, he continued to work on agriculture-related issues when 
he joined the Senate. Indeed, he has been a true leader, fighting 
passionately to defend the rights and livelihood of farmers and 
ranchers everywhere--especially in Nebraska.
  These are issues that are vitally important to millions and millions 
of Americans, including Mike's constituents, but they are not the kind 
of issues that help land you prime time appearances on cable news. 
Luckily for us, Mike doesn't care about media attention, but what he 
does care about is doing the right thing for his State and for our 
country.
  He understands something that many of us too quickly forget--that 
taxes and regulations should be forced to pass a simple cost-benefit 
test. That is why Mike worked so hard to block the national energy tax 
known as cap and trade, and that is why he has consistently demanded 
that the Environmental Protection Agency and other Federal agencies 
demonstrate how their proposed rules would affect American jobs and 
American workers.
  It is also why he has so aggressively pushed to abolish the IRS 1099 
reporting requirement in ObamaCare, which would have placed a costly 
new burden on America's small-business owners and indirectly on the 
jobs that they create. Mike did more than anyone else to help highlight 
the problems with this requirement and to demand its repeal. Thanks in 
large part to his efforts, 81 Members of this Chamber voted to abolish 
it back in 2011.
  There is an old cliche in politics that there are two types of 
politicians--the show horses and workhorses. Mike has never sought the 
limelight, and has certainly done more than his fair share of the work. 
But he has done so in a very quiet and thoughtful manner. He is someone 
who has kept a low profile while working behind the scenes, building 
bipartisan consensus and being infallibly polite and gentlemanly in the 
process.
  He is the type of Senator who is universally admired and respected by 
all of our colleagues. His accomplishments here in the Senate--I have 
just mentioned a few--have been manifold. Yet I am quite certain his 
proudest accomplishments are his family--his wife Stephanie, their two 
children, and five grandchildren. They have been generous enough to 
share Mike with us for the past 6 years, and now it is time for Mike to 
be with the people he cares about the most. We will miss him a whole 
lot, but he is moving on to perhaps the most rewarding chapter of his 
life.

[[Page 17202]]

  Mike, thanks for all you have done. Thanks for your service, your 
guidance, and most of all for your friendship.


                               TOM COBURN

  I will close my remarks today on our retiring colleagues by paying 
tribute to Dr. Tom Coburn. He is someone we have all come to know and 
admire over 20 years as a relentless fighter for limited government and 
conservative values here in the Congress.
  Tom can be a very charming guy, but I know he can also be a pain in 
our side when he is determined to make sure he gets a chance to get a 
vote on an important matter here in the Senate. I think he is 
comfortable in both of those roles. In fact, I know he is.
  Tom Coburn is a man of strong principle, a man of great integrity, 
and, perhaps just as importantly, a man of remarkable humility. Our 
country has benefited greatly from the wisdom and leadership Tom has 
provided during his service in Congress--first in the House and then in 
the Senate. I have been in the Senate now for a little more than a 
decade, and during that time our colleague from Oklahoma has done more 
than anyone else in this Chamber to eliminate wasteful spending, expose 
fraud and abuse in the Federal budget, and get our entitlement programs 
on a sustainable path. Tom would be the first one to say that job has 
just begun, but he has certainly given it everything he has.
  He has educated our Nation on the fiscal threat we live under and 
what it means for our children and grandchildren, and he has worked 
tirelessly to correct it.
  He has done a remarkable job as the ranking member of the Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, as well as his service on 
the intelligence and banking committees.
  Furthermore, Tom has been an unyielding force for protecting liberty 
and improving access to affordable health care by proposing positive 
patient-oriented alternatives, and for these reasons and many more I am 
grateful for his service.
  But perhaps the thing he does not want to be remembered for--but that 
has made such a profound impression on many of us--is his courage and 
ability to deal with the fact that he is a three-time cancer survivor. 
Even last week, I know he was receiving treatment for this most recent 
flare up, but he will be back here today. He will be doing what he does 
best, and that is fighting for his principles and perhaps causing more 
than a little bit of turbulence in the process in this otherwise stayed 
Chamber.
  I know I speak for this entire Chamber when I say it is an honor to 
serve with a man such as Tom Coburn. I know this to be true because Tom 
is well respected on both sides of the aisle.
  In fact, when Time magazine named Tom one of the 100 most influential 
people in the world in 2013, a friend of Tom's and former Democratic 
Senator wrote:

       The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom 
     representing them in Washington--someone who speaks his mind, 
     sticks to his principles, and is committed to the people he 
     was elected to serve.

  The friend I am referring to who made those remarks is none other 
than our President, Barack Obama, when he served with Tom in the 
Senate. When the President said that, he found out that Tom received a 
number of angry letters from constituents that said he and President 
Obama looked a little too chummy together, to which Tom replied--and 
this is classic Tom Coburn: ``What better way to influence someone than 
to love them.''
  This serves as a testament to his character. You see, Tom has an 
extraordinary ability not just to win the respect of those who agree 
with him but the admiration and respect of those who disagree with him 
as well. That is a rare thing in politics and especially in today's 
society.
  Nevertheless, Tom has spent his career promoting what is good for the 
country while never wavering from his personal conversations. Along the 
way he has racked up a lengthy list of accomplishments that protect 
taxpayers and increase transparency in government.
  Tom's resume proves he has been a leader not only in Congress but in 
every aspect of his life. For example, I think many of our colleagues 
don't realize he had a distinguished career in business and medicine 
before he got here. Tom served as president of the school of business 
student council while getting his accounting degree at Oklahoma State 
University. Later he went back to law school--excuse me, that was a 
Freudian slip he wouldn't be happy with. Later he went back to medical 
school, where he trained to become a physician and served as president 
of his class at the University of Oklahoma medical school.
  Tom has a lot to be proud of about his service in the House and in 
the Senate. But, again, like all of us, he is most proud of his family. 
He has been married to the former Miss Oklahoma for nearly 50 years, 
and he and Carolyn have three daughters and seven grandchildren. 
Meanwhile, in his career as a physician, he has delivered more than 
4,000 babies, which perhaps explains the vote totals in some of his 
elections, because I am sure many of them have grown up to vote for 
him.
  The things that I mentioned are only a few of Tom Coburn's long list 
of notable achievements. Knowing Tom and his work ethic, I have no 
doubt he will be giving 110 percent right up until the last minute he 
serves in the 113th Congress on January 3, 2015.
  I wish Tom and his family the very best as they enter the next season 
of life.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON. 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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