[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5587-5588]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING SENATOR PERDUE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate our new 
colleague from Georgia on his insightful and accurate assessment of the 
biggest challenges confronting our country. Not only did he lay out the 
biggest challenges, he certainly laid out the best solutions to those 
challenges to get this country moving again and to guarantee, as he put 
it, that we leave behind for the next generation a better country than 
our parents left behind for us.
  I congratulate our new colleague for an outstanding major speech.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am grateful that we have the 
distinguished Senator from Georgia in the Senate. I really enjoyed his 
remarks here this evening. He laid out a program that we ought to 
follow.
  I am very proud to have the Senator here, and I am proud to serve 
with him. We wish him the very, very best in every way. I think he will 
enjoy this body in spite of all the vagaries and varieties of it. But 
he is a great addition to this body, and we are very appreciative that 
he is here with us.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I wish to note that my colleague from 
Georgia just made a great speech. In it he listed those who sat in the 
desk he now sits in--Nunn, Russell, Chambliss. It is obvious he has 
inherited that seat, and he is equal to the task of those gentlemen. I 
commend him on his first speech, and I am honored to serve with him in 
the Senate.
  I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. CORKER. Mr. President, I wish to say, I knew the Senator from 
Georgia prior to being a Senator. He was an outstanding CEO in a major 
public company. He has done business all over the world. I know when he 
campaigned in Georgia for this seat, what he said was that he was going 
to be the adult in the room. I just want to say that he certainly has 
distinguished himself since he came here in acting that way and looking 
at the big issues that our Nation has to deal with.
  I know that he knows that still the greatest threat to our country 
right now is our inability to get our fiscal house in order, and I 
really believe that Senator Perdue is going to not just be a leader on 
the Foreign Relations Committee, as he already is--hugely helpful in 
the vote that we had last week relative to Iran--but I think as much as 
anybody in the Senate, Senator Perdue is going to help drive this body 
to responsibly deal with fiscal issues we have to deal with.
  We have a lot of work to do. We haven't even begun. I look forward to 
working with him, not only to ensure that our Nation is safe and secure 
but that we get our fiscal house in order. I could not be more 
gratified that Senator Perdue is part of this body and serving in the 
manner that he is.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate the Senator from 
Georgia on the content of his speech as well as on his enthusiasm and 
also on how he follows through on what he says. I get to serve with him 
on the Budget Committee, and I have been extremely impressed.
  At his first meeting, I introduced him as someone who has balanced

[[Page 5588]]

budgets. He corrected me. In the private sector, one can't just balance 
the budget; you have to do better than that. He has that kind of 
experience to bring to the Budget Committee and to this body, and I 
look forward to working with him diligently on the budget. We only had 
6 weeks to do what hadn't been done in 6 years, and he was a tremendous 
help in getting through that process and understanding some of the 
complexities. He is a good numbers man. So when he talks about what we 
need to do with the budget and paying down the debt and the ways we can 
do it, I look forward to working with him to get those things 
accomplished.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I wish to commend my fellow freshman, 
Senator Perdue, for a great maiden speech. I like particularly his 
emphasis upon growing our gross domestic product, growing our economy, 
and making it stronger. It echoes what Senator Enzi just said. It is 
not just about balancing the budget but about creating the sort of 
growth that creates more prosperity for the families who depend upon 
this prosperity for better jobs for them and their families.
  It was a great speech. I thank the Senator for capturing the optimism 
that makes the United States unique.
  I yield back.

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