[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14734-14736]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO BARBARA BOXER

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have served in Congress now for 34 years. 
Throughout that time, I have tried to be pleasant and helpful to my 
colleagues. I feel very fortunate to have become personally close and 
friends with Members of Congress from all over this great country. 
Barbara Boxer and I were Members of the House class of 1982. Such fond 
memories do I have of that class--Tom Carper, Dick Durbin, and scores 
of others. We had a huge class.
  At first glance, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid had very little in 
common. She was from California. It is a heavily populated and liberal 
State. I was from Nevada, a much smaller State in area and in 
population. I was the only Democrat in my State's Congressional 
delegation. But I was stunned when I was asked to join this huge 
California Congressional delegation. Being from Nevada and being part 
of the largest Congressional delegation in America was extremely 
helpful to me.
  The Californians were good to me in so many different ways, just 
allowing me to be part of their meetings every Wednesday morning. I was 
flattered when I was asked to be secretary-treasurer of that large 
delegation. I have so many memories of the work we did together, 
California and Nevada.
  Howard Berman, who was the leader of that freshman class from 
California, was the head of the steering committee. Don Edwards was the 
chairman of the delegation at those meetings we had every morning. The 
Burton brothers and just so many others went out of their way to help 
me.
  I came to know quickly that Barbara Boxer was no ordinary public 
servant. She was relentless--I mean relentless--and dedicated and very 
principled. She was raised by hard-working, first-generation immigrants 
in Brooklyn, NY. She attended Brooklyn College, graduated with a degree 
in economics. Over the decades, we have gotten to know each other's 
families very well. We talk about each other's children. We have 
exchanged family experiences many, many times.
  My favorite story of Barbara Boxer's family is the time when she was 
a girl coming home from elementary school, with her mom, from a window 
that was up high, yelling down to her little daughter coming home from 
school--excitedly yelling out the window of the upstairs apartment: 
Daddy passed the bar. Daddy passed the bar.
  Barbara knew that her dad did not go to bars. But she quickly learned 
from her excited mother that she was talking about her dad having 
passed the very, very difficult New York bar examination. I always 
remember that story.
  In 1965, Barbara moved to Northern California from faraway New York. 
But in California, they sat down their roots and raised their two 
children, Doug and Nicole. Stew became a very prominent lawyer and 
Barbara, a stockbroker.
  It was in California where Barbara began to make her mark very 
quickly as a trailblazer. In 1976, after having been in California not 
very long, in that very big county, part of the metropolitan area of 
San Francisco, she became a member of the Marin County Board of 
Supervisors. She was elected to that post. She quickly became the 
board's first woman president.
  Shortly thereafter in 1982, Barbara ran successfully for Congress. 
Her campaign slogan tells us all you need to know about her because 
that year her slogan was: ``Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn.'' That was on 
all of her campaign literature, posters, everything. So I guess with a 
slogan like that, it should not be any surprise that she won handily.
  In 1992, she was elected to the Senate. She stood no chance to win. 
Everybody told her that--all of the editorials, not only of the 
California papers but all over the country. Barbara

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Boxer was in with the big time, and things were going to change for 
this upstart Member of the House of Representatives. She had tried to 
move too quickly. She should have stayed in the House, but she won by a 
really nice margin. This surprised everybody except her.
  In 1992, she was elected to the Senate--the year that was popularly 
referred to as the ``Year of the Woman,'' and rightfully so. She was 
part of the memorable class that came here in 1982: Dianne Feinstein, 
Patty Murray, Carol Moseley Braun, and, of course, the underdog, 
Barbara Boxer.
  In the Senate, Barbara and I have worked together on matters of 
importance to Nevada, California, and our Nation. I have watched 
Barbara Boxer lead on so many important issues. I am going to name only 
a handful of them. She worked to designate more than 1 million acres in 
California as a wilderness, keeping that land in a pristine condition 
for our children, our grandchildren, and generations to come. I say 
``our'' because the wilderness in California or in Nevada does not 
belong to California or Nevada, it belongs to the people of this 
country. She fought for the Pinnacles National Monument to become 
America's 59th national park. It became such.
  She helped lead the fight to stop drilling in the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge, and, of course, along the California shoreline. She 
has spoken about that so many times. It succeeded. We have had no oil 
spills on the coast of California because of a number of reasons, but 
there is no one more responsible for that nondegradation than Barbara 
Boxer.
  She advocated to eliminate government military waste as a Member of 
the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was her first 
breakthrough where she exposed the outrageous, exorbitant cost of 
purchases made by the military. She did that while she was in the 
House. Why was she taking on the establishment? Well, that is who she 
is; that is who she was.
  She discovered that our military paid defense contractors 
unbelievable amounts of money: for a hammer--a claw hammer--$430; for a 
toilet seat, $640; for a coffee maker, $7,622. That is quite a coffee 
maker. For an aluminum ladder, which must have been one that would get 
you over the fence that Trump is going to build between Mexico and the 
United States, it cost $74,165.
  It is legendary what she has done with the military. Ever since she 
did that, the military was no longer untouchable. Barbara Boxer proved 
that. She put an end to all of the wasteful spending. Yes, she did--
Barbara Boxer--not all of it; some things slipped through the cracks, 
but she sure headed everyone in the right direction.
  Maybe of lesser importance, but something we all watched very 
carefully in the House--it did not happen overnight, but she caused the 
all-male House gym to admit female Members of Congress. She went up 
against some big people to do that--the very well-known Dan 
Rostenkowski, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and 
others--but she won.
  Barbara and I have worked together to protect Lake Tahoe. We share 
that. The States of California and Nevada share that alpine glacial 
lake. There is only one other lake like it in the world, and that is in 
Siberia, Lake Baikal. We feel good about what we have been able to do 
to promote the richness of this beautiful national treasure, Lake 
Tahoe.
  She has also promoted clean energy. I can remember her going after a 
substance that was in gasoline to put in a car that ruined the 
environment. She came out strongly against that. Again, she prevailed. 
We no longer do that. She has also done a lot to protect our public 
lands.
  I mentioned just a little bit of what she has done. I can say without 
any hesitation that Barbara Boxer has been one of the best and most 
effective environmental leaders in the history of this country. That 
says a lot. She has made California and the entire country a cleaner, 
healthier, and a better place, especially as chair and ranking member 
of the Committee on Environment and Public Works. I loved that 
committee. It was a committee I was placed on when I first came to the 
Senate. I had the good fortune to be chairman of that committee twice.
  She has done so much in her advocacy. For a lot of the things she was 
not able to declare a legislative victory, but she certainly declared a 
victory in the minds of the American people because she took on the big 
guys without any fear.
  Barbara is also a champion of women. She has been a groundbreaker on 
issues like sexual harassment and women's rights in the workplace, 
access to women's health, and clinic violence. She took that on. 
Barbara Boxer has worked to protect women's access to health care and 
make sure that Planned Parenthood continues to help millions of women 
who depend on their services every year.
  I lament the fact that Barbara will not be here because, as you know, 
the new Republican majority has threatened to do away with Planned 
Parenthood. I don't know what they expect to do with the 2 million 
women who go there every year for help, but that is what they have said 
they are going to do.
  I can remember, oh so clearly, because it was such a difficult time, 
working on the Affordable Care Act in my office just a short distance 
from here. Barbara was there the better part of 2 days. We were facing 
incredibly contentious issues regarding women's health, and this 
required close attention. But it worked out. We were able to accomplish 
this in spite of some people who said we couldn't do that.
  Barbara has always been ideological, pure but with a sound mix of 
pragmatism on ObamaCare and other issues relating to women. I told her 
personally--and I said it publicly, but I wish to say it again--that I 
have enjoyed working with her. She has helped and mentored me and led 
me to understand issues important to the women of America like no one 
else, and I appreciate it very much.
  I can remember writing her a letter in my longhand, my cursive. In 
that letter I told her a number of things, but this is something I 
said--a direct quote:

       Barbara, I have three brothers. I've never had a sister. 
     You are the sister I've never had.

  That was what I said. To this day, we still refer to each other as 
brother and sister.
  Stew and Barbara are an exemplary team. They are partners in every 
sense of the word ``partner.'' Landra and I have been guests in their 
Southern California home. We have been together many times in Nevada.
  For decades, Barbara and I have worked together politically, 
campaigning in different parts of the country, different parts of 
California, and different parts of Nevada. We have raised money 
together for the cause of Democrats. We have raised money for each 
other. It has always been a pleasure to work with her on this and other 
issues.
  Barbara and I came to Washington together in 1982, 34 years ago. 
Barbara and I will be leaving Washington together after 34 memorable 
years together.
  Senator Barbara Boxer, congratulations on your historic career as a 
Senator for 40 million Californians and 300 million citizens of the 
United States.
  Barbara, remember, you are and always will be my sister.
  Godspeed, Barbara.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Senator Reid, my leader, I can't tell you how humble I 
feel to hear you talk about my career and to put it, in many ways, in a 
historic place.
  I am going to have a lot to say about your career, what you have 
meant to me. Today I won't get into it, but you are a man--you just 
don't throw words around. I know how humble you are because every time 
I try to praise you, even in a situation with just a few people around 
you, you look down like you are doing now. It makes you uncomfortable. 
I don't want to make you uncomfortable. So here is what I am going to 
say today. I am going to make

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you uncomfortable in the near future when I talk about your career and 
what it has meant to me. But today, hearing you talk about what you 
just said, weaving our friendship, our work together, and our family 
friendship has meant a lot to me.
  Obviously, I am going to miss you, but I will say this. As we enter 
into uncharted territories in terms of politics, I know you and I are 
not going to lose our voices. We will have a platform. We are not 
leaving because we are tired of the fight. We are not leaving because 
we have nothing more to say, we are leaving because we think it is time 
for the next generation. I look forward to working with you in the 
future--and I mean that sincerely--just fighting for the things we care 
about, whether it is Lake Tahoe or whether it is clean air, whether it 
is fighting against the ravages of climate change, whether it is 
fighting for the right of the American people, from children to 
seniors, to have affordable health care. We are not going into the 
wilderness. That I was able to protect more than a million acres--I am 
so proud you mentioned that.
  Today you have humbled me with your words. I will always be your 
sister. Thank you very much.
  I yield the floor.

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