[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16546]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DAVID VITTER

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to the senior Senator 
from Louisiana, my friend David Vitter. Over more than a decade, I have 
had the privilege to get to know David as a colleague and a friend. 
When he retires in January, he will be greatly missed.
  David is a New Orleans man, born and raised. In his younger years, he 
achieved impressive academic feats, graduating from Harvard and earning 
a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford. As he is fond of telling, 
after his time in England, he applied to three law schools--Harvard, 
Yale, and Tulane--and chose to attend the best of the three: Tulane.
  Just a few years later, he won a seat in the Louisiana House of 
Representatives. There, he earned a reputation as an ethics crusader--a 
reputation that has stuck with him throughout his career. Many 
observers credit him in no small part with the transformation of his 
home state's politics--once famously dominated by colorful but 
ethically questionable characters--and he should be rightfully pleased 
at the fruits his efforts bore for the State he loves. In Washington, 
his work to strengthen ethics laws at the Federal level may not have 
always made him the most popular among his colleagues, but they reflect 
the same spirit of reform and willingness to stand up for what he 
believes in that have been the hallmarks of David's career.
  On the legislative front, David has been a champion for his 
conservative values and his beloved Louisiana. Taking office in 2005, 
he almost immediately was faced with one of the greatest crises any 
senator in my tenure has had to confront: Hurricane Katrina. As his 
State has faced Katrina's devastation and other natural disasters, 
Louisianans could always count on David to deliver for them, no matter 
what. Throughout, David mastered the skill of fighting as hard as 
anyone when the situation called for it--as he did as the top 
Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, pushing back 
against the overreach of the EPA--and then turning right around and 
making partners of those who were his most entrenched opponents--as he 
did by working with liberal Democrats to update the Nation's water 
infrastructure and pass a once-in-a-generation reform of the Nation's 
toxic chemical laws.
  David's work in the Senate has produced an impressive legacy for him 
and for Louisiana. As he embarks on his next chapter, I send my best 
wishes to him, his accomplished and lovely wife, Wendy, and his four 
children.

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