The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO DEPARTING SENATORS” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S7873-S7876 on Dec. 20, 2020.
The Department oversees more than 500 million acres of land. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the department has contributed to a growing water crisis and holds many lands which could be better managed.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO DEPARTING SENATORS
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, the end of a Congress is a bittersweet time. We reflect with pride on our accomplishments but have a sense of wistfulness with respect to the things we have been unable to do. We look forward to the holidays, spending more time with our families, and having a bit of a respite. But we have to say good-bye to several colleagues. I would like to take a few moments to pay tribute to Senators who will not be returning when the 117th Congress convenes. They are my friends as well as my colleagues and I will miss them and the unique attributes, skill, and devotion to public service they have brought to the Senate.
Senator Cory Gardner is a fifth generation Coloradan firmly rooted in the State's Eastern Plains whose family has been in the farm implement business for over one century. He received his undergraduate degree from Colorado State University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
While Senator Gardner has only been in the Senate since 2015, the expression ``got it in one'' certainly applies to him. Perhaps that is because he previously worked in the Senate for then-Senator Wayne Allard, quickly rising to become Senator Allard's legislative director. He served for 6 years in the Colorado House of Representatives and another 4 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 2014.
Here in the Senate, Senator Gardner has been a serious legislator but with a cheerful and affable and civil manner. He has worked to bridge partisan divides, particularly on energy policy, where he has been one of the Republicans' leading advocates of renewable energy. This year, the esteemed Lugar Center ranked Senator Gardner as the third most bipartisan Senator.
I have had the opportunity to work with Senator Gardner on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as he led the effort to impose sanctions against North Korea in his role as chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy. Through the committee, we also worked together to introduce legislation to enhance American maritime capacity and leadership and increase support to our allies in the Asia-Pacific region, the Asia-
Pacific Maritime Security Initiative Act of 2016. I was also pleased to work with Senator Gardner in 2019 to introduce the Wildlife Refuge System Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to provide legal authority for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service--USFWS--to seek damages for injury or harm on National Wildlife Refuges, National Fish Hatcheries, and other USFWS lands and waters.
My wife Myrna and I have traveled with Senator Gardner and his wife Jaime to promote human rights abroad. His commitment to global human rights was crystal clear to Myrna and me. I will miss Senator Gardner and his pleasant demeanor, but he is still a young man so I am confident he will find new ways to continue serving all Americans, but especially the Coloradans he has represented with distinction for the past 16 years. I wish him, Jaime, and their children Alyson, Thatcher, and Caitlyn all the best.
Senator Martha McSally has only been in the Senate for 2 years, but it is impossible not to be in awe of her true grit and determination, perhaps stemming from being the youngest of five children. Her father died when she was just 12, leaving her mother to raise and support her family. Perhaps it was the example her mother set--Senator McSally was determined to let nothing stand in her way. She was the valedictorian of her high school and earned an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy, where she received a bachelor's of science in biology. I am privileged to represent the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. I have served on the board of visitors, and my staff and I interview the hundreds of young applicants across Maryland who aspire to enroll in one of our service academies each year. I am not sure most Americans are aware of how intensely competitive these positions are and what a tremendous honor earning an appointment is. Meeting these applicants, reviewing their extraordinary accomplishments at such a young age, and seeing their commitment to service--willing to put their lives on the line, if necessary--restores one's faith in the boundless future of our Nation.
Senator McSally certainly put her life on the line for us and shattered gender barriers along the way. She became the first woman in American history to fly a fighter jet in combat and the first woman to command a fighter squadron in combat. She deployed six times to the Middle East. She helped lead and execute the initial air campaign in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and she supervised combat search and rescue operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In total, she flew 325 combat hours and earned a Bronze Star and six air medals. She served in the U.S. Air Force for 26 years, retiring as a full colonel.
Senator McSally has never been one to rest on her laurels. She earned masters' degrees from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the U.S. Air War College, graduating first in her class of 261 senior military officers. She ran for the House of Representatives, first unsuccessfully by a narrow margin in 2012 but then successfully--again by a narrow margin--in 2014, becoming the first Republican woman to represent Arizona in Congress. She was reelected in 2016. She lost a tough race to Senator Sinema in 2018, but Arizona Governor Doug Ducey appointed her to finish the unexpired term of another war hero, our late friend Senator John McCain.
Unfortunately, I had little opportunity to work with Senator McSally during her 2 years here in the Senate, although I did travel with her to Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and I saw firsthand her commitment to America's service men and women--especially military sexual assault survivors--to veterans, and to military families. Senator McSally is an inspiration to all of us, but especially to women and girls, for her devotion to duty and the incredible odds she has overcome and the barriers she has broken in her life. Senator McSally has said, ``There's always more that unites us than divides us.'' I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment. She is a fighter who will continue to fight for our county, and I am grateful for that.
Senator Doug Jones is a native Alabaman, a steelworker's son, who grew up during the great struggle for civil rights and desegregation in the South. He has been involved in that struggle all of his life, active in campus affairs at the University of Alabama, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1976, and in trying to modernize Alabama's court system.
Senator Jones has the distinction of working, being confirmed by, and being elected to serve in the U.S. Senate. After he graduated from Cumberland Law School at Samford University in 1979, he worked as a staff counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Senator Howell Heflin. Senator Jones served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1980 to 1984. After he worked in private practice for several years, President Clinton nominated him to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, and the Senate confirmed his nomination in 1997.
While Senator Jones was the U.S. Attorney, he successfully prosecuted two of the four men who were responsible for the heinous bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, an attack that killed four young Black girls between the ages of 11 and 14 and shocked the conscience of our Nation. He prosecuted other domestic terrorists, including the Ku Klux Klan and Eric Rudolph. He won a hard-fought special election to the Senate in December 2017 and has served with honor, distinction, and a commitment to finding bipartisan solutions to our Nation's most-
pressing problems.
Senator Jones has fought to protect healthcare and to create equal opportunities for all Americans. He led the passage of the bipartisan FUTURE Act into law last year, legislation that I strongly supported to provide permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. He has also championed minority-serving financial institutions and minority-owned banks, supporting the efforts to add additional funds for these institutions through the Paycheck Protection Program. I was proud to work with Senator Jones on the successful passage of our legislation to extend the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act this year, which extends until 2030 duty-free access for certain textile goods from 23 Caribbean countries that are made with U.S. yarns, fabrics, and threads until 2030.
Senator Jones is equally committed to civility and civil rights. As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., so famously said, ``The arc or the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'' Thanks to Senator Jones' abiding faith and ceaseless efforts, that arc is bending faster. I wish him, his wife Louise, their children Carson, Christopher, and Courtney, and their two grandchildren all the best moving forward. I know he will continue to serve our country, and I am hopeful it will be as a member of the incoming administration of President-Elect Joe Biden.
Senator Tom Udall comes from an illustrious extended family with a long history of distinguished public service, including his father Stewart, who served as Secretary of the Interior under President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1961 to 1969. His uncle Morris ``Mo'' K. Udall was one of the most accomplished and beloved Congressmen in U.S. history, representing Arizona's Second District for 30 years. While Senator Udall was born in Tucson, he has deep roots in New Mexico, starting with his grandmother Luna, who was born in New Mexico Territory.
Senator Udall earned his undergraduate degree from Prescott College, a bachelor of laws degree from Cambridge, and J.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1977. And then joining the family tradition, he began his public service by clerking for the Honorable Oliver Seth, chief justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Later, he became a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's criminal division and chief counsel to the New Mexico Department of Health and Environment.
Senator Udall was elected New Mexico Attorney General in 1990 and reelected in 1994. He made his mark in several areas, but especially in government transparency and ethics, a quest he would continue in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served five highly productive terms, even though he was in the minority for four of them, passing legislation to establish a national renewable energy standard.
Here in the Senate, Senator Udall has continued his distinguished service for two terms in his low-key, quiet, understated, and effective manner. Just this year, he led the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act to fund our national parks and Federal land agencies. He has championed environmental justice and has devoted himself to rectifying the injustices our Nation has perpetrated against Indian Nations and Tribes. Senator Udall has remained steadfast in his commitment to good and transparent government as the lead Senate sponsor of the For the People Act.
I have been privileged to work closely with Senator Udall on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. We have focused on strengthening our relationships with our allies, which President Trump has put to the test, promoting American values around the world, and fostering human rights and international development and conservation efforts.
I will greatly miss Senator Udall here in the Senate but feel fortunate to have served with him these last 12 years in the Senate and for 8 years together in the House of Representatives before that. New Mexicans and all Americans have benefited greatly from his 30 years in elected office and lifetime of public service. He has honorably and effectively continued his family's noble tradition of stewardship in all regards. My wife Myrna and Senator Udall's wife Jill, a tireless advocate on behalf of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, have become good friends, and Myrna and I will miss both of them. I wish them and their daughter Amanda all the best.
Senator Mike Enzi was born in Bremerton, WA, where his father was working in the naval shipyard during World War II. He grew up in Thermopolis, WY. He came to Washington, DC, for college, earning his bachelor's degree in accounting from George Washington University in 1966. He began his public service in the Wyoming Air National Guard from 1967 to 1973. Later, he worked in the U.S. Department of the Interior, earned a master's degree from the University of Denver, ran his father's show business, and became mayor of Gillette, WY, when he was just 30.
Senator Enzi served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for 4 years and in the Wyoming Senate for 6 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 with 54 percent of the vote. That was the closest election he has had; he garnered over 70 percent of the vote each time he sought reelection.
Senator Enzi is one of the most conservative members of the Senate but that has not prevented him from reaching across the aisle. He is quiet but his accomplishments speak volumes. While he chaired the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, it reported 37 bills, 23 of which the Senate passed. As he likes to say, ``People can agree on 80 percent of the issues 80 percent of the time, and if they leave the other 20 percent out they can get a lot done.'' He has authored more than 100 bills that Presidents of both parties have signed into law.
Senator Enzi and I have served on the Senate Finance Committee together since the 112th Congress, and on the Subcommittee on Health Care, where we have worked together to find bipartisan solutions to expand access to affordable, quality healthcare. We have also worked together to ensure the stability and health of pension funds, including recent efforts related to the multiemployer union pension crisis, and to bolster financial literacy. I have also been pleased to work with Senator Enzi on legislation to ensure prompt payments to small businesses working as Federal contractors across the Department of Defense, and on our Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act, to help student groups with collegiate housing costs.
Senator Enzi's grandfatherly mien and calm disposition have helped steer the Senate through rocky times, and I will miss his steady hand on our rudder. My wife Myrna will miss his wife of 51 years, Diana, an active member of the Senate Spouses Club, who also works to provide specially trained dogs and handlers to countries infested with landmines. Senator Enzi is an avid hunter and fly fisherman, and I know he will enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with Diana; their children Amy, Emily, and Brad; and their four grandchildren.
Senator Pat Roberts is a native Kansan from Topeka and a quintessential plainspoken Midwesterner and ex-marine. He is a fourth generation Kansan, whose great-grandfather, J.W. Roberts, founded the
``Oskaloosa Independent,'' the State's second oldest newspaper. Senator Roberts has journalism and public service coursing though his blood. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from Kansas State University and then served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 4 years before working as a reporter and then editor of several newspapers in Arizona. In 1967, Senator Roberts worked for then-U.S. Senator Frank Carlson. In 1969, he became administrative assistant to then-U.S. Representative Keith Sibelius, who represented the First District.
Senator Roberts went on to represent the First District himself for 16 years before being elected to the Senate in 1996, where he has continued to serve with distinction for four terms. Senator Roberts has a well-earned reputation as a national leader on agriculture, defense, and healthcare issues. He has the distinction of being the first person in history to have chaired both the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture and to author and pass bipartisan farm bills in both Chambers. He led the passage of the overwhelmingly bipartisan 2018 farm bill, which benefited farmers in my home State of Maryland and around the Nation. As cochairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, Senator Roberts has sought to address the challenges that rural communities face in terms of access to high-quality healthcare.
While Senator Roberts chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he conducted one of the most thorough reviews of U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis in the wake of the faulty intelligence leading to the war in Iraq. The committee unanimously issued the bipartisan report, which frankly and forthrightly revealed systemic failures and provided numerous recommendations included in the 9/11 Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.
Senator Roberts has played a pivotal role in the creation of two wonderful monuments, one here in Washington, DC, and the other in his beloved Kansas. He served as Chairman of the Dwight David Eisenhower Memorial Commission--and that fine memorial on Independence Avenue to Kansas's favorite son was dedicated earlier this year--a fitting capstone to Senator Roberts' 40 years as an elected official. Back in Kansas, he helped to establish the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, one of the most beautiful and majestic places in America. Tallgrass prairie once stretched from Canada to Mexico, covering more than 170 million acres. Today, less than 4 percent of it remains intact, mostly in the Kansas Flint Hills, largely thanks to the efforts of Senator Roberts.
I have had the opportunity to work with Senator Roberts on agricultural and healthcare issues, and legislation to encourage retirement savings by fostering the growth of S corporations owned by Employee Stock Ownership Plans--``S-ESOPS''. I will miss working with him and his Semper Fi, ``can-do'' approach to problem-solving, but I know he is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Franki; their three children, David, Ashleigh, and Anne-Wesley; and their seven grandchildren.
Senator Lamar Alexander has had a career in public service as long, varied, and distinguished as just about any other American, working or serving in all three branches of the Federal Government. He is a seventh generation east Tennessean whose father was an elementary school principal and mother was a pre-school teacher--thus began Senator Alexander's lifelong interest in education. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in 1962 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D. from New York University in 1965, was editor of the law review, and a Root-Tilden Scholar.
Senator Alexander began his public service as a clerk for the Honorable John Minor Wisdom on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He worked on the staff of then-U.S. Senator Howard Baker and as staff assistant to then-President Richard Nixon. In 1978, he walked 1,022 miles across Tennessee, spent the night with 73 different families, and won election as Governor. As Governor, he helped to bring the auto industry to the State. He was reelected in 1982 and served as chair of the National Governors' Association from 1985 to 1986. He was president of the University of Tennessee from 1988 to 1991, then-
President George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993, and a Professor of Practice in Public Service at Harvard the Kennedy School of Government from 2001 to 2003. Somehow, he has also found the time to cofound a law firm and two successful businesses, be a classical and country pianist who has performed on the Grand Old Opry and with symphony orchestras, and author seven books.
While Senator Alexander chaired the HELP Committee, it reported 45 bills that became law, most of which he authored. He sponsored the America Competes Act of 2007; the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, greatly benefitting students in my home State of Maryland and nationwide; the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016; and the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. He also authored legislation to modernize how songwriters are compensated for their works. The list goes on and on.
Senator Alexander has been a champion of higher education reform, seeking to simplify the process of applying for financial aid and to increase access for all students. I have been proud to work with him to support and strengthen historically Black colleges and universities and minority serving institutions. On the environmental front, I had the opportunity to work with Senator Alexander on legislation to end the dumping of mining waste into streams, the Appalachia Restoration Act of 2009.
Senator Alexander is always courteous, an ``eloquent listener,'' and always eager to forge bipartisan solutions to our Nation's problems. Just a few days ago, I know Senators and staff were delighted to listen to him play Christmas carols and hymns on the piano in the Hart atrium. We will greatly miss his calm and dignified presence in the Senate, but he has certainly earned the opportunity to spend more time with his beloved wife of 51 years, Honey; their children Leslee, Kathryn, Andrew, and William; and their nine grandchildren.
Senators Enzi, Roberts, and Alexander have served in this institution for 66 years combined. Senator Udall has served 12 years, and Senator Gardner has served 6 years. Senators Jones and McSally did not have an opportunity to serve a full term, but all told, we are losing close to 90 years of dedicated service to the institution, our colleagues, their constituents, and all Americans. There is a tradition for departing Senators to give a farewell address, and most use the opportunity to bemoan the fact that the Senate has become less collegial and more partisan. I share that discontent and sadness. I think the best way we can pay appropriate tribute to the fine Members who are leaving at the end of this Congress is by rededicating ourselves to preserving and expanding on their legacy of bipartisanship. I want to express my deep admiration of and appreciation to Senators Alexander, Enzi, Gardner, Jones, McSally, Roberts, and Udall. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve with and learn from them, and I cherish our friendships
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