ILW.COM - Senator Abraham Addresses the Senate

[Congressional Record: December 7, 2000 (Senate)] [Page S11731-S11734] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr07de00-115] SERVICE IN THE SENATE Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, it is rare in this Chamber for incumbent Senators who have lost on election day to still have the privilege of addressing the Senate again, at least in their capacity of finishing out their terms. For me, if there is a silver lining behind this extended session of which we are a part, it is because it gives me a chance to thank people--friends, supporters, staff, colleagues, and others--who have made it possible for me, a grandson of immigrants, to serve and succeed here. I begin today by making some comments and thanking people who have made a difference. First, I thank my Senate colleagues with whom I have worked over the last 6 years. I especially express my gratitude for the majority leaders under whom I have served--Senator Bob Dole and Senator Trent Lott--for their confidence in me, for making me part of their circle of key advisers, for their support on both legislative and political matters and, most importantly, for their friendship. I extend the same heartfelt thanks to the other members of our leadership teams over the last 6 years: To Senator Don Nickles for whom I served as deputy whip for 4 years; to our conference chairman, Thad Cochran, who served when I first arrived here, and Senator Connie Mack; to our Senate campaign committee chairman, Mitch McConnell, and the late Senator Paul Coverdell; to the Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee Senator Larry Craig; to our new Conference Secretary Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, and so many others who have provided me with guidance and leadership during the time I have been here. I also take special note of the people with whom I have served as a member of their committees: To our Commerce Committee chairman, John McCain, who has been a great friend and supporter and through whose help I have been able to pass significant legislation that came from our Commerce Committee agenda. I thank our Judiciary Committee chairman, Orrin Hatch, who helped me get on his committee my very first year here and whose support on that committee helped me to achieve a number of personal objectives with respect to legislative goals and who worked closely with me and his staff worked closely with my staff as we fought a number of very important battles in the Senate. I thank my good friend Senator Pete Domenici, who chairs the Budget Committee on which I sat for 6 years. When I came to the Senate, I met with Senator Domenici. At the time, I was selected for that committee, and we talked about our goals and hopes that some day we might advance a balanced budget to complete and see the Nation balance its budget. Many people thought we would never achieve that in our lifetime, and yet 3 short years after I arrived on the committee, and under Pete Domenici's great leadership, that objective was realized. I thank the chairman of the Small Business Committee, Kit Bond, whose friendship has helped me in legislative battles of recent years. I have only been on that committee 2 years, but his leadership also has been important to my success in the Chamber. I extend my thanks to all of my colleagues. There are many close friends who are part of this Chamber, people with whom my family and I have become close in the last 6 years and others who have already departed the Chamber but with whom we remain close. Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska is here with me today. I especially thank him for his great friendship and support. Senators Jeff Sessions, Susan Collins, Judd Gregg and Mike DeWine have also done me the honor of helping me in my legislative efforts as well as being my friends over these last six years, and for that I want to thank them. And finally for my Republican colleagues, I want to thank all the other members of my freshman class, the folks with whom I came in 1995, and who helped so substantially change the direction of this country: Senator Santorum, Senator Inhofe, Senator Thompson, Senator Frist, Senator Ashcroft, Senator Kyl, Senator Snowe, Senator Grams, and as I mentioned before, Senator DeWine. I reach across the aisle and thank the many colleagues on the Democratic side with whom I have worked on so many bipartisan issues in the last 6 years: To Carl Levin, our senior Senator from Michigan with whom I have worked very closely on many issues of importance to our State; To Ted Kennedy, my ranking member on the Senate Immigration Subcommittee which I chaired. We have been very successful in passing a number of pieces of legislation through the bipartisan cooperation we have achieved in that subcommittee; To Joe Lieberman, who has been the lead cosponsor of my American Community Renewal Act, and other progrowth initiatives; To Ron Wyden, my partner in so many high-technology initiatives; To Russ Feingold, Bob Graham, and others who have worked closely with me. I also thank the many friends and supporters and mentors who have helped me to arrive in the Senate and in a lengthy political career in my State of Michigan. There are many [[Page S11732]] people who are part of that success. It would be impossible to name all of them. I want to single out, though, four people who played particularly important roles: Former Michigan Senator Bob Griffin whose campaigns and staffs I worked on many years ago and a role model for me in that he was the last Republican Senator from my State and a man whose integrity and leadership in the Senate were well recognized. He served ultimately as whip on the Republican side. His guidance and friendship from the time I was in college has meant a great deal to my political success and my personal success as well. To our great Governor John Engler, who has been a political friend and colleague in Michigan politics since 1971. Without his support and help, I would not have been successful in my campaign for the Senate or other roles I played in Michigan politics. To former Congressman Guy Vander Jagt with whom I served as cochairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 1991 and 1992 when I made my first appearance on the legislative side of Washington working on Capitol Hill for the first time. And especially to a great friend, former Vice President Dan Quayle on whose staff I served as deputy chief of staff in 1990 and 1991, my first assignment in Washington in Government service at the Federal level. I thank all of those individuals, and the others I have not had a chance today to name, for having helped me get to this role and being effective in it. There are today on the floor a great number of people who have worked on my Senate staff. I am proud of them and proud to have them with me. They only reflect a percentage of the many folks who served in the State of Michigan and their country in the context of working on my staff. There are so many. I am going to try to name the ones I have listed, but I will submit the names of everybody for the Record. The people who served on my senior staff: Tony Antone, Cesar Conda, Kate Hinton, Randa Fahmy Hudome, Joe McMonigle, Katie Packer, Jim Pitts, Larry Purpuro, Laurie Bink Purpuro, and Sue Wadel. To those folks who served over the years on my press and communications staff: Joe Davis, Nina Delorenzo, Steve Hessler, Margaret Murphy, Julie Teer, Jessica Morris, and Dan Senor. To a terrific legislative staff, and people who have worked on my subcommittees: Stuart Anderson, Rachel Bohlander, Bob Carey, Ann Coulter, Chase Hutto, Elizabeth Kessler, Ray Kethledge, Kevin Kolevar, Brandi Laperriere, Brian Reardon, Gregg Willhauck; and Tyler White. To my administrative staff: Katja Bullock, Majida Dandy, Paul Erhardt, Jim Neill, Matt Suhr, and Lillian Smith. To the many people who have worked with us who are on our Michigan staff: In particular, I would note Greg Andrews, Joe Cella, Larry Dickerson, Sharon Eineman, Tom Frazier, Phil Hedges, Eunice Myles Jeffries, Stuart Larkins, Renee Meyers, John Petz, Elroy Sailor, Lillian Simon, and Billie Wimmer. And there are many others who have served and whose names I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Staff of Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan) Mohammed Abouharb, Staff Assistant; Stuart Anderson, Director of Immigration Policy and Research; Gregory Andrews, Regional Director; Anthony Antone, Deputy Chief of Staff; Sandra Baxter, Assistant to the State Chief of Staff; Beverly Betel, Staff Assistant; Rachel Bohlander, Legislative Assistant; David Borough, Computer Specialist; Michell Brown, Staff Assistant; Katja Bullock, Office Manager; Carrie Cabelka, Staff Assistant; Cheryl Campbell, Regional Director; Robert H. Carey, Legislative Director; David Carney, Mail Room Manager; Joseph Cella, Regional Director; Cesar V. Conda, Administrative Assistant/Legislative Director; Adam Condo, Systems Administrator; Jon Cool, Staff Assistant; Ann H. Coulter, Judiciary Counsel; Majida Dandy, Executive Assistant. Anthony Daunt, Staff Assistant; Joe Davis, Director of Communications; Nina De Lorenzo, Press Secretary; Larry D. Dickerson, Chief of Staff/Michigan Operations; Joanne Dickow, Legal Advisor; Hope Durant, Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff; Sharon Eineman, Senior Caseworker; Paul Erhardt, Special Assistant; Tom Frazier, Regional Director; Bruce Frohnen, Speech Writer; Renee Gauthier, Caseworker; Jessica Gavora, Special Advisor; David Glancy, Staff Assistant; Thomas Glegola, Special Assistant; Todd Gustafson, Regional Director; Alex Hageli, Staff Assistant; Mary Harden, Staff Assistant; Phil Hendges, Regional Director; Paul Henry, Staff Assistant; Joanna Herman, Special Assistant. Melissa Hess, Staff Assistant; Stephen Hessler, Deputy Press Secretary; Kate Hinton, Deputy Chief of Staff; David Hoard, Special Assistant; Kevin Holmes, Special Assistant; Kelly Hoskin, Caseworker; Michael J. Hudome, Special Assistant; Randa Fahmy Hudome, Counselor; F. Chase Hutto, Judiciary Counsel; Michael Ivahnenko, Staff Assistant; Eunice Jeffries, Regional Director; Kaveri Kalia, Press Assistant; Raymond M. Kethledge, Judiciary Counsel; Elizabeth Kessler, General Counsel; Kevin Kolevar, Senior Legislative Assistant; Jack Koller, Systems Administrator; Peter Kulick, Caseworker; Kristin La Mendola, Staff Assistant; Patricia LaBelle, Regional Director; Brandon L. LaPerriere, Legislative Assistant. Stuart Larkins, Staff Assistant; Matthew Latimer, Special Assistant; Joseph P. McMonigle, Administrative Assistant/ General Counsel; Eileen McNulty, West Michigan Director; Meg Mehan, Special Assistant; Rene Myers, Regional Director; Jennifer Millerwise, Staff Assistant; Denise Mills, Staff Assistant; Maureen Mitchell, Staff Assistant; Sara Moleski, Regional Director; Jessica Morris, Deputy Press Secretary; Margaret Murphy, Press Secretary; Tom Nank, Southeast Michigan Assistant; James Patrick Neill, Director of Scheduling; Shawn Neville, Northern West Michigan Regional Director; Na-Rae Ohm, Special Assistant; Lee Liberman Otis, Chief Judiciary Counsel; Kathryn Packer, Director of External Affairs; Chris Pavelich, Regional Director; John Petz, Southeast Michigan Director. James L. Pitts, Chief of Staff; Conley Poole, Staff Assistant; John Potbury, Regional Director; Tosha Pruden, Caseworker; Laurine Bink Purpuro, Deputy Chief of Staff; Lawrence J. Purpuro, Chief of Staff; Elroy Sailor, Special Assistant; David Seitz, Mail Room Manager; Dan Senor, Director of Communications; Mary Shiner, Regional Director; Anthony Shumsky, Regional Director; Alicia Sikkenga, Special Assistant; Lillian Simon, Staff Assistant; Lillian Smith, Director of Scheduling; Anthony Spearman-Leach, Regional Director; Robert Steiner, Mail Room Manager; Anne Stevens, Special Assistant; Matthew Suhr, Special Assistant; Julie Teer, Press Secretary; Amanda Trivax, Staff Assistant. Meagan Vargas, Special Assistant; Shawn Vasell, Staff Assistant; Olivia Joyce Visperas, Staff Assistant; Sue Wadel, Legal Advisor; Seth Waxman, Caseworker; Jennifer Wells, Caseworker; La Tonya Wesley, Special Assistant; Tyler White, Special Assistant; Patricia Wierzbicki, Regional Director; Gregg Willhauck, Legislative Counsel; and Billie Kops Wimmer, State Director. Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I also acknowledge that in addition to this great staff--and I do want to thank them here on the floor publicly for their great performance on my behalf and the many achievements I am going to talk about in a minute that we have been able to accomplish--I also note that none of us would have been able to get as much done as we did without the help of the tremendous staff that serves us in the Senate as a Chamber: The people who work the floor, our pages, the folks who work at the front here who handle the clerk roles, and the parliamentary roles, and so on. I thank them. I thank the people who serve on the leadership staffs of both parties who have been great friends and who have helped us to chart the very complicated parliamentary waters we have to so often navigate, the folks who work on the staffs of the committees on which I have served that have helped us to pass legislation, and to the other people who work in the Senate, from the Capitol Police, who help us in so many ways that go unnoted, to the folks in the libraries and the Congressional Research Service, and in the Cloakrooms. To all of those people, and others I have probably forgotten, I say thank you because it has really been a very enjoyable part of this job to work with such nice people, people who give 100 percent to this Chamber and to America, and often without any recognition at all. I hope that we will continue to always be served in this body by people of such great skill and talent. Finally, I thank the people of Michigan. They gave me and my family the chance to come to Washington to represent them in the Senate. I thank you for what I consider to be the most tremendous honor that any American can have bestowed upon them by their friends and neighbors in their State, and for their tremendous support throughout my 6 years in the Senate. [[Page S11733]] I am very proud of the accomplishments I have achieved. I have worked very hard--I hope in most cases in an effective way--to help the people of Michigan, to make sure my constituents have had their voices heard in the Senate, and to make certain that the Federal Government is responsive to their needs. Speaking of accomplishments, although I spent only a relevantly brief time here in the Senate, I am very proud of what my staff and I have been able to accomplish for the people of Michigan and for the country. In 1994, a group of freshmen were elected here. Eleven of us came in to basically create a new majority. In 1995, I came to the Senate as part of a historic class of Republican Senators --the class that gave Republicans control of Congress for the first time in decades. I believe we were sent to Washington to accomplish a very clear agenda: to balance the Federal budget, to reduce the tax burden, to reform the welfare system, and to make Washington more accountable. I am proud to say, as I look back on our 6 years, that I believe we have delivered on those promises. We balanced the budget in 1998--and we have kept it balanced every year since. We have done it this past year without using one penny of the Social Security trust fund surplus to get the job done. We reformed the welfare system, reducing the welfare rolls by over a third. We provided parents with a $500-per-child tax credit and investors a cut in the capital gains tax. And we made Congress more accountable by requiring Members to live by the same rules and regulations and mandates we impose on the rest of the country. I am proud of those achievements, which I think, of course, are achievements of this body as a whole. I am also proud of some of the things which I have been able to accomplish during the last 6 years. I am very proud of the fact that, including today, I have never missed a single rollcall vote on the floor of the Senate. I have just cast, I think, my 2,002nd consecutive rollcall vote. In my view, voting in the Senate is the single most important duty that we can, as Senators, perform on behalf of our constituents. It is what the people of our States elect us to do. I am glad I have been here every single day for the people of Michigan to perform that responsibility. I am also proud of the fact that in a fairly short period of time I have been able to author 22 pieces of legislation that have been signed into law. I am proud of that legislative record. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I took a special interest in drug and crime issues. My first bill to become law prevented the U.S. Sentencing Commission from reducing prison sentences for crack-cocaine offenders. Had that bill not passed, the sentences would have been automatically reduced. Later, with my staff, we wrote the Prison Conditions Litigation Reform Act, which helped reduce prisoner lawsuits and return control of our prisons from judges back to local authorities. And just a few months ago, the President signed into law the Samantha Reid Date-Rape Drug Prohibition Act. Samantha Reid was a Rockwood, MI, teenager who died after drinking a can of Mountain Dew she did not know had been laced with the deadly date rape drug GHB. Our law amends the Controlled Substances Act by adding GHB to the list of Schedule 1 controlled substances, which also includes heroin and cocaine. As a member of both the Judiciary and Commerce Committees, I focused on a wide range of high-technology issues that I believe are critical to the continued growth and prosperity of this country. My American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act increased the number of skilled professional visas to help with critical labor shortages, especially in the entrepreneurial high-tech sector. The law also funds 10,000 new college scholarships annually for low- income students for studies in math, engineering, and computer science, and job training for unemployed Americans through the Jobs Partnership Act. I was also the author of two new laws dealing with electronic commerce: the Government Paperwork Elimination Act and the Electronic Signatures and Global and National Commerce Act. The first law set forth a timetable for Federal agencies to accept electronically signed and transmitted records and forms from businesses and individuals. The second law ensured that contracts agreed to over the Internet using digital signatures would have the same legal validity as contracts agreed to in the paper world using pen and ink signatures. Both of these laws have laid the groundwork, I think, for continued growth and expansion of electronic commerce in the years to come. Other laws which I have been involved with--I am especially proud of the passage, this year, of the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act and the College Scholarship Fraud Prevention Act; and in the previous year, the Child Passenger Protection Act. I am especially proud of having been the Senate sponsor of legislation that conferred the Congressional Gold Medal on one of my constituents, Mrs. Rosa Parks. One area that I spent a great deal of time working on in this Chamber, as many know, is the area of immigration. As a grandson of immigrants, I am especially proud of the role that I tried to play in changing the tone of the debate over immigration in this Chamber. In the mid-1990s, my party--the Republican Party--in my judgment, seemed to have lost its way on immigration. It had strayed from the inclusive, proimmigration philosophy of President Ronald Reagan toward the more protectionist and nativist views of a vocal minority within the Republican ranks. In 1997, I helped lead a bipartisan group of Senators--from Phil Gramm, Mike DeWine, and Sam Brownback, to Russ Feingold, Joe Lieberman, Paul Wellstone, and others--to defeat a misguided effort to slash legal immigration to this country. I believe, with all of my heart, that America should remain--as President Reagan said--the ``Shining City on the Hill,'' welcoming those who play by the rules and who contribute to society. I would say, despite the ugly campaign that was run in my State against me by some of these anti-immigrant hate groups, I am absolutely confident that the bipartisan coalition for legal immigration that was built in this Chamber will remain strong long after I have left the Senate. I am also proud of what I have been able to deliver to the people of the State of Michigan on issues important to our State. I am very proud of what I have been able to do with respect to increasing transportation funding; stopping an effort to move to Washington control of the Great Lakes, and increasing environmental funding for the Great Lakes; restoring Medicare reimbursements for Michigan hospitals; and protecting our auto workers' jobs with respect to issues that threaten the auto industry. I intend to continue to fight--perhaps not in the elective political arena or in public life specifically, but in whatever roles that I might be able to play--for tax and regulatory policies that strengthen American competitiveness and economic growth, to ensure strong national security, tough laws against criminals, and to have immigration policy that respects America's great traditions, having schools that are second to none, training for 21st-century jobs, community renewal efforts to empower the poor, and a transportation and infrastructure system that makes us prepared to be competitive in the 21st century. As I close, I have a few moments upon which I will reflect. When one comes to the end of a 6-year period here, there are a lot of memories. It is probably possible for one to speak long into the night about the various things one recalls. I do remember being sworn in here that first day just a few steps in front of me by Vice President Gore, holding our family Bible and very nervously taking the oath of office because it was such an important moment in my life. I remember the first day I sat in the President's chair presiding over the Senate. I considered it to be quite an important honor to be given that duty. Then by the second and third day that I performed it, I realized exactly how [[Page S11734]] that responsibility was viewed by the other Members of this Chamber. This week I asked once again to have the chance to preside because I wanted to never forget just exactly how meaningful it is to serve in this Chamber. I remember passing our first bill with regard to sentencing and seeing it signed into law. I remember standing at this desk and casting the very first vote on the impeachment trial that we had in January of 1999 with respect to the impeachment of President Clinton, an unbelievably historic moment to have been a part. And of course I will never forget today, the chance to be here with colleagues and staff and friends speaking one last time in the Senate. Indeed, it is these moments, the chance to stand up and to make one's case for one's State, for one's beliefs, that will stay with me probably more than any other. In closing, I will just make a few short observations. First, this institution has been served by great people. All too often we tend to take for granted the truly extraordinary political leaders who work here every day. I personally consider it a great honor and privilege to serve with people who will long be recognized, probably for the entire history of our country, as giants in this Chamber--leaders such as Senator Bob Dole, our President pro tempore Strom Thurmond, retiring Member Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and of course the great Senator from West Virginia Robert Byrd--two on each side of the aisle whose contributions to their Nation and to this Chamber will never be forgotten, and two on each side of the aisle whose leadership I hope all of us will be able to in some ways emulate in our careers. I know there will be others who are serving here and with whom I have served who someday will be looked upon the same way, as history records their accomplishments. The second observation I have is for those sitting in the gallery, watching and paying attention to the action of the Senate. Sometimes the media and others tend to focus too much on the areas in which we disagree in this Chamber. Indeed, we do have our disagreements. That is why we have a democratic system that gives each side an opportunity to fight for their causes. But as the Presiding Officer knows, in the committees and usually on the floor of this Chamber, we work together on a bipartisan basis to get things done for the American people. More often than not, things pass here unanimously. They do so quietly. They do so by the unanimous- consent agreements that don't get reported very often. Indeed, much of America's business is accomplished without rancor and strife, without divisive debates. At the same time, the Founding Fathers created the Senate as the saucer to cool the passions of the day. I have observed that passion for philosophy, at least for ideas, reigns here in the Senate. I can remember during the last 6 years from the balanced budget amendment debates, when I first got here, to the debates over Bosnia and other foreign affairs issues, to the impeachment trial and so on, while we in the Senate obviously have a reputation for being a deliberative body, we also are a body in which the passions of the country are best reflected in the debates we have. I hope that will always be the tradition as well. Indeed, I think the Senate really does reflect democracy at its finest. Over 150 years ago, De Tocqueville observed: I confess that in America I saw more than America; I saw the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress. Some say this America, this image of democracy, no longer exists. But I say that it does exist, right here in this great Chamber. I will miss the Senate. I will miss the institution, and I will miss the people. Being a Senator has been my dream job. I hope that during my 6 years here I have contributed in some small way to the rich history of what has been and forever will be called ``the world's greatest deliberative body in the world's greatest democracy.'' It is a long distance from being the grandson of immigrants to this floor. I know when my grandparents came here, they never dreamt that their grandson or anyone in the family would end up as a Member of the U.S. Senate, but they came to America because they wanted to live in a place in which something such as that could happen. This is the one country where something such as that not only can happen in the family of the Abrahams, but in many other families happened all the time. It is the greatest thing about America. I am proud and believe, as I leave the Chamber, that I have helped contribute in my own small way during these 6 years to making sure that America always remains that country. I thank everyone I have mentioned, but I especially thank my family, some of whom are here today, my wife Jane and my daughters Betsy and Julie, without whom none of this would have been possible for me. Their support in every way and their love and affection have made the difference in my life. As I leave the Senate, I will only say that I hope all Americans will in their own way find a way to appreciate the greatness of this democracy. I hope all of my colleagues will continue to fight to make sure that that tradition, that Nation which my grandparents and so many others fought for, so many others strove to come to be part of, will always be available to those who seek freedom and liberty and opportunity and that that dream will be forever part of our great country. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith of Oregon). The Senator from Nebraska. Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I rise to respond very briefly on behalf of this Senator, and I think I speak for the entire body when I say thank you to Senator Spence Abraham from Michigan for his contributions, his leadership, his effectiveness. My grandfather Hagel used to occasionally pay the highest compliment to an individual when he would say: He is a good man. Well, Spence Abraham is a good man. He will go on to do other very significant things with his life, with his talent, with his leadership. We will all be well served. It will impact the future of his children and our children, just as his service in the Senate has made this a better institution and a stronger Nation. I have been privileged to serve with Spence Abraham, be his seatmate here on the Senate floor, and become a good friend. Of that friendship and that service, I am proud. I thank Senator Abraham. I yield the floor. Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. HAGEL. 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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