Congressional Record—Senate S7020
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S7020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 9, 2016 While BARBARA’s departure leaves diction, helping Congress to pass the term limit pledge he had made to his the Senate without one of its strongest Comprehensive Addiction and Recov- Hoosier constituents and did not run champions for the environment, col- ery Act, CARA, to improve prevention for reelection to the Senate. lege affordability, and reproductive and treatment, support those in recov- For many people, 18 years in Con- rights, we will continue to fight for ery, and ensure first responders have gress might be enough, but Senator these core priorities as she would have the tools they need. She helped to pass COATS was just getting started. After done. legislation to reauthorize the Violence he left the Senate, he joined the pres- It has been a privilege to serve along- Against Women Act, crack down on tigious law firm of Verner, Liipfert, side a steadfast champion like BAR- sexual assault in the military, make Bernhard, McPherson and Hand. In BARA. college campuses safer, and improve 2001, then-President Bush nominated She has served Maryland with utter mental health first aid training and Senator COATS to be Ambassador to the conviction, and I know she will con- suicide prevention programs. Federal Republic of Germany. He ar- tinue to be a progressive force in this Senator AYOTTE has followed in the rived in Germany just 3 days before the new chapter of her life. footsteps of other Republican Senators September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Aloha, BARBARA, and a hui hou, from New England, such as Robert In the aftermath of 9/11, Ambassador ‘‘until we meet again.’’ Stafford of Vermont and John Chafee Coats established excellent relations f of Rhode Island, who are true conserv- with then-opposition leader and future TRIBUTES TO DEPARTING atives when it comes to the environ- German Chancellor Angela Merkel—a SENATORS ment. She crossed party lines to vote crucial ally—and managed the con- for Federal clean air rules that protect struction of a new U.S. Embassy in the Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, much of New Hampshire’s air and water from heart of Berlin, next to the Branden- the time here in the Senate, we are en- cross-State pollution and to deploy the burg Gate. gaged in pretty fierce partisan battles. Senator COATS served honorably as I would like to take a break from that best available technology to reduce pollution from energy production. She Ambassador for 3 and one-half years for a moment and talk about the four and then returned to practicing law at Republican Senators who will not be helped pass the Better Buildings Act to encourage greater energy efficiency in another ‘‘blue chip’’ law firm, King & back when the 115th Congress convenes Spalding. But he also served as presi- next month. While we may have dif- commercial buildings, and she has been a strong supporter of the Land and dent of Big Brothers Big Sisters of ferent political philosophies and policy America and on the boards of many prescriptions, I respect and admire Water Conservation Fund, which has helped protect thousands of acres in civic and volunteer organizations, in- each of them, and I will miss working cluding the Center for Jewish and with all of them. New Hampshire. I have enjoyed working with Senator Christian Values, which he cochaired KELLY AYOTTE AYOTTE and send my best wishes to her with Senator Joe Lieberman. And Sen- Mr. President, Senator AYOTTE and I and her husband, Joe, and their chil- ator COATS and his wife, Marsha, serve together on the Small Business dren Katherine and Jacob. formed the Foundation For American Committee. I have seen firsthand her Renewal to continue their engagement commitment to helping small busi- DAN COATS Mr. President, there is a famous in faith-based initiatives. nesses in New Hampshire and across Senator COATS began his ‘‘second’’ the Nation. She is like so many other quote attributed to the American au- thor F. Scott Fitzgerald: ‘‘There are no congressional career by running suc- Senators, past and present, from New cessfully for his old Senate seat in 2010. England States: pragmatic and willing second acts in American lives.’’ We all During Senator COATS’ second stint, I to reach across the aisle to get things know that to be untrue and, as it turns out, so did Fitzgerald, who was have had the pleasure of serving with done. him on the Finance Committee, where Prior to her election to the Senate, quintessentially American. What he ac- we worked together to help charities Senator AYOTTE served as the chief of tually wrote, in an essay called ‘‘My receive timely notice on issues related New Hampshire’s Homicide Unit and Lost City,’’ is this: ‘‘I once thought to their tax-exempt status. I appreciate deputy attorney general before she be- that were no second acts in American Senator COATS’ calm and steady de- came the State’s first female attorney lives.’’ meanor, the diligence he applies to his general in 2004. She was appointed to If we want to see a successful ‘‘sec- that position by a Republican Gov- ond act’’ we need to look no further work, and the civility he extends to his ernor, but she was reappointed twice than to the senior Senator from Indi- colleagues. Senator COATS may be retiring from by a Democratic Governor. ana, Mr. COATS. He is actually on about In the short span of one Senate term, his fourth act. the Senate, but I have a hunch there will be yet another successful act in his Senator AYOTTE has become a re- Senator COATS graduated from Whea- spected voice on national security ton College and then began his long long, distinguished career. While we issues while serving on the Armed service to our Nation by enlisting in may have policy disagreements, I have Services Committee and the Homeland the U.S. Army. Following his military no doubt that Senator COATS is com- Security & Governmental Affairs Com- service, he attended the Indiana Uni- mitted to the common good and will mittee. Foreign Policy magazine listed versity Robert H. McKinney School of find new ways to serve. I anticipate, Senator AYOTTE as one of the top 50 Law. He excelled academically, becom- however, that he will also seek to Republicans on international affairs. ing associate editor of the Indiana Law spend more time with his wife, Marsha, Senator AYOTTE comes from a mili- Review, and earned his juris doctor de- whom he met in college, their three tary family and is married to an Iraq gree. children, and their 10 grandchildren. War veteran—Lieutenent Colonel Joe Senator COATS served as a district MARK KIRK Daley—so she has been a staunch sup- representative to then-Representative Mr. President, John Kennedy wrote porter of our men and women in uni- Dan Quayle. When Dan Quayle was ‘‘Profiles in Courage’’ nearly 50 years form and their families. elected to the Senate in 1980, DAN ago. But for the last 6 years, we have Senator AYOTTE has worked hard to COATS won his House seat and was re- had yet another profile in courage here give New Hampshire veterans more elected four times, never receiving less in the Senate: the junior Senator from choices when it comes to health care than 60 percent of the vote. When Dan Illinois, Mr. KIRK. In 2012, he suffered a since the State does not have a full- Quayle was elected Vice President in devastating ischemic stroke. He had to service Veterans Administration, VA, 1988, DAN COATS was appointed to the relearn how to do basic things, like medical facility. To help veterans in Senate seat being vacated and then walking. It took a year of intensive New Hampshire’s North Country access won elections in 1990 and 1992. physical therapy at the Rehabilitation care closer to home, she successfully During what I will call Senator Institute of Chicago—physical therapy pushed for the opening of VA clinics in COATS’ ‘‘first’’ congressional career, he that has been likened to boot camp. Colebrook and Berlin. focused on cutting taxes and govern- When he returned on January 3, 2013, Senator AYOTTE has been a leader in ment spending and reforming entitle- and climbed the 45 steps of the Capitol the fight against opioid abuse and ad- ment programs. In 1998, he honored a Building to reenter the Senate, it was VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:50 Dec 11, 2016 Jkt 069060 PO 00000 Frm 00090 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A09DE6.158 S09DEPT1 rfrederick on DSKBCBPHB2PROD with SENATE December 9, 2016 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7021 a truly inspirational moment none of thored the Great Lakes Restoration measure, working first with our be- us will forget. Initiative authorization bill and helped loved former colleague, Senator Lau- Senator KIRK is an Illinois native, to secure $300 million in funding to im- tenberg, and then with Senator UDALL. from Champaign. He received his B.A. plement it. The new law, which received bipartisan in history from Cornell University, During the 112th and 113th Con- support in both the U.S. House of Rep- graduating cum laude. He went on to gresses, Senator KIRK had an awesome resentatives and the Senate, will make earn a master’s degree from the Lon- responsibility all Senators appreciate: it easier for the U.S. Environmental don School of Economics and a law de- his desk on the Senate Floor—Desk No. Protection Agency, EPA, to review the gree from Georgetown University. 95—was the ‘‘candy desk.’’ He kept the safety of chemicals already on the While he practiced law at the law firm desk stocked with sweets made in Illi- market and the new ones being devel- of Baker & McKenzie, most of his adult nois such as Mars, Milky Way, Jelly oped, and it provides a stable source of life has been spent in public service.