{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2000-12-15-pt1-PgS11824", "2000-12-15", 106, 2, null, null, "WRAPPING UP THE SESSION", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S11824", "S11825", "[{\"name\": \"Patrick J. Leahy\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "146 Cong. Rec. S11824", "Congressional Record, Volume 146 Issue 155 (Friday, December 15, 2000)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 155 (Friday, December 15, 2000)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S11824-S11825]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                        WRAPPING UP THE SESSION\n\n  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, you know I think the world of all my\ncolleagues. The distinguished Chair right now is one of my best friends\nin the Senate and one who deserves congratulations on--actually, they\ndidn't have to have an election in his State; he wins by so much. I\nlove being with him, as I do my dear friend from Nevada, the deputy\nDemocratic whip. But I hope that neither of my colleagues takes it at\nall personally when I say I would probably rather be at home with my\nfamily at this time of the year. But then I suspect they would, too. I\nhope this means we are soon to wrap things up, possibly this evening or\nSunday or Monday or sometime. We seem to be in a situation where\nwrapping up the session is like wrapping up the Presidential election\nthis year. I am beginning to feel a little bit like a hanging chad of\nsome sort.\n  I thought of some of the other terms that have been used, but I am\nafraid sometime somebody might pull that out of context and I will be\nreminded that I will not be forgiven for what I may say because of my\nIrish nature.\n  Let us hope we can wrap it up. I say that also for the sake of the\nPresident-elect and the leadership, both Republican and Democrat, in\nthe Senate. All of us have a lot of work to do before January 3 when\nthe Senate comes back into session with a number of new Senators and in\na unique situation of a 50-50 Senate.\n  Governor Bush and former Secretary Cheney need time to work with the\nRepublicans in the Senate and the House as they put together their\nadministration. Of course, I hope and expect they will also be in\ncontact with those of us on this side of the aisle. There is a lot\nfacing this Nation, and we have to work on that.\n\n                            VISIT TO IRELAND\n\n  I was privileged this week to spend 48 hours out of the country with\nsome other Members of the Senate and the House accompanying President\nClinton on a visit to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It\nwas remarkable to see how people reacted to the President. He was\naccompanied by one of our Senators-elect, in this case the Senator-\nelect from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, although I think she was\nthere more in her capacity as First Lady.\n  It was interesting to see the reaction of the people in Ireland, both\nin the Republic and in Northern Ireland, both in the Catholic community\nand the Protestant community. The President was greeted as he should\nbe, as a hero in Ireland because more than any President perhaps since\nJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy, he has shown a real interest in Ireland.\n  He has become personally and intimately involved in trying to stop\nthe sectarian damage, carnage, killings, and murders in Northern\nIreland. He sent our distinguished former colleague and former majority\nleader of the Senate, George Mitchell, on countless trips to Northern\nIreland helping to broker the peace agreement which became known as the\nGood Friday accords.\n  Whether it was standing in the small town on the northern border of\nthe Republic of Ireland, bordering Northern Ireland, a town of just a\nfew thousand people but where 50,000 to 60,000 people from the whole\narea came and stood in the cold, the rain, and the fog for hour after\nhour waiting for the President and those accompanying him to arrive,\nand then giving him a hero's welcome and not wanting him to leave.\n  I saw the faces of those people. I saw the children who looked out to\nhim with hope in their eyes. I saw the older people who said he sought\nto bring prosperity to this area because he helped us stop the fighting\nthat goes back and forth across the border. He has brought hope for our\nchildren and grandchildren.\n  I saw the same thing in Northern Ireland in Belfast the next day\nwhere those who had been sworn enemies a few years ago were joining in\nmeetings with the President, encouraging him to stay involved and\nasking him to please come back even after his Presidency. It had to be\nan emotional time for President Clinton, but it was very much for the\npeople there.\n  I talked with several who again told me he brought hope for them and\n\n[[Page S11825]]\n\nbrought an understanding that their children could live in a world they\nhad not known, a world where they could go to school, where they would\nnot be defined by their religion but defined by who they are.\n  What an improvement that was and how grateful I am for the\nopportunity to have been there, not just as an Irish American but one\nwho holds deeply our sense of freedom, our sense of democracy, and our\nsense that people do not get excluded because of their religious faith\nor their ethnic background or who their parents were but are included\nbecause they are human beings and because they have intrinsic worth.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2000-12-15-pt1-PgS11824"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0550599545240402, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}