congressional_record: CREC-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12094
Data license: Public Domain (U.S. Government data) · Data source: Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API
This data as json
| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CREC-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12094 | 2004-12-20 | 108 | 2 | TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BOB GRAHAM | SENATE | SENATE | TRIBUTETO | S12094 | S12094 | [{"name": "Paul S. Sarbanes", "role": "speaking"}] | 150 Cong. Rec. S12094 | Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004) [Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004)] [Senate] [Page S12094] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BOB GRAHAM Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, with the adjournment of the 108th Congress, Bob Graham completes about 40 uninterrupted years of dedicated service to the people of Florida as an elected public official. Floridian's first elected him to their State house of representatives in 1966, where he served two 2-year terms. In 1970 they elected him to the State senate, where he served two 4-year terms. In 1978 Floridians across the State chose him for their Governor; no one from south Florida had ever before been elected. He served in that office with great distinction for two terms, until in 1986 Floridians sent Bob Graham to the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate. Bob Graham has not only worked for the people of Florida; he has worked with them. While a State senator, he established a workday program for himself that regularly took him out of the halls of government and into literally dozens of different jobs. Since coming to the Senate, Bob has made time for 214 workdays, which means that roughly once a month, for 18 years, he has worked alongside his constituents, all the time learning from them. Bob began his workdays while a State senator, teaching a semester of civics at a Miami high school. Over the years, though, he has not limited himself to a single form of employment: on the contrary, he has been an agricultural worker, a factory worker, a construction worker; he has worked in the public sector as a policeman and as a trash collector. Writing in the Washington Post on May 4, 2003, Michael Grunwald observed that the regular, wide-ranging workdays became ``a remarkable window'' for Bob Graham's political education. Working as an auto mechanic, Bob Graham learned first-hand that ``Florida auto inspections were a joke. He learned at a nursing home that orderlies earned only $17 a day. He learned as a parking attendant that tiny curb cuts changed the lives of disabled workers.'' Bob used the workday program to learn directly from his own observation and experience, and not simply from the reports of others. Florida is an extraordinarily diverse State in its demography, its environment, and its economy. In many ways it encapsulates the broad range of challenges that we confront not just in our States, but in the Nation at large. Senator Bob Graham brought to the great debates in the Congress over education, health care, the economy, environmental standards, and many other issues, domestic and foreign, his substantial experience as a State legislator and Governor. The legislation enacted in 2000 to restore the Florida Everglades was built around a program that Governor Bob Graham had established in 1983. It was not only his State that benefited, it was our Nation; for the Everglades are a precious national resource. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the 107th Congress, Bob Graham provided vigorous and clear-headed leadership in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11. Broadly experienced in public governance as Bob is, he has had the wisdom to remain a student of government. The U.S. Senate is both a place to protect and advance the needs and concerns of constituents, and also a place to learn; as he put it in his remarks in this Chamber on December 7: ``The Senate is our country's best graduate school.'' He leaves the Senate with an abiding and profound concern for programs to keep our country safe, improve our children's schools, improve our health care, and strengthen employment opportunities, among many others. Above and beyond these programs, however, as he observed on December 7, is the very institution of the Senate itself, with a ``unique role'' to play ``in balancing our Government in order to avoid excessive power falling into the hands of any one person or governmental institution.'' For over 18 years Bob has worked to ensure that this body does indeed honor its unique role among our institutions of government. The Senate is stronger for having Bob Graham as a Member. He will be greatly missed. ____________________ |