{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12094", "2004-12-20", 108, 2, null, null, "TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BOB GRAHAM", "SENATE", "SENATE", "TRIBUTETO", "S12094", "S12094", "[{\"name\": \"Paul S. Sarbanes\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "150 Cong. Rec. S12094", "Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004)]\n[Senate]\n[Page S12094]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                     TRIBUTE TO SENATOR BOB GRAHAM\n\n  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, with the adjournment of the 108th\nCongress, Bob Graham completes about 40 uninterrupted years of\ndedicated service to the people of Florida as an elected public\nofficial. Floridian's first elected him to their State house of\nrepresentatives in 1966, where he served two 2-year terms. In 1970 they\nelected him to the State senate, where he served two 4-year terms. In\n1978 Floridians across the State chose him for their Governor; no one\nfrom south Florida had ever before been elected. He served in that\noffice with great distinction for two terms, until in 1986 Floridians\nsent Bob Graham to the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate.\n  Bob Graham has not only worked for the people of Florida; he has\nworked with them. While a State senator, he established a workday\nprogram for himself that regularly took him out of the halls of\ngovernment and into literally dozens of different jobs. Since coming to\nthe Senate, Bob has made time for 214 workdays, which means that\nroughly once a month, for 18 years, he has worked alongside his\nconstituents, all the time learning from them.\n  Bob began his workdays while a State senator, teaching a semester of\ncivics at a Miami high school. Over the years, though, he has not\nlimited himself to a single form of employment: on the contrary, he has\nbeen an agricultural worker, a factory worker, a construction worker;\nhe has worked in the public sector as a policeman and as a trash\ncollector. Writing in the Washington Post on May 4, 2003, Michael\nGrunwald observed that the regular, wide-ranging workdays became ``a\nremarkable window'' for Bob Graham's political education. Working as an\nauto mechanic, Bob Graham learned first-hand that ``Florida auto\ninspections were a joke. He learned at a nursing home that orderlies\nearned only $17 a day. He learned as a parking attendant that tiny curb\ncuts changed the lives of disabled workers.'' Bob used the workday\nprogram to learn directly from his own observation and experience, and\nnot simply from the reports of others.\n  Florida is an extraordinarily diverse State in its demography, its\nenvironment, and its economy. In many ways it encapsulates the broad\nrange of challenges that we confront not just in our States, but in the\nNation at large. Senator Bob Graham brought to the great debates in the\nCongress over education, health care, the economy, environmental\nstandards, and many other issues, domestic and foreign, his substantial\nexperience as a State legislator and Governor. The legislation enacted\nin 2000 to restore the Florida Everglades was built around a program\nthat Governor Bob Graham had established in 1983. It was not only his\nState that benefited, it was our Nation; for the Everglades are a\nprecious national resource. As chairman of the Intelligence Committee\nin the 107th Congress, Bob Graham provided vigorous and clear-headed\nleadership in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11.\n  Broadly experienced in public governance as Bob is, he has had the\nwisdom to remain a student of government. The U.S. Senate is both a\nplace to protect and advance the needs and concerns of constituents,\nand also a place to learn; as he put it in his remarks in this Chamber\non December 7: ``The Senate is our country's best graduate school.'' He\nleaves the Senate with an abiding and profound concern for programs to\nkeep our country safe, improve our children's schools, improve our\nhealth care, and strengthen employment opportunities, among many\nothers. Above and beyond these programs, however, as he observed on\nDecember 7, is the very institution of the Senate itself, with a\n``unique role'' to play ``in balancing our Government in order to avoid\nexcessive power falling into the hands of any one person or\ngovernmental institution.''\n  For over 18 years Bob has worked to ensure that this body does indeed\nhonor its unique role among our institutions of government. The Senate\nis stronger for having Bob Graham as a Member. He will be greatly\nmissed.\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-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12094"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9106320794671774, "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"}