>> without objection. >> madam president, i come to the floor to wholly support the comments of my colleagues, the senator from california and the senator from arizona, to speak about a matter of great importance to me -- >> you can see senator rockefeller's speech and all of the morning floor speeches on cia interrogations and the report released today as well as read that release and the report at our web site, c-span.org. we'll leave this now, take you live to the senate floor as they gavel back in.

a senator: madam president,? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. chambliss: thank you. madam president, i rise today as the vice chairman of the senate select committee on intelligence to respond to the public release of the declassified version of the executive summary and findings and conclusions from the committee's study of the c.i.a. 's detention and interrogation program. this is not pleasant duty for me. during my four years as the vice chairman of the intelligence committee, i have enjoyed an excellent relationship with our chairman, senator diane feinstein. we have worked closely to conduct strong bipartisan oversight of the u.s. intelligence community, including the passage and enactment of significant national security legislation.

however, this particular study has been one of the very, very few areas where we have never been able to see eye to eye. putting this report out today is going to have significant consequences. in addition to reopening a number of old wounds both domestically and internationally, it could be used to incite unrest and even attacks against our service members, other personnel overseas, and our international partners. this report could also stoke additional mistreatment or death of american or other western captives overseas. it will endanger c.i.a. personnel, sources and future intelligence operations. this report will damage our relationship with several significant international counterterrorism partners at a time when we can least afford it. even worse, despite the fact

that the administration and many in the majority are aware of these consequences, they have chosen to release the report today. the united states today is faced with a wide array of security challenges across the globe, including in afghanistan, pakistan, syria, iraq, yemen, north africa, somalia, ukraine, and the list goes on. instead of focusing on the problems right in front of us, the majority side of the intelligence committee has spent the last five years and over $40 million focused on a program that effectively ended over eight years ago while the world around us burns. in march, 2009, when the committee first undertook the study, i was the only member of the intelligence committee that voted against moving forward

with it. i believed then as i still do today that vital committee and intelligence community resources would be squandered over a debate that congress, the executive branch, and the supreme court had already settled. this issue has been investigated or reviewed extensively by the executive branch, including criminal investigations by the department of justice, the senate armed services committee, the international committee on the red cross, as well as other entities. congress has passed two separate acts directly related to detention and interrogation issues. specifically, the detainee treatment act of 2005 and the military commissions act of 2006. the executive branch terminated the c.i.a. program and directed that future interrogations be conducted in accordance with the u.s. army field manual on

interrogation. also, the supreme court decided roughly v bush in 2004, hamdi v rumsfeld in four, hamdan v rumsfeld in 2006 as well as boumadinev bush in 2008. all of which established that detainees were entitled to habeas corpus review and identified dish sis in the detainee treatment act and the military commissions act. by the time i had became vice chairman the, attorney general's holder's decision to reopen the criminal inquiry related to the interrogation of certain detainees in the c.i.a.'s interrogation program. this unfortunate decision deprived the committee of the

ability to interview key witnesses who participated in the kaye program and essentially limited the study to the review of a cold documentary record. now, how can any credible investigation take place without interviewing witnesses? this is a 6,000-page report and not one single witness was ever interviewed in this study being done. this is a poor excuse for the time of oversight that the congress should be conducting. there is no doubt that the c.i.a.'s detention and celebration program which was hastily executed in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history, had flaws. the c.i.a. has admitted as much in its june 27, 2013 response to the study.

there is also no doubt that there were instances in which c.i.a. interrogators exceeded their authorities and certain detainees may have suffered as a result. however, the executive summary findings and conclusions released today contain a disturbing number of factual and analytical errors. these factual and analytical shortfalls ultimately led to an unacceptable number of incorrect claims and invalid conclusions i cannot endorse. the study essentially refuses to admit that c.i.a. detainees, especially c.i.a. detainees subjected to enhanceed interrogation techniques provide ed intelligence information which helped the united states government and its allies to neutralize numerous terrorist threats. on its face, this refusal doesn't make sense, given the vast amount of information

gained from these interrogations, the thousands of intelligence reports that were generated as a result of them, the capture of additional terrorists and the disruption of the plots those captured terrorists were planning. instead of acknowledging these realities, the study adopts an analytical approach designed to obscure the value of the intelligence obtained from the program. for example, the study falsely claims that the use of enhanceed interrogation techniques played no role in the identification of jose padilla because abu glued iowa hea who has direct dies to osama bin laden provided to information about padilla during an interrogation by f.b.i. agents who were exclusively using what's called rapport-building techniques against him more than three months prior to the c.i.a.'s use

of d.o.j.-approved enhanced interrogation techniques. what the study ignores, however, is the fact that abu glueda's earlier -- zubaydah's interrogation did involve use of techniques that were later included in the list of enhance ed interrogation techniques. specifically, the facts demonstrate that abu zubaydah was subjected to around the clock interrogation that included more than four days of dietary manipulation, nudity and more than 126 hours, which is about five days, of sleep deprivation during a 136-hour period by the time the f.b.i. finished up the 8 1/2 hour interrogation shift in which abu zubaydah finally yielded the identification of jose padilla. so during a five-day time

period, abu zubaydah got less than 10 hours of sleep yet the majority does not acknowledge this was an enhanceed interrogation. in light of these facts, the study's claims that the f.b.i. was exclusively using rapport-building techniques is nothing short of being dishonest. more important, the actionable intelligence gleaned from the enhanced interrogation of abu zubaydah that started in april of 2002 served as the foundation for the capture of additional terrorists and the disruption of the -- disruption of the plots those captured terrorists were planning. his information was also used to gather additional actionable intelligence from these newly captured terrorists which in turn led to a series of successful capture operations and plot disruptions. by the study's own count, the numerous interrogations of abu

zubaydah resulted in 766 sole-source disseminated intelligence reports. that's an awful lot of actionable intelligence collected under the c.i.a. program that this study tries to quietly sweep under the carpet in order to support its false headline that the c.i.a.'s use of enhanced interrogation techniques was not effective. the study also overlooked several crucial intelligence successes that prevented terrorist attacks against the united states and our allies around the world. al qaeda affiliateed extremists subjected to the program's enhanceed interrogation techniques made admissions that led to the identification of the man responsible for plotting the september 11 attacks, khalid sheik khalid sheikh mohammed or k.s.m. it stopped attacks on the u.s.

homeland and against our military forces overseas. al qaeda affiliate abu zubaydah's statements to interest raters led to the identification of jose padilla, tasked with conducting a terrorist attack inside the united states. the intergays disrupted al qaeda 's plotting against camp lemeyia in djibouti, and at that time home to some 1,600 u.s. military personnel. there is no telling how many lives this program saved in those particular interrogations alone. intelligence gathered under the detention and interrogation program also prevented terrorist attacks on our allies in the united kingdom. terrorist plots against london's

heathrow airport and canary wha wharf were disrupted because key conspirators were apprehended and questioned on the basis of intelligence gathered using several interrogation techniques, including enhanceed interrogation techniques. and finally, information from detainees held in the program was critical to ascertaining the true significance of abu ahmad al-kuwaiti, the facilitator who served as osama bin laden's personal courier and the man who led c.i.a. intelligence analysts and the navy seals to bin laden himself. for anyone interested in a nice chronological survey of the significant intelligence gained from the program and how it was used to capture additional terrorists and drupt terrorist plots -- disrupt terrorist plots; i would invite you to read pages -9d 6 and 97, which

delineate exactly a chrono milliochronologyof intelligencee that allowed for take joan of individuals. it seems the study takes every opportunity to unfairly portray the c.i.a. in the worst light possible. presupposing improper motivati motivations and the most detestable behavior at every turn. now the very enemies who the program helped keep at bay for all those years as well as adversarial nations will be able to sploi exploit what is essentially a dangerously inciteful and dangerous treasure-trove of information about our intelligence operations. now i'm all for pointing out and correcting problems with the intelligence community, and i have been very outspoken sonl on some of them, but i prefer that our oversight be conducted quietly and in a manner that does not yep dice the national security of the united states.

ultimately, our nart views examined eight of the study's most problematic conclusions, many of which attacked the c.i.a.'s integrity and credibility in developing and implementing the program. these problematic claims and conclusions created the false impression that the c.i.a. was actively misleading policy-makers and impeding the counterterrorism efforts of other federal government agencies during the program's operation. we found that these claims and conclusions were largely not supported by the documentary record and were based upon flawed reasoning. specifically, we found that, one, the c.i.a.'s detention around interrogation program was effective and produced valuable and actionable intelligence; two, most of the c.i.a.'s claims of effectiveness with respect to

the use of e.i.t.'s were accurate, three, the quia attempted to keep the congress informed of its activities and did so on a regular basis. and as a member of the committee, i can attest to that. four, the c.i.a. did not impede white house oversight. the white house was very involved in doing oversight of the program. five, the c.i.a. was not responsible nor did it have control over sharing or dissemination of information to other executive branch agencies or to members of the principles' committee. six, many of the study's claims about the c.i.a. providing inaccurate information to the department of justice or themselves totally inaccurate. seven, the c.i.a. did not significantly impede oversight by the c.i.a. office of the inspector general. and, eight, the white house

determined that the c.i.a. would have the lead on dealing with the media regarding detainees. these findings are not matters of defense of the c.i.a. the c.i.a. is fully capable of defending its own actions and i know will do so. rather, these findings are a critique of certain aspects of this particular study. as a general rule, i want our committee findings, conclusions, and recommendations to be unasalablunasalable in every investigation that we conduct. unfortunately, that didn't happen here and i'm very concerned about the unintended consequences that will result from the study's erroneous and inflammatory conclusions. i imagine that some members of the media may choose to repeat the study's false headlines contained in the report without checking the underlying facts. by doing so, they will only be damaging their own credibility.

i invite anyone who reads the study's executive summary and findings and conclusions to pay particular attention to how often the text uses lieutenantst absolutes such as "played no role, no connection, or no indication." please then read our minority views to find the clear counterexamples that disapprove most of these absolute claims. i suspect that the readers who make this effort will be disappointed, as i was that this study makes so many inaccurate claims and conclusions. our minority views also explain how thissitude was crippled by -- this study was crippled by irregularities that hampered the committee's ability to conduct a fair review of the program. these procedural defects resulted in a brie mature

committee vote in december of 2012 to approve the study before the text was adequately reviewed by the committee membership or subjected to a routine fact check by the intelligence community. typically once a senate committee report has been approved, staff are only authorized to make technical and conforming changes. the executive summary and findings and conclusions released this week have undergone such extensive and unprecedented revision since the study was approved back in december of 2012 that the traditional concept of technical and conforming changes has now been rendered meaningless. amazingly, the majority made significant changes in the substance of the study for months after it was voted on by the committee. in addition, after we mitted our minority views, the majority staff then went back and made a

few changes to specifically correct some of the more blatant errors that we identified in the views and that c.i.a. identified in their review. while i am pleased that our views led to some minor improvements in the study, those ultimate -- those untimely changes required us to add text explaining the validity of our initial conclusions and criticisms. simply put, the documents released today are very different from the documents that were approved almost exactly two years ago by the committee at the ent end of thet congress on a partisan basis. another significant weakness of this study is its disregard of the context under which the c.i.a.'s detention and interrogation program was developed. it is critical to remember that the intelligence community was inundated by a surge of terrorist threat reporting after the september 11 attacks.

the fear of a follow-on attack was pervasive and it was genuine. the nation was traumatized by the horrific murders of nearly 3,000 americans and at the c.i.a. there was no greater imperative than stopping another attack from happening. this congress text is entirely absent from the study. in addition, everyone must remember that the c.i.a. was directed to conduct this program by the president. i have spoken with a number of c.i.a. officers over the years who remember the contentious debates about the program at the time it was being considered, but at the end of the day, the agency did what the president directed them to do under color of law and based upon opinions issued and updated by the department of justice. many of my colleagues continue to discuss the brutality of many of the enhanced interrogation

techniques. while i agree with waterboarding which only occurred against three detainees is particularly severe, many of the other techniques were not. and by comparison, k.s.m., who was one of the detainees that was subjected to waterboarding, personally beheaded "wall street journal" reporter daniel pearl and a number of other u.s. citizens have been tortured by al qaeda-inspired groups since. the current threat level posed by isil and other al qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups may be greater today than what we face the prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. they are better-funded, better-equipped, and have recruited hundreds of terrorists who have american as well as european passports. isil terrorists are using social media to encourage new recruits to conduct lone-wolf attacks in

their home countries such as the united states. they are murdering and beheading captured hostages and planning terrorist attacks against u.s. citizens. in light of these significant threats, the president is still attempting to make good on a misguided campaign promise to close down guantanamo bay. itdon seem to matter to -- it doesn't seem to matter to him that we are now down it the worst of the worst or that his own review groups have strongly recommended against the release of these remaining terrorists. instead, he has returned to the pre-9/11 practice of treating terrorists like ordinary criminals. we are reading terrorists their miranda rights instead of conducting extended intelligence investigations to develop actionable intelligence that might lead to additional captures or plot droppings. i think -- or plot droppings. i think we would be better off if we would return to cap

tiewrpg the enemy and use authorized enteration techniques to obtain the actionable intelligence information needed to neutralize these dangerous terrorist organizations. while there is no doubt that there were indeed moments diewrpmoments duringthe c.i.a. d interrogation program where they exceeded their authorized limits, such were few and far between. in this, my last week of service here on the floor of the united states senate, and the vice-chairman of the intelligence committee, i want to thank the men and women of the c.i.a., the rest of the intelligence community, and the members of our armed forces who have served us so well since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. yieforts and your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed. i will be forever grateful for your patriotic service to our beloved country. may god bless you all and may god bless the united states of america.

and i yield the floor, madam president. mr. mccain: madam president in. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: ask unanimous consent to speak to the senate as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: madam president, i come to the floor to praise the public service of and bid farewell to my friend and valued colleague from nebraska, senator mike johanns. with my remarks today, i celebrate not just mike's last six years in the united states senate but also his 30-plus years in public service that will cul culminate at the end of this term. at the highest levels of government in both the legislative and executive branches, mike's life of public service has been punctuated by greater accomplishment. from the lancaster county board in nebraska to the lincoln city council, from his service as mayor of lincoln to his service as the 38th governor of nebraska, from his service 28th u.s. secretary of agriculture and throughout his

tenure in the united states senate, mike has democrat tax rated a commitment to -- hayes democrat tax rated a commitment to-- --has demonstrated a commitment. in the senate mike's leadership and bipartisan efforts to repeal purposeless tax reporting requirements in obamacare, h's championing new trade agreements, and his contribution to the development and final passage of a new farm bill this year, all drib a strong conservative legislator committed to stimulating economic growth through reduced government spending, lower tax rates and reduced regulatory burdens on american business. i have appreciated mike's partnership on key legislation including his joining me to cosponsor the bipartisan congressional accountability and line-item veto act of 2009.

during the 112th congress, we were both cosponsors of the foreign earnings reinvestment act, a bipartisan effort to let corporations reinvest earnings, keep overseas -- kept overseas by our high corporate tax rates back into the american economy. i was also proud to join mike as an original cosponsor of his bill, the two-year regulatory freeze act of 2011. it sought to give the american economy a much-needed reprieve to burdensome and confusing federal regulations that frequently hinder economic growth. mike also an original cosponsor of jobs through growth act and many others. i'm grateful that he joined in helping re-plenish the foreign services aging tanker fleet. a decade ago, the foreign service had roughly 30 tankers to fight wildfires that burn millions of acres of land across western states including

nebraska and arizona. today they own eight large air tankers. senator johanns and i saw an opportunity to transfer several excess department of defense aircraft to the fire service to temporarily address this shortage and that has happened. when mike and i have had disagreements along the way i've respected his knowledge and experience as a farmer, trade expert and former agriculture secretary. i'm proud of the areas where we agree, reining in certain farm subsidy programs, treatments with panama and south korea and working together to kill a proposed usda catfish office, a little-known $15 million program inside the last farm bill that we both highlighted as wasting taxpayers' money and negatively impacting our cattlemen and soy farmers. we also agree on the need who

help returning are veterans seeking to reenter the work force as beginning farmers, an effort he championed in our last farm bill and i've long applauded senator johanns for calling on congress to pass laws to stop farm subsidies from going to millionaires while he was a sitting secretary of agriculture. as much as i respect the substance of mike's accomplishment and public service i have valued how he has achieved them, with a quiet, purposeful dignity and indeed, a vibrant sense of humor. he's never been opposed to bipartisan cooperation whenever it's needed to further the interests of his constituents or the greater nation. for these reasons, his approach to governance and legislaturing has earned him the respect of colleagues and constituents across the political continuum. i would also serve as an example to all of us in this body who remain behind. in an email mike wrote to his

friends last february announcing his decision not to seek reelection in 2014, mike wrote -- quote -- "with everything in life there's a time and a season. well, to my friend and valued colleague, mike johanns, i bid fair winds and following seas in all that he and his lovely wife stephanie do, and i thank him for his service and his friendship. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: will the senator withhold his request. a senator: madam president? i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. chambliss: madam president, i want to rise and second what was said by my colleague from arizona. it's been a privilege of mine to serve in this body for 12 years and i'm going to be making some comments about that tomorrow, but during my early years in the senate, the secretary of agriculture was then secretary mike johanns. and being a very active member

of the agriculture committee, and being chairman for two years during then secretary join's tenure, -- johanns' tenure, i had the opportunity to work with mike on a day-to-day basis and boy, what a pleasure it is to work with one of the finest gentlemen, public servants i have ever known. he -- he's smart, he's political when he needs to be, political, but he has as much or more common sense as, again, any public servant i've ever known. for the last six years he has been my next door neighbor in the roughly building, so we -- russell building so we see east timor other coming and going and have the opportunity to visit on a regular basis. as i leave here at the end of this term, one of the real members of the united states senate i am going to miss is mike johanns. i publicly thank him for his service, thank him for his commitment which he and -- wish

he and stephanie the best but what i really thank him for is the great friendship he and i have developed over the years. thanks, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i want to join the senator from georgia and my senior senator, senator chambliss to talk about mike johanns. i want to amend that. i want to talk about he and stephanie johanns. in the south we have a twofer and they're a twofer. a great pair for america and the state of nebraska. as a senator from an agricultural state i know the value he brought to the cabinet when he was secretary of agriculture. i know what a great job did he as governor and the last six years working side by side with mike johanns has been a real treat. he's a gentleman, a scholar, he doesn't do anything he doesn't know what he's doing and if he's not always right, he's almost always right because he's always got stephanie to guide him in the right direction.

i i'd like to pay tribute to a great couple, a great united states senator and a personal friend, mike johanns and his lovely wife, stephanie. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns, thank you, madam president. mr. johanns: thank you, madam president. let me say i appreciate the fine words of senators chain, chambliss, isakson, there are a few others that will weigh in and express a thought or two and i can't express how much i appreciate it. i would like to offer a few thoughts, my farewell thoughts, today. i rise first of all to convey a very deep and sincere appreciation to the people of a really great state, the state of nebraska. they've entrusted me with the high privilege and the solemn responsibility of representing them in this body. i am honored to have served as a senator from nebraska and i hope

and i pray i have done so in a manner that upholds the high standards that nebraskans have rightly established for their elected officeholders. madam president, if i could turn back the clock 32 years, i'd just do it again from my first day as a county commissioner throughout my service as a lincoln city council member, as mayor of our capital city, lincoln, as the governor of nebraska and president bush's cabinet, and now as a united states senator. no doubt about it, if i could turn back the clock, i'd just do it again. i am so grateful for the trust placed in me and the support of so many people who have made this service possible. let me start with the top of the list, and that would be my family. my wife, stephanie, she has been an incredible pillar of

support, one of my best friends refers to her as "spirited." that would be an understatement. she is a true partner, she has given her whole heart to public service. not only her own service as a state senator and as a county commissioner where we first met, but to my public service. i thank my children, justin and michaela. now they're growing up. they have their own families. they have five beautiful grandchildren. they have been a source of true joy and pride. they, too, have cheerfully supported me despite the sometimes long hours, missed birthdays and i could go on and on. it cut into that dad and grandpa time. i'd like to offer a special word of thanks to the hundreds, thousands of volunteers that i could never thank individually. they went out there, they

pounded the yard signs, they walked the prestints, they worked phone banks, probably wrote checks when the bank account was pretty low. their belief in me is what has been inspiring in those campaigns. another group of people near and dear to my heart are my current and my former staff, campaign or government-related. we've always called ourselves team johanns. it's an extended family and for good promote their hard work, their commitment, their professionalism enabled me to represent and serve our great state and our country. i have not only been truly blessed by the privilege to serve, but i've been blessed by the privilege of meeting some really extraordinary people. in my various roles i've been with world leaders, spiritual

heads, cultural icons, presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, queens, and kings. all memorable experiences, to be sure. but i will say, madam president, that's not the extraordinary people that i speak about today. my real inspiration comes from ordinary people who i've observed and watched do remarkable, extraordinary things. each year for the past six years i've had the privilege of selecting a nebraska family to be honored as angels in adoption. and each year their stories of unconditional love shows the limitless capacity of the home hearts. juan family, the welchells of nebraska, brent two children to seven. they adopted five children, all

with special needs. they created a camp for these very special kids could share life's journey. how powerful is that? i've learned that heroes walk among us daily whose courage is revealed in split-second decisions, and in that split second they put the lives of others in front of their own. two nebraskans did exactly that, it was 2012, a school bus had collided with a semitrailer on a rule road near a community called blue hill, nebraska. these individuals, ron meyer and phil peter, arrived on this horrific scene. they bravely ran on to that burning bus to pull five children to safety. a witness who was there at the scene expressed absolutely no doubt that those five children

would have perished, as others, sadly, did, if not for the remarkable courage of ron and phil. i have been so moved beyond words by conversations with parents of fallen men and women in uniform. i would call them to offer my condolences, and i have found their strength to be so astounding. to a person they speak with such passion about love of country, pride in their loved one's service despite sorrow. they honor their children with their patriotism, they honor their children with their fortitude, their grace through incomprehensible grief inspires immeasurable gratitude. may god bless them and all of

the families of the fallen. walking the streets of a tornado-ravaged community -- and i've done that too many times as a governor and as a senator. i saw ordinary people doing extraordinary things. one stands out especially in my mind. i watched in amazement as kim nieman, the pilger, nebraska, city clerk attempted to take care of every conceivable need of every single resident following a devastating tornado that literally leveled this nebraska community. her tireless advocacy, her raw determination was focused entirely on the community she loved. she had virtually no regard for her personal loss. you see, madam president, her

home was destroyed, and her life was turned upside down by this tornado as well. but for kim, community came first. these are good people, and there are so many more like them. they inspire me, they've motivated me to search for solutions, to break through partisan rancor that too often dominates this government. but they also fuel my optimism for the future. you see, i believe that america's strength is in the fabric of which we're woven. the threads of this fabric include both the character of our people and the wisdom recorded in our constitution. it is a very strong and durable fabric that withstands the overreach of any one president and the misguided policies of any one administration.

that's why i look back not with any regret. i'd do it all over again. but with gratitude. there were victories won during my time here and i'm pleased to have led some of those charges. yet i have to acknowledge many battles do remain. i would be dishonest, madam president, if i denied some feelings of frustration about the absence of will to address issues of paramount importance to our country. but i know that no issue is powerful enough to shred the fabric of this great nation. rather, these challenges are overpowered by the ordinary people that do extraordinary things, by the character of our people, and by the wisdom of our founders. so i reject the prophecy of

hopelessness, as the challenges we face grow more urgent -- and they will -- so grows the collective fortitude to address them. and i believe that is about to intensify. on january 3 i will officially pass the baton to senator-elect ben sasse and i wish him the best. with the 114th congress there will be a new day in this chamber, a new majority and a lot of new faces and i hope that they embrace the new opportunities to severallify true statesmanship. though confidence in our nation's ability to solve problems may be shaken, i still believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. even here in washington, d.c. may god guide those efforts and may god blows this great

country, the united states of america. thank you. i yield the floor. [applause] with a. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: madam president, i had an opportunity to address the extraordinary career of the nor from nebraska the -- the senator from nebraska the other day and he was on the floor, which was welcome, and his staff was in the gallery. and i just wanted to say again in a much shorter version how much we all appreciate his remarkable contribution to our country, to his state, and to

the united states senate. and we wish him well in the future. mrs. fischer: madam president? ferraro the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. i rise today to celebrate the legacy of my dear friend, my colleague and my fellow nebraskan, senator mike johanns. senator johanns has dedicated more than three decades of his life to sesqui the people of nebraska and also this nation. his career in public service began at the local level where he was elected to the lancaster county board of commissioners. he later joined the lincoln city council and eventually became mayor of nebraska's capital city, where he served for two terms. perhaps the most infamous decision that senator johanns ever made throughout his career in public service was in his days as mayor of lincoln.

after an early season winter storm dropped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow on lincoln in late october, mayor johanns decided to cancel halloween. he cited power outages and hazardous downed power lines. as you can imagine, this news was not received well among some of those lincolnites. to this day, constituents haven't forgotten, and they still occasionally remind him of how he deprived an entire city of trick-or-treats on that fateful october evening. he made up for it, though, when he and his wife stephanie treated children who came to trick-or-treat at the mansion. fortunately, this incident didn't deal the death blow to senator johanns' political career. he went on to serve as governor of nebraska and was reelected to

a second term. as governor, he focused on fiscal discipline and the responsible use of limited state tax dollars, principles that he upholds here in the senate as well. at one point as governor, he even vetoed an entire two-year budget proposal because it raised taxes to expand government power. he also championed ambitious mental health reforms that allowed patients to receive care in the stability and in the security of their own communities where they could be near their loved ones. a decade later, these reforms in nebraska are still regarded as a major milestone in improving mental health care. before he was a senator or a governor or a mayor or a city councilman, he worked on his family's dairy farm. that's not easy work.

and as mike puts it, it's a job that builds character and humility. growing up on a dairy farm, he would milk cows every day before school, sometimes even taking the tractor halfway to town in the winter months when the roads were so bad that the school bus couldn't get out to his farm. this upbringing gave senator johanns a great appreciation and a deep understanding for the needs of our nation's ag producers. so it was no surprise when president george w. bush selected him to be secretary of agriculture and lead the department of agriculture. mike dutifully served in this role overseeing a new reform-oriented farm bill and opening doors to new global markets for our nation's ag producers. as secretary of agriculture, he saw firsthand the challenges

facing hungry nations. it was in this role that he fell in love with the people of africa, and is a worked here in the -- and he's worked here in the senate to develop food aid programs that not only feed but also empower hungry populations around the world. madam president, senator johanns has tirelessly worked for our state and our nation. he brought to the senate a unique perspective, having served virtually every level of government, and his well-rounded approach to his work here reflects that rare wisdom. many of us here have had the pleasure of working closely with him because he always makes a point to work with his colleagues, regardless of party affiliation, whether it be on complex legislation or that annual senate secret santa

tradition. we're all familiar with the confident, peaceful demeanor that he brings to the senate and his plain-spoken clarity will truly be missed once he leaves congress. this is who mike johanns is. it's who he's always been. a quiet workhorse with a soft spot for the world's most disadvantaged and a burning desire to help wherever he can. friends back home who have known him since before he began his career in public service will tell you that he is the same man today that he was back then. never losing sight of his goal of helping people, never getting a big head and always putting nebraska first. the senator's wife stephanie has been by his side throughout every step of this tremendous journey, always supportive and steadfast. and anyone who knows mike knows

that he and steph are inseparable. i'm sure they're both looking forward to having more time to spend with family next year. mike, you are a statesman and a model citizen. i am thankful for all the work you have done for nebraska and for the entire nation. you have set such a great example for your fellow senators and we all appreciate your dedication over these past 32 years. you have served nebraska with dignity and integrity. good luck. i wish you and stephanie all the best. god bless you both. i yield the floor. mr. portman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, this is a bittersweet time for all of us. as you have heard, as we close the book on one term o of congrs and look forward to the next, we are here to say goodbye to one

of our esteemed colleagues who's finished his service in the united states senate. it's all tough but it's especially hard for me with respect to senator mike johanns, a good friend and sort of the perfect example of the statesman through his impressive career as a mayor, governor, cabinet member and senator, as his colleague just said, he has displayed that. i first met him when he was secretary of agriculture. i was the u.s. trade representative and i truly believe i have traveled around the world more with mike thank i have with my family. we went all over, from asia to europe, south america and africa. we fought for farmers and ranchers. our idea was that we could expand exports. we went to far-flung corners of the world to deal with cotton

issues. we spent countless hours on something called the green-room negotiating sessions trying to reach an agreement on doha. i remember one time we had the opportunity to brief reporters as we were going across africa. we were racing across the sahara desert to make our way to an airport because the airport had no lights and the pilots insisted that we get there while we were still on the flight to see where they were landing. he talked to me a lot, not just about arcane agricultural issues but he also taught me a lot about negotiating and about how, as we said earlier, to be a statesman. we had some tough negotiating sessions, but mike was always a proud and relentless representative and champion for the interests of our great country and the interests of the farmers and ranchers that he knew so well. and he always did his job on the global stage with honor and

dignity. there's never been a better veecadvocate for farms. in 2007 he told me that he was going to leave the administration and go home to nebraska and that he was considering running for the senate. i never thought i was end up serving with him because i didn't know ifsz going to follow hism but i knew that he would be in the united states senate and he would bring the same level of dedication to this body as he had as secretary of agriculture. he's not fleshy. his colleague from nebraska has just called him a workhorse. i hope he takes that as a compliment. i would. he has never sought out the cameras or for that matter sought out recognition for his good work. a true statesman. we're going to miss you. we're going to miss stephanie. we wish you godspeed. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas.

mr. roberts: thank you, madam president. first time i met mike johanns was in hutchison, kansas, where we have the state fair every year. i was somebody then. i was the chairman of the sometimes powerful house agriculture committee, and i had made a pitch to get the secretary of agriculture to actually come to the fair, thinking that mike johanns would be a far better speaker than myself and maybe i could avoid some trouble. so we had the secretary come and i hai made the promise that evey feerm farmefarmer that wanted te secretary of agriculture a question would have that opportunity. i hadn't bothered to tell mike about it, but when he arrived on the screarntion h vacancy, scend and said fine. and he had this yellow tablet

you understand his arm. -- under his affirm all the activities in the state fair he attend. he went around to all the exibtz. we ended up in the amphitheatre and there he was. there must have been -- there must have been 150, 175 farmers all lined up waiting to speak or to question the secretary of agriculture, and i thought to myself, oh, my gosh ... what have i done? the secretary of agriculture has come in. didn't know mike that well at that particular time. what have i gotten him into? he didn't seem to be bothered at all. he was just absolutely comfortable, unflappable, and he had the microphone. he sat down, put down the yellow tablet and said, yes, sir, what is your first question and what is your name? and he gave his name and the question. and mike would write down the question. he said, thank you veep for -- e

said, thank you very much for that. it will receive all of our attention. he went through the 150 and never answer add question. but he wrote it down. every farmer later came up to my and said, you know, the secretary wrote down my question! there was tremendous impressed. as opposed to me, silly me, i would have tried to answer their question, and we would have been there two hours, three hours, lord knows how long. i asked mike, how do you get by with that? and he said, well, it saves a lot of time and you never get in trouble for what you don't say. what a class act that he really was. county commissioner, mayor of lincoln, governor, secretary of agriculture, u.s. senate. i suppose if i floated a balloon for you to be president that you might -- nah, stephanie wouldn't buy t you wouldn't either. but that would be the logical

next step, michael. and i think we certainly in all probability do a lot worse. i do have somewhat of a minor discomfort or -- it isn't a quarrel. i would never quarrel with stephanie. but some degree of discomfort. we have meetings to have meetings around here a lot. and some of us stay for the whole thing. you'd always look around for mike. he'd be around for the fireworks and then he would leave and he would always go home because he had a home here on capitol hill to be with stephanie. she was absolutely wonderful. she had the best smile ever. you cannot be in a bad mood ever when you see stephanie. you just aren't. i would come to work in the hart

building or in the capitol and i would run into stephanie and she would always have that big smile on her face and say hi, pat, how are things going? what are you going to do? i'm trying to be the curmudeon of the senate and she would flash that smile and i would say just fine. i would go into the office and they would say what's wrong? you have a smile on your face. i would say i have been stephanized. i'm really going to miss that. i remember sitting in the back, we had concluded the farm bill for the first time. it took us 400 days to get the rest of it. mike is an expert on agriculture program policy. ask anyone else if they would like to talk about agriculture program policy, you get a high

glaze after about eight seconds, but not michael. mike knows agriculture farm policy. we call it program policy in kansas. he knows an awful lot about it. i asked him how many people do you think in this body, in this senate absolutely understand farm program policy and he retorted how many people want to understand agriculture program policy? we decided there were about five in the senate and maybe about ten in the house, which shows you why we have a tough time getting the farm bill done. i really relied on his counsel when i was the ranking member. i am so sorry -- i really regret, should i have the privilege of becoming chairman of the senate agriculture committee, i would really look forward to a dynamic duo with regard to what we could accomplish. but you have -- you're like shane. come back, shane.

come back, mike. but shane rode way and you're going to ride back to nebraska. i give you that and i give you all of the success that you can possibly have. six years, six years is all this man has served. some people have been here a lot longer. i have. you can accomplish a lot in six years. people say what can you do in six years? well, number one, you can work on legislation, and you can know what you're talking about, and you can earn people's respect, and you can be smart about it. i don't mean smart smart. i mean just smart. and so that what you say and when you say it, people pay attention and that's precisely the kind of person that mike is. and you can have all the integrity in the world, and you can do exactly what he says when he talks about the people of nebraska, the people of kansas are very similar to the people of nebraska. my only complaint with the people of nebraska is they chose

to go play in the big ten, and are finding it a little more difficult than running the track meets they used to run against kansas state and k.u. if you want to go to the big ten and do that, that's your business. but we have the same kind, same kind of roots. i've always said that there are no self-made men or women in public office, that your friends and the people you represent make you what you are, and you have spoken so eloquently to that. michael, i was trying to think of a tag that i could lay you with that might be noteworthy of everything that you stand for. others will do better than me, and others have already said that. i simply came up by saying that you are an uncommon man with a very common touch. and i'm going to miss you, and everybody in our conference is going to miss you, and i suspect everybody in the senate is going to miss you for the way you've conducted yourself, the job you

have done for nebraska and we wish you all the best, and we love you. ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. when senator mike johanns stated in february of last year that he had decided not to seek a second term in the senate, he did so in a way that revealed so much about his character. there was no dramatic press conference. there were no weeks of rumors. there were no guessing games. instead, there was just a simple and brief press release. then the very next day it was back to work for senator johanns, traveling throughout

the state of nebraska for a series of town hall meetings with the people that he is honored to serve. nine months later, in october of 2013, his character again shone through. the federal government was shut down due to a massive failure to govern responsibly. it was stifling our economy and causing great harm to the trust the american people deserve to have in their government. as a key member of our commonsense coalition, senator johanns worked effectively and quietly to restore government operations and to restore citizen trust in government. again, no dramatics, no search

for the limelight. just solid results, just effective leadership. quiet, effective leadership guided by common sense has been the hallmark throughout the senator's 32 years in public service. from lancaster county commissioner and mayor of lincoln to governor of nebraska and united states secretary of agriculture, he has been well informed, thoughtful and untiring. the old farm country saying that sowing is easy. reaping is hard, perfectly describes his record of accomplishment and his determination to see any task to

its completion. most of all, the senator from nebraska always does what he thinks is in the best interest of our country and of the people he so proudly represents. in an interview shortly before he announced that he would be leaving the senate, senator johanns said that he hoped he would be remembered as -- quote -- "a guy who was good to work with." end quote. working with senator mike johanns has been more than just good. it has been an honor and a privilege, and i wish him and stephanie all the best. thank you for your service. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota.

a senator: i'd like two minutes to express my appreciation for senator mike johanns and for his wife stephanie. mr. hoeven: i first met mike as i was serving as governor of my state, right away went and visited with mike and could tell this was somebody who was not only somebody you could count on but who really had the right motivation in public service, had great ideas, was somebody that i could look to as a mentor. and i have ever since. from his experience at the local level as a commissioner and as a mayor, then as governor, then as secretary of agriculture, and then as a senator, mike has been somebody that all of us have counted on and somebody whose advice we have sought when we wrestle with tough decisions. so i just want to add my voice as well to the others who have expressed our appreciation for senator mike johanns and for

stephanie and to say how much we're going to miss him. and we're going to miss him not only on a personal level, because he's a great guy and a great friend -- somebody you can count on -- but we're going to miss his advice, his counsel, his participation in this process on behalf of the american people. i think mike really epitomizes the kind of approach that we need to have here in this body to really get worked on to listen, to think carefully and to remember always that we work for the american people. and he has a long and distinguished career doing that. and he's somebody that will be truly, truly missed, and i think he's somebody that exemplifies the very best, the very best of this body and of public service on behalf of our great nation. thank you, mr. president.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: thank you. our colleagues know the fellow in the presiding seat is a recovering governor. i'm a recovering governor. mike johanns is a recovering governor. we're sort of a support group for one another, men and women who used to be somebody and were special. i'm kidding. i think we still are. the senator was talking about michael and had the privilege of knowing him for a number of years. we were governors together and my wife martha and his wife stephanie were first ladies together. i thought they defined what the standards should be for first lady or first man, if you will, if you have a female governor. i'll never forget when i first met him, i was talking about stephanie and how they got to know each other and so forth and told me this great story about i

think they were both county commissioners. it was lancaster county. i think he used to be in those days maybe a democrat and a long time ago i was a young republican for barry goldwater when i was a 17-year-old republican student freshman at ohio state and later found out that hillary clinton was a golden girl at a convention. i hope maybe the reason i'm fairly thoughtful is because we have the abilityd to work -- ability to work across the aisle and see the views of other people. the story about how he and stephanie when they were on county council together, they met, started liking each other, started dating and fell in love and later got married. they had lunch together every day they were county council and every day he was governor, they continued to have lunch together and here too for many days.

that is a love, the kind that you just don't see. you just don't see that very much. i just want to say you are such an inspiration to the rest of us, you and your wife, the way you cherish each other and hold together and support iech -- each other and stand by each other. a real source of inspiration. the other thing i want to say, there is an old saying if it doesn't matter who gets credit for something you get a lot more done, and you define that. a guy who doesn't need headlines, a lot of attention, i hope the rest of us are that way but you define that for us. we love working with you, we're going to miss you. we wish you the best and wish you godspeed. as we say in the navy fair wind. god bless you. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i'm here to talk about the intelligence committee report, but before he leaves the floor, i just want to tell my colleague from nebraska how much i appreciate his service and just

want to note for the body that in the effort to build a bipartisan coalition for major tax reform, mike johanns was the senator that all of us thought we needed his counsel on and i want to thank him. i'll have more to say about his career before the end of this week. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that kelly tribble spencer, a detailee in my office be granted privileges of the floor for the remainder of the 113th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, i served on the senate intelligence committee for 14 years and came to the senate floor in spring of 2005 to join senator rockefeller in calling for the committee to investigate the c.i.a.'s interrogation activities and the possible use of torture. in 2009 i joined my intelligence colleagues in voting to approve chair feinstein's motion to launch an investigation of these activities. i said at the time, i continue to believe it today that what this debate over torture

requires is an infusion of facts. now americans can hear me and other policy-makers argue that the c.i.a.'s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques constituted torture and did not work. and americans can also hear various former officials argue that these techniques are not torture and that they produce uniquely valuable information. what's important is that today all americans finally have access to the facts so that they can make up their own minds. personally, i hope this report closes the door on the possibility of our country ever resorting to torture again. americans have known since the days of the salem witch trials that torture is an unreliable means of obtaining truthful

information, in addition to being morally reprehensible, but following the terrorist attacks on september 11, 2001, a small number of c.i.a. officials chose to follow the advice of private outside contractors who told them that the way to quickly get important information from captured terrorist suspects was by using coercive interrogation techniques that had been developed and used by communist dictatorships during the cold war. i will note that c.i.a. officials later paid these same contractors to evaluate the effectiveness of their own work. c.i.a. officials repeatedly represented to the public, to the congress, to the white house and to the justice department these techniques weren't safe, that they were only used against high-level terrorist captives and that their use provided unique, otherwise unavailable intelligence that saved lives.

after five long years of investigation, our committee found that none of these claims holds up. the c.i.a.'s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques included a number of techniques that our country has long considered torture. furthermore, the c.i.a.'s own interrogation records make it clear that the use of these techniques in the c.i.a.'s secret prisons was far harsher than was described in representations by the c.i.a. c.i.a. director michael hayden testified that any deviation from approved procedures were reported and corrected, but c.i.a. interrogation logs describe a wide variety of harsh techniques that the justice department's infamous torture memos did not even consider. practices such as placing detainees in ice water or threatening a detainee with a

power drill were often not appropriately recorded or corrected when they happened. the director also testified that detainees have always had a bucket to dispose of their human waste, but in fact c.i.a. detainees were routinely placed in diapers for extended periods of time and c.i.a. cables show multiple instances in which interrogators deliberately withheld waste buckets from detainees. c.i.a. records indicate that some c.i.a. prisoners may not have been terrorists at all. some of these individuals were in fact ruthless terrorists with blood already on their hands, but one of the report's most important findings is that this does not seem to have been the case in every instance. in one particularly troubling case, the c.i.a. held an intellectually challenged man prisoner and attempted to use tapes of him crying as leverage against another member of the

individual's family. at another point, the c.i.a. official noted in writing that the c.i.a. was holding a number of detainees about whom we know very little, and the c.i.a. on multiple occasions continued to hold people even after c.i.a. officers concluded there was not enough information to detain them. the review even found email records that found director hayden instructing a c.i.a. officer to underreport the total number of c.i.a. detainees. to this day, the c.i.a.'s official response to this report indicates that senior c.i.a. officials are alarmingly uninterested in determining exactly how many detainees the c.i.a. even held. now to be clear, the report doesn't attempt to determine the motivation behind these misrepresentations. the report doesn't reach judgments about whether

individuals deliberately lied or unknowingly passed along inaccurate information. it simply compares the representations the c.i.a. made to the congress, the justice department, the public and others to the information found in the c.i.a.'s own internal records, and it notes where those comparisons reveal significant contra dickses. one of the biggest sets of contra dickses revolves around the repeated claims that these techniques produced unique, otherwise unavailable intelligence that saved lives. c.i.a. officials made this claim to the white house, the justice department, the congress and the public. the claim was repeated over and over and over again. over the years, c.i.a. officials came up with a number of examples to try to support the claims such as the names of particular terrorists supposedly captured as a result of coercive

interrogations or plots that had been supposedly thwarted based on this unique otherwise unavailable information. the committee took the 20 most prominent or frequently cited examples used by the c.i.a. and our investigators spent years going through them. 20 examples are going to feel like a lot to anyone who reads the report, but the committee members who were working on this report agreed that it was important to be comprehensive and avoid cherry picking just one or two cases. in every one of these cases, c.i.a. statements about the unique effectiveness of coercive interrogation techniques were contradicted in one way or another by the agency's own internal records. i'm going to repeat that because i think it is a particularly important finding. in every one of these 20 cases,

c.i.a. statements about the unique effectiveness of coercive interrogation was contradicted in one way or another by the agency's own internal records. and we're not talking about minor inconsistencies. we're talking about fundamental contradictions. for example, in congressional testimony in documents prepared for white house briefings, the c.i.a. claimed that it -- that a detainee had identified khalid sheikh mohammed as a mastermind of attacks after he was detained by the c.i.a. and subject to the c.i.a.'s coercive interrogation techniques. but in fact c.i.a. records clearly show that abu zibada provided this information by none coercive techniques by the f.b.i. prior to his non-c.i.a. interrogations and days before he was even moved to the c.i.a.'s secret detention site. i had personally expected that

there would be at least one or two cases where vague or incomplete records might appear to support the agency's claims, but in fact in every one of these 20 examples, they and the arguments for them crumble under close scrutiny. the report that is being released today includes a number of redactions aimed at protecting our national security. i will say in my view some of these redactions are unnecessary and a few of them even obscure some details that would help americans understand parts of the report. overall, i'm satisfied that these redactions do not make the report unreadable and that it would be possible for americans who read the report to learn not only what happened but how it happened, and learning that is essential to keep it from happening again. one of the reasons that this public release is necessary is that the current c.i.a.

leadership has been resistant to acknowledging the full scope of the mistakes and misrepresentations that have surrounded this program. some of this resistance is made clear in the agency's official response to the committee's report, and i expect that some of it will be echoed by former officials who are involved in the program. and finally, mr. president, i want to wrap up by reminding people about the documents that have come to be known as the panetta review. when former c.i.a. director panetta came into the agency in 2009, he made it clear from the outset that he wanted to work to put the agency's history of torture behind it and that he wanted to cooperate with the intelligence committee inquiry. he also sensibly asked some c.i.a. personnel to review internal c.i.a. records and get a sense of what this investigation could be expected to find. the review got off to a solid start, and it began to identify

some of the same mistakes and misrepresentations that are identified in our committee's report. unfortunately, it does not appear that this review ever made it to the director's desk. instead, publicly available documents make it clear that this review was quietly terminated by c.i.a. attorneys who thought that it was moving too fast. now, earlier this year, the agency conducted an unprecedent ed and secret search of senate files in an effort to find out whether the committee had obtained copies of the panetta review. after it was found that committee investigators had in fact obtained the panetta review, the c.i.a. actually attempted to file unsupported criminal allegations against senate staff members. after the search was publicly revealed by the press, the c.i.a.'s own spokesperson acknowledged in "usa today" that the search had taken place and it had been done because the c.i.a. was looking to see if our

investigators had found a document the c.i.a. didn't want the congress to have. incredibly, that same week, c.i.a. director john brennan told andrea mitchell of nbc that the c.i.a. had not spied on senate files and that -- quote -- nothing could be further from the truth. i think this incident, mr. president, and the difference between what was said to andrea mitchell and what the agency's own people said to "usa today" today reflects once again what i call an alarming culture of misinformation, instead of acknowledging the serious organizational problems that are laid out in this report, the agency leadership seems inclined to try to sweep them under the rug. this means that organizational problems aren't going to be fixed unless they are laid out publicly. there is also a danger that other countries or even future administrations might be tempted to use torture if they don't

have all the facts about the c.i.a.'s experience. that's why the release today is so important. i want to thank in concluding all of the staff who have poured hours and hours, nights and weekends and time away from the family to get this investigation completed. i want to praise chair feinstein and our former chair senator rockefeller who together were resolute in pushing for this kind of congressional oversight, and i want to close with just a word about our friend and colleague, senator mark udall of colorado. i have had the pleasure of serving with senator udall on the intelligence committee and have admired his commitment to american security and core american values. lots of you in the senate won't know this because all of those

intelligence meetings are behind closed doors, but mark udall is not a senator who is afraid to stand alone. he's not afraid to fight for what he believes in. and when the fight to declassify this report got bumpy -- and let me tell you, it did a lot of times. i think some of you heard this weekend we had an 11th hour objection to the report, you know, getting out and people asked me what i thought, and i said it's not particularly surprising because there were objections practically every hour on the hour for months and months. and yet, when the fight to declassify the report got really difficult, some people said oh, it's just going to get buried forever. that's kind of what happens when you try to get accountability and transparency. senator mark udall made it clear that that wasn't going to be

allowed to happen on his watch, on mark udall's watch. and i'm just going to wrap up by saying to senator udall i remember when we started this battle together and we got a handful of votes. sometimes it was like 13-2 and whatever. we just thought it was going to be a long, long time before there was reform. and we went from those days to eventually getting up to 15 or 20 votes. and colleagues today to a great extent because of senator udall in the last vote for real surveillance reform, we were up to 58 votes. 58 votes for real surveillance reform. and that to a great extent is possible because of the extraordinary service of my good friend, senator mark udall from california. we westerners always make sure we stay in touch, and he knows

that is going to be the case with this particular friend from the west, a wonderful united states senator, senator mark udall. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. udall: mr. president, today is an historic day, as senator wyden has made clear and senator feinstein and senator rockefeller and many other senators that follow. before i talk about my involvement in the efforts that were put forth to reach this deal, i want to say to senator wyden, my good friend, you honor me with those comments, and i want to acknowledge that when you're in a fight it matters who you're in the fight with. it's been my privilege and honor to fight on the side of transparency, on the side of protecting the bill of rights. this has been a righteous cause. we're going to continue to work to find the right balance between privacy and security.

and as ben franklin famously implied, we can have both, but we don't end up with both if we set aside the bill of rights and those fundamental principles that are enshrined in the bill of rights. so it's been my privilege to fight alongside you. i wish you all the best. yes, us westerners will stay in touch. turning back to the matter at hand, today almost six years after the senate intelligence committee voted to conduct a study of the c.i.a.'s detention interrogation program and nearly two years after approving the report, the american people will finally know the truth about a very dark chapter in our nation's history. mr. president, i've had two goals at the beginning of this long process, and i still hold those two goals today. first, i've been committed to

correcting the public record on the c.i.a.'s multiple misrepresentations to the american people, to other agencies, and the executive branch, to the white house and to congress. and second my goal has been to ensure that the truth comes out about the terrible acts committed in the name of the american people. why, mr. president? because i want this to be our way going forward, that neither the c.i.a. nor any future administration repeats the grievous mistakes that this important oversight work reveals. this has been a careful and very deliberative process. we have compiled and drafted and redacted, and now released this report. it has been much harder than it needed to be. senator wyden and many others have pointed it out.

it brings no joy to discuss the c.i.a.'s brutal and appalling use of torture or the unprecedented actions of some in the intelligence community and the administration have taken in order to cover up the truth. but by releasing the intelligence committee's landmark report, we affirm that we are a nation that does not hide from its past but learns from it. and that an honest examination of our shortcomings is not a sign of weakness but of the strength of our great republic. we've made significant progress since the c.i.a. first delivered its heavily -- i want to underline heavily -- redacted version of the executive summary to the committee in august. the report we released today cuts through the fog that the c.i.a.'s redactions created and will give the american people a

candid, brutal and coherent account of the c.i.a.'s torture program. and as the chairman said earlier today, even when public tensions were high, our committee continued to work behind the scenes to successfully witle down 400 instances of unnecessary actions to just a few. we didn't make all the progress we wanted, and the redaction process was filled with unwarranted and completely unnecessary obstacles. but all told after reviewing the final version, i believe that our landmark report accomplishes the goals i laid out at the outset and tells the story that needs to be told. mr. president, it also represents a significant and essential step towards restoring faith in the crucial role of congress to conduct oversight of the intelligence community.

congressional oversight is important to all of government's activities but it's especially important to those parts of government that operate in secret as the church committee discovered decades ago. the challenges the church committee confronted four decades ago persist today. mainly how to ensure that those government actions which are necessarily conducted in secret are nonetheless conducted within the confines of the law. the release of this executive summary is testament to the power of effective oversight and the determination of chairman feinstein and the members of the committee to doggedly beat back obstacle after obstacle in order to reveal the truth to the american people. i have much more to say about these obstacles and about the critical importance of reforming an agency that refuses to even acknowledge what it has done,

and i will deliver those remarks soon. but for now i want to congratulate the chairman and her staff on this really very, very important issue. the document we're finally releasing today is the definitive history of what happened in the c.i.a.'s detention and interrogation program. we've always been a forward-looking nation, but to be so we must be mindful of our own history. that's what this study is all about, and it's why i have no doubt that we'll emerge from this dark episode with our democracy strengthened and our future made even brighter. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i see the distinguished senior senator from texas on the floor seeking recognition. i've been told to come over here at 3:30 but obviously i'll yield to my friend from texas and ask consent that when he completes

his remarks that i be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i thank my friend from vermont. all of this got pushed back a little bit with all the laudatory speeches for our retiring colleague from nebraska, so we're backed up a little bit but i won't be long. i do have to say, mr. president, because i came to the floor when the senator from oregon and the senator from colorado were talking about senator feinstein's decision to release this report, i get it that different people see the same subject matter sometimes through a different lens, but i can't think of any more reckless, any more irresponsible thing to do to the brave men and women who fight in our military, fight our wars for the last 13 years, and the intelligence community that's worked risking their

lives to keep us safe. we all remember what happened on 9/11/2001 but apparently with time our memories have faded. but what we do know for a fact is that we would not have avoided another attack on our own soil if it weren't for the dedication and the patriotism of men and women in our intelligence community who were operating under color of law. in other words, this isn't just something that they decided to cook up. this was something that was vetted at the highest levels of the justice department and the department of defense, and indeed we had hearing upon hearing upon hearing on these various enhanced interrogation techniques. and sure, there were some disagreements, but by and large we do know that they were effective in gleaning intelligence that helped keep americans safer. that's not just me say that.

ask leon panetta, the immediate past director of the central intelligence agency and the secretary of the department of defense, a proud democrat. but also a patriot in his own right. ask john brennan, president obama's choice to be the c.i.a. director, the current c.i.a. director. he said virtually the same thing. and so much of this should have proven to be unnecessary after two separate united states attorneys conducted criminal investigations. there was one done earlier and then one done later when attorney general eric holder reopened the investigation. so these men and women who risked their lives to do what their government asked them to do to keep us safe were subjected to at least two justice department investigations, and obviously no decision to proceed with any kind of criminal charges was decided upon.

so i just think you have to wonder about the timing of this in a lame-duck session where we have basically three items of business to do before we break for the christmas holidays and a new congress. it's clear that this report was pushed out in an attempt to make a political statement, but i have to tell you that i think it's a reckless act and it's a disservice not only to the men and women who risked their lives but also to the american people who should expect more of us. this was not a partisan senate intelligence committee -- bipartisan senate intelligence committee report. once republicans on the senate intelligence committee figured out what was happening, they simply disassociated themselves with it. so this is purely a partisan report, absolutely no recommendations made for any reforms in this report. just simply done to embarrass and to hold up our brave men and

women who serve our country in the intelligence community to ridicule. and it's a shame. mr. president, i came to the floor to talk about another topic, and that is about my friend and fellow texan, congressman ralph hall who at the end of this year will be retiring from representing texas' fourth district in the house of representatives for more than three decades. it's hard to speak to the entirety of ralph's 34 years in congress in just a few minutes and i'll try but i would be remiss if i didn't mention some of his greatest hits so to speak, so let me begin with what i admire most about ralph hall and share some of the thoughts about why he's so beloved back home in texas, why they would return him election after election after election over these many years. first, ralph is sun who a lot of texans look up to as a role

model. he's a happy warrior. having proudly served his country and texas for over 50 years, he's a man of extraordinary character and remarkable integrity. thinking about ralph, the first thing that comes to mind is his service to others from his military service to being the oldest and among the longest-serving members of congress. ralph has lived a life of service to others and leaves behind a considerable legacy, one that will be long remembered and celebrated by people in my state, but i believe the people of the united states too. for those who know ralph know that he's a man that wherever he goes, whether it's back home or here in washington, before leaving a room he will have hugged or shaken the hand of every person in the room, not to mention telling a few bad jokes and leaving everybody laughing in the process. he's a man who truly cares about others, and that's evident by the way he arranged his desk in

his washington office. he said that one of the favorite things about his office is the view. even so, he arranged his desk with his back to the window so that others could sit and enjoy the view. this speaks to the kind of man he is, always putting other people first. as i said, he's also well known for his excellent sense of humor and an occasional bad joke. and he's a great story teller, a rack -- racconteur. he has pretty good stories to tell from selling cigarettes to the famous outlaws bonnie and clyde to putting president reagan on hold to his interesting encounters and friendships with mickey mantle, mohammed ali, ted williams, neil armstrong, john glenn among others. then there are his many stories about flying hell cat fire aircraft during world war ii. ralph has led a full and

exciting life. during his time in congress, he's not just been the hometown congressman from rock well, texas. he's been the hometown congressman to everyone he's encountered. it doesn't matter who you are, ralph wants to find out how he can be helpful to you from the person he met on the street to the person in the texas delegation to the president of the united states, that is the way he is. knowing ralph he's probably got something up his sleeve that he's not telling us about what he's going to do after he leaves congress next month. in fact, when asked about his plans after leaving congress, ralph mentioned he will probably go to work at wal-mart because he has to have a job. ralph's always go the to have something to do, but it goes to show that no matter what he does next, he won't be slowing down any time soon. ralph hall will be greatly missed in this congress, and i'm privileged to call him a colleague and a friend.

i'd like to wish him godspeed and all the best as he continues to recover from a recent car accident at his -- at home in rock wall, and i look forward to seeing what he accomplishes in the next chapter of his long and storied life. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: first i ask unanimous consent that we, an intern in my office be granted floor privileges throughout today. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i listened with interest to the tremendous statement made by the senator from california, senator feinstein. and as she has said on other occasions, she has spoken of this and we americans should listen. more than a decade ago, more

than a decade ago the sky sky -- the central intelligence agency began detaining and torturing human beings in the name of the war on terrorism. and then employees and contractors of the united states government who are paid for by our taxpayers' dollars, abused and degraded, dehumanized people, stripped them them of their basic humanity but more than stripping them of their basic humanity, they stripped america of its standing in the world as the leader in promoting human rights. instead of protecting us as americans, by their actions they hurt all americans. president obama banned torture and cruel treatment when he took office, but only now because of the courage and conviction of senator feinstein and the other members of the intelligence community and their staffs, do we have the full public

accounting of the c.i.a.'s action, the accounting that the american people deserve. a and the decision to release this risk report as senator feinstein has courageously said, has been difficult. but it was the right and moral thing to do. if something is right and something is moral, then no matter how difficult it is, you should do it. and releasing the report demonstrates that america, the america i love, is different. as americans we cannot sweep our mistakes under the rug and pretend they didn't happen. we have to acknowledge our mistakes, we have to learn from our mistakes. and in this case we as americans must and will do everything we can to ensure that our government never tortures again. five years ago in 2009 i called for a commission of inquiry to review the then administration's

detention and interrogation program and other sweeping claims of abuse of executive power in the bush administration. i believed that in order to restore america's moral leadership, we have to acknowledge what happens in our name. because much of the leadership that we can show around the world is not based on our wealth or on the power of our military but our moral leadership. and our nation needed back then they needed a full accounting of the c.i.a.'s treatment of detainees, we need it today and with this report at long last we have it. this is not the first report to record -- condemn the detention and interrogation policies and practices that were used during the last administration, but it is the first to fully chronicle the actions of the most secretive of our government

agencies, the central intelligence agency, and the final report lays bear the dark truth about their program. and that truth is far worse, it is far more brutal than most americans ever imagined. we've all see the shocking pictures from abu ghraib, we've read the cold, clinical descriptions of harsh techniques written by attorneys to justify such treatment and we know what was done at abu ghraib was terribly diminished the image of the united states throughout the world, it didn't in any one iota make us safer. in fact, many would argue it made us less safe. the report makes clear one fundamental truth -- the c.i.a.

tortured people. that's the bottom line. and no euphemistic description or legal obfuscation or pettifoggery can hide that fact any longer. the intelligence committee report shows that techniques like waterboarding and sleep deprivation were used in ways far more frequent and cruel and physically harmful than previously known. and it shows a gross mismanagement of those in charge of the c.i.a., a shocking indifference to human dignity led to horrendous treatment and conditions of confinement that went far beyond even what they had been approving. turned out the senior c.i.a. leadership didn't even know that enhanced techniques were being used at one c.i.a. detention facility. in fact, in one instance one of their prisoners died as a result, left shackled on a

concrete floor, a dungeon room, died of hypothermia. this is america? this is what we stand for? this is the image we want to give the rest of the world? this american doesn't think so. this american doesn't think so. it's not what brought my grandparents and great grandparents to this country, and the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were not just used on the worst of the worst, either. in some instances the c.i.a. didn't even know who it was they were holding. c.i.a. records show at least 26 people of the detained by the c.i.a. didn't meet the c.i.a.'s own standard for detention. and some of these individuals were subjected to the wonderful slogan, enhanced techniques. evil slogan. they were determined not even to be members of al qaeda.

moreover, the c.i.a. relied on contractors, not even c.i.a. personnel, but contractors, who had no experience as interrogators to develop this program. they were happy to take american taxpayers' money. they didn't know what they were doing but said give us the money and eventually the c.i.a. outsourced all aspects of the program to the company these contractors set up. did they make a few thousand dollars? no, they made $80 million to do this. this is a program out of control. as yet another reason why congress has to exercise its oversight responsibility. the report also disproves c.i.a. claims that torture programs were necessary to protect our nation, to thwart attacks. how many times have we heard that on the floor, but we need this to protect us, to protect us from another 9/11. we had all the evidence we needed to stop 9/11, we hadn't

even bothered to translate some of the material that our intelligence people had -- after the fact they decided we should really translate some of that material we have and then they found it could have been stopped. this program of torture didn't make us safer and as laid out in me meticulous detail these techniques does not generate useful expense. it thoroughly repudiates each of the most commonly cited examples of plots thwarted and terrorists captured. that shouldn't come as a surprise. the judiciary committee held numerous hearings on the bush administration's interrogation policies and practices. but we heard time and again from witness after witness is that torture and other cruel treatments don't work. but there are still some who continue to argue even in the face of overwhelming

testimony -- and actually now hard evidence to the contrary, the program thwarted attacks and saved lives. they defend the c.i.a.'s action, they argue the report does not tell the full story. these are the same people who participated in the rampant misrepresentation that detailed this report. the report shows that c.i.a. officials consistently misled virtually everyone outside the agency about what was going on and about the results of c.i.a. interrogations. very similar to what we had leading up to the war in iraq after 9/11. i remember being in those hearings, mr. president. i remember listening to then-vice president, i remember listening to others in the secret hearings and thinking it doesn't ring true, and i stated that i thought some of the things they were telling us didn't ring true. and i remember walking early one morning with my wife near our

home and two joggers coming up calling us by name. people we had never seen in the neighborhood. one of them said i hear have you some questions. have you asked to see a report and names -- and names a particular report. i said i haven't. i didn't know there was such a thing. they said you might find it interesting to read. i did. and i raised even more questions about what i've read there, totally contradicted what the vice president and others were saying. and i mentioned that to some. two days later we're out walking again, both joggers -- my wife remembers this so well. said i see you read the report such and such. i said i did. but did they tell you about this other report?

i said i didn't know there was such a one. you may find it interesting. and i got it. it was obvious from that that they were withholding evidence, that saddam hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 contrary to what the vice president and others were saying, there were no weapons of mass destruction, that this -- did not prove to be a harmful nation to us, that, in fact, they were well penned in by the no-fly zone we had set up but we'll rush to war because we'll show them they had something to do with 9/11, even though they didn't and now almost $3 trillion later, look at the mess we're in. the amount of material that was held back from people who should have seen it including members of congress and white house officials, even justice

department lawyers who were being asked review the legality of c.i.a. techniques. in the coming weeks we'll be going to the new congress, we're going to hear a lot about the need for oversight. i would hope they would look at the report that senator feinstein and her committee have come out with because this is where oversight should be at the top of the list. so, too, should the unprecedented spying of the c.i.a. on the congressional staff investigating this program. just think of that, mr. president. they investigated members of congress who were asking them about things they had done wrong. and then the troubling pattern of intimidation that included the c.i.a. referring its own congressional overseers to the justice department for criminal prosecutions. my god, we're going back to the joseph mccarthy days in things like this.

this report, this action, shows a c.i.a. out of control and incumbent on all of us, republicans and democrats alike in the congress to hold the agency accountable. the judiciary committee should take a hard look at the role the department of justice and its legal justifications for this program. much ink has been spilled criticizing the opinions written during the bush administration by john eu, jay biden and steven bradbury. the o.l.c. has always had a good reputation but these opinions sole the reputation of that office and have been rightly repudiated but the report demonstrates even those opinions whether key misrepresentation by the c.i.a., about the seniority of the people subjected to these techniques, the implementation of the techniques, the intelligence resulting from them. now, as an institution, if we

truly represent 325 million americans, don't we have the responsibility to examine the systemic failure that allowed this to happen and then to ensure it doesn't happen again? and those who attack the credibility of this report are wrong. this report is not based on conjecture or theory or insinuation. anyone who reads it can see that this careful, thorough report was meticulously researched and written. mr. president, it's based on more than six million pages of c.i.a. cables, emails and other documents containing descriptions of c.i.a. employees and contractors themselves recorded. now, i believe that senator feinstein and the other members of the intelligence committee who worked on this deserve our respect and appreciation.

the bell generals committee staff have dedicated years of their life to this report and they've demonstrated courage and dedication and faced enormous challenges because they thought first and foremost about the united states of america. in the past year they even threatened the criminal prosecution. for why? for doing the job they're supposed to do for the united states of america. but they were not -- they would not allow themselves to be intimidated. they erve i served their countrl and they have my deepest appreciation for bring this truly historic study. and their families, my god, they couldn't tell their families the things they were reading. if the family knew some of the attacks on them. these families, too, deserve our thanks. those staffers had to spend so many months arguing with this white house about redactions to this