that will be the case and it should be. that will change by the current majority changed the institution of the senate a negative way. the rule is changed back to require 60 votes on all issues, including judges and nominees. some of those most vocal losting the rule change their elections. while the rule change did not cost them their election, the american people wanted a change in the leadership, a change in the rule. regular order will help in restoring trust and confidence. imperative that the issue of the debtor -- of the debt of this country be addressed. just last week, it surpassed $18 trillion. we cannot leave the astronomical debt our policies have generated up to our children and grandchildren to fix. it is not rocket science as to

what must be done. cutting spending alone, i.e. sequestration, is not the solution. raising taxes is not the solution. it will take a combination of spending reduction, entitlement reform, and tax reform to stimulate more revenue. hard and tough votes will have to be taken, but that is why we get elected to the united states senate. the world is waiting for america to lead on this issue. if we do, the u.s. economy will respond in a very robust way. the gang of six laid the foundation for this problem to be solved and it is my hope that we do not leave the solution to the next generation. with what i have enjoyed most about congress and that is the opportunity i have had to spend with the men and women in

uniform and those in the intelligence world, all of whom are willing to put their life in harm's way for the sake of our freedom. whether it was robins air force , or dubail, jalalabad , i always get emotional telling the men and women how proud i am of them and how blessed we are to have them protecting us. who are a special people sacrificed much for the sake of all 300 million americans. let us also remember to be thankful for the families of those military and civilian personnel who likewise make a commitment to america. anotherad into christmas season, many of those families will not have a home -- not have at home there spouse, their parent, their daughter, their son. may god bless this great institution and may god continue to bless our great country. i yield the floor.

[applause] >> the senior senator from california is recognized. >> thank you very much. senator chambliss, my words are personal. we have worked together for the past eight years on the senate select committee on intelligence. workedr years, we have as chair and cochair. .e have exchanged views we have negotiated bills. we have shared information.

we have been there through very tough times and some very pleasant times. it is very hard for me to see you go. i have learned to trust you. i respect you. -- the worked together committee put together a benghazi report. we worked very hard and found areas of agreement. senator collins is here, on this committee. senator warner is here. am i missing anyone else from the committee? senator burr, who will be the new chairman. senator coburn. we were able to come together and put together a report unanimously. it was really because of your leadership. as i watched, it became very apparent. maybe your side is not as fractious as my side is, but you

were able to say yes, we can do this or no, we cannot do that and you respected your members. that made it very easy for me and i am very grateful. yesterday, we disagreed. really -- you know, you have never taken a cheap shot. at the samegether time to move our intelligence authorization bill. there was one last glitch which you worked out and that bill passed unanimously last night. we have worked to put together bill foron-sharing what is probably our number one defensive issue, which is cyber and the attacks which have taken 97% of our businesses into difficulties. you have compromised. i have compromised.

unfortunately, on our site, we still had some unsolved issues. i will be able to pick up with senator burr where we left off and we will be able to get that job done next year. what i want you to know, and i said this to you in another way, that it was such a wonderful experience for me to work with you. part.is is the hard we are only here for an instant in an attorney. -- eternity. the only thing that matters is what we do at that instant. you have really done yeomans work in that instant. i am very grateful to have the pleasure of working with you. i have learned from you and i wish you all good things. thank you very much, senator chambliss.

>> the senator from georgia is recognized. tribute toise to pay my friend, saxby chambliss. this is a speech i never wanted to make. i never wanted to make it because we have had a wonderful relationship the last 10 years. we have done everything together. he has had my back and i have had his back. he is a great friend and i will miss him. but i am not a selfish guy. he married one of the finest women i have ever known, one of the best friends my wife has. julianne is getting her saxby back. for her and their family and those grandkids, that is exactly what he wants to do. georgia has had some great senators. richard russell, who was really the master of the senate, a great friend of mine and a great mentor to our state. of the finest one

our state ever offered. saxby is going to be the fourth on the mount rushmore of georgia senators. he served georgia with distinction and class. joint years, we have done press conferences. we messed up twice. when i messed up, he covered my back and when he messed up, i covered his. in 2008, when he almost lost the race and got into a runoff, i rode the bus for 21 straight days, introducing him 20 times a day and eating barbecue every day for dinner and lunch. that is a price to pay that only friendship would bring out of anybody. he is a dear friend, a trusted person, and i love him and his family very much. i could talk all day, but i want saxby, i loveying you. this state is going to miss you, but our relationship has never been stronger.

may god bless you and your family and may god bless the united states of america. >> the senator from west virginia is recognized. >> i have only been here for four years. i came, let's just say it was not what i expected. you look for a little bit of a respite, if you will. my colleagues and my friends on the republican side, i did not come here looking at what side you were on. i looked at the person i was dealing with. there was a person defending me from almost the first day, knowing that the transition was a challenge. he stepped up to the plate with a few of my other friends over there, senator coburn behind him, and basically said, we can

all work together and get along. what we do here is bigger, for the greater good, then what we do for ourselves. basically, i was able to follow what he did. this chamber should be filled right now. it really should be. the bottom line is, you are loved by everybody. i have never heard any word an ill wordsexy -- spoke about saxby chambliss. your moral compass is working and working well. i can only tell you, thank you. you are an inspiration to us all. there will not be another saxby. glad they gave you the for this short time, for years. your partner in crime, senator burr, we hope he does not tell

it all when he gets up. with that being said, there are so many people that have a relationship that is unmatched and that is because of you. my hat is off to you. thank you and god bless you for what you have done for the united states of america and all of us. >> the senior senator from north carolina is recognized. >> this moment is bittersweet for me. withe spent more time saxby then i have my own wife for the last 20 years. we have done everything together. those vacation spots he mentioned, kabul, baghdad, i was right beside him. we traveled to areas of the world that others would not venture to. there was a reason he was there.

he was concerned about america's future. he was concerned about his children's future. he was in a position to have an impact on it, to make it better for them in the future. that is why he served. to our colleagues that he is a lot older than i am. but you know, he has worked just as hard as the youngest member of this institution. and even though we have seen each other's children grow up and now we have seen them all , he deserves the time to go home and spend some time with his grandchildren and, more importantly, to get to know his wife again. say, senator feinstein, i like great one just read i as saxby does

probably could not be bought as cheaply as he could, but i look forward to continuing to work with you and, more importantly, to continue to do the work on the intelligence committee that really does build on what saxby 2000, as wehe year went on the house intelligence committee together. tohink there is only one way sum up saxby chambliss. he is a true so in doubled -- a true southern gentleman. he is absolutely a statesman. but the one thing that everybody that meets saxby understands is this -- he is a great american. he loves this country. he loves this institution. and some piece of him that was made here, when he these at the end of this year, he will have an impact on what happens even though his presence might be

here -- might not be here. we wish him godspeed. >> the senior senator from indiana is recognized. >> out of order here, i was waiting for some of my colleagues who spent more time than i have to speak. but i want to take this sincereity to add my thanks to saxby chambliss for the kind of person he is, the kind of leadership he has provided, the kind of example he has set during his time here in congress and the united states senate. i was privileged to be able to come back to the senate and join a group of people who shared the

same deep concerns that i shared. the reason i did come back, threats to our country from abroad and the fiscal plunge into debt that is going to affect our nation dramatically in the future. but having the privilege of being with people who set such an example has been a great privilege for me. if i were a producer and a director of a movie that was going to come out about the united states senate, i would want saxby to be the leading man. first of all, he looks like a united states senator. , calm that southern presence that most of us envy. he just seems to fit the profile. choice would have to be

for the leading lady and you could not find a more gracious, beautiful, supportive leading lady then juliann chambliss. they make a stunning couple. i have had the privilege of and seeingith them them in different places and situations. is to tremendous gift it be with the both of them. united states senate, many of us here are going to delete this saxby chambliss. he comes from a line of distinguished senators representing the state of georgia. as senator burr said, he fits right in to that long list of people whose tenure here has been remembered for decades and will continue to be remembered for decades. and his commitment to our men

, hisomen in uniform service to the agriculture hisunity, and particularly leadership of the intelligence committee has just been leadership that this country has needed in a time of dire circumstances. his work with chairman feinstein in dealing with the daily pressures and weight of responsibility that falls on the leadership and all of us who serve every committee, but particularly the leadership of , itintelligence committee is very difficult. decisions have had to be made. i sometimes came out of the committee thinking, this is more than i can get my mind around.

this is more than i can get my arms around in terms of how we deal with some of these threats and challenges that pop up over the world in various manifestations. and yet the leadership on the republican side, saxby chambliss united us in a way that forged a real bond and a desire to work on a nonpartisan basis to provide oversight for the intelligence community and to be a part of helping make those decisions that are so important and formative in terms of how we deal with these particular issues. forst want to thank saxby the person he has been, the person he is, the person he will continue to be, for the example he has set, for his friendship, and for his extraordinary leadership. the refrigerator will be stocked with coca-cola. there will be georgia peanuts in

his pocket. maybe a little bit of bourbon in a drawer somewhere and he will have a teatime at augusta just about anytime he wants. i just wish him the very best. ann go forward with their lives. she has left his mark here and he has certainly left his mark on me. >> the senator from oklahoma is recognized. >> thank you a lot has been said about saxby already. that ian observation have noticed over the last 10 years since i have been here. it is about leadership. we see elected leadership on both sides. but then you see real leadership. you see the person that people go to for device. -- for advice. you see the person that people go to for counsel. you see the person that people

go to for wisdom and judgment. noticed the i have last 10 years. ,ore than anybody in this body whether it is from the other side of the aisle or this side of the aisle, the person who is most sought, the council that is most sought is that of saxby chambliss. leadership.ned real and it needs to be recognized and honored for what it is. is it ishat it says leadership that comes without judgment on the person in question. without combination -- condemnation of a position that may be different than his, giving himself for the benefit of the rest of us. ear, hear, my friend from

georgia. is an honor for me to stand here and pay tribute to saxby chambliss. time that ifirst really got to work around saxby to be secretary of agriculture and i think the first hearing saxby chaired as chairman of the senate ag committee might have been that hearing. i arrived in washington and i was scared to death. i had no idea what to expect. i met with saxby and i knew immediately that when i was in that hearing, i was going to be treated with dignity and with notect because he would have it any other way. that is the way he did business.

fortunately, i was confirmed and that started a working relationship. , i will not try to argue that we agreed on every ce ofants of -- every nuan foreign policy. i am positive there were times that saxby was convinced i did not know a thing about southern agriculture. but he was patient with me and with all agriculture, whether it was south, west, midwest. his goal was to be the chairman of the ag committee for all of agriculture. in that time, the farm bill written and he was a tough negotiator. he had a mind in terms of where he was headed and he was going to stand up for his people. . came to respect him so much it was in the senate where i really begin to understand his

talent. i cannot tell you how many times that we have been in a caucus asking and somebody would the most intricate, difficult question relating to intelligence and national security. invariably, we would turn to saxby. in that quietand but forceful way he has. he would walk us through the intricacies of the issues on whatever the topic was and explain it in a way that literally everybody in the room understood, got it, and walked out better-prepared to be senators with the information he had given us.

what has impressed me so much, and i know i speak for my colleagues when i say this, is you could do the same thing with the most intricate issue relative to farm policy, , hence, or federal budget could do the same thing. the breath of his knowledge is breadth ofle -- the his knowledge is unbelievable. i want to thank you for the many times when you probably disagreed with me immensely but treated me thoughtfully and respectfully, listened to my opinion. and i saw you do that with other members of this body. i thank you for your service. members, the retiring i will look forward to the opportunity to spend more time with you. paths cross many times in the future because i

know i will be the better for it. god bless you, my friend. best wishes. >> the senator from ohio is recognized. >> i am so proud to be here to say a couple of words about my friend saxby. he is beloved. alsoenators who just spoke is choosing to leave us. i got to tell you, they leave a huge void. when he came saxby to the house of representatives in the early 1990's. i was there and we became friends. although i was a kid from ohio and he was from the south, he embraced me. a great family. i really did not get to know him. i got to know him when he was trade representative and my job

was to try to open up markets for u.s. agricultural products around the world. that required looking at something called subsidies, agriculture subsidies. this is a dangerous area in terms of politics. mike johanns is very well aware of this, having been there during many of the negotiations. my job was to come to the agriculture committee and talk about what we were up to and find out how much flexibility there was for us to get these markets open, because it was so important for our markets and rent -- our ranchers. i learned a new saxby chambliss. that is when i saw the leadership that was talked about earlier. saxby was willing to be not just constructive, but to take that risk and to be totally discrete and confidential in dealing with very sensitive issues. i came away with a whole new level of understanding about

saxby and a new respect for him and his character and his willingness to do what is right. more recently, we have seen his leadership on other issues, standing up for our men and women in uniform. to me, he has been the guardian at the gate, giving us all comfort as ranking member of the intelligence committee. we live in a dangerous world and knowing that saxby was there, clear-i'd, -- clear-eyed, disciplined, and discrete, has given our families and americans considerable comfort. i appreciate your service. finally, he is willing to step up on this issue of our national debt. this is not an easy issue and he joined with some colleagues here to promote some proposals. again, colleagues who are leaving have all done this. tom coburn, mike johanns.

i will always have a great deal of respect for the way he has handled that issue as well. youaps despite everything have heard about him today, his greatest accomplishment has yet to be mentioned. and that is the fact that he played golf with the president of the united states and managed to hit a hole in one. the press report from the day says two things that are interesting. first, it says that he hit a hole-in-one on the south course. the son of the south chose to use the south course, of course, for his all-in-one. quote, "t says, and i he was joking up on a five iron." taking nothing away from his hole in one, that makes no sense for saxby jam there is nobody more poised, more smooth. i have never seen him choke on

anything. but saxby, we are sad to see you leave but happy that you get to spend more time with juliann and the kids and your beloved bulldogs. godspeed, my friend. >> mr. president, i rise to just thank my friend, saxby chambliss. senator coburn spoke about leadership and we are very much going to miss senator coburn, senator johanns, and their leadership in this body. but what he said is very true. as someone who has only served here for four years, one of the people that has been most and really ame mentor and a role model and someone who i have sought guidance from is saxby chambliss. body and yout this look at people that you can

emulate as role models, i think that saxby chambliss is one of those role models. not only is he incredibly knowledgeable on the issues that are so important to this nation -- and i can say, having served with him on the armed services committee, he is one of the most knowledgeable people in this country, not only on what we need to do to keep the country safe because of his role on the intelligence committee, but also what we need to ensure that our men and women in uniform have the very best to keep our country safe. understandingep and very much love as our men and women in uniform and has stood for them in ensuring that they have gotten what they need to keep this country safe. from my perspective, he is someone that is going to be so missed in this body because he

has understood that you can stand on principle, as he has, for the important challenges facing this nation, whether it is keeping us safe or addressing the national debt that threatens not only our security, but the prosperity of america, but he has also done it in a way that he has been able to build relationships. owntionships within our conference in the republican caucus, where he is the go-to leader. people like me seek his advice on how to get things done. but also the relationships across the aisle. as we go into the new congress, saxby goes on to do other important things with his andly family and juliann his children and grandchildren, that we will follow the example of saxby chambliss, of what it means to work together, what it

means to be respectful of each other, to get things done for this country, and to address the great challenges that saxby has done so much important work on, including keeping our nation safe and making sure that america remains strong. saxby, i just want to thank you for being so welcoming to me, for being a role model, and for being someone who i think is an example of what it means to serve this country with distinction. thank you. >> after serving 18 years, louisiana senator mary landrieu is stepping down in january. she is the chair of the small business and entrepreneurship committee and recently gave her farewell speech on the senate floor, followed by tributes from her colleagues. this is one hour and 15 minutes. president, the senator from louisiana.

>> it is my joy to take a few minutes on the floor to give a farewell message to my colleagues and i thank you for your courtesy. i want to begin with this scripture, philippians 4:17, god reads, "in the piece of that surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus." for the first time in my adult life, i have felt that extraordinary piece -- peace. it is something unexpected but something that i expect -- that i accept. it has been an amazing place. as a christian, as an adult, as a leader, to find yourself in at a time that should be sadness, but all i feel is

joy. it is amazing. it has never happened with me before, so i thought it would be wonderful to share with my supporters and friends and families -- and family and staff and colleagues, to just say that it is absolutely true. this extraordinary peace. days before the election and since then. i think it is because i feel and god called me to another place. before being a senator and a christian daughter, a , and my fate is central to my life and my parents always taught me to put my faith where it belongs, in god himself. it is really the sense of gratitude and the joy that i have been given an opportunity to serve my faith and my region and my country for now almost 34

years, which is quite amazing. having started at a very young age and still relatively young, i could share some remarks about that time, and particularly the time here in the senate. i want to begin by thanking my family, and particularly my extraordinary husband, frank, on has been a partner election night, not only encouraging and supportive, but egging me on when i wanted to quit. he said, no, you have got to continue to serve. an accomplished professional, but also an elected official in his own right and came from a family that was dedicated to public service, having both parents active in politics. first, the democratic party and then the republican party, which

is a whole other story. always encouraging me and willing to share the burdens of public life as well as sharing in the great joy. our son connor, who is now 23 years old. our daughter, mary shannon, is now 17. the reason i say that is because connor was 5 when we were elected to the senate. , it was about the first year she was here. election night, she looked at me and she was so beautiful at 17, and she said, mom, it is going to be a little strange. i have only known you as a senator. i amned her that now that going to be a full-time mother, this is a real problem for her. she is not looking forward to it. and to our new daughter, laura emily, and our precious little maddox parker, who many saw on election night. maddox is 10 months old, but he

gave me the most joy. i have a picture of him during all of my debates. i would keep a picture of him because they kept telling me, you have got to smile more. i say, i cannot because i am really aggravated. no, you have to smile. my solution was to put a picture of maddox on the podium so i could smile through the whole debate. that is the trick. , who areher and father the light of our community, the light of the nation, in many children have, nine and 37 grandchildren and now six great-grandchildren. they are in wonderful help and they are watching right now. i can only say that they are the most extraordinary individuals i have ever known and our family is blessed by their sacrificial leadership. here -- and arrived

let me also say, to my eight , all m's -- sisters that is another story -- and all of my spouses and nieces and nephews who campaigned with me to the last day. i was teaching him how to knock doors before they came -- before the campaign was over so the tradition could live on. when i first got here 18 years ago, i could not find the side door. i did not know anything. i was not even expecting to be here. i got here a little bit like in a dream. i had run for governor and wanted to be a governor. i knew that that was what i was being called to do. i wanted to change our education

system and do some cultural work and i landed here. i literally knew nothing or how to be a senator. i stumbled a great deal in my first year, but i want to thank my chief of staff. i have had the most remarkable chiefs of staff who learned how to do this job and do it well and never forgot where we came from. working tore still make our state the very best that it can be and to make our country the very best that it can be. three staffers who have been with me almost 20 years, the longest-serving office manager in the senate was here when i arrived and stayed with me. another former staffer was with me for 22 years.

and now my longtime state director. she has been with the senate almost 30 years and has managed extraordinary -- johnson has stayed with me and given her life to hundreds of thousands of cases in louisiana and trained every case worker that i had for 18 years and they just did phenomenal work. i want to submit for the record my current staff. all of them are here. security staff. i want to thank don craven, again, who is my chief of staff. to -- gupta, group head of homeland security. i know i am leaving them in good hands. minutes, so ifew am going to run through a couple

of the highlights of some of the accomplishments that i am most proud of. this opportunity to thank so many that helped. one thing i have learned that is most certainly true is that if you want to accomplish really big things here, really great things, really generational things, you cannot do that alone. the first thing you need to do is look for a good partner. i mean a partner that will be with you through thick and thin. sometimes you are lucky enough to find this kind of ardor. i found them on the sides of the aisle. introducedll that i was a major piece of legislation . it was something that was on my that was so long and the consummation and reinvestment act. the cosponsors of that bill were ,rom alaska, mississippi

louisiana, and california. chris. joined me a few days later after we introduced it. by the end of this effort, although this particular bill did not pass and we missed it by inches, and i will describe what we had 500 minute, organizations in the country, from the sierra club to the chamber of commerce and everyone in between. and a broad coalition. lamarr alexander knows more about this than i could ever tell you. the udall's and the udalls'' fathers. was madepromise that but never kept, that this country would set aside $900 million a year to purchase land recreational

opportunities because this country is so blessed, more than any on the earth. the amount of natural resources we have, we have not lived up to that promise. i introduced this bill as a young legislator. the said, you do not even -- even know what you are doing. how are you introducing a bill like this? but we never passed it. of every energy legislation since the day that we introduced it. i am very hopeful that that work will go on. , thenator murkowski daughter of frank murkowski, and to theantwell, who got senate because she defeated one of the gentlemen who opposed us shehis bill, i know that will be committed to finish the work. it did three things. if fully funded the land and water conservation fund, a trust

fund that will go on for generations. coastal, it will help sheldon whitehouse in his work. it will help cory booker in new jersey. correctly, it will be grants that these coastal communities can use until we figure out how to clean our atmosphere and stop the tremendous pressure that is coming on our coast. louisiana knows this. we have experience the worst disasters in the history of our country and they are only getting worse. i will talk about that in a minute. because we laid the groundwork, me.menici felt so sorry for he knew how hard we had worked and the coalition was so disappointed when we lost that he directed with a stroke of a

billion to the gulf coast and the energy bill for 2005. that money was divided, 50% for louisiana and 50% to the other states. i can promise everyone here that the $500 million that went to louisiana, we can account for every penny. we know exactly where it went. we put it down as a down payment to restore our coast. it does not just belong to us. it belongs to the whole nation. this is the seventh-largest delta in the planet. it is what thomas jefferson leveraged to purchase. it is something worth fighting for. we would not be a country without the mississippi delta and we could never have found our way west if we could not supply the great center of this nation with the commerce that they need. every state along the river, 19 of them, use this river and understand what i am talking about.

she is at the top of this river and i am at the bottom. we have talked about how important that cora door is -- that corridor is. and then the gulf of mexico security act. and one of the most wonderful leaders i have ever worked with, he has eight children and we have nine. we felt like we came from sort of the same background. he is filled with such ration. he joined with me in passing the gulf of mexico energy security act, which finally secured a stream for coastal. but it left out the land and water and wildlife. it all andt lift that needs to be corrected. finally, the restore act, which i worked with with my colleagues -- which i worked on with my colleagues. gallons -- barrels of oil in the gulf.

thanks to this extraordinary woman who has been a partner with me -- we think very differently about the world and see the world very differently, but i will tell you anything about barbara boxer. if i had to be in a foxhole, i would be with her. she never stopped fighting. she and i are very much alike. once we set our minds on something, there is no dividing us. people said, why did i send her money for reelection? why did i raise so much money in louisiana? i would do it again. upshe would not have stood when that bp oil spill went down and said, i am chair of this committee, i believe that the gulf coast deserves this funding, we just would not have it read it is as simple as that. people do not know how powerful chairman are around here. when a chairman makes up his mind, and says, this is what i want to do, and barbara said

and the ranking member put his shoulder to the wheel and we were able to get a serious down payment on one of the great ecological disasters of our state, of our country, which is the loss of the gulf coast. louisiana. just the this is texas and mississippi and it is going to affect parts of the whole country. but we are on the mend. i came here to do that work. i came here to find money. i found it and we are going to continue that work. i am thrilled to work with so many of you to get that done. greatcation, i found a soulmate in lamarr alexander, secretary of education, former governor, presidential candidate, and absolutely extraordinarily committed to finding a better way for our children to be educated. are of it at the turn-of-the-century, when people in the world were wondering how

you build a middle-class in the world and lots of countries were struggling with how to do that, america new that if you educate your citizens and women, boys and girls, not just boys, which is what half the world still does, which is a tragedy, but if we would open up our schools for universal, free education, it would lift our country to greatness, unsurpassed in the history of the world. what breaks my heart is to walking to school today, and you know this because you were governor of virginia, and to see children's eyes just completely there completely bored. teachers that are going through the motions. it breaks my heart because not only does it limit their life, but it limits the potential of our nation. with lamarr alexander and a handful of democrats, i was proud to work with george bush and with bill clinton to pass a series of laws.

joe lieberman and a group of us stood up and say, it is time to stop sending money to the states without accountability. we need to hold states accountable and we need to give opportunities for choice for and public charter schools. i am reluctant to go too far on vouchers. you have heard my speech on that and you have heard senator feinstein's speech on that. both of us have agreed to support some kind of strategic vouchers that help poor kids get out of failing schools until we can fix them. but most importantly, i support public charter schools. i will continue to fight for that for the rest of my days. i want to thank all of you that helped on that and particularly tom carper on the democratic side. lamarr alexander, cory booker. durbin.nt to thank dick

i had to twist his arm a little bit on some of it, but he ended up coming around and he is an amazing fighter for the right kinds of public schools that serve the children first. the bureaucracy and administration second. i respect teachers and administrators, but our schools should work for the children and the families that so desperately want them to have a great education. the third issue a want to speak about, which is a legacy issue, is adoption. i hope i can get through this without tearing up because i do not know why i have this passion for this issue. my mother had nine children. without one single problem. child, my a young aunt adopted two children and i think it might have been that. i cannot remember exactly. i just think about all of the children in the world that did not have parents.

when i was just so proud filled out those forms in catholic school, i remember filling them out, are your parents divorced or married? i loved checking married. how many siblings do you have? i love putting eight. i was so proud of my family. what would children do without parents? i could not imagine. my husband was adopted out of an orphanage. i thought, yes, this is going in the right direction. i thought i would adopt children. i thought he would not say no because he was adopted himself. sure enough, we ended up adopting two children. what my passion was before i met my husband and before i thought about adopting. god just put this in my heart. oberstar,to thank jim who is deceased, tom from

virginia, larry is no longer ,ere, who served as my cochair and jesse hamilton. i thought he was a really nice guy. everybody later had to tell me how hard he was to get along with. and knewnt up to him he would want to help because he adopted a child. i do not think a lot of people realize that. we passed a great treaty together that served as the international model for adoption today. and joe biden was the ranking member on the committee. and go'srey helms support, we passed a great treaty years ago and we are still in the process of making that permanent where possible and working it through. it compliments are quite long so i will submit them for the record only to say that the adoption tax credit, which bob casey worked on and took up that i got here, i am glad

that we can keep it. and to amy klobuchar, how much i appreciate her stepping in. in lawrence lot, who will take it on the republican side. there are over 100,000 children who are waiting for families in the united states. 500,000 children who think it is their fault that they are there. it is not their fault that their family disintegrated around them. it is not their fault that they got pregnant at 11 and were kicked out of the house instead of a family wrapping a child in their arms and helping them to grow. they just put them out on the street. it is not their fault. we need to realize that god does not make trash. he never has and he never will. everybody that he has made has a purpose and dignity. we need to honor that and to go to work.

heree spent a lot of time on it. i will continue to read i will never stop working on it. i am very proud of the worst death -- the work that i have done. finally, i could not be prouder to become the chair of this committee. it was quite a miracle. i did not expect it. i never thought i would last long enough to become the chair because there were so many people ahead of me. it just kind of worked out when max left to go to china and tim was retiring. it fell to me. it has been my great joy. with lisa murkowski as my ranking member, of course. i worked with her father. i did not sit next to him because i was a junior member, but i worked with him and it is wonderful working with her. i am so proud that maria cantwell will step up and take

that leadership. i know the two of them work you to play together. they do see the world differently, but they are two women that know how to compromise and will be respectful of each other and find a way for our country to move forward. i can just tell you all that my whole life, it has been a pretty good run in public office. there has never been a time when america has been closer to energy independence. what that means to our country is beyond description it is just the on description. beyonds just description. we do not have to listen to parts of the world that do not hold our values. we can lift our country up and move forward. it has to be a combination of fossil fuels and manufacturing right here in america. i hope that you all will just put down the swords, i guess, and pick up the plow and plow together. because this is an amazing

opportunity for our country and i sure hope we do not miss it. it is going to benefit and make the whole country, not just our part of the country, more prosperous. people desperately want to move up in the middle class and stay there and not feel so fragile and feel like they could have good manufacturing jobs and good energy jobs and eliminate some of this geopolitical nightmare that we have been in, fighting wars for oil. it has got to come to an end. finally, i want to say a word about disaster recovery. senate, myto the husband and i were looking at each other saying, how did we end up here. we had no idea. thiscame very clear that is why i needed to be here. i have been an appropriator since i was 23 years old. i knew a little bit about budgets, how the system worked,

i knew how the state and local governments depended on the federal government so much for so much funding. i understood the power of housing and building schools and levees and the court engineers. i was perfectly positioned to be able to lead the effort for my state. they desperately needed a leader. i was not perfect. i made lots of mistakes. i was not afraid to try because that is all you can do. the devastation was so unbelievable. 80% of the east bank of the city and much of jefferson parish and all of st. bernard, 67,000 people in st. bernard lost everything. everyone in the lower ninth ward lost everything, which is like a small city to itself. 60,000 people lost every school, every house.

it was just unbelievable. i want to say to my colleagues, thank you for being there for us. i know i aggravated you to death. hopeou were the only because there was no way these communities could recover. and new orleans has been there for 300 years. we did not move down there recently to build condos. we have been there for 3000 -- 300ebt 300 hits years. has invested a little bit of the money back that we have given it over time. from energy resources, manufacturing, well that we created. us aountry has given little bit of money, $500 million here, $500 million there, and build levees, we would not have had $140 billion in damage. bush was not that

forward-leaning. let's just leave it at that. there will be a lot more in my book about it. but i will leave it at that. the person that i went to was robert byrd. he looked at me and did not say much at that time but took my hand and said, i will be there with you. he was the chair of the appropriations so that meant something. boy, he was. he would help me write ends in a bill that can never possibly be possible today. that chairman understood the power to help people to heal wounds and bring hope and be compassionate and that is what the government is there to do. if government is not there when you lost everything, what in the heck is worth happening? if it cannot be there in times like this, what is the point? we hope will be able to raise -- repay the country for the investment you made and we will.

we will do our best. with all of the people who come to new orleans and the conventions and we hope we bring joy and happiness when people use to pay our way and pay back over time for what you've done to help us. we are doing a good job of helping ourselves by planning better and doing more smart growth sustainable and building out levees to the places where they will not break again. and we will continue to do that. legacyre some of the pieces that i have worked on and it's kind of amazing that these were the things that which in my heart when i was a little girl. i do not learned this when i was a senator. i can remember taking a bus when i was in the eighth grade down to the coast. the poor onerom part of uptown, i kept looking and said what world is this? i had no idea. and when i got to be a senator,

i remember the bayou. i remembered how fragile it looked even as a child. i thought if i could do anything to save this place, i will. i've spent a lot of time saving it. it is still not completely saved but much stronger. when i tutored at public schools, my passion started when the nuns sent me. a little girl that i tutored who was my age could interbreed. i can remember going home to my mother and saying, this is the strangest thing. i met a little girl and she cannot read. is that possible that children do not know how to read? her explain why some children could not read. and i've made up my mind then that i would work. this becausesay there are a lot of young people listening and i want you to know, listen to your heart. god put these things on your heart at a young age.

if you are not cynical, those dreams can come true. you can make a profound afference in rebuilding school system, which i am continuing to work on and making sure everybody knows they are loved and we are going to work hard to find a family to build this great gulf coast where i spent my life growing up. and no it is worth saving. it may not be as sexy as the west coast coast or possibly the east coast what the gulf coast is worth fighting for. is a special place in our country and i learned to love as a child. finally, let me just say a few in closing. , --ank you to my midterm mentor who coached me every step of the way. and to my mentor, john, who got mandy they get in the first place. and talk to me about being on

the committee. dashiell who saved my skin. and richard a. baker and my delegation who were democrats and republicans and work together to do amazing things. and richard worked closely with me. two other members who are no longer here, the first two women to chair a major committee. or a minor committee, the small business. member of aing major committee, i cannot have worked with two more remarkable women. joe lieberman who was a leader and a great mentor of mine. on foreign-policy issues. , who was asstevens grumpy as could be, but really took me under his wing and taught me a lot.

and senator roberts and danny and i am going to put others into the record. mccalusky.cko ski -- blackspecial word to the caucus. i represent 30% african american in my state. all groups of people are hard to represent and my status so diverse. i tried so hard to be respectful of all of the different groups in my state. the blackthank caucus, the local elected officials, the national black great for being such a partner with me in helping to understand about compassion, forgiveness, faith, and trusting. it is so amazing. and i thank them very much for coming down to help me. they encourage me to run when i was 23 years old and i tried never to leave them.

only 8% of my state is organized. i have never left them. you should really thank the people that brought you to the dance and they most certainly did. i want to thank harry reid was been amazing for you and has been a great friend to my family and he has honored us and so many small ways. i just admire him for his tenacity and leadership. and so i thank you all and i hope i do not loop -- leave anyone out. it has been a joy. but i know god is calling for me to a different plays. i am not the least bit sad or afraid. a remarkable been opportunity to serve with all of you and i thank you very much. thank you. [applause]

chris the senator from louisiana. >> mr. president, i arrived to senator landrieu f.a.r. for tireless service in the u.s. country. i've had the pleasure of knowing mary for a long time. she was in her second year of service in the senate when i first came to washington to the u.s. house. but it's far longer than that; probably longer than anyone in this chamber realizes. both sets of my grandparents lived all of three blocks from where mary grew up, and i grew up all of ten blocks from there.

mary and my brother jeff were grammar school classmates starting at kindergarten. of course here in the senate i had the honor to work with her on so many important issues and challenges. and from the moment we worked together on key louisiana issues, we determined on those issues to put aside any partisan concerns when those crucial priorities were at stake. as she alluded to, the most challenging and trying time in all of that experience was just a few months after i first came to the senate when hurricanes katrina and rita struck. neither of us could have ever imagined facing the challenges our state, mississippi and others faced. and facing the challenges we faced in the senate trying to

respond in a robust and full and responsible way. i'm sure it was the most trying work of both of us in our careers. louisiana faced unprecedented disaster and desperation, and that brought us together all the more to work for those crucial louisiana needs and priorities. we traveled together, of course, to see the damage and meet with our neighbors, local leaders all around the state. her staff and mine worked directly together around the clock really for months, sometimes in my office, sometimes in hers, always with the same goal of doing everything possible to help our neighbors and louisiana citizens get through that disaster and get through to a full recovery. those trials, of course, didn't end with katrina and rita.

there were other similar challenges that brought us together and on which mary was a distinguished leader. she was always a champion for domestic energy production and louisiana will enjoy a far fair share of oil and gas revenue under the legislation commonly referred to as domenici-landrieu. after the infamous b.p. oil spill in 2010, mary pushed for the restore act, legislation that dedicated revenue from the funds to oil spill recovery in the affected areas. as louisiana fights continually against the loss of coastal wetlands, major restoration work is moving forward because of mary's years of hard work directly related to that. due to mary's strong support of our nation's military, our

fighting men and women are better off, bases in louisiana, important to our communities and to the nation's defense continue to have what they need for their vital missions. our veterans face challenges, and most recently face the crying need for new health care clinics in louisiana, and mary helped make those finally happen, finally move forward, including pushing the case fervently and directly to administration officials. and in a very personal dramatic way, mary is enthusiastic in promoting children's welfare and supporting adoption. her dedication internationally was recognized when russia banned her travel after her direct and well-founded criticism of russia's actions to curb adoptions by americans. in all of this work, one thing

is always crystal clear, certainly crystal clear to me with senator landrieu. louisiana has always been first in her heart and her top motivation. and she has had a distinguished service of career in the senate on all of those issues i mentioned and many more. everyone in louisiana gives her our sincere thanks for that. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i'm going to do a quick interlude to send a bill over to the house. i ask unanimous consent the energy committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 2640 and the senate proceed to its consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 2640, an act to amend the wild and scenic rivers academy and so forth -- rivers act and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is

there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the merkley substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and label label made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i just say a couple words before i turn over the chair to my colleague from west virginia. when i think of mary landrieu, i think of the most tenacious person in the senate standing here, holding forth, fighting for her home, fighting for her values, fighting for her state. i think particularly of the hard work she did on flood insurance, on this issue that was so critical to the state of louisiana, very important to my state too in oregon and many of our other states, but particularly in louisiana.

and she was determined, and every time i was on the floor she would say jeff, have you done this? and jeff, have you done that? then she would grab someone else and say now we've got to do this. that is how legislation gets done. you really drive things through the u.s. senate. it's one thing to be here and express your ideas in kind of a social manner. well, wouldn't this be nice or wouldn't that be nice? it's another to stand here and say i'm going to make this happen because it's important, important to my constituents, important to our nation. and i've seen mary landrieu do that on issue after issue after issue. and certainly for all who came in my class six years ago it has been a wonderful education on really how to make maximum use and effectiveness from this privilege of serving the u.s. senate. thank you for everything you have done, mary landrieu. it's an honor to serve with you and we are going to miss you

greatly. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, all of us came here at one time or another and the first impression you have is the first people you meet and how they kind of ingratiate you and bring you into their fold. i'm often asked and i'm sure others are asked the same question, who do you consider your best or closest friend? who do you associate with? who do you feel comfortable with? any category without a doubt it is always mary landrieu. we come from a similar background, rural states, hardworking people that basically don't ask for an awful lot and give a lot more back. come from a large catholic family, both of us do. we have an awful lot in common. our spouses and us together have bonded and we've done together which is the way i heard the place used to work, that you build relationships and there's

camaderie and you share dinners at people's homes. it is a different atmosphere when that happens because you really do forge a bond. but there's so much missing in this body, but let me just say one other thing. the great losers, the greatest loser in this whole election process we just has was the great people of louisiana. they lost a champion. they lost a fighter. just what senator merkley said, there's nobody, there's nobody that says i think you ought to be careful about that because i think mary's interested. we knew there could be problems. and with that being said, the best thing to do is go talk to mary. we're on this subject or issue and we'd work through it. how do we compromise and bring everybody together? mary said we would work through it. the two of us being democrats, on our side sometimes our individual caucus is not as large as we would like for it to be -- let's put it that way but we would talk an awful lot about how we would be moving energy policies. mary said we need it all in this

country. we should be totally energy independent. we shouldn't be looking for other countries and buying their products and giving them resources to be used against us and we don't have to do it and we can do it in a sensible way with a balance of the economy and the environment. and mary has always had the economy and the environment always first and foremost. that type of balance is hard to find and it's definitely hard to find in washington. i just want her to know that there's nobody going to miss mary landrieu more than me, meaning this body, going shoulder to shoulder with and trying to bring an even keel to this parole process. so, may -- to this whole process. so mary, i feel for the people of louisiana. i truly do. i'm hoping that somebody can come along and have the same spirit and fight that you have but nobody will be able to replace you. what you've been able to do and what you've been able to make us aware of, my little state was involved in helping katrina, helping the state of louisiana. the state of west virginia came in immediately. when that happened and we were

so proud to be part of that. and then we have a lot people in louisiana living in west virginia today because of that effort. so there's been a wonderful relationship, a wonderful friendship. but more important, a wonderful person who has graced the halls in this tremendous body for 18 years. that will not be replaced in this senate, in this body. and again, people of louisiana should be extremely proud to have someone that was a fighter, that gave every drop she had of public service for her state. never forgot where she's come from. that is a tremendous tribute in and of itself. i say to my dear friend thank you for your service. on behalf of of the people of louisiana who i know are very proud, thank you on their behalf but more importantly what you've done for our country. god bless you, honey. i love you. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, you can say mary landrieu has a lot of friends on both sides of the aisle, and that is because mary has stood up and been a mentor to so many of us.

she's taught us how to fight for our own states because that's what she's done every day for louisiana. i was thinking about our states. mary mentioned in her talk how minnesota is at the top of the mississippi and louisiana is at the bottom, and how hard we fought for river issues and for barges and for locks and dams and we're actually going to have some success at the end of the year here with the able act, which is really important for other reasons, but also we're finally going to start funding some of those lock and dam improvements. that kind of work wouldn't have happened without mary and the work she's done and the support for the river act. so a river doesn't divide us, it unites us, and mary is a uniter and brings people together on so many issues. and she said before that she was going to put some things on the record on adoption, but i thought i would just take the opportunity to fill people in. first of all, mary established the congressional coalition on adoption and its institute, and

anyone, if you haven't gone, colleagues, to some of the events where she literally brings in the people who have adopted people in the most dire of circumstances and brings them to washington to celebrate these adoptions and talk about the policy changes that need to be made. anyone who hasn't adopted one of the foster kids and brought them in as an office and adopted them that you can do, you can do that because mary landrieu started that program, so that foster children who wouldn't otherwise maybe have the connections or the wherewithal to be able to get a job for the summer in washington, d.c., or over the spring or the fall, mary did that. and then she had all these kids to her house every single year. and mary doesn't just fight for adoptive kids at home, she fights for them all over the world. i would hate to be the bureaucrats in guatemala when mary landrieu showed up to fight them off, and i see her staff, probably some of them were with her on that trip. i think she knew the name of every child that was waiting to be adopted in guatemala.

and how can we forget the meeting with the russians when they started to use these poor little children as pawns in a political game, mary stood up to them. and as a result as many of us know, she has now been banned from the country of russia. and i think what maybe not everyone knows is the reason she was banned is that she was fighting for these kids that are waiting to be adopted. many of them are in my state, the guarantees, and they actually have siblings and they're trying to adopt the other sibling. that is a very sad story, and mary stood up to then. and in the words of her dad, putin, isn't that shoe he said it, didn't like it. and so mary got banned, and so i guess that's where she is not going on vacation after we're done here. the other thing about mary that i will never forget and how kind and sweet she is and fun for her friends in the senate is the time when we had a bet on the saints-vikings games in the play-off, and we bet some food from our states, and if many

remember that amazing play-off game, the vikings lost and i had to wear a drew brees jersey and walk over to mary's office with a pot of gumbo, which is really hard to make. and i got to her office and all of her new orleans press was there and she tried that gumbo and she said ahh, this is minnesota gumbo. this gumbo just needs something special. and she got out this enormous bottle of hot sauce from her desk drawer, as only a louisiana senator would have, and dumped it in my minnesota gumbo. that's the spice that mary has added to all of our lives, and what we have learned from her we will never forget. as i said, a role model for so many of us on how to fight for our state. and what we know when we see it in the eyes of those little adopted children, when we see it in the great success we're starting to see on the coast and all the recovery that you brought to your state. we know that you will never be forgotten, and we want you to keep fighting.

thank you, mary. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: i can't leave the floor right now without saying things to you because you have been such an incredible inspiration to me. i have been in the senate now 13 months. i have had a number of conversations with you, but the best way to teach somebody is to show somebody, and you are prodigiously persuasive. tirelessly tenacious. doggedly determined. just to watch you is to watch what every american should hope for to have a senator that will be unyielding in their work and service to them. and what amazed me is if you look at the myriad of interests in the state of louisiana, i saw firsthand how you stood up and fought for the people who are loud and honorary but still had a good cause and the people that were voiceless and humble.

you stood up for them. you stood up for people in your community who were from every different background, that were from every different race. you stood up to them in a way that was a model to my state. i heard my senior senator mention you by name about how essential you were when my state had its back against the wall, crushed by a super storm, that when there was those battles to get my state funding, you had no skin in that game. my senior senator mentioned you as a champion for new jersey, and that what blows me away about you, is that i yearn for a government that has moral courage more than we have now. people that will risk popularity for purpose, that will risk substance for some kind of celebrity. you have done things that were against your political interests but were for the people.

that's what has me have a great deal of reverence for you and why i travel down to your state. now, you know this because i must have said it a hundred times when i was down in louisiana, that that is my ancestral state, and i just want to end by saying this -- my granddaddy was born in monroe. he was born poor. as my family likes to say, so poor he couldn't afford to be poor, he was po, p-o. he was born to a single missouri ma. he was born black at a time of immense segregation, when people that walked hallways of power couldn't give a dam about him. and he taught me love for your state. and more importantly, the urgency to stand up and fight for those people that most folks won't fight for. i'm telling you right now my granddaddy died during my first big election, but if he knew you, he would be so proud of your service.

thank you from the bottom of my heart. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: i echo all the comments that people said today, but also, mary, i have to be honest with you when i got elected, i was scared of you. i was not sure -- people said it very politely, check with mary if she has an issue on something. i was terrified of what people had told me you would do if you weren't kind of on your side. and so the first thing i wanted to do -- and if you remember when i came in, we doubled the oil and gas caucus in the democratic caucus by me just joining, and so we had an immediate connection which was unique in itself and our connection wasn't just that, but also our mentor lindy boggs who our family knows the boggs very well, and i can still remember a call i got when i won my mayor's

race in 2003 from this woman in louisiana. i still remember to this day. my staff cms in, said some woman is calling from louisiana. we don't know who it is but she wants to talk to you. i say okay, i take the phone call. it's lindy boggs. you know how she could say things. she said hi, darling. i just want to check in with you, see how you're doing, congratulations. then she said one moment, someone's at my door. she went and she came back. she said i have got to go, the exterminator is here. classic lindy boggs. what was so real about her -- and i could see it in your style, and that is you're real. the work you have done -- and i didn't know it until i came to the senate -- foster kids, adoption. amy klobuchar went through in great detail. and it just shows that it's not always about the policy and the fights on the floor here, but there is so much that individuals do outside of these

chambers, and what you have done outside the chambers is use this position to make a difference for young people, it is powerful. because every one of those young people, you know, as you said, we fight over policy and issues, but every one of those young people have been touched in some way, and i guarantee it and i'm sure you have seen it over the years, someone might come up to you and say i don't know if you remember me and then they would tell you the story of how you met them when they were a foster kid, when they were just getting adopted, or you were at one of the ceremonies or one event that they were at. those are the things that i will remember about you, the tenacity that people talked about, there is no question about it. i was glad when i got on the appropriation committee because i thought finally i will be on there with someone who is going to chew it up with me. i just had to hang onto your coattails when you were fighting on the issues. when we sat in those leadership meetings on tuesday morning, i was always thankful when you came in. you were right across from me.

i don't know if they all figured it out. maybe again they had a confession a little bit. we had our signals. it wasn't many, just a couple eye contacts, and then we went to work. and you really were incredible. when you were in caucus -- and many of you will see that except as members -- you were always passionate about what was important to louisiana. you never forget what was important to louisiana. and people made the comment that you were tenacious. i would say any time something did move in the congress, you were part of it in some way. when we were trying to figure out -- i'm sitting here now looking at senator warner, when we were trying to figure out fixes to the health care bill, you were right there. you didn't hesitate. you knew it was a hot potato, but it was also something that we knew we had to do better and make it better for not only the people of today but in the decades to come. you were not afraid of that even though you knew when you said it

could cost you your election because you knew generationally it would have an impact. it wasn't about the moment in time. it was about ten, 15, 20 years from now you could look back and say you helped make that happen, and you did. every time you moved in there and tried to push an item, push it here, push it there. so even though we won't be serving here, you will have an impact. i could tell as we were shaking hands here, it was amazing to watch you. you do -- you never stop. you were already talking to each person about the work they need to be doing. when i shook your hand, you were talking about fisheries, don't forget. i was like mary, just relax. but you were already working it. that's what's going to be so unique about you. you will not be in this body, but you will be in this body because of the way you do your work. it's not about being in this office. it's about caring about louisiana. and as i said, i saw it just in this last moment here.

unbelievable, that you will never give up on the people of louisiana because you care so deeply. it's been an honor to know you. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: mr. president, i want to make some remarks also about the senator from louisiana. i have had the pleasure of serving as ranking member of the department of homeland security appropriation committee, and mary landrieu was the chairman. i wasn't sure what to expect going onto that committee. i knew of mary's passion for what she believed in, and i knew of her persuasion, which is given in a very gentle but effective way. she reaches out, and i thought she's going to convince me just about of everything. i'm not going to be able to hold my own with her. but she was so gracious in terms of working together with me as we worked through some very tough issues.

she was knowledgeable, effective leader, couldn't ask enough questions, couldn't gain enough information, making wise decisions, given the limitations that we had relative to appropriation and given the process that unfortunately was not the way the appropriation committee should go forward. nevertheless, working together in that on a whole number of issues turned out to be a very pleasant experience because of the nature of the leader of the committee and their willingness to work together. now, you get to learn something about someone when you spend three days trekking along the southwest -- the southern border on the immigration issue, climbing down into tunnels, driving along fences, talking with border patrol agents, looking at the enormous challenge that exists relative

to that border in our -- and our border patrol people and immigration control people, and mary was right there, both of us right there in blue jeans and tennis shoes and hot weather, learning firsthand the challenge that this country faces relative to dealing with immigration. her passion for children has been talked about. her passion for her state. and i think probably the word that best describes mary is passion. passion for the engagement in anything that she engages in and doing it in a way that is relent less and reaches results. i think it's a great tribute to her character and to the kind of person that she is. one thing that we won't be able to do is meet together somewhere in russia. i have been banned from russia. mary has been banned from russia. i was banned because i took exception, significant exception

to the russian takeover of crimea and activities in ukraine. i was surprised by that. mary was banned for all the unnecessary reasons, and that is trying to help russian children find adoptive parents. obviously, she was successful and obviously she was as relentless there as she was on all the other issues, because russia saw that as a threat, here's someone reaching out for all the right reasons and doing something for all the right reasons. passion for children, finding them a home. and so i wish her the very best going forward in your next chapter of life, mary. i can testify to you from personal experience that there is life for you after congress and it can be a pleasant life. knowing you, you will be engaged

in something very significant, whether it's for your state, your country, your life of office and your family's life of service is well recognized. so i wish you the very best as you go forward. it's been a pleasure working with you. thank you. mr. warner: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, i want to follow on the comments of my friend from -- the senator from indiana, although i do think the record should be corrected. i would say to my colleague, i have also dealt with the senator from louisiana a number of times on a number of issues and i've had lots of words that i would think about in describing her style -- gentle would not be one that would come to mind, though. i know this is a day that we pay tribute but i want to echo so much of what he said. i want to make a couple quick comments. one, i first met part of the landrieu family when i had a chance to meet mary's dad when

he was serving as secretary of h.u.d. and i was a young staff person. and mary talks a lot about her family. her family was kind enough to host me a variety of times when i was in louisiana. she's got a great family, a great tradition. i think about our service here, so many folks have talked about specific issues. i'm not going to talk about the issue focus and relentlessness that she brings. but i just want to say her generosity of heart and spirit and how she and frank wool always open their home for whatever cause. again, a lot of comments about your enormous heart and commitment for adoption. but to think about so many events that we go to, but those angels and adoption events at your house touched all of us in a way that is not often the case.

i also can acknowledge now, she may be willing to acknowledge now, she has a great love for the commonwealth of virginia and has spent some time out there both her love of horses and her daughter's riding, her own riding. and has been mentioned by so many and i know even in our own conversations, this is not somebody who is going to look backwards but is clearly already looking forward. and life holds for you and frank i know a number of extraordinarily exciting additional chapters. and i just hope i have the opportunity to be part of those chapters and to be subject to that gentle persuasion on whatever issue comes top mind as you go -- comes to mind as you go forward. mr. president, i know i speak for so many of our colleagues. we all have a lot of unique

characteristics but with mary landrieu, they broke the mold. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor to my good friend from maryland. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, one of the really nice things about serving in the united states senate are the people that you meet. and myrna consider frank ana ank and mary to be our friends. incredible person, incredible service. i'm sorry that the people of louisiana could not see mary in our caucuses as she fought on different issues for the people of louisiana and what she did as an advocate on behalf of people who otherwise would not have had their voices heard. she did it in a very, very effective way. i heard some of the conversations about what happened attica tre at katrina e people of new orleans. well, mary landrieu brought us down to louisiana to see

firsthand. it was incredible for me not just to see the physical devastation but thanks to mary landrieu, we saw the people. we saw the spirit in the people but we saw people who needed help. it was that type of emotional involvement that mary gives to every cause that she believes in. so, senator landrieu, i just want you to know how much i deeply respect your model of public service. the people that you stood up f for. you talked about the adoption issues and you got me involved in the adoption issues and i heard you speak on the floor and you said, i'm not sure exactly why you got into it -- because you have a big family -- i think i got into it because of you. i couldn't say no to you. you're pretty persuasive. and it's the right thing to do and we all feel better because of that. and you're the one who really led us on those efforts. and what an incredible legacy. but i just really want to talk one more minute about small business issues. senator landrieu chaired that

committee during a particularly important time. and i just want to relate a couple stories for my colleagu colleagues. there are many times that i was in the democratic caucus and we'd be talking about an issue and senator landrieu would stand up and say, well, "now, how about small businesses?" and under her leadership, we brought some major initiatives to the floor to help small businesses because of mary landrieu. and her ability to put together a commonsense package. she understood small businesses are the growth engine of america. it's where jobs are created. it's where innovation takes place. and i can tell you, i worked with her, i know what we got done. i know how we took on our own governmental agencies to make sure that they did right for small businesses and how we fought the -- the bundling. contract officers love to take small contracts and make them into big because it's less headache for them but less opportunity for small businesses and mary landrieu has stopped that practice, put a spotlight

on it. and it was an incredible experience for me because it showed me that each of us can make a difference. i knew that what i was trying to do, one of the issues i got involved with was to raise the surety bond issues. i didn't see much hope of getting it done and mary gave me the opportunity to get it done. she gave me the way. she coached me on how to get it done. and that's now the permanent law of the land. so she made us all relevant on the committee individually and collectively, and we left a great legacy to help small businesses in this country thanks to is that right landrieu's leadership. so to the people of louisiana, they could not have had a stronger advocate, a stronger friend, a person who accomplished more for that state during some extremely challenging times. to the people of this country and the work that mary landrieu did on the appropriations committee for our national security and standing up for defending and protecting our own country, senator landrieu's

record is incredible. to those who are voiceless but had mary landrieu to speak for them, the disadvantaged, to small businesses and the list goes on and on and on. this is one incredible legislator and she's a model to many of us. and i thank you so much for your service and your commitment to public life. it will always be an inspiration to me the fact that i was given the honor to serve with you in the united states senate. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise to add my words of admiration for this great person, for this great legislator and just to tell a brief story. it was back in 2006 in a lame-duck session -- just like this -- and the democrats had

won and were about to take over senatthe senate. the democrats had just won and were about to take over the house. a different passage in time. but throughout all of 2006, even in the minority, mary landrieu was moving a bill to open up a vast new area in the gulf of mexico for drilling for oil and natural gas. i was over in the house. i was from massachusetts. i did not want this bill to pa pass. i wanted to actually save it for 2007, when the democrats were in control and we could pass an energy bill by the end of 2007. which would have included this provision. and mary passed it through the senate, bipartisan, as usual. if you look up "bipartisan" when you google mary's picture actually comes up. and over in the house, because of all of her momentum, i lost

and that bill passed. and, again, tens of thousands of new jobs fall to louisiana through mary landrieu. and it was about a week later and i was out shopping and here comes mary right towards me with her daughter in her riding outfit. and mary said, "i want to introduce you to congressman markey." and i said to her daughter, "well, she forgot to add a few additional words because your mother just defeated me quite badly just last week and passed a big bill for louisiana, who your mother always calls 'her people,' the people of louisiana." and i want to say that really there isn't anybody who understands kind of the spirit of legislating about protecting your home state and respecting those who are -- who are maybe not in agreement with you but

not your enemy, you know, but somebody who you try to work with. and after the b.p. bill is in the gulf of mexico, i was the lead democrat in the house on the natural resources committee with jurisdiction over that and mary again was outraged that such damage could be done to "her" fishermen, to "her" tourism industry, for "her" people in louisiana. and she worked hard to make sure that billions of dollars would ultimately go back into the gulf to ensure that "her" fishermen, "her" tourism industry, "her" people were protected. and then when i arrived back over here in the senate last year, after having served in the house for 37 years, i arrived with a great concern and something that i had been working on in massachusetts which was the dramatic rise in the insurance rates for

homeowners and businesses right along the coastline of massachusetts. and i had introduced legislation in order to work on the issue but when i arrived in the senate, mary landrieu was already here, already working on that bill, already -- all ready to protect her homeowners, her small businessmen from outrageous increases in insurance rates that would have basically made their homes no longer something that they could afford. and so throughout my career, all i can tell you is one constant is this great really legendary legislator. you know, someone who embodies all the best of what this institution really stands for. and i just want to let you know, mary, how proud i have been to be able to serve with you here and how proud i am to be able to tell the story of the time when you just beat me flat-out,

because that's just how you play it. you play it for your state every time and no waiting if it's louisiana. and i know people i all the peon louisiana know that about you. >> a discussion about strategies for effective leadership from news conference by vladimir putin. and 10 q and a, author and editor of town hall.com. >> tonight on book tv in prime time, former obama officials talk about their book. former cia director and defense secretary leon panetta on his book. former defense secretary robert gates talks about his book. and former treasury secretary talked about his book "stress test."

>> here's a look of some the programs you will find on christmas day. all of the festivities start at 10:00 eastern with the lighting of the national christmas tree followed by the white house christmas decorations with first lady michelle obama and the lighting of the capitol christmas tree. after 12:30 p.m., celebrity activists talk about her causes. supreme court justice samuel alito and former florida governor jeb bush on the bill of rights and founding fathers. on c-span 2, ventured to the art of good writing. and see the feminine side of a superhero, the secret history of wonder woman. their reading habits of authors. on american tv, they'll fall of the berlin wall with the sense

footage -- c-span footage. experts onshion first lady's fashion choices in how they represented the styles of the times of which they lived. former nbc anchor tom brokaw on it's more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that is this christmas day on the c-span networks. for complete schedule, go to c-span.org. >> the wall street journal council held its annual meeting in washington dc and among the speakers, retired general stanley mcchrystal whose commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan. he spoke by u.s. involvement in the war in afghanistan and what leadership lessons can be drawn. this is 30 minutes.

>> i hope you enjoyed your break. we will diverge a little bit from politics and economics to talk about something that is of great interest to ceos, and that is leadership and that is in the context of what is going on in afghanistan and iraq. we have two excellent people to talk about those two topics with. general michael flynn and general stanley mcchrystal. so, this is something that the military makes a real sense of actually developing. and the military is seen as the place where skills are honed and there is a great deal of expertise.

gen. mcchrystal, you now are out with these lessons, teaching at yale university of course, speaking to a number of these ceos, coaching them. and i wonder if you could just for a moment to tell us what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. >> a loaded question. what i see is sort of the same thing that i saw in the military. you rise to a senior-level and start to focus on strategy which is difficult and important, but at the end of the day what i find the biggest problem, an organization can get the strategy right but then can't execute it. if you look at the plan, they had a pretty good plan but he did not have an army that can execute it. what i see in many firms is a

silowing across different parts of the geographic, difficulty communicating because of cultural barriers and distance and other things. problems with decision-making in terms of people we will meet and then not make a decision or they we will make a decision and then it won't be implemented it is it -- and people will wonder what happened. it is the execution of the organization, and while that seems mechanical it is really an art. there is not a straight science. it is relationships and processes that make that an organic effective. >> you say in your writings that a ceo, a real leader should not be a decision-maker. a decision facilitator. that sounds sounds like it could be somebody who is waffling. is that the dna that we now have, or is that a new model ceo? in other words, is this a a

transitional group to a knew type of ceo? >> i think it has to be. what i found, mike and i were there. so my tendency was to want to make decisions on operations. they bring together intelligence. i'd want to draw the map. in reality things changed enough for i did not have the most expertise. what i had to do was when i finally got it where it thougt it was right, that it was closer i made very few decisions. i was a ringmaster for this constant conversation across the command. i could force that. and everything worked worked fine because if i tried the hierarchical way, by the time the information got to me even

if it was right when i made it down,he time it got back it was now wrong because the situation changed too much. >> one of the things we're facing today is the speed in which information is almost bombarding the decision-making processes that we are faced with. and i think that for me, personally, in the last couple of years when i describe is trying to maintain her fingertip feel for your organization and the operating environment that they are in, at the same time making sure that everybody understands that we have one big strategy that we're trying to achieve. and i think for the ceos of

today and tomorrow, they are dealing with a decision-making process that has fundamentally changed because of the speed, the volume of information, and then how they are able to precisely drive their organization to get them the right type of information. at the same time as the ability to empower the organization down as far as you can to the.where you are almost uncomfortable allowing decisions to be made at a certain level. and when you are uncomfortable, you're probably doing the right thing. >> you have written about this topic, the speed, the volume of information. intelligence has informed rightly or wrongly some of our decisions and national security of the last 15 years. you went so far as to write a paper with two other individuals called fixing intel. and it was very controversial. you took the intelligence gathering process of the united

states to task and critique it openly, and you did something else, published a paper outside of the military. tell me about the decision that went into writing that critique to begin with. >> we saw that we needed to move much faster. and the intelligence system in the united states was not responding to the needs at that time as fast as we needed to respond to the needs of essentially a hundred thousand plus forces. international forces, it just wasn't responding rapidly enough. and so the other part of it, it was not very clear as to what it was that the intelligence

community needed to respond to. that was essentially the genesis of the concept of the paper. why outside? and i always tell the story. ae same month i published publication.litary how i got no cards and letters on that one. so it was -- there was a means, the organization that we published it through, and voices from the field. and what i felt it needed was an immediate sort of cold bucket of water on the head approach to responding to the needs that we had in a combat environment. >> and it got that response. >> it definitely did.

>> was it worth it? >> very much so. it changed the the way the intel community responded to the war fighter. it changed the way -- it also caused us to think about other aspects of our intelligence system that supports our us government. frankly, we are still involved. i was in the middle of a phone call this morning with some folks still talking about some of the impact that we are trying to address. we can see them. the title of the paper was fixing intel, a blueprint for afghanistan. you could say north could say north africa, south africa, central america or cities in this country. >> you have talked about teams and the importance of that kind of organic piece driving decision-making. what does that mean? how do you talk about teams with executives and general's who are managing tens of thousands of

people? when does the team suddenly become a department or a battalion? >> all of us have been on teams. the reality is, a team tends to be small because there has to be trust and common purpose. wher wel been on teams can finish each other's sentences. you have enough familiarity that you had a common sense of what you were about. the problem is, that is not scalable. when you get beyond a small group you really have to go to something i call team of teams because it can be one big team. instead, you create a number of small teams. then you have to link them so there is a shared consciousness. >> this is what you did with special operations. >> that's exactly right. we had a siloed.

the reality is internally they hated each other. there were no diplomatic relations. they were too much like. we had to create those really good small teams but let them together. you had to change the culture. and that became the biggest part of what i did. >> tell us about the leadership style. what have we learned about their leadership style? an o we're facing up up ideological organization and in many cases individuals and as stan just highlights a very sort of i would describe it a bit differently but we're facing a am