Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I want to spend a few minutes recognizing our late colleague and my friend Senator Kay Hagan.

Kay and I both came to the Senate in 2009. I had the privilege of working with her on two committees--HELP and Banking. As a former vice president of the North Carolina National Bank, she had a lot more to offer to that committee than I had, and I tried to learn from her whenever I could. Kay and I both came to the Senate in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month, and millions were losing their homes. It was an incredibly difficult moment for the country, but it brought out all of Kay's best qualities.

Everyone knew that Kay faced some of the toughest politics of any Member of our caucus, but in those early days, I saw her take vote after vote on some of the hardest issues. She never wavered. She voted for the Recovery Act to save the economy when we were in free fall. She voted for Dodd-Frank to restore confidence and accountability to the financial sector, which was something she knew quite a lot about. She spoke out against amendment No. 1 in North Carolina and for marriage equality. She also cast a decisive vote for the Affordable Care Act.

As a Democratic Senator from North Carolina and as a freshman Senator, none of those positions were easy to take, but she knew they were the right places to be for her State and for the country. Because Kay did what she did, millions of Americans kept jobs they would have lost, and millions of Americans gained quality, affordable health insurance for the first time in their lives. In her home State, the LGBT community had a Senator in Washington who, for the first time in history, was willing to fight for their full and equal rights.

One of our colleagues, the senior Senator from Tennessee, likes to say: If you have come to Washington just to hear yourself talk, just stay home and get a job on the radio. It is not worth the trouble of your coming all the way here.

Kay didn't come to Washington to talk. She came to work and to lead.

Over her term, Kay was a fierce and principled advocate for North Carolina. As a member of the Committee on Armed Services, she helped to prevent cuts to tuition programs for veterans. She sponsored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help close the gender pay gap across the country. She worked across the aisle to promote conservation and outdoor recreation, which is something we appreciate in my home State of Colorado.

She was a lot less interested in the empty politics of this town and a lot more interested in making progress for the people of North Carolina and for our country. She was a voice of reason, pragmatism, and humility in this body, which sorely lacks all three. In other words, Kay took her job seriously but never herself, and no matter how difficult it might have been, she never failed to put the people of North Carolina ahead of the politics of the moment. It is why she earned deep respect from both sides of the aisle, not only for her work ethic but for her kindness, her warmth, and her grace. There was not a room in this complex, including the one I am standing in right now, that wasn't brightened the moment that Kay Hagan walked in.

To Chip, her husband, and to their kids--Jeanette, Tilden, and Carrie--I hope you know how proud we all are of Kay. She represented the best qualities of North Carolina. It is why her colleagues adored her. It is why her staff loved her and revered her, and it is why all of us who had the privilege of working with her in this body will miss her terribly.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source