USA Patriot and Terrorism Prevent Reauthorization Act of 2005--Conference Report--Continued

USA PATRIOT AND TERRORISM PREVENTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005--CONFERENCE REPORT--Continued -- (Senate - December 16, 2005)

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Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I would like to give what I think will more than likely be the last speech I give on this great floor, this historic floor, in front of this deliberative body. I am grateful for your courtesies. It is with bittersweet feeling that I make these remarks.

I have been honored beyond words to be a United States Senator. I think all of us know that feeling in our hearts and souls. I will be forever grateful to the 9 million New Jerseyans who put their trust in me and asked Senator Lautenberg and myself, and others before us, to represent their hopes and dreams at this time and in this place.

In the 229 years of our Republic, fewer than 2,000 men and women have come to this floor and represented the voices of the people who elected them or selected them in previous times. And like each of my predecessors and those to follow, including Congressman ROBERT MENENDEZ, who will be sworn in to fill out my term, we have all been sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution.

I now look at the great Senator, ROBERT BYRD, who has so eloquently and so frequently represented the challenge that all of us take on as we are sworn in to be Senators to represent and carry forward those traditions of our Constitution and to serve the interests of our people. So there are really two purposes. I can only hope that the people of New Jersey will believe that has been my sole purpose here on this floor.

Now as I take my leave, I guess there will be some folks who will say some nice things about me, and they have. That is a little bit different than in the last days of the campaign. It reminds me of a Jack Benny story. He was giving a presentation and listening to the presenter praise him at length. He said, ``I don't deserve this award, but I don't deserve diabetes either.'' I will take the compliments and the kind remarks. I very much appreciate it.

I want you to know that I cherish the friendships I have established with the men and women here. I admire the debates--I don't always agree with all of my colleagues--but I always respect and admire the commitments of the men and women who sit on this floor. And I add that it is on both sides of the aisle, not just my friends in the Democratic Party. Believe me, some of the remarks I have heard in the last few days are a little different than they were 6 years ago when I ran for my good friend Senator Lautenberg's open seat at that time. Ross Baker is a commentator on the national political scene, and he teaches at Rutgers. He told one reporter that the people in New Jersey don't know JON CORZINE from a cord of wood. Hopefully, we have gotten a little farther down the pike than a cord of wood.

This has been one of the most remarkable experiences anyone could ever dream of having. I came here for a clear purpose. I believe in American citizenship and the rights we have. We certainly have incredible opportunities in this Nation--I have experienced many of them--but it comes with responsibilities. To those of us whom much is given, much is required. I know that I had no chance to succeed in life without the kind of great support I have had from my community, my Nation, and my friends. That is why one comes here--to give back, to fight for fairness and the opportunity for all.

Senator Durbin knows of the little town in which I grew up. Like so many of you, I have lived the American promise. It is a little town in central Illinois called Willy Station, with a population of less than 50. In fact, there are more cows than people there. My father was a corn and soybean farmer. He sold insurance. My mom was a schoolteacher. To have a chance to walk on the floor of the Senate and represent the interests of a great State that is really entirely different than the background from where I came represents the American promise. I believe in it, and I believe we have a responsibility to give back.

Both of my parents were good Republicans, Senator Durbin. My mom still is, by the way. I am not sure if she voted for my friend. She had big dreams, and so did my father, about how life would serve us.

I grew up at a time when Adlai Stevenson was Governor and then ran for President. Paul Douglas and Paul Simon worked the circuits in central Illinois. We had great Democratic Senators who passionately stood for economic and social justice for all Americans. We had another great Illinois Senator who worked the same circuits, Everett Dirksen. Like my parents, he was a Republican, but he also stood up for the promise of justice and equality for everyone in America. He believed deeply enough in those promises to use his position as leader to help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mr. BYRD. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. CORZINE. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. Lord Byron said, ``Thank God I have done my duty.'' May I say to the Senator from New Jersey, he has done his duty. He is a good Senator. We will miss you. I will. Thank you for standing up for what you believe. Thank you very much. Bless your heart.

Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, there is not much that means more than that coming from a great Senator who has served this Nation so much. Thank you.

I was talking about Senator Dirksen. He actually sat at this desk and worked at this desk. So did George Mitchell and a whole host of great Americans. It is remarkable what the history of this institution presents and the opportunities it affords. It has been a remarkable time. I think all of you know that.

In the last 5 years, it seems as if we have jammed more historic moments in than you could ever imagine, with an unprecedented Presidential election in 2000, where we all sat in this Chamber and confirmed the results of that election. We had a 50/50 Senate, and everybody was trying to figure out how it worked. And then, with a shift of one vote in the caucus, that changed the control of the Senate.

That dark day on September 11 changed the lives of Americans forever. I live in Hoboken, NJ. It looks out almost directly across the river where the Twin Towers once stood. New Jersey's heart has never fully healed from those losses. It never will. We lost 700 of our citizens. We have much to do, and it has stimulated even the debate we have on this floor today. There were kids who lost their lives on that day whom I coached in soccer when they were growing up in my previous hometown of Summit. We still have a lot to do.

Today, we are challenged with the war against terrorism and debate about our constitutional freedoms, which we are talking about today--the challenge of tradeoffs in security and freedom, and protecting what it is that the American Constitution stands for. This is a great institution for making sure the rights of our people are represented.

I came to the Senate to try to use my knowledge and experience to help work on some of those problems that are most important to our Nation--health care, economic and racial justice, education--there is a whole series of those things. I am proud of that progressive agenda. I see so many peers and colleagues who fight so hard on those every day.

Mr. President, 9/11 brought us together regardless of our political backgrounds in ways we could never have been imagined. I am proud of how our Nation responded and also how the leadership of this great body came together and acted, regardless of background or place, in ways I don't think any of us could have imagined.

I am grateful to all of my colleagues for that leadership.

We also have great people in New Jersey. The Jersey girls, as a lot of my colleagues know, have been fighters for making sure we had the 9/11 Commission, the compensation fund, responses to human needs, as well as the strategic intelligence and homeland security needs that the American people deserve. I am proud of them. I am proud of the work we have all done because it encourages us.

We provided over $350 million to address New Jersey's unique security needs after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

There was an element of unity that I hope we can restore that was born in those moments because the challenges are just as great. The immediacy is a little different, but there is no reason we can't stand together.

I am proud of the opportunity to be a partner with my chairman, Senator Sarbanes, CHRIS DODD, and others with regard to helping restore investor confidence that was also broken around that time where people lost their life savings, where people in the world I had come from had taken advantage of other human beings' savings, retirement securities, and their jobs. It is not a proud moment for those of us who believe in the capitalistic system.

With the kind of response that came through the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, I think we have actually made a major contribution to making sure that balance sheets and income statements are what they are, that people can have more confidence in our fundamental system. I was honored to be a part of the detail and the work that brought that back. We should protect it as we go forward.

There is more to do with our pension system. There are many things that are part of our financial structure which is such a fundamental defining element of what America is about. We need to make sure they have the integrity that was built into the theme of the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms.

I am proud to have represented the Democratic caucus for 2 years in the push back against the privatization of Social Security. We had a debate on the floor where Senator Santorum, Senator Sununu, Senator Durbin, and myself, for a remarkable hour and a half, had dialog among Senators. All of those elements of debate are still in play. We need to make sure we protect the security of our seniors. I know folks on this side of the aisle feel so strongly in winning that battle, and we should continue.

There are many others issues: affordable drug benefits, college tuition. Senator Kennedy and others have fought so hard to make sure everybody has access to the American promise. I am proud that I had a role--an amendment role, a voting role, a sponsorship role--to be a part of those agendas. We can do, and have done, a lot to protect our environment to make quality of life better.

Together with my colleagues from New Jersey, we protected people in our state from federal changes that would have weakened New Jersey's model prescription drug program for seniors and people with disabilities.

We lifted federal home loans mortgage limits to help more New Jersey veterans buy their own homes.

We fought the administration's effort to reduce the availability of student loans. We held them off for a year--long enough to enable many students to stay in school instead of having to drop out.

We preserved the unspoiled beauty and critical water supply in the New Jersey Highlands.

And we stopped a plan by the administration that would have paved the way for oil and gas drilling off the New Jersey shore. Because America needs a balanced energy plan that invests in conservation and alternative energy sources--not oil derricks lining our beaches.

In the highway bill that passed this year, we increased New Jersey's rate of return on the federal highway tax dollar form 90.5 cents to 92 cents. And we paved the way for the New Jersey Trans-Hudson Midtown Corridor.

There is a lot more to do. I have some challenges that I leave for all of my colleagues. Maybe the most important one, and the one I feel most passionately about, is the ongoing challenge to man's inhumanity to man in Darfur, Sudan. We have lost 300,000 lives, give or take. People don't really know the degree to which life has been lost. But we need to make sure that we don't revisit Rwanda and other places where we have turned our backs on the killing of one man and one woman, one at a time.

There is much to do. I am proud of the efforts that Senator Brownback and I have done to make sure this body recognized for the first time that genocide was taking place, that there was much to do, that we had some financing to sponsor the African Union to do that which would bring an end to the rape, the killing, and the pillaging that is going on. There is much more to do. Please, please, make sure, whether it is in Darfur or other places, that this body speaks out for humanity, something I know all of my colleagues carry in their hearts. It is one of the great hopes and dreams.

I know a number of my colleagues--Senator Obama, Senator Durbin, Congressman Payne on the other side of this great Capitol, communities of faith, concerned citizens--are really committed to these issues, particularly as it relates to Darfur. But we should stand up, and we should move forward.

I have a big hope that my colleagues will take the opportunity to move on chemical plant security, which is something I have hooted and hollered about and bored people to death with over the last 4 years. We are so close but yet so far and at such risk. Whether it is rail security,--and all of us have a number of other issues--it is painful for us to get such low marks in how we have addressed our homeland security.

Now I go to be a Governor of a State where the primary day-to-day practice and responsibility is to protect the lives of the people who live in these communities. I hope we will move forward in an expeditious manner to address some of those items that we all know are at great risk.

There is a lot of progress to be made in a lot of areas. I could go on. I am proud of the initiative on kids accounts, which I hope a lot of you will get behind. We can change the financial underpinnings and knowledge of so many folks. I am proud of this idea. I know there are a number of my colleagues who are interested in the idea of giving every child who gets a Social Security number a start in life. It is implemented in Great Britain. We ought to do it here. There is a real hope it can bring about a different opportunity and potential for every person.

And I'm proud of what we've done for financial literacy. It's mind-boggling to me that we live in a capitalist society, yet our schools provide students with few, if any, tools about how to navigate the system. We push our kids out into the world and say ``You're on your own. Good luck.'' As more financial risk is shifted onto individuals, the consequences of bad financial decisions grow more dire. That's why I pushed to include basic financial literacy in the No Child Left Behind Act to teach young people the basic principles of capitalism and responsible money management.

I will look to this body to come up with answers on health care, Medicare, making sure our children are educated appropriately. The agenda is large. There are great disappointments, by the way. I close with a few of those. It is hard for me to imagine when I came here that we were running a couple hundred billion dollars in surpluses, and now we have created debt that is greater in the 5 years than was ever created in the history of the country. I think we are really in danger of going over the precipice on the twin deficits with regard to fiscal management of this country. It seems grossly unfair that we are placing that burden on future generations the way we are.

I can tell my colleagues, as it ripples down to our State levels, they are going to hear a former Senator hooting and hollering pretty high about how we are crowding out and crowding in responsibilities that will be very difficult.

The fact we haven't raised the minimum wage in the years I have been in the Senate is hard to imagine. There is a study out this week that if you earn the minimum wage, there is not a county in this country where someone can afford a one-bedroom apartment. It is time to move on some of these issues.

I know I am preaching to the choir, but it is time to move. We ought to ban racial profiling. There are a whole host of issues.

Since I came to the Senate in 2001, the number of uninsured Americans has swelled to over 45 million people. We have made some important strides in improving access to care for certain populations, but these piecemeal attempts to address our health care crisis have fallen far short of providing all Americans with quality, affordable health care. I would like to see us come together as a nation to guarantee health care to each and every American.

Senator Lautenberg and I would like to see Bruce Springsteen honored, too. We think we ought to step up and acknowledge both the poetry and the majesty of his fights for the working men and women of this world.

I wish to thank my colleagues and the people of New Jersey for this great opportunity. I leave the Senate with incredible excitement and optimism about the future. I am looking forward to my new job in a way I cannot even get my mind around half the time because it seems so profoundly interesting and applies to the day-to-day lives of folks.

I have no serious regrets. I have sadness about not being able to walk onto this great floor, but I love this place and look forward to coming back and working together on those issues that matter.

I close by especially thanking my colleague, Senator FRANK LAUTENBERG, who has just been a gem to work with, and my leaders, Tom Daschle and HARRY REID, who have been extraordinary.

Mr. President, I say to all of my colleagues, they have been great.

I mentioned ROBERT BYRD, a giant on this floor.

I cannot help but remember the man maybe I admired the most here, because he had the greatest courage, was Paul Wellstone and his incredible fire and commitment to equality and justice in every possible way.

It has been some run. I want to say thanks to my children, who supported me, Jennifer, Josh, and Jeffery; an incredible staff who have worked hard. I have a list of the names of the staff who have served the people of New Jersey with me. I do not think I will read them all, but I ask unanimous consent that they be printed in the RECORD.

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Mr. CORZINE. I would not be worth a darn without what they have been able to do. I want to say that the staff who works the floor has been remarkable. Without Lula Davis' help and people such as Marty and other folks who guide us through how we get things done, none of us would be in the same place, as well as the Parliamentarians, the clerks, and others. I am extraordinarily grateful for their support.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Jeri Thomson who has been so great.

To all of you and to all of those who go unmentioned but not unthought of, let me say thank you. It has been a privilege of a lifetime and I look forward to serving the people of the State of New Jersey and our great country in the years ahead.

I yield the floor.

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