Tribute to Lamar Alexander

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the Senate is going to miss Lamar Alexander.

Listening to his farewell address right now made the fact that he is leaving all too real. I don't like to think of a U.S. Senate without Lamar. He is a Senate institution and a Senate leader, and his leaving is a loss for this body and for the American people.

Any tribute to Lamar has to mention his incredible career, which a lot has been alluded to already: his walk across the State of Tennessee, his 8 years as Tennessee Governor, his time as Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, his stint as president of the University of Tennessee system, and his time as a professor at Harvard.

Then, of course, are his 18 years in the U.S. Senate, marked by significant legislative accomplishments on everything from education to opioids.

All that, and he makes a plaid shirt look good, although these days he has switched to a plaid face mask.

I first met Lamar, like our colleague from Maine, Senator Collins, mentioned, when he attended a Lincoln Day Dinner in South Dakota in 1995, when he was running for President. I really started to get to know him a little bit when I came to the Senate in 2005.

Lamar had already been here for a couple of years by that time. Of course, he already had an extraordinary career behind him. I know I was not the only young Senator who regarded him as something of a mentor and a role model.

I share a couple of things with Lamar; one is the fact that we were both Senate staffers long before we came to the Senate as elected officials. We weren't here at the same time. He was a little ahead of me. I came to the Senate the year Howard Baker left, but, like Lamar, I have great appreciation for the contributions staffers make to the work that we do around here. I know many of Lamar's staffers are in the Gallery today. As he leaves, also we lose a tremendous amount of brain power and talent that has contributed so significantly to the successes and accomplishments that he has had as a U.S. Senator.

The other is that he and I both have served as chairman of the Senate Republican conference, which is the messaging and communications office for Republicans in the Senate. I succeeded Lamar as chairman of the Senate Republican conference in 2012. I will tell you, he is a very tough act to follow but an inspiring one because he did such a tremendous job in leading our messaging in the conference.

Lamar has an ability to break down complex subjects and communicate them clearly. He can sum up an issue in one succinct phrase. He mentioned earlier, in his remarks, the idea that there ought to be one column, one idea; one speech, one idea. He really did master that.

I can recall his summary when we were talking a lot about the energy issue: We need to ``find more and use less.'' That is about as clear a summary of our energy priorities as you can get

Many of us used a phrase he popularized around here, too, in describing policies of the other side that we thought would be harmful to the economy as casting a big wet blanket over the economy. I don't know how many times you heard that coming out of our mouths, but it all originated with Lamar Alexander.

I think that ability to really break down complex issues and clearly explain them is one of the reasons he was such a good conference chairman and one of the reasons he has been so successful legislatively.

And he has been successful legislatively. You already heard a number of my colleagues talk about his many successes. Yet he has managed to get things passed around here that I don't think anyone thought could get passed, particularly in the polarized political environment that we have been in.

But Lamar has an ability to bring people together from across the aisle. You heard our colleagues on both sides speak to that. He is very practical about the business of legislating. He focuses on what is actually possible to do and he finds the common ground and he gets things done.

You have heard of the America COMPETES Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, the 21st Centuries Cures Act, the Opioids Crisis Response Act, the Copyright Act, the Great American Outdoors Act. I could go on and on. Those, ladies and gentlemen, are major, major pieces of legislation, tremendous accomplishments of the Congress by the U.S. Senate, signed into law by the President, all of which couldn't have happened without the leadership of Lamar Alexander.

He has held multiple leadership positions in the Senate: chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and, as I said, Senate Republican conference chairman, but he has always been a leader, whether or not in an official leadership position or simply by virtue of who he is.

As I said before, Lamar has been a mentor and role model to me and I know to many others here in the Senate.

But I also have to mention his personal warmth and hospitality to me and my wife when our daughter was studying at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. He and his wife Honey opened their home to us in Nashville. They hosted us. I am fortunate to be among those he mentioned were at their place in the Smokies, which was a fabulous experience. They took us to a Tennessee Titans game. They went above and beyond. And to this day, we are grateful for their warmth and generosity and for a chance to see Lamar in his element in his beloved Tennessee.

Lamar has dedicated much of his life to his State, his country, and nobody could be more deserving of retirement.

I will be surprised if he ever fully retires. I am pretty sure, even while sitting on his porch, he is still going to be dreaming up ways to make our country better.

Lamar, thank you for your leadership and for your mentorship. Thank you for being a role model to so many of us. May God bless you in your retirement. I will miss you.

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