Remembering Carl Levin

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the memory of a true lion of the U.S. Senate, Michigan Senator Carl Levin. Yesterday, he passed away at the age of 87, surrounded by his loving family.

Carl was well known as a fierce advocate for Michigan and a force of nature in the Senate, but the most important thing to him was his family. He cherished his role as a brother, husband, father, uncle, and grandfather. And I know his family and his loved ones are all reeling from this enormous loss. I along with folks all across the State of Michigan are praying for them during this very difficult time.

Over his 36 years of service to the Senate, the most ever for a Michigan Senator, Carl made an immeasurable impact. He served as the chairman of not just one, but two extremely powerful committees. He was simultaneously a zealous progressive voice in the Senate and one of its most bipartisan Members, able to forge strong relationships with his Republican colleagues and find pragmatic compromise to get results.

I remember when Carl was first elected to the U.S. Senate, making a very impressive leap from the Detroit City Council to a statewide office. I was in college at the time, and over the years, I closely followed his service and his career in politics. He was someone who I looked up to and came to know as both a role model and as a mentor.

He was always gracious with his time and his wisdom, and I cherish the conversations that we had over the years, from my time years ago serving in the Michigan State Senate to my time in the U.S. House of Representatives. When Carl announced he would be retiring in 2014, I sought out his guidance and his blessing to run to fill his seat. As the campaign progressed, he gave me his endorsement and his full- throated support. I was both honored and humbled.

When I was sworn into my first term in the Senate, Carl presented me with an old map of Michigan and a handwritten note. It hangs in my front office to this day, and every time that I walk through the door, I am reminded of Carl, of his service, and his integrity.

Carl was a unique figure on Capitol Hill. He had no interest in the trappings of power. He saw service as its own reward. And he could certainly be a little disheveled in his appearance. He was very frugal. He wore inexpensive suits, and his loving wife Barbara would routinely sew up the holes in his pockets so he could get just a few more years out of his suits. Legend has it he once noticed a mustard stain on his shirt and he painted over it with Wite-Out so he could get back to work. His glasses were always precariously perched on the end of his nose, and he would fix you with a piercing gaze over those rims. Despite his small stature, he was also an incredibly intimidating figure, largely due to that gaze, his intellect, and his incredible work ethic.

Nowhere were those traits more apparent than in his role leading the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, also known as PSI. When Carl held the gavel, getting a letter or a phone call from his investigative staff struck fear into some of the most powerful and most corrupt figures in America. In fact, folks in Washington would quip that under Carl's leadership, the letters ``PSI'' had a completely different meaning for people: They stood for ``pretty scary investigations.''

Carl used his chairmanship to stand up for everyday folks--the Michiganders and Americans--who were working hard every day to pay their bills and play by the rules. He was furious when there were people who took advantage of hard-working Americans, and there were companies who were making millions and even billions of dollars cheating on their taxes and hurting average taxpayers.

Over the course of his tenure as chair, he took on the corrupt, the wrongdoers, and the bullies who no one wanted to stand up to, including major banks, the mob, and even ruthless dictators.

He brought a studious focus to his work, reviewing thousands, and sometimes even tens of thousands, of pages of documents so that he would know every single detail in that investigation. His investigative staff recounted that when he was preparing for a flight to Hong Kong, he asked for a binder full of documents related to the latest investigation to review on the plane. His staff put together 1,500 pages of documents for him to read on that flight. When he landed in Hong Kong, he called and asked his staff to send the next batch. He had already made his way through those 1,500 pages, and he wanted to see more.

In every investigation he was tough but scrupulously fair. He was disciplined and laser-focused on addressing injustices. And he was dedicated to seeing a fight through to the end, even if it took years.

Over the years, he tackled money laundering, abusive offshore tax shelters, and executives and bankers who cooked the books, dodged taxes, and cost workers their savings, their pensions, and healthcare. One of his greatest legacies at PSI was his work to hold bad actors in the Federal sector accountable for their abuses.

In fact, after seeing unfair charges on his own credit card and hearing similar stories from his constituents, he launched an investigation into predatory credit practices, including charging interest on debt that was already paid, hiking interest rates even when bills were paid on time, and manipulating charges to try to secure additional fees.

After a series of tough oversight hearings and a legislative process that spanned years, Carl's work became a central part of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which prohibited abuse of credit card practices and helped more than 100 million Americans. He even cast his 11,000th vote during the process of getting that bill passed.

Whether he was taking on Enron or Goldman Sachs or exposing the corruption of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Carl was focused on holding the bad guys accountable and protecting the American people from their misconduct.

And despite serving at a time when Congress was growing increasingly partisan, he managed to bridge the divide. His staunchest conservative colleagues knew that if Carl gave them his word, they could count on it 100 percent. Whether he was working with Senator Coburn or Senator Collins, Carl was able to cooperatively work with his Republican colleagues, setting an iconic example for how to conduct bipartisan oversight that my own committee staff today still strives to follow.

Carl carried that same partisan principle to his role as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, a role that he served in for 18 years. Whether he was working alongside the late Senator John Warner or the late Senator John McCain, Carl found bipartisan, commonsense ways to support our Nation's servicemembers and combat waste and fraud within the Department of Defense, and he worked tirelessly to strengthen national security and to keep our Nation safe.

Even though Carl took on such high profile, nationally important roles, he never forgot his roots and the lessons he learned about listening to your community during his time as a Detroit city councilman. He was a powerful advocate for all of Michigan, but especially for his hometown of Detroit.

I distinctly remember his determination as our Michigan congressional delegation fought to rescue Michigan's auto industry when it was on the brink of total collapse. As our senior Senator at the time, Carl led our delegation with quiet but steady resolve. At a time when so much was on the line for Michigan, Carl helped fight for General Motors and Chrysler, which was headquartered in my district, and to save the jobs of Michigan autoworkers and everyone who depended on them.

Carl was a champion for Michigan's auto industry and a true believer in the Motor City's ability to lead in vehicle innovation. He was such a believer in the future of Detroit's auto industry that he even bought one of Chevrolet's first electric vehicles, the Chevy Volt.

As a former taxi driver in his youth, Carl loved driving himself around, even if his erratic and aggressive driving style startled and sometimes scared his staff. And although Carl was ready to put his own money behind the future of Detroit, Capitol Hill wasn't quite so ready for electric vehicles. Without readily accessible charging stations on the Hill, Carl actually ran an extension cord out of his window of his Russell Office Building to recharge his car's battery.

He also fought relentlessly to build public transportation in Detroit. He had a vision of light rail that would transport people through downtown Detroit, and when he believed in something, he wouldn't take no for an answer, even when the administration of his own party rejected requests to fund the Detroit rail project.

I recall vividly a meeting between Carl, the Detroit representatives, and then-Transportation Secretary LaHood, and in classic Carl Levin style, he peered over the rims of his glasses, held a fistful of papers, and shook them at the Secretary's direction as he railed about how we had angels in Detroit who were willing to invest in this project, but we need the public sector to support it to get across the finish line.

His arguments were persuasive, and, today, you can ride the QLINE down Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit because Carl Levin was so determined to make it a reality.

President Barack Obama captured Carl's legacy perfectly when he said, upon Carl's retirement, that ``if you've ever worn the uniform, worked a shift on an assembly line or sacrificed to make ends meet, then you had a voice and a vote in Sen. Carl Levin.''

But perhaps Carl's greatest legacy is the example he set for all of us. Carl's colleagues, his staff, and his constituents all agree that one of his most powerful traits was his integrity. He had strong values and a moral compass that always pointed north. Even years after he retired, as I traveled around Michigan, folks still tell me how much they respected Carl. They knew that even if they didn't agree with him, he was thoughtful and he was considerate. And they would tell me that while they may not always agree with Carl's votes, they respected his decision making, and they trusted what he was doing and thought was best for Michigan and the country.

Those same principles inspired such strong loyalty in his staff that he became known for having staff members who worked for him for decades. Carl's fearlessness, thoughtfulness, and independence marked the epitome of what it means to be a public servant. He followed his conscience, and he always fought to do what was best for his home State and for his country

Carl's principled leadership, his dedication for finding common ground, his relentless pursuit of the truth, and his constant focus on ensuring that our country works for every American should serve as a model for all of us.

I am forever grateful to Carl for his leadership, his mentorship, and for his example. I will always remember the advice he gave me on election night, after I was declared the winner. He pulled me aside and said: Just remember, Gary, in the Senate there will be people who will try to pull you in all sorts of directions, but never forget where you came from, never forget who you are, and always work to bring people together, despite the partisanship and polarization around you.

We live in tough times, but he reminded me that people back home in Michigan are expecting me to get things done and deliver results. It is advice that guides me every day.

Carl truly represented the best of public service. He did his homework and knew the issues inside and out. He focused on doing what was right for Michigan and for our country. He never had an alternative agenda. He didn't chase front-page headlines or the cameras. He had no desire to be a political celebrity. He just wanted to get things done.

Carl's light in this world will be sorely missed, but the best thing we can do to honor his memory is to live by the same principles, integrity, and kindness that drove his leadership and public service for five decades. Carl loved doing his job, and he did it with boundless energy. Whether it was greeting his constituents on the street or taking on some of the toughest issues in Washington, everyone was always trying to keep up with Carl.

If we could all bring just a fraction of his dedication, his integrity, and his intellect to our own worlds, Washington would surely be a much better place. May his memory be a blessing.

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