OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

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Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 6, 2021
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I learned this morning about the passing of Senator Robert Dole. What an extraordinary person he was.

It was not my good fortune to serve with him in the U.S. Senate, but as a Member of the House of Representatives, I knew his work.

(Ms. DUCKWORTH assumed the Chair.)

I can remember when we enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tom Harkin was our leader on the Democratic side. He had a member of his family who suffered a disability, and Tom was always sensitive to that. But Bob Dole's leadership on the other side, from the Republican side, made a remarkable difference because we knew that Bob Dole was not speaking about disability as some other person's experience but, frankly, his own.

I don't know what measure of courage Bob Dole showed before he served the United States in World War II, but we all knew that experience led him to a battleground injury, which he carried the rest of his life. It was amazing to me that he kept his public life so active despite the limitations that he faced. His loss of use of one arm put him in a position where he was compromised in many ways every single day. Yet he soldiered on, literally, to serve his Nation, not only in the Armed Forces but also in the U.S. Senate to pass legislation, major legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is remarkable that he lived as long as he did and faced the injuries that he did.

I would say, Madam President, you know better than most what we are speaking of with Senator Dole's contribution to his country and the battle he continued to wager the rest of his life.

I respect him so much and hope the Senate will just pause for a moment to not only reflect on him, Elizabeth Dole, and his family but also on the fact that his bipartisanship made the difference in the lives of ordinary Americans. He was willing to sit down with the party on the other side of the aisle, compromise, and be determined to get things done. Shouldn't we do the same in his honor? I think we should.

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