Tributes to Mark Pryor

Floor Speech

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I join my colleagues today in all the good words that are being said about my friend Senator Pryor. I got to know Senator Pryor best in the commerce committee, where early on he scored a major victory for the children of this country. That was at a time we learned that toys and children's products that contained lead were being brought in from all over the world. We actually had a young child in Minnesota whose mom went out and bought a pair of Reebok tennis shoes, and with the tennis shoes came a little charm. That little child swallowed that charm, and that little child died. He did not die from choking on the charm; he died over a period of days when the lead went into his system. That is just one example. Senator Pryor was heading up the consumer subcommittee, and we took a major vote to change the standards of lead in children's products, including jewelry and toys, and it was a huge bipartisan vote, a very important bill, what was called one of the most important pieces of consumer legislation in decades. Senator Pryor got that done.

Later, while he was head of that subcommittee, we had a little girl in Minnesota named Abigail Taylor who died in a swimming pool. All she was doing was playing in a kiddie pool, and she happened to be sitting in the middle of the pool. The pool drain malfunctioned and basically sucked her insides out. She survived for a year. When Mark Pryor came to Minnesota, he met with that little girl and her dad. She later died after a surgery to try to save her life.

We worked after that to get the bill passed--named after Howard Baker's grandchild, who had also died in a similar circumstance--to make sure that all these public pool drains--from apartments to YMCAs; you name it--were checked. There has been a decrease in the number of deaths. We do not hear about them on the news like we used to, and that is because of Mark Pryor's work in the Senate subcommittee.

So I know the Taylor family--that was my proudest moment, standing back in the cloakroom and calling them. They believed after they met Mark Pryor that it would be easy to pass this bill, that we could get this done. It wasn't quite that easy. It took a few months. We had to end up putting it in the Energy bill to get it done. But being able to call Scott Taylor, who never gave up believing Congress could get something done--that is just one more example of the work Senator Pryor has done. So I thank him for that.

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