Ted Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as I understand from the previous agreement, we have approximately an hour, probably an hour and 12 minutes, that will be equally divided prior to the time of a vote on what has been labeled the College Cost Reduction and Access Act; am I correct?

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I yield myself 5 minutes. Mr. President, first of all, I want to express appreciation to my friend and colleague from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, and to thank all of the members of our committee for the work they have done on this legislation. This truly is a bipartisan piece of legislation that is focused on improving opportunity and improving quality of life for millions of Americans in our education system. We worked very closely together when Senator Enzi was chair, and we have worked very closely together since I have had the opportunity to chair the committee. And now we have this legislation which is going to make an enormous difference for so many. I will discuss it in detail after the vote and explain it in greater detail in the record for both our colleagues and others who are interested in this legislation and what we have accomplished. But at the outset, I think all of us on this side of the aisle know that without strong cooperation and assistance from Senator Enzi and both sides of the aisle, we wouldn't be where we are today with this legislation, and we would not have successfully passed the reauthorization legislation in the Senate that has a number of very important items in it. I will describe those later on in the day as well. We are also very grateful to the staffs of our committee, who have done a really extraordinary job during this period of time. Mr. President, education is the engine of hope and opportunity for people of this country, and it has been recognized as such from the earliest days of the Republic. In my State of Massachusetts, our State constitution, written by John Adams in 1780, spells out in great detail the responsibilities of our State, of our commonwealth, to try to make a commitment to educational opportunities for the people of our State. And it has been replicated, that language or something similar has been replicated in all of the State constitutions. Education is really the key. We have seen the progress and the changes that have taken place over the period of years, and we will have a chance to review that history a little later in the morning. But I am mindful today that establishing a benchmark is important in recognizing that this assistance to students and to families is the greatest assistance that will have been provided for the American family since the GI bill, the GI bill that was so successful at the end of World War II. It has been estimated that for every dollar that was invested in the GI bill, $7 was returned in taxes to the General Treasury. Historians will point out that it helped establish the middle class, the middle class which has been the strength of our Nation over the last 60 or 70 years. There is no question about it. We built the middle class on the pillars of education, on the pillars of educational opportunity. In this legislation, we invest $20 billion--$20 billion--and not a nickel of it comes as an additional burden on taxpayers. It comes from the lenders. They will be able to continue to provide opportunities for students through their lending agencies, and this $20 billion will provide direct assistance to the neediest children in this country. It will provide help and relief for families that have real debt in terms of interest rates. Most interestingly, Mr. President, is the fact that it will encourage young people in this country to involve themselves in public service and public life through their communities. None of us can visit schools and colleges across the country and not be overwhelmingly impressed by the desire of young people to make a difference in helping to solve the problems and the challenges we are facing today. We can look as recently as this week at the cover of Time magazine outlining this tremendous surge of young people wanting to participate in solving problems in their communities in a variety of different ways. We have understood that, Mr. President, and we are saying to those young people: Yes, we know the cost of education has gone up. Yes, we know we have not kept pace in providing assistance to you to keep up with the cost of education. Yes, we understand your parents have been working hard, and still the middle class has been holding on by its teeth in terms of battling the problems of inflation and no wage increases. Yes, it has been more challenging for middle-class families to go on to college. And, yes, if they go on to school they will end up with a great deal of debt, which means they will not be able to go into the kinds of fields of service, service to the community, that they might like to. But that is going to change, and change dramatically, with this legislation. There are many different provisions in the legislation, and we will come to grips with those as the morning goes on, but this is saying to the young people: If you finish up in school and college and you have debt and you want to become a schoolteacher, you want to work in the criminal justice system, you want to work with special needs children, you want to work for a nonprofit, you will never pay more than 15 percent of your income in repayment of your debt. And after a period of years, a 10-year period of time, your debt will be forgiven in full-- completely. This is an incentive for young people to be able to go into public service and serve their community. I think it is enormously important and responsive to the time. I will have a chance later to go through this legislation in greater detail, but this is a matter of enormous importance. It is a matter of enormous consequence. It reflects the best judgment of those on this Education Committee who have worked long and hard on this legislation. We are grateful for the fact the President has indicated that he is going to support this legislation. At a time of great divisiveness on so many things, we have taken an issue of fundamental importance to families in this country and we are saying: Help is on its way. That is effectively what this legislation will do. We will spend a good deal of the morning going over the details of it and how those general concepts I have outlined this morning will be implemented in the form of the legislation. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Chairman, the senior Senator from Louisiana is absolutely correct. The conference report does indeed make that change in the law. And I can assure the senior Senator from Louisiana that we will further clarify this language in the upcoming conference report for the Higher Education Amendments of 2007--S. 1642.

Mr. KENNEDY. I agree and I assure the senior Senator from Louisiana that we will make this change in the conference report for the Higher Education Amendments of 2007, S. 1642. definition of not-for-profit lender

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, how much time is remaining?

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to be notified by the Chair when I have 3 minutes left.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, for those who have been watching this debate and discussion, we just want to underline one fundamental and very important concept and principle: that the $20 billion which is included in this legislation--which is going to be used in the ways we have described earlier today, with the Pell grants, with the loan forgiveness for students who want to go into public service careers, for some relief for the middle class--not a nickel of that is taxpayers' money. That comes out of the lenders' pot of resources, which many of us believe is overly generous to the lenders. That is another issue. When we have time after the vote at 10:15, we will have some opportunity to develop that issue. But this is a transfer of $20 billion from the lenders for help and assistance to the students. There is no question about any of that. That is No. 1. Importantly, as we are coming close now to the time where we are going to be voting on this issue, I am very mindful of those magnificent words of Nelson Mandela, one of the great heroes of the century, certainly of our generation. On the occasion he was asked about education, he said the most important weapon for change in the world is education. That is something those of us who are strong supporters of this proposal believe in. It was said, in my time, by President Kennedy, and also by President Lyndon Johnson, that no American, no qualified student should be denied--should be denied--a college education because of cost. That is a concept. That is a value. I would think all of us on this side of the aisle believe that very deeply, and many on the other side of the aisle. We would not have made the progress we have made over recent years unless we had that kind of a commitment. We have drifted from that kind of commitment, that ideal that was set by Mandela, that was understood by John Adams when he wrote of the importance of educating the common citizenry in the Constitution of Massachusetts. No state constitution has a more detailed ideal established in its constitution about educating the public than the Massachusetts Constitution, written by one of the greatest of our Founding Fathers. It was understood by Horace Mann when he established the public school system--the importance of education, the importance of education in terms of opportunity and promise and hope. It was understood by Abraham Lincoln in the height of the Civil War when he established the land-grant colleges to help and assist the education of citizens all over this Nation. It was understood by Abraham Lincoln, understood by Dwight Eisenhower, when this Nation was challenged by Sputnik in the late 1950s and the development of the National Defense Education Act, understood by Franklin Roosevelt with the GI bill that has been available for more than 60 years starting with a generation that fought in World War II. If you take the total cost of that GI bill that was expended--and as most economists have pointed out, there was a $7 return for every $1 invested in education, $7 returned for the cost of education. Talk about expending resources, talk about national priorities, this was the program that built the middle class in this country. This was the program that made America great. Now we have the opportunity again to follow the wise counsel and judgment of some of the great philosophers--Nelson Mandela and John Adams--in our time and in our generation to renew that commitment. This bill is a downpayment for it. I agree with my friend from Wyoming, we have to go ahead and do the reauthorization. We will do it. We are strongly committed to doing it. We have passed a bill here in the Senate, and the chairman of the House committee has committed that the House committee will do it, and then we will finish it together. But this is an opportunity. This is the downpayment. This is not going to be the only action that is going to be taken by us in our continued march toward progress in terms of the education and hope for young people. Not all the problems are going to be resolved. Not all the problems are going to be solved. This is a downpayment. When we look at the priorities of education at other times, we have to wonder why we are even having a debate on this issue--and why we are just talking about $20 billion. If you take what was expended on education, on investing in the GI bill over the period of the GI bill, it was a third of the total budget. If we spent now on education what we spent then, we would be spending 130 billion dollars--not $20 billion. Imagine that. $130 billion it would be, and we are only talking about $20 billion. We were spending at that time all of that-- for what?--for educating the young people. Is there anyone in here who would say that was a mistake? Find the Members of the Congress or the Senate who said we have spent too much in terms of investing in the education of the children in our country.

Mr. KENNEDY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. KENNEDY. I yield 8 minutes to the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Tennessee. As I have stated previously, this bill reflects the priority of several of our Members by recognizing that nonprofit lenders in their States make important contributions in their States. My colleague is correct, it is the intent of this legislation to allow nonprofit entities that provide Federal student loans through an eligible lender trustee to benefit from the differential special allowance payment, as long as the nonprofit pays no more than reasonable and customary fees to the trustee that holds the loans in trust for the benefit of the nonprofit entity and as long as the nonprofit was the sole owner of the beneficial interest in the loans on the date of enactment. I commit to continue to work with my friend in the future to make any necessary clarifications with respect to this provision.

Mr. KENNEDY. Find me that person. I remember being on the floor of the Senate when we had strong voices in opposition to the Pell grants, to Stafford loans back in the early 1960s. I do not hear those voices today. I do not hear those voices today. Why? Because we know when it is done well, and it is done right--and it has not always been, but in this case it is, in terms of the Pell grants, in terms of the loan forgiveness, in terms of some help and assistance and relief for middle-class families--it will make an important difference. When we hear the eloquence of some of our colleagues and about the difference it has made for their education--whether it is Dick Durbin, whether it is Maria Cantwell, who talks about the difference it has made in her family, whether it is Patty Murray, who said all seven members of her family had help and assistance in terms of student loans, and all of those people are professional people today, paying taxes, repaying whatever those kinds of loans are. Let's think about what this issue is about. This is about hope. This is about our future. This is about progress in America. Finally, this is the kind of investment we need if we are going to deal with the challenges and problems of global competition. We will have a chance to go into this in greater detail after the vote this morning, but we need these kinds of investments, and the kind of investments we have in the reauthorization bill in terms of teachers and the kinds of investments we had in the COMPETE Act that was passed in a bipartisan way earlier this year. We need this in order to stay competitive in the global economy, to make sure America's economy is the strongest. We need this investment in terms of our national security to make sure we are going to have the men and women who are going to be able to defend this Nation and use the various kinds of technologies that are developed. Finally, we need this investment in order to have a well-trained and educated citizenry who are going to be able to breathe life into the institutions our Framers established. That is what we are talking about. We are not going to achieve all of that with this legislation, but it is going to be a meaningful and ongoing and continuing commitment, and one that all of us who are supporting this proposal recognize as something that must be followed up on and strengthened and shaped as we move forward. Mr. President, I withhold the remainder of my time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I wish to take a few moments, first, to thank all of our colleagues for the overwhelming, bipartisan support for the conference report. This exceeded the vote we had earlier on our education measures, and we also had a number of absentees today who indicated favorable support for the legislation. This is a very important statement about where we are as a country in terms of the education issue. This ought to be reassuring for the students, parents, and families of our country. Again, I am immensely grateful to my colleague and friend, Senator Enzi. Without his strong support in the shaping of both the reauthorization legislation and this legislation, we certainly would not be here. He spoke very eloquently and well about the importance of the reauthorization. It is a viewpoint which I share for the reasons he has outlined. The simplicity of the financial aid application is key. We have 400,000 young people who are qualified for college but who do not go to college. Many do not go to college because they cannot work their way through those ten pages of an extremely complex, difficult questionnaire, and they do not have the support systems to assist them. This reauthorization will assist not only in the simplification of the FAFSA that Senator Enzi personally took a great deal of time with, as well as Senator Reed, but also with regard to teachers in underserved areas and the transparency provisions that will help parents understand the costs of various universities. The legislation has a number of noteworthy features that the Senator outlined in his statement. With this strong vote, we want to give assurance that we look forward to working eagerly with the House to make sure we have a successful passage; doing so will maximize the impact of this legislation we just passed. We will certainly work on the issue of college cost reduction and higher education access. And we have a number of other education issues we are working on as well. We understand the importance of the reauthorization of the Head Start Act and the provisions dealing with early education. We understand the importance of reforms of K-12, the importance of tying in kindergarten into the early grades. We understand the importance of getting well-trained teachers in underserved areas, the importance of parental involvement, the challenges out there with regard to disabled students, the challenges so many students are facing in terms of limited English-speaking capabilities, and the issues around accountability and growth models. There are a lot of complex issues, but we certainly want to wrestle with those and eventually have, as a result of working together in our committee, a seamless web of progress in the education systems in our country. That is certainly our intention. We are well down the road with the actions that have been taken today. I wish to mention a few of these items we have in the legislation. Before I do, I wish to personally mention the individuals who worked long and hard on this measure. I failed to do it during the earlier presentation when we were under more limited time, but, as I think Senator Enzi knows very well, we have been blessed with an extraordinary group of individuals who work long and hard. Much of the legislation--the authorization and also the general format of a good deal of what we have done today--has been in the works for a number of years. It did not just happen this year. The authorization legislation we passed basically had the name of Senator Enzi on it before the changes that took place in the elections. We have been working very hard. We have been enormously blessed by an extraordinary group of men and women who have worked with us. These are complex, difficult issues with incredible implications. We have on our Education Committee a membership that is very involved and engaged on education issues. All of them have ideas. One of the things that makes that committee so interesting is that we have an enormous number of ideas and suggestions, and it has taken a good deal of time to try to work with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and then with the House. That was achieved. I will certainly mention some of those who have done such an extraordinary job, and we are very much in their debt. Obviously, we are all honored to serve as Members of this institution, but those who have worked on this legislation should take a great deal of satisfaction in the difference they have made though shaping this legislation, because they have played an indispensable role, and we value very much their continued contribution. On my staff I would like to thank Michael Myers, who has been the chief of staff of our HELP Committee, Carey Parker, a longtime friend and legislative assistant, Carmel Martin, Missy Rohrbach, Erin Renner, and J.D. LaRock. We have Emma Vadehra, Nick Bath, David Johns, Raquel Alvarenga, Liz Maher, Lily Clark, Jennifer Fay, Ches Garrison, Scott Fay, Melissa Wagoner, Dave Ryan, and Jay McCarthy. This has been a bipartisan process all the way. I would also like to thank Senator Enzi's wonderful staff, specifically Katherine McGuire, Ilyse Schuman, Greg Dean, Beth Buehlmann, Ann Clough, Adam Briddell, Amy Shank, and Kelly Hastings. I also thank MaryEllen McGuire, Taneisha Woods, and Jeremy Sharp of Senator Dodd's staff; Rob Barron, Ellen Murray, and Mark Laisch of Senator Harkin's staff; Robin Juliano and Chris Fick of Senator Mikulski's staff; Michael Yudin of Senator Bingaman's staff; Kathryn Young of Senator Murray's staff; Seth Gerson of Senator Reed's staff; Mildred Otero and LaToya Johnson of Senator Clinton's staff; Steve Robinson of Senator Obama's staff; Huck Gutman of Senator Sander's staff; and Will Jawando of Senator Brown's staff. I would also like to thank Senator Reid's staff, Randy DeValk, Gary Myrick, and Jason Unger, and his outstanding floor staff without whom none of us could do our jobs, Marty Paone, Lula Davis, Tim Mitchell, and Trisha Engle. I thank especially Senator Conrad and his staff. Without them, there is no way we could have completed this bill. So thank you, Mary Naylor, Joan Huffer, Lisa Konwinski, and Robin Hiestand. And I would like to thank Liz Engel of the Democratic Policy Committee. I would also like to thank David Cleary of Senator Alexander's staff; Allison Dembeck of Senator Gregg's staff; Celia Sims of Senator Burr's staff; Glee Smith of Senator Isakson's staff; Karen McCarthy of Senator Murkowski's staff; Juliann Andreen of Senator Hatch's staff; Suzanne Singleterry of Senator Allard's staff; Alison Anway of Senator Roberts' staff; and Matt Blackburn of Senator Coburn's staff, all of whom put in many hours to make this bill a reality. As always, we worked closely with Chairman Miller's staff, and I would like to thank them as well. Mark Zuckerman, Alex Nock, Gaby Gomez, Julie Radocchia, Jeff Appel, and Stephanie Moore all worked tremendously hard, and Chairman Miller is lucky to have them. I would also like to thank the Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, and Assistant Parliamentarians Elizabeth MacDonough, Peter Robinson, and Leigh Hildebrand for their assistance throughout the process. More than most, this bill has required significant help and assistance from the Congressional Budget Office, and I would like to give them a special thanks. Paul Cullinan, Deborah Kalcevic, and Justin Humphrey have put in tremendous work--nights and weekends and everything in between--to model and estimate the budgetary effects of the complex provisions in this bill, and all the many iterations and changes that the committee considered. I don't know what we would do without them. We certainly wouldn't have been able to move this legislation as expeditiously as we did. I would also like to thank Mark Koster, Kristin Romero, and Amy Gaynor in the Senate Legislative Counsel's Office, as well as Steve Cope and Molly Lothamer in the House Legislative Counsel's Office, who also worked nights and weekends to assist in drafting the language and working out technical issues in the bill. Finally, I would like to thank members of the education team at the Congressional Research Service--Adam Stoll, Charmaine Mercer, Jeff Kuenzi, and Dave Smole, whose expertise was invaluable throughout this process. I wish to take a few moments to highlight briefly, once again, in greater detail, what the conference report will do. I outlined in the earlier presentation the highlights and the reasons for the legislation, but for a few minutes I wish to once again remind those who are interested in the benefits the legislation provides for all the borrowers. It is a historic increase in the need-based grant aid--the greatest increase since the GI bill. That helps the neediest students. We talked earlier about how we should set as a goal not to let a single qualified student lose the opportunity to get a college education because of cost. We still have a long way to go. We recognized earlier in the debate that the cost of college has gone up extraordinarily. But at the same time, grant assistance has basically stabilized or gone down in real terms, and the earning power of the middle class has been level or has fallen slightly over the period of recent years. So in this legislation we have tried to provide real assistance on the issue of burden in the percentage of repayment. We have done, I think, a first-rate job in setting better repayment options that cap a borrower's monthly payment at 15 percent of their monthly discretionary income. We have included loan forgiveness for borrowers in public service jobs, and protection for working students by not penalizing their earnings. So many of these students go out and work, and work hard, to earn a little money, and yet then they are outside the eligibility to benefit from some of important grants in terms of assistance. So we have addressed that issue. And we have provided matching grants to States to improve college access. We cut interest rates--I was referring to that earlier--on new undergraduate subsidized loans from 6.8 to 3.4 percent by 2011. We provide for scholarships of $4,000 per year for high-achieving students who commit to teaching high-need subjects in high-need schools. We didn't emphasize or stress that during the early presentation. This is one of the great and important provisions in this legislation. I think we all understand we need a well-trained teacher in every classroom in America, and we need well-trained teachers in particular in inner-city schools and also in rural and underserved communities. We need them to have the skills to serve, so we provide some important assistance to that end. Senator Enzi mentioned in the reauthorization that we provide other kinds of incentives for schools and colleges to also move in that direction. We support the Historic Black Colleges and other minority-serving institutions, such as Hispanic serving institutions and tribal colleges and universities. We increase funding for the Upward Bound Program to provide tutoring and other support to help disadvantaged students prepare for, apply to, and succeed in college. I will show why that measure is so important in a moment. And we provide these benefits--all of these benefits--at no cost to the taxpayer by reforming the student loan industry so that it works for students and not the banks. That is the basic concept. As we mentioned during the course of the earlier discussion, we provide loan forgiveness to graduates in public service. This chart mentions the various professions in which individuals can be involved to gain that kind of opportunity. They can be in public safety, law enforcement, public education, early childhood education, child care, public health--with all the Public Health Service agencies; or they can be working with special needs children and the disabled community, which is enormously important; the elderly, and the frail elderly-- increasingly a challenge for our country; public interest law--these are all the public defenders and legal services attorneys, as well as prosecutors; public libraries; nonprofit organizations; or teaching full time at a tribal college or university. I mentioned earlier the article in Time magazine this week that talks about the attitudes of students in colleges all over this country, and that it is the desire of so many of these young people to be involved in public service and to help respond to the needs in their communities. They want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. So often, because of their indebtedness, they have to choose careers in order to deal with the indebtedness. So this legislation will open up or help us take advantage of that idealism that is out there. We are giving them a pathway to making a difference in terms of the future of our country, and I think that is enormously important. That is one of the most important parts of this legislation. We have tried to work on it, and I think it will be very important. I might give a quick example of how the loan forgiveness works. A starting teacher in my State, making a salary of $35,400, has an average debt of about $18,100. Under the loan forgiveness plan, where he or she would not pay more than 15 percent of their disposable income, they will save $730. If they continue to work as a public educator, more than half of their indebtedness will be forgiven after the required period of their service. If you take a similar situation, this is a police sergeant with a child in Arkansas, making an annual salary of $28,200, with a debt of $17,000. This will help save him or her $1,100 a year in terms of repayment. At the end, if he or she stays in law enforcement for ten years, $14,800 of the $17,000 debt will be forgiven. $14,800 of the $17,000 debt if they stay working in law enforcement. So this gives you a good illustration about the loan forgiveness. As was mentioned earlier, the higher education reauthorization bill, which Senator Enzi referred to, addresses rising costs by requiring colleges to publicize college cost information. This is a real problem. Parents have a difficult time understanding what the real costs are. There are fees and more fees--tuition, room and board. I was absolutely startled when the daughter of a very good friend of mine, attending one of our finest colleges, indicated to me the cost of the schoolbooks for going on to college--over $100 for a freshman schoolbook in a rather general subject matter. These are surprises that you are faced with; the several hundred dollars additionally that people are unaware of. I know some of our colleagues have talked about this and we are certainly aware of this challenge and so we are going to try to see what we can do to help provide some assistance there. Reforms to the student loan system will ensure that colleges are recommending lenders based on the best interest of their students. Those are the ethical provisions we have added as a result of the investigations received broad support in this from the colleges and universities. Many of them were stunned by what has been happening, and they have been enormously cooperative and helpful. And I want to talk about simplifying the financial aid form. I give great credit to Senator Enzi and Senator Reed on this. They have simplified this form from an enormously complicated ten pages of questions to just two pages of essential questions. That will make a big difference. This strengthens GEAR-UP and TRIO to improve preparation for higher education. The record of these programs has been extraordinary in terms of providing the bridge for many of those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds to get them started into college, and in terms of giving them the assistance and the followup so they will need complete their higher education. Then, also, the reauthorization reforms and improves our teacher preparation programs. Teachers are the backbones of our schools, and the bill will promote high-quality teacher preparation programs, and recruit good teachers to teach in high-need schools--where they are needed most. So those are some of the essential elements in the reauthorization. As we said earlier, we are investing more here in the Pell grant. Here, I have the chart of what has happened in terms of the failure to increase the Pell grant to keep up with the cost of college. This demonstrates where we are going with one very important aspect, and that is the assistance in the Pell program. It has remained flat in the past. You can look from 2002 all the way to 2006, and now we will go to $5,400 by 2012. There has been talk that there had been some increase in Pell, all of which is true, but that was because there was an increasing number of poor students who were eligible for the Pell grant. We have nearly 5 million more people living in poverty today than in 2000. So we put more money into Pell to cover more students, but that did not keep up with the growth needs for the grant amount. The point being, this is a very important increase in terms of the cost. As the Chair, Senator Brown, pointed out, an increase in the cost of universities, a failure to provide an increase in grants, and the leveling of salaries of people have made it very difficult for many to pay for college. In my full statement, I point out in a more dramatic form, what is happening in terms of the need for many of these students and that what we are seeing currently in our education system is the increasing divide of America. I think all of us believe, or should believe, that if we are going to be one country, with one history and one destiny, we don't want education adding to the separation of a divided nation. It ought to be bringing the country together--based upon ability, based upon hard work and enterprise and a willingness to work and to achieve and accomplish. What we have found in our education system now, for a number of reasons, though unintended, it is working to divide the country. It should not be. That is a very important issue that we have tried to address in a number of different ways in this legislation. I believe it is very important to do so. We have not emphasized it, stressed it that much in our earlier comments, but it is an underlying commitment we have. In my more complete statement, I have reviewed the different ways we tried to do this. We are going to continue to work at it.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is with a touch of sadness that I speak about my friend, the senior Senator from Virginia, John Warner, who announced last week that he will not seek a sixth term and will return to the Commonwealth he loves so well following the conclusion of the 110th Congress. We will miss our friend, our colleague, and one of our finest and most respected members. John Warner is a true American patriot, who has spent his life serving the public good. From volunteering to serve in World War II at the age of 17, to his service as Secretary of the Navy and his years among us in the Senate, his life has been defined by a commitment of service to others. First and foremost a Virginia gentleman, John Warner is also one of the greatest advocates our fighting men and women have ever had in the U.S. Senate, consistently supporting their interests regardless of the prevailing winds. He was an extraordinary chairman of the Armed Services Committee, where he helped transform the Committee from a Cold War posture to a new focus on emerging threats, rapid technological changes, and asymmetric warfare. The changes he made helped usher the committee into the 21st Century. As his colleague on the committee for a quarter century, I can attest to the unrivalled depth of his understanding of our Nation's military, and was grateful to have the opportunity to call upon him innumerable times over the years for his wise counsel. In addition to his commitment and dedication to our military and to a strong national defense, John Warner is also the embodiment of the finest traditions of the Senate. Deliberate, thoughtful, and principled, over the past 28 years he has shown us all that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and that the demands of party must yield to the demands of the American people that we do our very best to support our armed forces in their all-important missions for our country and our future. Time after time, he has demonstrated his courage, decency and high principles in the Senate, whatever the partisan passions of the moment. That is who John Warner is--someone who thinks long and hard about important decisions, and then does what he feels is right. I am sure he and Jeanne thought long and hard about the decision to retire from the Senate, and I know it wasn't an easy call. He will leave enormous shoes to fill for the next person elected to serve the people of Virginia in this body. I will miss serving side by side with John Warner in the next Congress, but I am grateful we will have him here in the Senate for the coming year, especially, as we work to find answers to the extraordinarily complex and dangerous situation we confront in the Middle East. I am sure that all of us admire him for his statesmanship and leadership. And we are especially grateful for his friendship, which extended to my brothers Jack and Bobby as well. We will miss him very much.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Senator.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Lily Clark, a fellow in my office, be granted the privilege of the floor for the remainder of this session.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Friday, September 7, at 9 a.m. in open session, and possibly closed session, to receive a report on the Government Accountability Office's assessment of 18 Iraq benchmarks.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I pause for a moment today, with thousands from across the country who have gathered in Boston, to remember the lives of two of our Massachusetts firefighters, Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, who were laid to rest yesterday and today in West Roxbury and Dorchester. A week ago, Warren and Paul, lost their lives in heroically combating a 4-alarm fire in West Roxbury. We proudly honor the memory of these two heroes who gave their lives so courageously and unselfishly in the line of duty. We are deeply grateful for their service, and we mourn their loss. Paul Cahill was 55 and a father of three children. He had previously served in the U.S. Navy and he joined the Boston Fire Department in 1993. Warren Payne was 53, and a father of two children. He had been a firefighter for 19 years, and was not scheduled to be on call that night, but he had agreed to help a friend. Both Paul and Warren were men of immense bravery and dedication, and were committed to the lives and the well-being of their community. Each day they served our city, they were ready to place themselves on the front lines, and the people of Boston will never forget their outstanding service and the difference they made. My heart is in Boston today with the firefighters from across the country, and especially those from Engine 30, Ladder 25 in West Roxbury. They did the job they loved to do. May God bless Paul and Warren, and all of their family and friends who have gathered in Boston to grieve for them.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that following the statement of Senator Enzi--I will make my statement in the morning--the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I submit a report of the committee of conference on the bill (H.R. 2669) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 8:55 a.m., Friday, September 7; that on Friday, following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that the Senate then resume consideration of the conference report to accompany H.R. 2669, as provided for under a previous order.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to express appreciation to all my colleagues for their generous comments this evening, in particular to the two leaders, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, for their kindnesses tonight and other times where they have been generous of spirit and thought. I want the people of Massachusetts to know this is not an ending; 15,000 votes is not an ending. No one could demonstrate that better than my friend and colleague from West Virginia who still speaks with such eloquence and such passion and does such an extraordinary job in preserving this institution the way our Founding Fathers wanted it to be. He has no peer--certainly in my lifetime and I think probably in the history of this body. The greatest public honor of my life has been representing the people of Massachusetts. I love the State. I love the people. I have been greatly honored by their confidence and their support over the many years--joyous years, sad years. They have been extraordinary in terms of their support of a voice in the Senate and a vote to try to recognize that America is not just a land, it is a promise. It is a never-ending promise about strengthening our families and about strengthening our country and about being a fair country and creating greater opportunity and leading the world when we basically reflect our greatest values. I have been greatly honored in working in the Senate with extraordinary men and women over the period of years. I include so many who are here now, so many of those who have worked with me over the period of years, men and women of great integrity and strong commitment and caring about this Nation. They have demonstrated extraordinary courage, extraordinary leadership, and have helped to make the country a much better and fairer land; many on our side, many on the other side--many on the other side. When we think back on the great battles and challenges we have had over the period of years, we made progress when we came together. That has been true. I am very grateful to my friend, and he is my friend, John Kerry, my colleague. I thank him for his friendship and support over many years. He has pointed out he has helped me in my first campaign. I tried to help him on his last campaign. We are friends and colleagues and have a good deal of respect for each other. I have a great deal of affection and respect for John. I thank the Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd. As we know, he is not only the President of the Senate, but he has devoted his life to this institution. On so many different occasions and on so many different times--I know many in this body can remember it--when this institution was teetering on whether we were going to maintain our position as the Founding Fathers wanted it and tried to devise it or whether we were going to move off track, he has reminded us, particularly in the great debate we had on the Iraq war, about that role of this institution and its role in American life and its role in the world. We are all mindful of that. He has been a friend. We have a time where we go back and remind each other of the times we differed, but what we also, I think, have valued is the fact that our friendship I believe is stronger because of the times that we did differ. We have great affection for each other, respect for each other. I thank him for his extremely kind and generous remarks.