Christopher J. Dodd 

U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT 

TRIBUTES

IN THE CONGRESS OF 

THE UNITED STATES 

UNUM

E PLURIBUS

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Christopher J. Dodd 
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 2012

S. DOC. 111–29 

Tributes

Delivered in Congress 

Christopher J. Dodd 

United States Congressman 

1975–1981

United States Senator 

1981–2011

÷ 
Compiled under the direction 

of the 

Joint Committee on Printing 
[ iii ] 

CONTENTS

Page

Biography .................................................................................................. v 

Farewell to the Senate ............................................................................. vii 

Proceedings in the Senate: 

Tributes by Senators: 

Akaka, Daniel K., of Hawaii ..................................................... 19 

Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee ............................................... 3 

Boxer, Barbara, of California .................................................... 26 

Conrad, Kent, of North Dakota ................................................. 17 

Dodd, Christopher J., of Connecticut ....................................... 6, 14 

Durbin, Richard, of Illinois ........................................................ 9, 19 

Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming ................................................... 23 

Harkin, Tom, of Iowa ................................................................. 15 

Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah ........................................................... 25 

Hutchison, Kay Bailey, of Texas ............................................... 30 

Lautenberg, Frank R., of New Jersey ...................................... 13 

Levin, Carl, of Michigan ............................................................ 21 

Lieberman, Joseph I., of Connecticut ....................................... 6 

McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky ................................................. 5 

Murkowski, Lisa, of Alaska ....................................................... 31 

Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island ...................................................... 11 

Reid, Harry, of Nevada .............................................................. 4, 15 

Schumer, Charles E., of New York ........................................... 14 

Snowe, Olympia J., of Maine .................................................... 27 

Warner, Mark R., of Virginia .................................................... 17 

Whitehouse, Sheldon, of Rhode Island ..................................... 12 

[ v ] 

BIOGRAPHY

Former U.S. Senator CHRIS DODD is chairman and chief 

executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., which serves as the voice and advocate of the U.S. 

motion picture, home video, and television industries around 

the world. 

Appointed in March 2011, Senator DODD leads the association’s efforts to represent the interests of one of the most creative and productive industries in America. 

The major motion picture studios consistently produce and 

distribute the most sought after and enjoyable entertainment 

on Earth. Protecting this great American export during a 

challenging economy and an ever-changing technological 

landscape is Senator DODD’s highest priority. 

Senator DODD served in the U.S. Congress representing 

Connecticut for 36 years—6 years in the House of Representatives and 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Senator DODD was

one of the most widely respected legislators during his years 

in Congress, earning the trust and admiration of both Democrats and Republicans. 

As a key participant in nearly every major national policy 

debate over the past three decades, Senator DODD authored

or coauthored major legislation in the areas of education, 

health, financial services, foreign policy, and election reform. 

In his last term in the Senate, Senator DODD enacted several 

major pieces of legislation. The Senator played a decisive 

role in writing the significant health care reform bill with 

the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 

Act. And Senator DODD was the principal author of the 

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection 

Act, crafted in the wake of one of the worst economic 

downturns in history. 

Senator DODD is perhaps best known for bringing muchneeded attention to children’s and education issues. He 

formed the first Children’s Caucus in the Senate, authored 

the first childcare legislation since World War II, and wrote 

the Family and Medical Leave Act, which has helped ensure 

that 100 million Americans didn’t have to choose between 

the jobs they need and the families they love. 
[ vi ] 

A recipient of the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public 

Service Award recognizing leadership in foreign policy, and 

a former senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations 

Committee, Senator DODD is a recognized expert on Latin 

America. During his tenure in Congress he has also traveled 

extensively in Europe, Asia, and Latin America and served 

as cochair of the United States-India Senate Caucus. 

Senator DODD’s commitment to public service was instilled 

at an early age by his parents, the late Senator Thomas J. 

Dodd and Grace Murphy Dodd. Thomas Dodd was the executive trial counsel at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal before he was elected to both the House of Representatives and 

the U.S. Senate. 

CHRIS DODD is the longest serving member of Congress in 

Connecticut history—having been popularly elected eight 

times to the Congress. He was also the youngest person 

elected to the House of Representatives from the Second District of Connecticut, as well as the youngest person elected 

to the Senate in Connecticut history. In 2007 Senator DODD

was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President.

Following his graduation from Providence College, Senator 

DODD answered John F. Kennedy’s call to service and joined 

the Peace Corps, serving in the Dominican Republic from 

1966 to 1968. Upon returning to the United States, Senator 

DODD enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard and Army 

Reserves. In 1972, he earned a law degree from the Brandeis 

School of Law at the University of Louisville. He practiced 

law in New London, CT, before his election to Congress in 

1974.

CHRIS DODD was born May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, CT, 

the fifth of six children. He lives in East Haddam with his 

wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, and their daughters Grace and 

Christina.
[ vii ] 

Farewell to the Senate 

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, first of all, let me express my 

gratitude to all of the colleagues and other individuals who 

have come to the Chamber at this moment. 

Everyone who serves in Congress usually recalls two moments in their service: the maiden speech they give shortly 

after their arrival and their closing remarks. I can’t recall 

what the first speech I gave as a new Member of the House 

of Representatives 36 years ago was even about. I do, however, recall very vividly that there was no one else in the 

Chamber when I gave it. It was an empty hall early one 

evening with the exception of one colleague, Johnny Dent 

from Pennsylvania. He was sitting in his chair with his 

trademark dark glasses, listening patiently as I gave my 

knee-rattling, hand-shaking maiden address. Midway 

through the speech, he walked up to me and said quietly, 

‘‘You know, kid, it is not on the level.’’ Well, that was my 

first speech before the House, and I am deeply honored that 

so many of you have come out to listen to my closing remarks today so I do not have to speak to an empty Chamber. 

For more than 200 years, a uniquely American story has 

unfolded here in the Chamber of the U.S. Senate—a fascinating, inspiring, often tumultuous tale of conflict and compromise, reflecting the awesome potential of our still-young 

democracy and its occasional moments of agonizing frustration.

For much of my life, this story has intersected with my 

own in ways that have been both thrilling and humbling. As 

a 14-year-old boy, I sat in the family gallery of this very 

Chamber watching as my father took the oath of office as a 

new Senator. A few years later, in 1962, I sat where these 

young men and women sit today, serving as a Senate page. 

John F. Kennedy was President and Lyndon Johnson presided over this body. Eighteen years later, in fall 1980, the 

people of Connecticut gave me the honor of a lifetime when 

they asked me to give voice to their views, electing me to 

serve as their U.S. Senator. For the past 30 years, I have 
[ viii ] 

worked hard to sustain that trust. I am proud of the work 

I have done, but it is time for my story and that of this institution, which I cherish so much, to diverge. Thus, Mr. President, I rise to give some valedictory remarks as my service 

as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut comes to a close. 

Now, it is common for retiring Senators to say the following: I will miss the people but not the work. Mr. President, you won’t hear that from me. Most assuredly, I will 

miss the people of the Senate, but I will miss the work as 

well. Over the years, I have both witnessed and participated 

in some great debates in this Chamber, moments when 

statesmen of both parties gathered together in this Hall to 

weigh the great questions of our time. And while I wish 

there had been more of those moments, I will always remember the Senate debates on issues such as Central America, 

the Iraq war, campaign finance reform, securities litigation, 

health care, and, of course, financial reform. 

When I am home in Connecticut, I see the results of the 

work we did every day. I see workers coming home from 

their shifts at Pratt & Whitney, Electric Boat, the Sikorsky 

helicopter plant—the lifeblood of a defense manufacturing 

sector so critical to our national security and to the economic 

well-being of my home State. I see communities preparing 

for high-speed rail and breaking ground for new community 

health centers. I see the grants we fought for helping cities 

and towns to build sustainable communities and promote 

economic development. 

When I am home, I meet parents who, because of the Family and Medical Leave Act, don’t have to choose between 

keeping their jobs and taking care of their sick children. I 

visit with elderly folks who no longer have to choose between 

paying for their prescription drugs and paying for their heat. 

I hear from consumers who have been victimized by unfair 

practices on the part of credit card companies and who will 

no longer be subject to those abuses. And I meet young children as well who, through Early Head Start or access to 

afterschool programs, have blossomed academically in spite 

of difficult economic circumstances. 

As proud as I am of the work that has made these stories 

possible over the last three decades, I am keenly aware, particularly today, that I did not do any of this alone. Until this 

last Congress, with rare exceptions, every major piece of legislation I authored that became law—including the ones I 

have just mentioned—had a Republican cosponsor as well as 

support from my Democratic caucus. So to my Democratic 
[ ix ] 

and Republican Senate colleagues who joined me in all these 

efforts over 30 years, I say thank you this afternoon. 

I also want to thank, if I can, the unsung heroes of this 

institution—the Senate staff and my personal staff. It would 

be a grievous understatement to simply say they make the 

trains run on time. Without them, as all of us know, the 

trains would never leave the station at all—the floor staff, 

the Cloakroom professionals of both parties, and the hundreds of unknown and unseen people who show up every day 

in this body to make this critical institution of democracy 

function. Without them, no Senator could fulfill his or her 

obligations to the American people. 

Many of my personal staff and committee staff are present 

in the Senate gallery today. Neither I nor the millions of 

Americans whose lives you have enriched or whose burdens 

you have lightened can ever thank you enough. I only hope 

your time with me has been as fulfilling as my time with 

you.

Of course, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the people of Connecticut, whose confidence, patience, and spirit 

have given my life and its work deep meaning. As rich as our 

common language is, words cannot even come close to capturing the depth of my affection for and appreciation of the 

people of the State of Connecticut. For almost four decades— 

three terms in the House of Representatives, five terms in 

this Chamber—you have entrusted me to labor on your behalf, and I deeply thank you for that honor. 

And last, my family. My parents are long since deceased, 

but their guidance, inspiration, and example have never departed. For the past 30 years, I have sat at this very same 

desk occupied by my father during the 12 years he served in 

this Chamber. His courage, character, and conviction have 

been a constant reminder of what it means to be a U.S. Senator. I thank my siblings and their children and other relatives for their enthusiastic support, particularly during the 

rough patches. From time to time, we all need the safe harbor of family at the darker moments. And to Jackie, Grace, 

and Christina, who have supported and inspired me every 

day: You mean more to me than I could ever say in these few 

short moments. So come January, I am glad I will have more 

time to say it to you more often. And to Jackie in particular: 

You have been my anchor to windward in the rough and turbulent waters of public service. When it was the darkest, you 

were the brightest. I love you more than life. 
[ x ] 

As this chapter in my career comes to a close, a new chapter in the Senate’s history is beginning. When this body is 

gaveled to order in January, nearly half of its Members will 

be in their first term. And even though I could spend hours 

fondly recalling a lifetime of yesterdays, this new Senate and 

the Nation must confront a very uncertain tomorrow. So 

rather than recite a long list of personal memories or to revisit video highlights of my Senate service, I would like to 

take this brief time, in these few short moments, to offer a 

few thoughts to those who will write the Senate’s next chapter.

I will begin by stating the sadly obvious. Our electoral system is a mess. Powerful financial interests, free to throw 

money about with little transparency, have corrupted, in my 

view, the basic principles underlying our representative democracy. As a result, our political system at the Federal 

level is completely dysfunctional. Those who were elected to 

the Senate just a few weeks ago must already begin the unpleasant work of raising money for their reelection 6 years 

hence. Newly elected Senators will learn that their every legislative maneuver, their every public utterance, and even 

some of their private deliberations will be fodder for a 24/7 

political media industry that seems to favor speculation over 

analysis and conflict over consensus. 

This explosion of new media brings with it its own benefits 

and its drawbacks—and it is occurring simultaneously as the 

presence of traditional media outlets in our Nation is declining. So while the corridors of Congress are crowded with 

handheld video and cell phone cameras, there is a declining 

role for newspaper, radio, and network journalists reporting 

the routine deliberations that are taking place in our subcommittee hearings. Case in point: Ten years ago, 11 or 12 

reporters from Connecticut covered the delegation’s legislative activities. Today, there is only one doing the same work. 

Meanwhile, intense partisan polarization has raised the 

stakes in every debate and on every vote, making it difficult 

to lose with grace and nearly impossible to compromise without cost. Americans’ distrust of politicians provides compelling incentives for Senators to distrust each other, to disparage this very institution, and to disengage from the policymaking process. 

These changes have already had their effect on the Senate. 

The purpose of insulating one-half of the national legislature 

from the volatile shifts in public mood has been degraded. 

And while I strongly favor reforming our campaign finance 
[ xi ] 

system, revitalizing and rehabilitating our journalistic traditions, and restoring citizen faith in government and politics, 

I know that wishes won’t make it so. 

I have heard some people suggest that the Senate as we 

know it simply cannot function in such a highly charged political environment; that we should change Senate rules to 

make it more efficient, more responsive to the public mood— 

more like the House of Representatives, where the majority 

can essentially bend the minority to its will. I appreciate the 

frustrations many have with the slow pace of the legislative 

process, and I certainly share some of my colleagues’ anger 

with the repetitive use and abuse of the filibuster. Thus, I 

can understand the temptation to change the rules that 

make the Senate so unique and simultaneously so terribly 

frustrating. But whether such a temptation is motivated by 

a noble desire to speed up the legislative process or by pure 

political expedience, I believe such changes would be unwise. 

We 100 Senators are but temporary stewards of a unique 

American institution, founded upon universal principles. The 

Senate was designed to be different, not simply for the sake 

of variety but because the Framers believed the Senate could 

and should be the venue in which statesmen would lift 

America up to meet its unique challenges. 

As a Senator from the State of Connecticut—and the longest serving one in its history—I take special pride in the role 

two Connecticut Yankees played in the establishment of this 

very body. It was Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, delegates from Connecticut to the Constitutional Convention in 

1787, who proposed the idea of a bicameral national legislature. The Connecticut Compromise, as it came to be known, 

was designed to ensure that no matter which way the political winds blew or how hard the gusts, there would be a 

place—one place—for every voice to be heard. 

The history of this young democracy, the Framers decided, 

should not be written solely in the hand of the political majority. In a nation founded in revolution against tyrannical 

rule which sought to crush dissent, there should be one institution that would always provide a space where dissent was 

valued and respected. E pluribus unum—out of many, one. 

And though we would act as one, and should, the Framers 

believed our political debate should always reflect that in our 

beliefs and aspirations, we are, in fact, many. In short, our 

Founders were concerned not only with what we legislated 

but, just as important, with how we legislated. 
[ xii ] 

In my years here, I have learned that the appreciation of 

the Senate’s role in our national debate is an acquired taste. 

Therefore, to my fellow Senators who have never served a 

day in the minority, I urge you to pause in your enthusiasm 

to change Senate rules. And to those in the minority who 

routinely abuse the rules of the Senate to delay or defeat almost any Senate decision, know that you will be equally responsible for undermining the unique value of the Senate— 

a value, I would argue, that is greater than that which you 

might assign to the political motivations driving your obstruction.

So in the end, of course, I would suggest this isn’t about 

the filibuster. What will determine whether this institution 

works or not, what has always determined whether we fulfill 

the Framers’ highest hopes or justify the cynics’ worst fears 

is not the Senate rules or the calendar or the media; it is 

whether each of the 100 Senators can work together, living 

up to the incredible honor that comes with this title and the 

awesome responsibility that comes with this office. 

Politics today seemingly rewards only passion and independence, not deliberation and compromise as well. It has 

become commonplace to hear candidates for this body campaign on how they are going to Washington to shake things 

up—all by themselves. May I politely suggest that you are 

seeking election to the wrong office. The U.S. Senate does 

not work that way, nor can it, nor should it. Mayors, Governors, and Presidents can sometimes succeed by the sheer 

force of their will, but there has never been a Senator so persuasive, so charismatic, so clever, or so brilliant that they 

could make a significant difference while refusing to work 

with other Members of this body. 

Simply put, Senators cannot ultimately be effective alone. 

As I noted earlier, until last year’s health care bill, there 

had not been a single piece of legislation I had ever passed 

without a Republican partner. 

Of course, none of those victories came easily. The notion 

that partisan politics is a new phenomenon, or that partisan 

politics serve no useful purpose, is just flat wrong. 

From the moment of our founding, America has been engaged in an eternal and often pitched partisan debate. That 

is no weakness. In fact, it is at the core of our strength as 

a democracy, and success as a nation. 

Political bipartisanship is a goal, not a process. 
[ xiii ] 

You do not begin the debate with bipartisanship—you arrive there. And you can do so only when determined partisans create consensus—and thus bipartisanship. 

In the end, the difference between a partisan brawl and a 

passionate, but ultimately productive, debate rests on the 

personal relationships among those of us who serve here. 

A legislative body that operates on unanimous consent, as 

we do, cannot function unless the Members trust each other. 

There is no hope of building that trust unless there is the 

will to treat each other with respect and civility, and to invest the time it takes to create that trust and strengthen 

those personal bonds. 

No matter how obnoxious you find a colleague’s rhetoric or 

how odious you find their beliefs, you will need them. And 

despite what some may insist, you do no injustice to your 

ideological principles when you seek out common ground. 

You do no injustice to your political beliefs when you take 

the time to get to know those who don’t share them. 

I have served with several hundred Senators under every 

partisan configuration imaginable: Republican Presidents 

and Democratic Presidents, divided government and one 

party control. 

And as odd as it may sound in the present political environment, in the last three decades I have served here, I cannot recall a single Senate colleague with whom I could not 

work.

Sometimes those relationships take time, but then, that is 

why the Framers gave us 6-year terms: so that Members 

could build the social capital necessary to make the Senate 

function.

Under our Constitution, Senators are given 6 years, but 

only you can decide how to use them. As one Senator who 

has witnessed what is possible here, I urge each of you: Take 

the time to use those years well. I pledge to those of you who 

have recently arrived, your tenure here will be so much more 

rewarding.

More important, you will be vindicating the confidence 

that the Framers placed in each person who takes the oath 

of office, as a U.S. Senator, upholding a trust that echoes 

through the centuries. 

I share the confidence that Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and the Framers placed in this body and in its Members. But I am not blind. The Senate today, in the view of 

many, is not functioning as it can and should. 
[ xiv ] 

I urge you to look around. This moment is difficult, not 

only for this body, but for the nation it serves. In the end, 

what matters most in America is not what happens within 

the walls of this Chamber, but rather the consequences of 

our decisions across the Nation and around the globe. 

Our economy is struggling, and many of our people are experiencing real hardship—unemployment, home foreclosures, 

endangered pensions. 

Meanwhile, our Nation faces real challenges: a mounting 

national debt, energy, immigration, nuclear proliferation, ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and so much more. 

All these challenges make the internal political and procedural conflicts we face as Senators seem small and petty. 

History calls each of us to lift our eyes above the fleeting 

controversies of the moment, and to refocus our attention on 

our common challenge and common purpose. 

By regaining its footing, the Senate can help this Nation 

to regain confidence, and restore its sense of optimism. 

We must regain that focus. And, most important, we need 

our confidence back—we need to feel that same optimism 

that has sustained us through more than two centuries. 

Now, I am not naive. I am aware of the conventional wisdom that predicts gridlock in the Congress. 

But I know both the Democratic and Republican leaders. 

I know the sitting Members of this Chamber as well. And my 

confidence is unshaken. 

Why? Because we have been here before. The country has 

recovered from economic turmoil. Americans have come together to heal deep divides in our Nation and the Senate has 

led by finding its way through seemingly intractable political 

division.

We have proven time and time again that the Senate is capable of meeting the test of history. We have evidenced the 

wisdom of the Framers who created its unique rules and set 

the high standards that we must meet. 

After all, no other legislative body grants so much power 

to each Member, nor does any other legislative body ask so 

much of each Member. 

Just as the Senate’s rules empower each Member to act 

like a statesman, they also require statesmanship from each 

of us. 

But these rules are merely requiring from us the kind of 

leadership that our constituents need from us, that history 

calls on us to provide in difficult times such as the ones 

we’re encountering. 
[ xv ] 

Maturity in a time of pettiness, calm in a time of anger, 

and leadership in a time of uncertainty—that is what the 

Nation asks of the Senate, and that is what this office demands of us. 

Over the past two centuries, some 1,900 men and women 

have shared the privilege of serving in this body. Each of us 

has been granted a temporary, fleeting moment in which to 

indulge either our political ambition and ideological agenda, 

or, alternatively, to rise to the challenge and make a constructive mark on our history. 

My moment is now at an end, but to those whose moments 

are not yet over, and to those whose moments will soon 

begin, I wish you so much more than good fortune. 

I wish you wisdom. I wish you courage. And I wish for 

each of you that, one day, when you reflect on your moment, 

you will know that you have lived up to the tremendous 

honor and daunting responsibility of being a U.S. Senator. 

To quote St. Paul, ‘‘The time of my departure has come. I 

have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have 

kept the faith.’’ 

So, Mr. President, it is with great pride, deep humility, 

and incredible gratitude, as a U.S. Senator, that I yield the 

floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. 

(Applause, Senators rising.) 

TRIBUTES

TO

CHRISTOPHER J. DODD 

[ 3 ] 

Proceedings in the Senate 

TUESDAY, November 30, 2010 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, 16 Senators will retire 

this year. There is a pretty big turnover in this body, but 

that is a lot of Senators at once. We are losing an enormous 

amount of talent, but, of course, we are gaining a lot of talent with the new Senators. 

I wish to show my respect for those who have served, 

which I will do in a summary fashion because we are talking 

about 16 individuals with very complex and distinguished 

backgrounds.

One might ask, what are the characteristics of a Senator? 

There are a lot of different answers to that, depending on 

your background and attitude toward politics and government. First, I have always thought that one characteristic of 

almost every Member of the Senate is that he or she probably was a first grader sitting in the front row, hand in the 

air waiting to be recognized. This is an eager bunch or you 

would not have gotten here. 

Second, it is a group of risk takers. Most people who end 

up in the Senate get here because a lot of other people who 

wanted to be Senators were standing around waiting for the 

right time to run. A lot of people who were elected to the 

Senate seemed to have no chance of winning at the time they 

decided to run, but the voters decided differently, and here 

they are. 

Third, we are almost all professional and congenial. That 

is a big help. It is almost a requirement in an organization 

of 100 individuals who spend almost all their time with one 

another, who serve in a body that operates by unanimous 

consent, when just one Senator can bring the whole place to 

a halt, and whose job basically is to argue about some of the 

most difficult issues that face the American people. So it 

helps that almost every Member of the Senate is an especially congenial person. 

Back in Tennessee, people often say to me it must be 

rough being in that job. They are awfully mean up there. 
[ 4 ] 

The truth is, I don’t know of a more congenial group than 

the Members of the Senate. We begin the day in the gym. 

The next thing you know we are at a Prayer Breakfast, and 

then we are at a committee hearing. Then we are on the 

floor voting, and then we have lunch. It goes through the day 

until 7 or 8 o’clock, or sometimes later. We live together and 

we get along very well. We know and respect each other. 

Not long ago, the Presiding Officer (Mr. Udall of New Mexico) and I were having dinner together with our wives. We 

were lamenting the loss of families who know one another, 

the way it happened when his father was serving in Congress and when I first came to the Senate to work for Senator Baker. And that’s true. We’ve lost some of that. Still, 

there is an enormous amount of affection and good will here. 

You don’t always get to be very close friends in this job, but 

you get to be very good acquaintances, and you learn to respect people for their strengths. 

Senator Domenici said, when he left, that we don’t do a 

very good job of saying goodbye here. That is true. As one 

part of saying goodbye, I wish to say at least one good thing 

about each one of the 16 retiring Senators. Much more could 

be said about each, of course. Mostly, I am going in alphabetical order. . . . 

Senator CHRIS DODD has been here a long time—five 

terms. Children and families are his hallmark and legacy. I 

have felt privileged to work with him on the Subcommittee 

on Children and Families. One thing we’ve focused on together is premature births, but he’s also worked on a whole 

variety of other legislation. We will miss his congeniality, his 

good humor, and his devotion to the Senate as an institution, 

making sure it stays unique as a place where we have unlimited debate and unlimited amendments, so the voices of 

the American people can be heard. . . . 

It has been my privilege to serve with these 16 Senators. 

We thank them for their service to our country. They have 

had a chance to serve in what we regard as the world’s 

greatest deliberative body; it is a special institution. We will 

miss their leadership, and we hope they will stay in touch 

with us because they are not just retiring Senators, they are 

all our friends. 

I yield the floor. 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I have on many occasions spoken 

of my affection for my friend CHRIS DODD. At the caucus 

today—the Presiding Officer was there—I indicated very few 

people have had the opportunity and the challenges in a sin-
[ 5 ] 

gle Congress as CHRIS DODD. He found himself chairman of 

the Banking Committee at a time when the country was collapsing, the banks were collapsing. Yet he led the way to 

working with the Republican President to do the so-called 

TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). It was something 

that was done on a bipartisan basis. There was never a better example in my entire government career of a more cooperative group of Senators, Democrats and Republicans, 

House and Senate, working together to create something 

that was badly needed. 

Then we had, of course, many other issues beginning with 

Wall Street reform. Then, to complicate his life and to add 

to the challenges in his life—the best friend a man could 

ever have was CHRIS DODD’s best friend, Ted Kennedy—Ted 

Kennedy was stricken very ill. Senator DODD knew he would 

not be back to the Senate. Very few people knew that, but 

he knew that. He, in effect, was chairing two major committees at the same time, the HELP (Health, Education, Labor, 

and Pensions) Committee and the Banking Committee. He 

did it in a way that is so commendable, so exemplary. 

I have so much, I repeat, affection for CHRIS DODD that I 

am not capable of expressing how deeply I feel about this 

good man. I will have more to say later, but I did want to 

take this opportunity, as soon as the Republican leader 

makes his remarks, to allow his colleague from the State of 

Connecticut to speak following the two leaders, if that is OK. 

I ask unanimous consent that following the remarks of 

Senator McConnell, Senator Lieberman be recognized. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The Republican leader. 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, like most Members of 

this body, I am rarely at a loss for words, but I think we 

have just had an opportunity to hear one of the most important speeches in the history of the Senate about our beginnings, about our traditions, about what is unique about this 

institution which makes it different from any other legislative body in the world. I have heard many people discuss 

that over the years but never anyone so cogently point out 

why the uniqueness of this institution is so important to our 

country as the senior Senator from Connecticut has done 

today. So while we have a huge number of Senators on the 

floor, I am going to strongly recommend that those who were 

not here have an opportunity to take a look at his remarks 
[ 6 ] 

because I think they are an enormously significant and important contribution to this institution and to its future. 

On a personal basis, I want to say to my good friend from 

Connecticut how much I am going to miss him—his wonderful personality, his ability to talk to anybody—a uniquely effective individual. 

So we bid adieu to the senior Senator from Connecticut 

and hope our paths will cross again in the future. 

I yield the floor. 

Mr. DODD. I thank the Senator. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, for 22 years it has been 

a blessing for me to have served with CHRIS DODD in the 

Senate as my colleague from Connecticut, as my dear friend, 

as my legislative partner. I am going to miss him a lot, as 

everybody in this Chamber will. I think when we listened to 

the words he spoke to us just a few moments ago—how full 

of wisdom and warmth they were—we knew how much we 

are going to miss him and how much we should consider 

what has made him not only our great friend but a truly 

great Senator. 

CHRIS mentioned Sherman and Ellsworth, whose pictures 

are out in the reception area just off the Senate, who crafted 

the Connecticut Compromise, really created the Senate. I 

think CHRIS DODD, who is the 54th Senator from the State 

of Connecticut in our history, took this institution that Sherman and Ellsworth created in the Connecticut Compromise 

and made it work to the great benefit of the people of Connecticut and the people of America. 

To the great benefit of the people of Connecticut and the 

people of America, CHRIS DODD was born to a legacy, an honorable legacy of public service, which he watched, as so many 

of us did in Connecticut, and, of course, learned from, from 

his father, Senator Thomas J. Dodd. I could say a lot about 

Senator Dodd, Sr. He was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg 

trials, remarkably principled, skillful prosecutor, who became a Member of the Senate. 

I will tell you that as a young man in Connecticut, me, 

growing up, thinking about a political career, when I heard 

that Senator Tom Dodd was somewhere within range of 

where I lived or went to school, I went to listen to him 

speak. He was a classic orator, an extraordinarily principled 

man who had a great career in the Senate. 
[ 7 ] 

As we know from the years we have served with CHRIS,

the characteristics I have described of his father were taken 

and put to extraordinarily good use in the Senate. 

CHRIS’ words were very important, and, as Senator 

McConnell said, should be studied by all of us and by anyone 

thinking about coming to the Senate. We all talk about this 

being an age of hyperpartisanship. But I think that misses 

the point because, as CHRIS said, he is a partisan in the best 

sense of the word. He is a principled partisan. He is passionate about what he believes in. But he knows we come to 

a point when partisanship ends, and you have to get something done for the public that was good enough to send you 

here.

Over and over again, any of us on both sides of the aisle 

who have watched CHRIS work a bill know how persistent, 

how open, how anxious he was to try to find common ground, 

yes, to compromise because ultimately our work is the art of 

the possible. Somebody once said to me, ‘‘The futility of the 

failure to compromise, there is no result from it.’’ But if you 

have a goal, a principled goal, you know you can achieve a 

significant part of that goal if you can build enough support 

in this Chamber, and time and time again CHRIS DODD did

that.

The other reason I think he did it is because of the truth 

that he spoke in his remarks, which is that beyond the great 

debates and the headlines and the sniping back and forth. 

The Senate, after all, is 100 people who go to work in the 

same place every day, and your ability to get things done in 

the Senate, as is true in offices and factories all over America and other places of work, your ability to get things done 

here is affected, in great measure, by the trust your colleagues have in you and even the extent to which they like 

you.

I think, by those standards, CHRIS DODD has been totally 

trustworthy. As we were taught when we grew up in Connecticut politics, his word has been his bond, and his personality has warmed each of us as we have gone through the labors we go through here. 

CHRIS DODD has served longer in the Senate than any 

Senator from Connecticut. So on this day—and he will forgive me a little bit of hyperbole. I would guess, as a matter 

of friendship and faith, that he has probably accomplished 

more than any other Senator in the history of the State of 

Connecticut, and he has done it because he cares about people. When he takes something on, he simply does not quit. 
[ 8 ] 

I just want to tell you one story. In 1989, CHRIS met a 

woman named Eva Bunnell at her church in East Haddam, 

CT. She told him her daughter had been born with a rare 

brain disease and was fighting for her life in the intensive 

care unit. But when her husband asked his employer for 

time off to be with his wife and critically sick infant, he was 

told to go home and never come back, leaving a family without income or health insurance. 

The story, all too common at the time, is the kind of injustice that has repeatedly moved CHRIS DODD to action. He authored, as we know, the Family and Medical Leave Act. He 

worked, as I said before, on compromises that made it acceptable to a large number of people, stuck with it through 

two Presidential vetoes, and then finally saw it signed into 

law by President Clinton in 1993. 

Today, the records will show that more than 50 million 

people have been able to take time off from work to care for 

a loved one or give birth to a child without fear of losing 

their jobs. 

That is a lifetime achievement, but it is only one of many 

such achievements CHRIS DODD has had in the Senate. Senator Reid talked about this last session of his Senate career, 

extraordinary accomplishments: health care reform, Wall 

Street reform, the Iran sanctions bill which came out of the 

Banking Committee, which is, in my opinion, the strongest 

such bill we have ever passed and the last best hope to avoid 

the necessity to take military action against Iran. This is the 

kind of record CHRIS has built. 

Up until this time, I have been serious, and when you talk 

about CHRIS DODD, it would be wrong to be totally serious 

because one of the things we are going to miss is that booming laugh and the extraordinary sense of humor. I have had 

many great laughs with colleagues here. I have probably 

given too many laughs to colleagues, as I think about it. But 

I have never laughed louder or more over the years than I 

have with CHRIS DODD.

Perhaps it is not totally appropriate on the Senate floor, 

but I have two of his comments, one about me, that I wish 

to share. I notice the former comedian is here. A while ago, 

only CHRIS DODD would have told an audience here in Washington that he thought enough time had passed in my career 

that he could reveal that Joe Lieberman actually had not 

been born Jewish but was born a Baptist and raised a Baptist, and then when I got into politics and saw how many 

events I would have to go to on Friday night or Saturday, 
[ 9 ] 

I converted to Judaism to take the Sabbath off. Then CHRIS

said, ‘‘And, you know, I am thinking of converting to Judaism myself but only for the weekends.’’ 

Another quick quip. As my colleagues in the Senate know, 

it is our honor to walk our State colleagues down the center 

aisle in the Senate to be sworn in for a new term. The first 

time I did that, we walked arm in arm, as we always have. 

CHRIS turned to me and said, ‘‘You know, Joe, there are people who are worried that you may be the only person I will 

ever walk down an aisle with.’’ 

Well, fortunately, that was not true because, CHRIS and

Jackie got married and had these two wonderful daughters, 

Grace and Christina, who have provided so much joy and 

satisfaction and hopefulness to CHRIS.

We are going to miss you. I am going to miss you personally. I speak for myself, but I speak, I would bet, for just everybody in this Chamber in saying we feel so close to you 

that we know our friendship will go on. 

I would say CHRIS DODD leaves, to sum up an extraordinary Senate career, having achieved a record of results 

that benefited the people of Connecticut and America in untold ways. He has a wonderful family with whom he looks 

forward to spending time, and he has so many great years 

ahead of him, including, I hope and believe, times when he 

will again be of service to our country. 

God bless you, CHRIS, and your family. 

I yield the floor. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois. 

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to join with my colleagues in saluting the departure of one of our best, Senator 

CHRIS DODD. I first saw his father, though I did not meet 

him, when I was a student intern for Senator Paul Douglas 

of Illinois, who had an office that was next door to CHRIS

DODD’s father’s. I saw Senator Thomas Dodd leaving that office and was certainly aware of the great contribution he 

made to America. 

Little did I know some 16 years later, when I would be a 

candidate for the House of Representatives, that his son 

would come to Decatur, IL, to do an event for me in my campaign. It was a smashing success, the biggest turnout ever. 

I am sure Senator DODD believes it might have been because 

of his presence. It also could have been because it was a $1 

chicken dinner and people came from miles around. But I 

was happy to advertise him as the star talent at that event. 
[ 10 ] 

What a great life story. CHRISTOPHER JOHN DODD, the fifth 

of six children of Thomas and Grace Dodd, was born in 1944 

with a caul, a thin veil of skin thought to be a sign of good 

luck, covering his head. The doctor who delivered him told 

his mother that with this sign of good luck, this baby might 

grow up to be President, to which Mrs. Dodd replied, ‘‘What 

is the matter with Franklin Roosevelt?’’ 

It was a great line, but the truth is, while Grace and Tom 

Dodd were both ardent New Dealers, they knew America 

would not depend on one leader forever, not even FDR. They 

knew and they taught their children they all have an obligation in our own time to try to move America closer to a more 

perfect union. 

Thomas Dodd, Senator DODD’s father, worked to fulfill 

that obligation in his time. He chased John Dillinger as an 

FBI agent, prosecuted war criminals and KKK members as 

a government lawyer, and served in both the House and Senate. His son Chris followed his father’s example, found his 

way to serve America by serving in the Peace Corps as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic, where he lived for 2 years 

in a mountaintop village in a house with a tin roof and no 

running water or telephone. 

In that village he started a maternity hospital, family 

planning program, a youth club, and a school. Those were 

the first installments of what would become, for CHRIS

DODD, a lifetime of work protecting women and children 

worldwide.

Senator DODD was elected to the Senate in 1980, at the 

ripe age of 36. He is both the youngest person ever elected 

to the Senate in Connecticut history and the longest serving, 

as has been said. Early on, his colleagues recognized his talents and named him one of the three most effective freshman Senators. He has never let up on his efforts to help 

America and help Connecticut. 

He is a passionate, articulate voice for economic justice, for 

civil, constitutional, and human rights, and for America’s 

role as a moral leader in the world. He is a champion of fairness, cofounder of the Senate Children’s Caucus, lead sponsor, as Senator Lieberman mentioned, in 1993, of the Family 

and Medical Leave Act, which has helped countless millions 

of Americans. 

He has achieved more in the last 2 years, though, than 

most Senators achieve in long careers. As chairman of the 

Senate Banking Committee, he led the fight in the Senate 

for the most important Wall Street reform since the Great 
[ 11 ] 

Depression. He picked up the fallen standard from his dear 

friend Ted Kennedy and helped lead the fight Ted Kennedy 

always dreamed of for affordable health care for all Americans. For that achievement alone, CHRIS DODD has earned a 

place in history. 

CHRIS DODD has, as Eugene O’Neill might say, ‘‘the map 

of Ireland on his face,’’ but he has the promise of America 

written in his heart. His work in the Senate has made that 

promise real for millions of Americans. In his office in the 

Russell Senate Office Building, an office once occupied by his 

father, are portraits of two Thomases: Thomas Dodd, his father, and another of his heroes, Sir Thomas More. 

I listened to CHRIS’ speech just a moment ago, and I was 

reminded of what Thomas More wrote in his masterwork, 

‘‘Utopia.’’ He said: 

If you can’t completely eradicate wrong ideas, or deal with inveterate vices 

as effectively as you could wish, that is no reason for turning your back on 

public life all together. You wouldn’t abandon a ship in a storm just because 

you couldn’t control the winds. 

For 30 years in the Senate, even when he has had to sail 

through fierce headwinds, CHRIS DODD has kept his compass 

fixed on the ideals that make America both great and good. 

In doing so, he has made the Senate, Connecticut, and America a better place. 

I am proud to have served with him and call him a friend. 

I thank him for his efforts that brought me to the House of 

Representatives so many years ago. I thank him for his service in the Senate and a special thanks to his wonderful family; Jackie, a great friend, and those two great daughters, 

Grace and Christine, whom I have seen as swimmers at the 

Senate pool, good health and good luck to the whole family 

for many more chapters in their lives. 

I yield the floor. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to pay tribute to my dear friend and colleague and, in a very real sense, 

mentor. I can testify from the experience of the last 2 years 

to his remarkable contributions to this country. 

I don’t believe any other Senator could have navigated the 

treacherous waters of the Dodd-Frank bill. It was like watching a great conductor conduct a complicated piece of music: 

knowing when to pause and let tempers cool, knowing when 

to pick up the tempo, knowing when to come to the final con-
[ 12 ] 

clusion. It was a virtuoso performance, in keeping with a career of contributing to Connecticut and to this country. 

The most remarkable tribute I have ever heard about this 

wonderful man was in a very unusual place by a person who 

honestly probably doesn’t know who he is. It was May 21, 

2010. I was visiting a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Army 

Hospital, a member of the Second Battalion, 508 Parachute 

Infantry Regiment of the 82d Airborne Division. He had been 

wounded around Kandahar by an IED. Fortunately, he was 

on the road to recovery. We joked for a moment and talked 

about his experiences, and I turned to his mother, who was 

sitting there watching her son, her life, her hope make a full 

recovery, and I said, ‘‘How are you doing?’’ 

She said to me very simply, ‘‘I am doing fine. You see, I 

was able to take family medical leave and be with my son 

while he recuperated.’’ 

She probably doesn’t know who Senator DODD is or what 

he did, but she, along with 50 million other Americans, was 

by the hospital bed of a wounded son or a sick child or an 

ailing parent. To me, that is the greatest tribute to what 

Senator DODD has done. 

There is a great line I recall about Franklin Roosevelt. His 

cortege was winding its way through Washington. A man 

was sobbing. A reporter rushed up to him, ‘‘Well, you are so 

affected. You must have known the President. Did you know 

the President?’’ 

He said, ‘‘No, I never knew the President, but he knew 

me.’’

CHRIS DODD knew the people of Connecticut and the people of the United States, and in every moment, he served 

them with integrity and diligence and honor. 

CHRIS, to you, to your family—and I say this because your 

mother is from Westerly, RI, God bless her; and your beloved 

sister, our dear friends Martha and Bernie, from Rhode Island—as an adopted son of Rhode Island, thank you for your 

service to the Nation. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, may I associate myself 

with the remarks of my distinguished senior Senator and reemphasize our pride in the contacts that Chairman DODD,

Senator DODD, our friend CHRIS DODD, has with Rhode Island.

I yield the floor. 
[ 13 ] 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I wish to take a couple 

of minutes to salute the service of one great Senator, CHRIS

DODD.

CHRIS and I have served together for more than 25 years. 

When I arrived here—and I was not one of the youngest people to get here at that time, but CHRIS was someone I knew 

from other walks of life—I turned to him, as well as my dear 

friend who used to occupy this seat, Ted Kennedy, for advice 

and counsel. Sometimes the counseling was better than the 

advice, but we were younger then. 

CHRIS DODD has that incredible personality that gets 

things done, that presents a leadership position on issues. 

He has shown incredible patience in the way he dealt with 

financial reform and with health care. But never, as I saw 

it, did CHRIS leave the people who disagreed with him with 

anger, with a feeling of anger or with anything other than 

respect and friendship. 

CHRIS comes from a distinguished family. His father occupied a seat here for a dozen years. Now Senator CHRIS DODD

has decided to leave the Senate. It was a decision he made 

with which I totally disagreed. It was bad judgment, I can 

tell my colleagues that. When I left after 18 years of service, 

three terms, I decided I had had enough. I left. Good fortune 

smiled on me, and I came back after 2 years, after a 2-year 

absence, missing being here maybe more than it missed me. 

I remember, as I made my outgoing visits—no, my decisionmaking visits—CHRIS invited me to his office with Ted 

Kennedy and a colleague whom we had at the time, Paul 

Wellstone, now deceased but a wonderful colleague. The 

three of them sat with me in CHRIS’ office, and CHRIS tried

to talk me out of leaving. I said, ‘‘No, it is a decision I made.’’ 

I began to have misgivings about it, but by then, the die was 

cast; there were other people who wanted to run for the job. 

So I left with lots of regrets. I was away from here for a period of time. In 2001 when I left, it was a terrible year—the 

year of 9/11 and the beginning of a recession and the beginning of war and all of those things. So I tried to play turnaround with CHRIS, and I talked to CHRIS about leaving and 

I said, ‘‘CHRIS, don’t leave. Don’t do it.’’ 

CHRIS DODD will leave a void. I think it is obvious that 

someone will follow, take the reins. It doesn’t mean they will 

ever take his place. I don’t think that is possible. CHRIS

DODD will have left an impression here of decency and hon-
[ 14 ] 

esty and honor and respect on all of us on both sides of the 

aisle—one of the few times we all agree. 

So I say to CHRIS and Jackie and your two little girls that 

we wish you well. Our friendship will endure way past our 

time serving together. 

CHRIS, follow my example. Give it a couple of years and 

get back here, will you? Thank you very much, CHRIS DODD,

for your wonderful service. We love you, and we will miss 

you, and we will always think about you. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York. 

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly in 

honor of our friend and colleague, the senior Senator from 

Connecticut. I have watched him from the day I came here. 

We knew each other a little bit when I was in the House. He 

left the House to go to the Senate, but we had many of the 

same friends when I came to the House. I always marveled 

at his abilities. 

For those of us who have served here—I have only been 

here 12 years—we know the joys and difficulties of legislating in the Senate. We know it is not easy, and we know 

how satisfying it is. There are very few who reach the acme 

of how to do it and who devote their lives to it. I guess they 

are given a title—I don’t know if it is official; it is probably 

not—they are the ‘‘men and women of the Senate.’’ We have 

had two leave us in the last year: Senator Robert Byrd and 

Senator Ted Kennedy. They were truly men of the Senate. 

It is not a title bestowed easily or lightly or frequently. 

CHRIS DODD is a man of the Senate. He is in the category 

of Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd in terms of his ability to 

get things done, his ability as a legislative craftsman, as 

somebody who is able to combine idealism and practicality, 

as somebody who is able to sit down with someone, as has 

been mentioned before, with a totally different viewpoint and 

get them to compromise and be on his side and be part of 

the effort he is leading. He is a man of the Senate. He will 

always be a man of the Senate. I will miss him personally 

for his guidance and friendship, and I think every one of us 

will.

CHRIS, good luck and Godspeed. 

Mr. DODD. Thank you very much. 
[ 15 ] 

WEDNESDAY, December 8, 2010 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 

there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to retiring 

Members of the 111th Congress, and that Members have 

until Thursday, December 16, to submit such tributes. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

THURSDAY, December 9, 2010 

Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, in these closing weeks of 

the 111th Congress, the Senate will be saying goodbye to a 

number of retiring colleagues. For my part, I will miss them 

all, but I have to be honest, the most poignant farewell will 

be to my dear friend, Senator CHRIS DODD of Connecticut. 

CHRIS and I have much in common. We are both proud of 

our Irish roots. We were both elected to the House of Representatives at the same time, in the famous post-Watergate 

election of 1974. CHRIS moved over here to the Senate in 

1980, and I followed 4 years later. We both ran for President—with similarly unambiguous results. Over the years, 

we have collaborated on many legislative initiatives, including, most recently, the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—the health reform bill. 

As we all know, CHRIS DODD is almost literally a son of 

the Senate. With good reason, he is enormously proud of his 

father, Thomas J. Dodd, who was a lead prosecutor at the 

Nuremberg trials and served two terms in the Senate, from 

1959 to 1971. CHRIS worked as a Senate page at age 16, and 

was elected to the Senate at age 36. For three decades, 

CHRIS has embodied everything that is good about this body: 

a passion for public service, a sincere desire to reach out 

across the aisle, a great talent for forging coalitions and 

bringing people together, and a willingness to work extraordinarily long hours in order to accomplish big and important 

things.

Over the decades, Senator DODD has been a leading champion of working Americans, fighting for safer workplaces, the 

right to organize, stronger public schools, better access to 

higher education, and, of course, quality health care as a 

right not a privilege. He was the author of the 1993 Family 

and Medical Leave Act, which for the first time entitled 
[ 16 ] 

every American to have leave from their job to take care of 

children or elderly relatives. 

Make no mistake, Senator DODD is leaving the Senate at 

the very top of his game. Last year, when Senator Kennedy 

fell ill, CHRIS picked up the torch of health care reform. 

When I became chair of the Health, Education, and Labor 

Committee, I asked him to continue to take the lead in forging the final bill, which he had led so expertly before, and 

which will go down in history as one of America’s great progressive accomplishments, on a par with Social Security and 

Medicare.

Even before final passage of health reform, Senator DODD,

as chair of the Banking Committee, was hard at work 

crafting yet another historic bill: the most sweeping reform 

of Wall Street and the banking industry since the Great Depression.

To be sure, other Senators played important roles in passing health reform and Wall Street reform. But it was Senator DODD’s dogged work and virtuoso skills as a legislator 

that ultimately won the day. These two landmark laws are 

a tremendous living legacy to the senior Senator from Connecticut. He has made his mark as one of the great reformers in the history of the U.S. Senate. 

CHRIS DODD has accomplished many things during his 

three decades in this body. But, in my book, the highest accolade is simply that CHRIS DODD is a good, generous, and 

decent person, with a passion for fairness and social justice. 

For me, it has been a great honor to be his friend and colleague for the last 36 years. Our friendship, of course, will 

continue. But I will miss the day-to-day association with 

CHRIS here on the floor, in committee, and elsewhere here on 

the Hill. 

Paul Wellstone used to say that ‘‘the future belongs to 

those with passion.’’ By that definition, our friend CHRIS

DODD has a wonderful future ahead of him. No question he 

is full of passion, passion for doing what is right for the people of this country. But no question, the Senate is losing a 

giant—one of our most accomplished and respected Members. We are also losing a happy warrior in the mold of FDR 

and Hubert Humphrey. As the columnist E.J. Dionne has 

written, ‘‘The happiness quotient in the Senate will definitely 

drop when [Senator] DODD leaves.’’ I couldn’t agree more. 

For 36 years in Congress, CHRIS DODD has faithfully 

served the people of Connecticut and the people of the 
[ 17 ] 

United States. And there is no doubt that he will pursue new 

avenues of public service in retirement. 

As I said, I will miss his friendship and counsel here in the 

Senate. But I wish CHRIS, his wonderful wife Jackie, and 

their wonderful young children, Grace and Christina, the 

very best in the years ahead. 

FRIDAY, December 10, 2010 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise again to recognize the 

service of another great Federal employee. This is a tradition 

that was started by our friend and former colleague, Senator 

Kaufman, and I am proud to carry on that tradition. But I 

want to first say that I appreciate the remarks of the Presiding Officer (Mr. Reed) about our colleagues who are leaving this body, and I share his great respect for not only Senator Kaufman but all of the colleagues who are leaving the 

body at the end of this Congress. . . . 

WEDNESDAY, December 15, 2010 

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute 

and recognize the accomplishments of a colleague and friend 

who will be retiring from the U.S. Senate at the end of this 

term. Senator CHRISTOPHER DODD has represented Connecticut in Congress for 36 years, and has been an unrelenting advocate for his constituents and working-class Americans.

Senator DODD has led a very impressive career, and his 

dedication and love of public service is evident. After graduating from Providence College, he volunteered with the 

Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic for 2 years. Upon returning to the United States, CHRISTOPHER DODD enlisted in 

the Army National Guard and later served in the U.S. Army 

Reserves. In 1972, he earned a law degree from the University of Louisville School of Law, and practiced law before his 

election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1975. In 

1981, he became the youngest person to join the U.S. Senate 

in Connecticut history. Senator DODD followed in the footsteps of his father, the late Senator Thomas Dodd, being 

elected to both Chambers of Congress. 

Since his election to Congress, Senator DODD has served 

his State and the Nation admirably. He has been a true ad-
[ 18 ] 

vocate for our children and their families, forming the Senate’s first Children’s Caucus. He was a champion and author 

of the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees 

working Americans time off if they are ill or need to care for 

a sick family member or new child. In addition, he has consistently fought to improve and expand the Head Start Program, a critical investment in our Nation’s future. Due to his 

tremendous advocacy of the program, he was named Senator 

of the Decade by the National Head Start Association. 

Senator DODD was also one of the key Senators who made 

passage of health care reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a reality. A close and personal friend of 

the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator DODD worked tirelessly on health reform in the Senate Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions Committee, and in the full Senate during Senator Kennedy’s battle with brain cancer and after his 

passing. Senator Kennedy, who had been the leader in the 

Senate on reforming our health care system for several decades, would have been very proud of Senator DODD and his 

relentless efforts to reform our Nation’s health care system. 

The health care reform law that Senator DODD helped to 

craft will expand health insurance coverage to approximately 

32 million Americans and create some commonsense rules of 

the road for the health insurance industry in an effort to 

clamp down on abusive practices such as jacking up premiums or dropping coverage just when people need it most. 

It also builds on our current private, employer-based system 

by expanding coverage, controlling costs, and improving 

quality, competition, and choices for consumers. 

Senator DODD is chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. He has been instrumental in working to put our country back on sound economic footing. As we all remember too well, in fall 2008 we 

faced a financial crisis. Senator DODD and I and other leaders from both Chambers were called to an emergency meeting in the U.S. Capitol as the Nation’s economy teetered on 

the brink of collapse. At this meeting, the chairman of the 

Federal Reserve and the Secretary of the Treasury from the 

previous administration told us they were taking over AIG 

the next morning. They believed if they did not, there would 

be a financial collapse. Those were very serious days. 

A few weeks later, the Bush administration proposed virtually unfettered authority for the Treasury Secretary to respond to the financial crisis. Senator DODD, to his lasting 

credit, insisted on defining the Treasury’s authority, sub-
[ 19 ] 

jecting it to strict oversight, and protecting the taxpayer. He 

played a key role in improving the legislation, culminating in 

nonstop negotiations into the middle of a Saturday night in 

October. When the history of the financial crisis is written, 

I expect CHRIS DODD will be given great credit for responding to the crisis, helping to prevent a Great Depression, and 

improving the legislation. He played a central role, I believe, 

in shaping the response so that the ultimate cost to taxpayers will be far lower than originally expected. 

Senator DODD also took the lead in writing landmark Wall 

Street reform legislation to help prevent another financial 

sector collapse. It will allow the government to shut down 

firms that threaten to crater our economy and ensure that 

the financial industry, not the taxpayer, is on the hook for 

any costs. Senator DODD is owed great thanks for his leadership and hard work on these financial issues during a very 

difficult time for our Nation. 

These are just a few of the examples of the great work 

Senator DODD has done for the country. I would like to close 

by saying that Senator DODD’s presence will certainly be 

missed in this Chamber. He has served the people of Connecticut faithfully, and I know that his many contributions 

will not be forgotten. It has been an honor for me to work 

with such a compassionate and dedicated Senator, and I 

wish him and his family the very best. 

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 

that the order for the printing of tributes be modified to provide that Members have until sine die of the 111th Congress, 

2d session, to submit tributes and that the order for printing 

remain in effect. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

THURSDAY, December 16, 2010 

Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to bid farewell to 

a number of our friends and colleagues who are ending their 

service in the Senate. Their contributions are too numerous 

to mention, therefore I would like to take just a few minutes 

to highlight some of the memories of the Senators I came to 

know personally. 
[ 20 ] 

Some of the departing Senators I have served with for decades. Others were here for only part of a term. All of them 

worked hard for their constituents and our country. . . . 

I am proud to express my great appreciation and gratitude 

for Senator CHRIS DODD’s service to our country. He brought 

extraordinary leadership to the Senate that enabled us to 

make meaningful improvements to the education and economic security of Americans. 

I traveled with Senator DODD to South America early in 

my tenure here in the Senate. Although I enjoy traveling, 

each time I go abroad I worry about my ability to communicate with my foreign hosts. But, on that trip, the language 

barrier was not an issue because, as I quickly found out, 

Senator DODD is fluent in Spanish. 

Senator DODD recognizes the importance of language skills 

and cultural knowledge, not only to survive in the world but 

to prosper in it. I have truly appreciated his great respect for 

other cultures and passion for learning. Senator DODD has

lent tremendous support to my national foreign language coordination bill, which aims to equip Americans with foreign 

language skills and knowledge of other cultures. It is just 

one example of Senator DODD’s outstanding work to provide 

our children with the knowledge and skills they need to 

achieve prosperity and economic security. 

I would also like to thank Senator DODD for his leadership 

in the 111th Congress. We are making historic and substantial improvements to the health care delivery system and the 

regulation of our financial system, and neither would have 

been possible without Senator DODD’s guidance, persistence, 

good judgment, and support. 

Senator DODD has been selfless and generous in his efforts 

to increase access to health care services everywhere in our 

country, including Hawaii. I am grateful that Senator DODD

has always recognized the unique health care needs and 

challenges of my home State. His contributions have been 

vital to the protection of Hawaii’s system of employerprovided health insurance and ensuring that health care providers in Hawaii are more capable of meeting the uncompensated costs of providing care for the poor and uninsured. 

I am proud to have served alongside Chairman DODD on

the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he has been a tireless leader and an outstanding 

consumer advocate. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and 

Consumer Protection Act rightfully bears his name because 

no one has done more to educate, protect, and empower con-
[ 21 ] 

sumers and investors. Through his support, the act makes 

significant investments in financial literacy and education, 

and it provides meaningful disclosures and protections that 

will allow consumers to make better financial decisions. 

Americans are now better protected against abusive, predatory, and anticonsumer business practices than they were because of Senator DODD’s unmatched contributions. Senator 

DODD is a great champion of consumers, investors, and financial literacy, and I am honored and humbled to have had 

the opportunity to work together with him on the Banking 

Committee.

Since I joined the Senate 20 years ago, Senator DODD has

been a great colleague and ally. More important, he is kind, 

generous, trustworthy, and a loving family man, and I am 

proud to call him my brother and my friend. Although I am 

saddened to bid him farewell today, I wish Senator DODD

well in all of his future endeavors. 

Before I close, I would also like to thank and applaud Senator DODD’s family—Jackie, Grace, and Christina. They have 

been a source of strength, happiness, and calm for their husband and father. 

Mahalo nui loa, CHRIS, for your service and friendship. 

Millie and I send our warmest aloha to you and your family, 

and we wish you well as you begin this new chapter of your 

lives together. . . . 

In closing, the end of this Congress is bittersweet, with so 

many talented and dedicated public servants leaving this institution. All of them made a lasting impact on the Senate 

and on our country. Mahalo nui loa, thank you, for all your 

work.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, occasionally in the career of a 

U.S. Senator, one is given the opportunity to shape legislation that will bring historic change to our Nation. The Senators who have seized such opportunities stand among the 

Senate giants of our lifetime: ‘‘Scoop’’ Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, Everett Dirksen, Ted Kennedy. 

As this Congress comes to a close, we must say goodbye to 

CHRIS DODD, a Senator who has seized such opportunities, 

one whose drive and dedication and wisdom have enabled us 

to bring great and needed change. Senator CHRIS DODD has

been a good friend to me. He has been a leader to those who 

seek an America that is stronger, fairer, and more just. 

Senator DODD will be rightly remembered for his essential 

role in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform 

and Consumer Protection Act. In the aftermath of a financial 
[ 22 ] 

crisis that brought the Nation’s economy to a halt and 

threatened a second Great Depression, the need for Wall 

Street reform was clear, but so were the enormous obstacles 

to passage. In addition to honest disagreements about how 

best to proceed, we faced determined opposition from Wall 

Street, which wanted to maintain a status quo that put profits ahead of economic stability. All of us who participated in 

the debate over that bill know how complex and difficult it 

was to craft it, and we all have enormous hopes that this 

landmark bill will curb the excesses that cost so many Americans their jobs and homes and businesses in the financial 

crisis.

History also will mark Senator DODD’s key role in passage 

of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark step in the decades-long fight to ensure that every 

American has access to affordable health care. Taking up the 

baton for his dear friend, Senator Kennedy, Senator DODD

provided strong and sure leadership, again in the face of obstacles that at times threatened the bill’s very survival. 

Thanks to his dedication, health coverage is more secure and 

affordable for families who have it, and more accessible to 

families without it. 

If Senator DODD had accomplished no other legislative victories than these two, he could rightly claim a place among 

the Senate’s most effective legislators. But CHRIS DODD accomplished much more. 

Millions of American families have benefited from his work 

in enacting the Family and Medical Leave Act. Before this 

legislation became law in 1993, Americans faced wrenching 

choices between their responsibilities at home and at work. 

Despite two Presidential vetoes, Senator DODD continued

fighting until he had succeeded. And today, American workers are able to give their families the time and attention 

they need without fear of losing their job. 

Families and children have been at the heart of much of 

his work. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, which he fought to establish, has helped millions of 

low-income families get the childcare they so desperately 

needed. The Head Start Program has been a career-long priority, and his hard work to ensure that Head Start remains 

strong has made a huge difference in countless lives. 

His work on behalf of families extends to protecting them 

from predatory credit card companies. I worked closely with 

him in the fight for passage of the Credit Card Account-
[ 23 ] 

ability and Disclosure Act, which provided tough new protections against unfair practices in the credit card industry. 

Part of the reason for CHRIS DODD’s extraordinarily successful legislative career is that people simply like working 

with him. He is good natured, open, and nondefensive, willing to listen to differing points of view. His openness is accompanied by an infectious sense of humor that has eased 

tense moments and helped us all take ourselves a little less 

seriously, which in turn has helped overcome some mighty 

serious impasses. 

A common thread runs through all his signature accomplishments. Throughout his career, CHRIS DODD has been 

dedicated to the idea that compassion has a place in this 

Chamber; that as we do our work, we should keep in mind 

that real families, with real problems, are looking to us for 

solutions; and that a Senator, with hard work and resourcefulness and teamwork, can make a difference in the lives of 

those families. 

As CHRIS DODD’s Senate career draws to a close, speeches 

will be given, portraits will be hung, someday statues will be 

raised, but the ultimate monument to his Senate career will 

be the mother or father who has time to care for a sick child 

because of the Family and Medical Leave Act. It will be the 

parent who doesn’t have to choose between putting food on 

the table or providing health insurance for his children. It 

will be the child who excels in the classroom because of Head 

Start. The monuments to CHRIS DODD will be the millions of 

Americans whose lives are safer, more secure, and more 

prosperous because of the work he has done here. No Senator could ask for more meaningful tributes. I will miss his 

wisdom and his humor as we conduct business here, but I 

will continue to value his friendship. I wish him and his 

wonderful family the happiest of times in all the years to 

come.

FRIDAY, December 17, 2010 

Mr. ENZI. At the end of each session of Congress it has 

long been a tradition in the Senate to take a moment to express our appreciation and say goodbye to those who will not 

be returning in January for the beginning of the next Congress. One of those I know I will miss who will be stepping 

down to spend more time with his family is CHRIS DODD of

Connecticut.
[ 24 ] 

If I could sum up CHRIS’ career in the Senate and the way 

he lives his life every day with one word, I think that word 

would be ‘‘passion.’’ Simply put, CHRIS is the most passionate 

Senator I have ever known or had the opportunity to work 

with and observe. 

Coming from a well-known political family, CHRIS must

have learned at an early age the difference that it can make. 

I have always believed it is the key ingredient to any effort 

and it often means the difference between success and failure. Looking back, the enthusiasm and spirited focus that 

CHRIS so clearly brings to every discussion or debate on the 

Senate floor and in committee has helped him to create alliances and forge agreements that have led to the passage of 

legislation that might not have crossed the finish line and 

made it into law if not for him. 

CHRIS has now served for 30 years in the Senate, and he 

has a great deal to show for his efforts. His style of leadership, the relationships he has developed with his colleagues, 

and his pursuit of his legislative priorities have enabled him 

to make a difference in many ways and have an impact not 

only in Connecticut but all across the Nation. 

One of the greatest achievements of his career has to be 

the Family and Medical Leave Act that CHRIS authored and 

helped to shepherd through the Senate into law. Thanks to 

him, whenever it is needed, employees are now able to take 

some time off to care for their children or ensure that an elderly family member receives some attention and support. 

One more moment that is familiar to us all, was CHRIS’

willingness to step in for our good friend, Senator Ted Kennedy when Ted was in poor health, to help direct the disposition of the health care bill. I am sure it meant a great deal 

to Ted to know that the effort he was such a vital part of 

was in such good and capable hands. 

Looking ahead, CHRIS isn’t really going into retirement. He 

is taking on another challenge full time—raising his family. 

He started a family later than some, but the passion he has 

brought to everything in life has clearly been brought to bear 

on the care and nurturing of his two daughters. As every father knows, it is always the little ladies who have their dads 

wrapped around their fingers. As they grow up, each new 

day is another chapter of their lives that is waiting to be 

written as Mom and Dad share in the wonder and magic 

their children experience as they discover the world around 

them.
[ 25 ] 

Looking back, ever since the day when CHRIS first arrived 

in the Senate, he has always loved being around good 

friends, enjoying a good joke, and sharing a good word or 

two. That is why it came as no surprise when, during a recent interview he said, ‘‘I don’t know of a single colleague 

that I have served with in 30 years that I couldn’t work 

with.’’

That is why CHRIS has been such an effective Senator over 

the years and why, when the day comes when he casts his 

last vote and heads home to be with his family, we will all 

miss him. 

CHRIS, I hope you will keep in touch with us. You and your 

wife Jackie have a great future in store and I am sure you 

will enjoy every day together. As I have learned with the 

birth of each child and grandchild—with another just born— 

each day you spend with your children is more proof of the 

wisdom of the old Irish saying—bricks and mortar may make 

a house but it is the laughter of our children that makes it 

a home. 

Good luck. God bless. 

MONDAY, December 20, 2010 

Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to offer some remarks on the departure of my good friend, the senior Senator from Connecticut. After five terms and 30 years in the 

Senate, Senator CHRISTOPHER DODD will be leaving us at the 

end of this session. He will most certainly be missed. 

CHRIS was born in Willimantic, CT, in 1944. He was the 

fifth of six children born to his parents, Grace Mary Dodd 

and another Connecticut Senator, Thomas J. Dodd. Senator 

DODD graduated from Providence College and then spent 2 

years in the Peace Corps. When he returned to the United 

States, he enlisted in the Army National Guard and later 

served in the U.S. Army Reserves. After graduating from the 

University of Louisville School of Law in 1972, CHRIS practiced law in New London. However, just 2 years later, he 

would answer the call to public service. CHRIS was elected to 

the House of Representatives in 1974 and has represented 

the good people of Connecticut in Congress ever since. All 

told, Senator DODD spent three terms in the House before 

coming to the Senate in 1980. 

Throughout his time in the Senate, CHRIS has been an unwavering presence. He’s chaired the Rules Committee and 
[ 26 ] 

the Banking Committee. He has been among the most prominent members of the HELP and Foreign Relations Committees. Over the years, our paths have crossed numerous 

times. Of course, most of the time we have been on opposing 

sides. But, there have been a few times—some significant 

times—where we have been able to put our differences aside 

and work together. 

Most recently I worked with Senator DODD on passing the 

Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. CHRIS talks often of 

his service in the Peace Corps and the lessons he learned 

during that time. As a Senator, he has been a tireless advocate for the Peace Corps Program and for volunteerism in 

general. In that regard, he and I have much in common. As 

a young man, I served a full-time mission for the Church of 

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I too learned much about 

the benefits of selfless, volunteer service while serving as a 

missionary and those 2 years were instrumental in my understanding of the world and instilled me with a desire to 

serve and help others. 

The Serve America Act was meant to embody these ideals 

and provide similar opportunities for others. It could have 

very easily been a purely Democratic endeavor. But, in the 

end, we were able to work together in drafting and passing 

this legislation. With CHRIS’ help, the Serve America Act became one of very few bills passed during this Congress with 

a broad, bipartisan majority here in the Senate. It was, in 

my opinion, a piece of legislation that represents the best of 

what both parties have to offer. Fittingly, we named the bill 

after CHRIS and our mutual friend, the late Senator Ted 

Kennedy.

I want to wish Senator DODD and his wife Jackie the very 

best of luck going forward. 

WEDNESDAY, December 22, 2010 

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I would like to ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the extraordinary 

leadership and service of our friend, Senator CHRIS DODD.

Senator DODD has served the Senate with grace, intelligence, and compassion for three decades. The son of a U.S. 

Senator, he loves this institution and has done everything he 

could to preserve its best traditions. Senator DODD has always encouraged all of us to keep our disputes and differences from becoming personal. 
[ 27 ] 

He leaves behind an incredible legacy of accomplishments 

that have touched the lives of virtually all Americans. 

I will never forget the leadership role he played in helping 

to pass health care reform last spring—a fitting tribute to 

his close friend Ted Kennedy, whose vision finally became a 

reality.

As chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs, Senator DODD led the effort to pass Wall 

Street reform legislation. He was a forceful advocate for 

holding banks accountable for their actions, and we could not 

have enacted this landmark accomplishment without his 

leadership.

Senator DODD has devoted his career in public service to 

making life better for our families and our children. I saw 

this first hand as we worked together to ensure that our children have safe places to go after school. As chairman of the 

Senate Afterschool Caucus and the founder of the Senate’s 

first Children’s Caucus, Senator DODD worked hard to expand the Head Start Program, to reform the No Child Left 

Behind Act, and to make college more affordable for students 

and their families. 

In the face of Presidential vetoes, Senator DODD dedicated

8 years to enacting the Family and Medical Leave Act, which 

has helped ensure that 50 million Americans can care for 

their loved ones during difficult times without fearing for 

their jobs. 

Senator DODD is a fluent Spanish speaker and has been 

the Senate’s leading expert on Latin America. I have been 

proud to work closely with him to reform our Nation’s drug 

certification laws. 

His own years of service in the U.S. Peace Corps inspired 

Senator DODD to support and promote President Kennedy’s 

call to service in this Chamber. In the Senate, he has helped 

expand and modernize the Peace Corps and worked to provide loan forgiveness to Peace Corps volunteers, teachers, 

and others who devote themselves to public service. 

All of us in the Senate will greatly miss Senator DODD.

Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in paying tribute to Senator CHRISTOPHER DODD, a 

longtime public servant and fellow New Englander whose 

dedication to advancing the common good with common 

sense, independence, and a genuine desire to solve problems 

has served both his constituents of Connecticut as well as his 

country for 36 years. With trust, comity, and a love for the 

institution of the Senate, Senator DODD has for more than 
[ 28 ] 

three decades contributed to creating a legislative environment where at crucial moments in the life of the greatest deliberative body in human history, the upper Chamber was 

able to work its will to the lasting benefit of the American 

people, and we could not be more grateful. 

Indisputably, and as countless colleagues have noted, public service has always been at the center of Senator DODD’s

life—literally, as he is the first son of Connecticut to follow 

his father into the U.S. Senate, and remarkably, for the past 

30 years, Senator DODD has had the privilege of sitting at 

the same desk used by his father, Senator Thomas Dodd, 

during his 12 years in the Senate. CHRIS DODD’s longstanding devotion to the public arena has spanned from his 

three terms in the U.S. House—the last of which I was privileged to serve with him—to his five terms in the U.S. Senate. Senator DODD earned the lasting gratitude of his constituents and admiration of his colleagues with his stalwart 

leadership in foreign policy, his vigorous and unwavering 

battle to enact the Family and Medical Leave Act, and his 

longstanding stewardship of our Nation’s most precious resource—our children. 

On this last point, like many in this Chamber, I cannot 

begin to justly measure the depth and breadth of the legacy 

Senator DODD has forged in safeguarding the most vulnerable in our society. Consider for example the issue of 

childcare. Time and again, Senator DODD has battled to ensure both the quality of childcare in America as well as the 

funding for it, and as he keenly and presciently understood, 

in this matter, our Nation could not have one without the 

other.

An undeniable focus of Senator DODD’s, childcare has unquestionably become one of his crowning achievements and 

legislative hallmarks—and nowhere was his imprint on the 

issue greater than during the landmark welfare reform debate in 1995 and 1996. I well recall working with Senator 

DODD as we made the case that there was indeed a pivotal 

link between viable welfare reform and childcare—that for 

families struggling to reduce their dependency on welfare— 

especially single parents—unaffordable, unavailable, or unreliable childcare was the chief barrier to steady employment, 

and one that could and should be lessened, if not eliminated. 

That is why I was pleased to join with Senator DODD on

our amendment to add $6 billion in childcare funding to welfare reform legislation, especially at a time when that funding was very much imperiled. Arriving at a consensus re-
[ 29 ] 

quired leaders from both parties to jettison their competing 

and hardened ideologies in favor not just of making dependable childcare more accessible, but in support of welfare reform that would effectively move more Americans from welfare to work. Senator DODD, as colleague after colleague can 

attest, heeded his own beliefs that ‘‘you don’t begin the debate with bipartisanship—you arrive there. And you can do 

so only when determined partisans create consensus.’’ Because he never lost sight of the primacy of working across 

the aisle, we were victorious in including the funding we 

sought in the Senate-passed bill. 

That bipartisan effort to garner concrete results designed 

to make a difference in the daily lives of the American people 

was not an isolated instance. Senator DODD and I collaborated on legislation to support campus-based childcare for 

low-income mothers trying to further their education, and we 

authored legislation to help States improve training in early 

childhood development to make improved childcare more 

available to more people. With innate New England pragmatism and a desire for solutions, Senator DODD saw impediments to success that were impinging upon a segment of 

our society that if only reduced or removed would aid not 

only families striving to improve their lives, but a Nation 

seeking to help stem the tide of dependency. 

Ultimately, what occupied Senator DODD’s agenda was the 

active pursuit of an even better America. We didn’t always 

agree on what that path should be, but where we did find 

common ground, as in childcare, we cultivated it. That dynamic was at work recently as Senator DODD and I, as the 

former chair and current ranking member of the Senate 

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, collaborated to help the economic engines and catalysts of our 

economy—America’s small businesses, the very enterprises 

that will lead us out of recession and into recovery. 

During the consideration of what would become the DoddFrank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, I 

truly appreciated Senator DODD’s perseverance in including 

a provision I authored allowing small businesses to raise 

concerns over burdensome regulations through small business review panels within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Senator DODD and I also worked to reduce the 

regulatory compliance burden for small banks by striking a 

provision of the bill which would have required these lending 

institutions to report their transactions to the Federal Government down to each individual ATM. 
[ 30 ] 

This kind of rapport was emblematic of how Senator DODD

viewed good governance. In his valedictory address on the 

floor of the Senate, he observed that ‘‘in my three decades 

here, I cannot recall a single Senate colleague with whom I 

could not work.’’ Indeed, Senator DODD always saw adversaries as potential allies—and foes as unwon friends. 

From the days of his youth, Senator DODD grew up steeped 

in the tradition of and respect for the Senate—and an abiding admiration for this venerable institution that runs at its 

own pace and by its own rules. Instead of exhibiting rancor 

and a burning desire to win at all costs, Senator DODD

sought instead to build relationships and by doing so, 

strengthened his capacity for legislating and contributed 

mightily to the advancement of this esteemed Chamber. Legendary American poet and son of Maine, Henry Wadsworth 

Longfellow, once wrote that ‘‘if you would hit the mark, you 

must aim a little above it.’’ CHRIS DODD has always aimed 

high—and met his target—leaving a legacy of enormous accomplishment to his constituents in Connecticut and to the 

American people. 

In closing, let me just extend my personal appreciation to 

his wife Jackie and their daughters Grace and Christina for 

sharing CHRISTOPHER DODD with us. 

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I would like to take a 

few minutes to pay tribute to the 16 Senators who will be 

departing this body at the end of the year. 

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve 

alongside each of these Senators as colleagues and as 

friends. All served their States with distinction and gave 

their constituents strong voices in the world’s greatest deliberative body. Senators Evan Bayh, Robert Bennett, Kit 

Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Roland Burris, CHRIS

DODD, Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, Carte Goodwin, Judd 

Gregg, Ted Kaufman, George LeMieux, Blanche Lincoln, 

Arlen Specter, and George Voinovich each left an indelible 

mark on the Senate, and I wish them well as they take on 

new challenges and opportunities into the future. 

I would like to speak briefly about a few of the Senators 

I knew best and served with in committees to recognize their 

contributions and accomplishments and share my fond 

memories of them and the legacies they will leave behind. . . . 

Senator CHRIS DODD departs the Senate after nearly three 

decades faithfully representing the people of Connecticut. 

From his service in the Peace Corps, the U.S. Army National 

Guard and Reserves as well as his many years in the U.S. 
[ 31 ] 

Senate, Senator DODD’s commitment to public service and 

love for his country have been evident throughout his life. 

CHRIS was a leader in the Senate, serving as the chairman 

of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, 

chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Western 

Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics, and chairman of its 

Children and Families Subcommittee. 

Although we had our differences on various policy issues, 

I always appreciated his willingness to put partisanship 

aside to reach consensus when possible in order to improve 

legislation. For instance, earlier this year when working on 

the financial reform bill, despite my public opposition to the 

legislation, CHRIS worked with me to incorporate my amendments in the final version of the bill. I ultimately voted 

against the bill, but I am grateful for the efforts he made to 

include my amendments. 

Today we bid him farewell after 30 years of tireless service 

in the U.S. Senate. . . . 

In conclusion, the departing Senators’ contributions, their 

dedicated service, and the issues they championed will be remembered long after their final days in the Senate. 

I believe I can speak for my fellow Senators when I say 

that we will all miss our departing friends. 

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, when the 111th Congress draws to a close, we will bid farewell to 16 colleagues 

who have collectively given more than 200 years of service 

to our Nation through their service in the Senate. These include seven of the Senate’s most experienced Members. People like CHRIS DODD and Arlen Specter who have each 

served five terms in the Senate. Kit Bond who has served 

four terms and Bob Bennett, Byron Dorgan, Russ Feingold, 

and Judd Gregg, who have each served three terms in this 

Chamber. . . . 

One of CHRIS DODD’s legacies to the Nation is legislation 

to ensure that the unique needs of children are addressed in 

our Nation’s response to catastrophic disasters. I was honored to partner with Senator DODD in helping to pass this 

legislation. . . . 

It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve with each of 

the people who will leave this Chamber when we adjourn 

sine die. Each has made substantial contributions to their 

States, to the Nation, and to the Senate during their time 

here.

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