TRIBUTES TO HON. PETE V. DOMENICI 

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Pete V. Domenici 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO 

TRIBUTES 

IN THE CONGRESS OF 

THE UNITED STATES 

UNUM

E PLURIBUS


congress.#15
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Pete V. Domenici 


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U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 2010

S. DOC. 110–23 

Tributes 

Delivered in Congress 

Pete V. Domenici 

United States Senator 

1973–2009 

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Compiled under the direction 

of the 

Joint Committee on Printing 

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CONTENTS 

Page 

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

Farewell to the Senate ............................................................................. ix 

Proceedings in the Senate: 

Tributes by Senators: 

Akaka, Daniel K., of Hawaii ..................................................... 10 

Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee ............................................... 4, 57 

Allard, Wayne, of Colorado ........................................................ 4, 43 

Bennett, Robert F., of Utah ....................................................... 19 

Bingaman, Jeff, of New Mexico ................................................ 9 

Bond, Christopher S., of Missouri ............................................. 38 

Brownback, Sam, of Kansas ...................................................... 3 

Bunning, Jim, of Kentucky ....................................................... 8 

Byrd, Robert C., of West Virginia ............................................. 57 

Cochran, Thad, of Mississippi ................................................... 25 

Coleman, Norm, of Minnesota .................................................. 45 

Collins, Susan M., of Maine ...................................................... 49 

Conrad, Kent, of North Dakota ................................................. 41 

Corker, Bob, of Tennessee ......................................................... 40 

Dodd, Christopher J., of Connecticut ....................................... 4, 34 

Dole, Elizabeth, of North Carolina ........................................... 7 

Domenici, Pete V., of New Mexico .................. 3, 7, 20, 22, 25, 30, 34 

Dorgan, Byron L., of North Dakota .......................................... 57 

Durbin, Richard, of Illinois ........................................................ 37 

Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming ................................................... 54 

Feingold, Russell D., of Wisconsin ............................................ 7 

Hagel, Chuck, of Nebraska ........................................................ 43 

Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah ........................................................... 12 

Hutchison, Kay Bailey, of Texas ............................................... 13 

Inouye, Daniel K., of Hawaii ..................................................... 48 

Kennedy, Edward M., of Massachusetts .................................. 11 

Kyl, Jon, of Arizona ................................................................... 32, 44 

Landrieu, Mary L., of Louisiana ............................................... 18, 24 

Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont ................................................... 58 

Levin, Carl, of Michigan ............................................................ 44 

Lieberman, Joseph I., of Connecticut ....................................... 24 

Lugar, Richard G., of Indiana ................................................... 51 

McCaskill, Claire, of Missouri ................................................... 3 

McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky ................................................. 14 

Murkowski, Lisa, of Alaska ....................................................... 47 

Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island ...................................................... 42 

Reid, Harry, of Nevada .............................................................. 26 

Salazar, Ken, of Colorado .......................................................... 6, 20 

Sessions, Jeff, of Alabama ......................................................... 3 

Snowe, Olympia J., of Maine .................................................... 59 

Specter, Arlen, of Pennsylvania ................................................ 53 

Warner, John, of Virginia ..................................................... 20, 22, 39 

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BIOGRAPHY 

The longest serving U.S. Senator in New Mexico history, 

U.S. Senator PETE V. DOMENICI is a respected leader on 

some of the most important issues of our time, such as 

strengthening our energy security, curbing nuclear proliferation, and promoting fiscal responsibility in the Federal budget. 

A child of Italian immigrants, PETE DOMENICI was born 

and raised in Albuquerque. In 1954 he earned an education 

degree from the University of New Mexico. After graduating, 

PETE pitched for the Albuquerque Dukes—a farm club for 

the old Brooklyn Dodgers. He left baseball to become a math 

teacher at Garfield Junior High in Albuquerque in 1955. In 

1958 he earned his law degree from the University of Denver 

and returned to Albuquerque to enter private practice. 

In the mid-1960s he was elected to the Albuquerque City 

Commission and served as chairman, the city’s equivalent to 

mayor. PETE DOMENICI was first elected to the U.S. Senate 

in 1972 and served six 6-year terms. 

PETE DOMENICI was the ranking member of the Senate 

Energy and Natural Resources Committee, having served as 

its chairman following a long tenure in charge of the Senate 

Budget Committee. Senator DOMENICI served on the Budget 

Committee, as well as the Senate Appropriations Committee, 

the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

Committee, and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. 

When he became chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2003 Senator DOMENICI put his years 

of legislative experience to work to craft the first major comprehensive energy bill since 1992. Many thought that the 

task was nearly impossible, but Senator DOMENICI gained bipartisan consensus and passage of the Energy Policy Act of 

2005 (EPAct). 

This new energy law created incentives to accelerate U.S. 

development of its own energy resources, including solar, 

wind, and geothermal sources that are clean and renewable. 

The law helped to strengthen the renaissance of nuclear 

power in the United States. EPAct invests heavily in new 

technologies to make conventional fossil fuels cleaner to use. 

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And, in late 2006, Senator DOMENICI engineered the enactment of a law that will open areas of the Gulf of Mexico for 

energy exploration. This could yield 1.26 billion barrels of 

American-owned oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas 

in the near future. The Senator has now turned his attention 

toward building on this legislation to help strengthen our 

Nation’s energy security by unleashing innovation in clean 

energy technologies. 

Senator DOMENICI has always believed in the power of 

science and technology to improve lives and make the world 

safer. As a leader on the Energy and Water Appropriations 

Subcommittee, PETE DOMENICI has worked to fund and 

equip the Department of Energy’s National Laboratory System—including Sandia and Los Alamos labs in New Mexico—to ensure these world-class scientific facilities can carry 

out their nuclear deterrent and scientific missions. Senator 

DOMENICI is a major proponent of nonproliferation programs, 

such as the MOX initiative to convert U.S. and Russian 

weapons materials into safe, usable material that cannot be 

used in weapons. 

Senator DOMENICI’s commitment to science and technology 

is also exemplified in his work to make the United States 

more competitive in the global marketplace. He is a coauthor of bipartisan legislation to promote the American 

Competitiveness Initiative that would force substantial 

changes to promote science and technology education and ensure that the United States does not lose its place as a scientific and technological leader in the world. 

Senator DOMENICI has also been called the father of the 

human genome project for his work to focus Federal resources behind research to better our understanding of the 

human DNA blueprint. He is a nationally recognized advocate for people with mental illness, and has worked tirelessly 

to build on the landmark 1996 mental health parity law he 

wrote to obtain parity through fair insurance coverage for 

people who suffer from mental illnesses. 

As one of the longest serving members of the Senate Budget Committee in Senate history, Senator DOMENICI has a 

unique understanding of the Federal budget process. The 

Senator is a longtime advocate of pro-growth policies such as 

lower taxes and balanced budgets and was instrumental in 

the passage of the Balanced Budget Agreement in 1997. He 

also worked on a bipartisan basis to enact legislation to force 

Congress to tackle the complicated task of ensuring the longevity of Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement 

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programs whose growth threatens the Nation’s long-term fiscal health. 

On the local level, Senator DOMENICI has been a leader in 

promoting New Mexico’s economy. He has worked to ensure 

equal opportunities for women and minorities who seek to 

own businesses, and has been an advocate for Indian education and infrastructure improvements. He has, for example, also fought to make sure that New Mexico receives its 

fair share of Federal dollars through the Federal appropriations process and through programs like Payment in Lieu of 

Taxes (PILT), which reimburses rural counties for lost revenue from Federal lands. 

Senator DOMENICI was also a leader on water issues. He 

has been intimately involved in finding commonsense solutions to address the water crisis in New Mexico and the arid 

West, and is the leading advocate of better, affordable desalination technologies. He has worked to find consensus on difficult environmental issues such as endangered species and 

bosque restoration by working to protect the environment 

and addressing urgent water needs. 

Over a decade ago PETE DOMENICI introduced the Character Counts Program to New Mexico. Since that time, thousands of New Mexico schoolchildren have learned the six 

basic pillars of good character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Senator 

DOMENICI is still heavily involved in supporting the curriculum in New Mexico schools. 

PETE DOMENICI has been married to the former Nancy 

Burke since 1958. They are the parents of eight children— 

two sons and six daughters. 

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Farewell to the Senate 

Saturday, September 27, 2008 

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, first, I have to thank the 

distinguished Republican leader for his kind remarks and 

equally as important for his consideration of me ever since 

he has been our leader. It has been easy for me to make suggestions and to know he would listen. It has been easy for 

me, when he has asked me to do things, to do them because 

for the most part he has been right on his ideas, he has been 

right on his judgment. I very much appreciate his remarks 

here today. 

I have worked with a number of leaders, as everyone 

knows, and they are all wonderful people. Obviously, when 

you serve with people such as the distinguished Senator Bob 

Dole, who was in your position, I say to my good friend who 

just remarked on my behalf, and when you sit in the same 

position as our good friend from Tennessee, who sat there for 

so long, Howard Baker, you know you are in good company. 

And I know you are in good company. But I would say to 

them, they are in good company with you. 

Now, I am supposed to say goodbye to the Senate and that 

is probably what I am not going to do because I do not quite 

know how to do it. But I am going to say something in my 

address today. It may be a little bit broken up. But I do want 

to start by saying I want to thank my wife first. 

Frankly, to be honest, she should not have let me run for 

the Senate. After I ran for city council and became mayor of 

Albuquerque, we already had our children. We were not a 

moneyed family, and I guess you all could guess we were 

pretty broke. Here I was in that condition telling her that I 

want to run for something else. And the Lord blessed me. I 

had a luck-out. I got a big lawsuit that settled. No, it did not. 

It went to jury right about that time and made a lot of 

money. I was able to at least tell my wife we were not going 

to go broke running for the Senate, although there would not 

be much around for us to share. The case was a good one, 

and it made us able to go on through that campaign. 

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But anybody who has been from a family that is as large 

as ours knows that for the head of the household to decide 

to run and serve as a Senator, especially in a State like New 

Mexico—which is not Republican at all, and which is, very 

big—for the lady of the household to say yes, and then to live 

with it, has not been an easy job. 

She has probably had as hard a job—a much harder job— 

than I, and she has never been anything but beautiful and 

decent and honest and loving and caring. Obviously, she did 

not have enough time to do all these things that I have done. 

She did some of them. But I can say, wherever any of the 

Members and their wives met her, they had nothing but 

good things to say because they could not say otherwise. She 

deserves just that. 

Let me say that these remarks about the Senate itself— 

I say to my fellow retiree sitting here, JOHN WARNER—I 

could do this in 20 minutes or 2 days because, obviously, 

there is so much to talk about. The time in the Senate, when 

you look at it day by day, was wrenching and difficult at 

times. It was so hard; but when you look at it over 36 years, 

it is like a storm. It blew by, and all of a sudden it is 36 

years later, and you are gone. Nobody will experience the 

strange feeling it is after 36 years in a place such as this to 

wake up of a morning and say you are not going to be here 

anymore. I don’t know what I could offer the Senate to make 

it more pleasant for people who are leaving, but for me it is 

time to say goodbye. 

Having said that, I wish to move on to what makes a Senator succeed. I have a list of the people who have worked for 

me in my Senate office here, or in my Senate office in New 

Mexico, or on the Budget Committee, or on the Energy and 

Natural Resources Committee. I will say I could not have 

done what I have done without fantastic leadership from my 

staff. My first recommendation to anybody coming here anew 

is don’t let anybody tell you that you can get by with just 

this person or that person. You have to find people who are 

smart, people who are gifted, people who are ambitious, and 

people who want to serve you, the Senator, and make you 

achieve for your constituency. I have been blessed by an 

abundance of them. They are not all still here. They are all 

over the place. Wherever they are, most are in high places 

doing distinguished things. 

The whole list I wish to mention will go in the Record 

shortly. There are three or four people who I want to recommend. First, Steve Bell, who has been with me for most 

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of my 36 years—all but 8. Those 8 years he took off to go 

to Wall Street and make his own fortune. He did that. Then 

he came back, and I caught him one day when he wasn’t 

doing anything. I asked him if he would like to work, and he 

wondered: Where? I said, ‘‘How does chief of staff sound?’’ He 

didn’t bother to say I have to talk to my wife or anything. 

He said, ‘‘I will take it.’’ And he has been here ever since. 

A young man named Alex Flint, as well as another young 

man in my office—a lawyer—Ed Hild, who shepherded the 

mental health parity bill for 10 years. There are many other 

people. I am sorry I mentioned three, because others are 

going to wonder why I didn’t mention them. I am compelled 

to mention two others. Bill Hoagland was the director of the 

Budget Committee and is now known in the United States 

as our Nation’s foremost expert on the budget of the United 

States. He has written a white paper on the budget and it 

is incredible. Anybody who wants to know the first 25-year 

history of the Budget Act should read Bill Hoagland’s white 

paper. 

Then there is a lady named Carol McGuire who I got from 

one of the other appropriations Senators. He was a Democrat. As he left, she came to work for me more than 25 years 

ago. I can tell you with all honesty, she became as if she 

were a New Mexican. She knows more about her adopted 

State, which is my State, than any living public servant of 

any category in anyplace in New Mexico, because she has 

served me there and that means in every district she has 

been the principal person on appropriations projects and activities. 

Clearly, there are many others and they all have my greatest thanks as I ask unanimous consent to have this list 

printed in the Record at this time. As I go through and find 

a few more that I must put in, I think the Senate will indulge me to add them. 

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be 

printed in the Record, as follows: 

Steve Bell, Ed Hild, Alex Flint, Bill Hoagland, Chris Gallegos, Charles 

Gentry, Carol McGuire, Angela Raish, Lee Rawls, Paul Gilmon, Denise Ramonas, George Ramonas, Darlene Garcia, Peggy Mallow, Lisa Breeden, 

Susie Cordero, Ernest Vigil, Joe Trujillo, Joyce Pullen, Poe and Nancy Corn, 

Lou Gallegos, Cheryl Rodriguez, Clay Sell, Frank Macchiarola, Scott 

O’Malia, Maggie Murray, Davie Schiappa. 

Mr. President, now I wish to say that I looked for a little 

bit of history about myself to see what I said when I first 

came to the Senate. In those days you waited a few months 

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before speaking on the floor, so I will tell you that I did not 

give a so-called maiden speech, Mr. Leader, until I had been 

here 4 full months. I guess it was because I was frightened. 

I thought this was such a mammoth organization with such 

compelling things happening, I didn’t know where I should 

be or what I should do. I sat in that seat over there because 

I was 99th in the Senate. Joe Biden was 100 when I came. 

Incidentally, they parked him in my office, so there were two 

Senators in the same office when I arrived because Joe had 

no place to stay and they put us together. So it was DOMENICI and Biden in the same office. 

But what I said, Mr. Leader, in my first speech—I will just 

read one sentence, and I said this: ‘‘Let us quit this selfserving struggle and get on with the business of governing.’’ 

Now, that was when the Senate didn’t have time to legislate because we were arguing about Richard Nixon. As a 

brand-new Senator, I said those words. Now, isn’t it interesting that I could say those words today. I wish we could 

quit partisan arguing and get more done. As I leave the Senate, I must say there is no place like the Senate. I don’t 

think you could ever invent one. It has evolved out of our 

Constitution and out of the rules, the Jeffersonian rules that 

were adopted, and then the evolution occurred with this body 

trying to meet the challenges of this fantastic, great country, 

from its infancy to the growth that it has today. Believe it 

or not, we have passed over the years one-sentence bills that 

were very meaningful that took a long time. We have had 

complicated matters that probably we never thought would 

be handled by the Senate or the House. One of those is before us today. 

It is so complex for this kind of a body to legislate this 

problem that we are having in our financial markets that 

one wonders whether we can do it. But I do wish to say that 

it is my feeling that we will solve the problem. We will solve 

the financial problem which could cause the ruination of our 

country, and it is because the Senate almost always, if not 

always, finds somebody who will take the lead. Somebody 

will rise up and be the leader. Somebody will take the reins 

and run with it and others will follow, and you will get done 

what must be done for America. There is no question that it 

is easy to play politics, even with something as profound as 

our financial system and its potential for bankruptcy. It is 

easy to play politics and hide when you have something before you that says perhaps we are going to have a depression 

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if we don’t act. But the Senate doesn’t expect everybody to 

agree. 

I want to address for a moment two things that are happening in the Senate that I wish could be changed. First is 

the filibuster—which I am a staunch advocate of retaining— 

but I wish we could find a way to use it less. The use of the 

filibuster so frequently is beginning to distort this place. Second, when you add it with a couple of other things such as 

the filling of the tree activity, we are becoming more and 

more like the House and less and less like a U.S. Senate. I 

don’t know whether we can do anything about that, but surely we ought to be solving more problems in a bipartisan way. 

I think the rules of our Senate are more apt to operate well 

if Senators could work together rather than being polarized. 

Again, I can’t say anyone is wrong in doing it, because we 

feel very strongly about the issues before us, and that is why 

these things happen. 

I did mention, at least in passing, in these few words 

about New Mexico and the things I was privileged to do 

there. And, how they made me what I am by letting me do 

for them what they needed. I do wish to mention that there 

are great people in that State. As a matter of fact, people 

don’t know that those two giant national laboratories in the 

State of New Mexico, the one called Los Alamos and the 

other one at Sandia. Between the two of them, they provide 

more PhDs and advanced degrees in science, math, and 

physics to that part of the United States than any other part 

of the country. It is rather phenomenal what they do and 

what they contribute. To be part of them has caused me to 

become somewhat of an expert in nuclear power, and I am 

proud to tell my colleagues that nuclear power is in a renaissance posture. I take a little bit of credit for it because I 

spent 10 years working on it, and finally, it came forward. 

We are going to have nuclear power. It will take awhile, because it takes about 4 years to clear the permits, but they 

are coming forward four at a time, four permits at a time. 

There are about 26 of them, 1,000-megawatt units pending 

before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our distinguished leader mentioned one, because one had to start it 

off, but we have many more now than one. Those nuclear 

powerplants will begin to help America achieve what we 

have always been best at: We will achieve with large operating machines that are perfectly safe; we will achieve without any carbon dioxide to bother the outer limits where we 

are worrying about climate change. They have no emissions 

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that have anything to do with that. What a big achievement 

for us. I am proud to have had something to do with that. 

There are many more things that are kind of matched between New Mexicans telling me about them and my getting 

to work on them up here. Because of my scientists and the 

expertise in nuclear matters, I was encouraged after the two 

balanced budgets that I was privileged to put forth and manage—we did have two of them, John, even though we look 

back and wonder when was it and will it ever come again, 

we had two in a row. I was chairman of the Budget Committee. After that, my staff said, ‘‘What is next, Senator?’’ I 

said, ‘‘I don’t know. We have to dream it up.’’ We have already balanced the budget and we all came up with let’s 

work on nuclear power, and we did. That is how it happened. 

One thing followed another. One accomplishment begged out 

and asked for another. That was, indeed, exciting. Many 

other things have happened in the field of energy, in the 

field of nonproliferation. 

I remember going to Russia when we finalized an agreement with the Russians. President Clinton invited me because I was the one who led the cause here to buy the remnants of 20,000 missiles that had been taken apart in Russia 

and they had highly enriched uranium in abundance. We 

bought it. It was my proposal: $350 million. The lights in the 

leader’s home and in people’s homes today—10 percent of all 

of the lights in America are being lit by that highly enriched 

uranium that is still flowing from that agreement, which is 

about 14 years old. Now we are going to enter into new 

agreements to use that material that comes out of those nuclear rockets; 20,000 is what was dismantled for what we 

bought, but there is much more there, and that is always 

dangerous for America and for the world. So somebody will 

need to fill this vacuum and work hard at it. I heard the 

Presidential candidates speaking of it. I am not quite sure 

that either of them has been involved enough to know what 

is going on, but I wish whichever one of them wins well in 

that regard, because that is important. The nonproliferation 

of nuclear materials is drastically important. 

Now, I don’t know whether I am going to be around here. 

My wife Nancy and I haven’t decided whether we are going 

to live here or in New Mexico. If we live here, I won’t be bugging anybody or bothering anybody, but maybe some of you 

might bother me. Who knows, I might have a cause that 

brings me to talk to you once in awhile. But leaving will be 

difficult for me. You all already know me. I don’t take things 

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lightly. I get so worked up about this issue of the possible 

financial problems of our country. I feel so personal about it. 

But, you must take care of it after I leave. After a day of debating and arguing, I feel so uptight about the fact that we 

didn’t do something, that I don’t know how we can continue 

day after day, especially the leader, waiting for these things 

to materialize. 

I want it done yesterday when I see a problem as big as 

the one we have in terms of our financial system. The first 

day I find out all about it, I want to sit down and finish it, 

Leader. I guess you have sensed that, have you not? I bother 

you a lot asking what is going on, when are we going to do 

this, when are we going to do that. 

If I don’t have any of that around, I don’t know what exactly I will do or what kind of a person I may become. Maybe 

I will just fade away. I hope not and I doubt it. 

What I have learned in the Senate I wish every Senator 

would learn, every Republican Senator, just speaking to my 

own party, I learned that the best way to solve a big problem 

is to do it in a bipartisan manner. 

That puts me looking over my left shoulder and seeing 

Senator Bingaman. He is a Democrat. He has not been here 

as long. Almost as long. The way he is going, he is probably 

going to pass my 36 years. Although every time I tell him 

that, he nods no. I don’t see what he is going to do if he isn’t 

in the Senate. He is so involved. He loves it. 

I do wish to say something about the most successful piece 

of legislation in 36 years. I did budgets, but they are not legislated. I did reconciliation bills, which I am going to talk 

about in a moment as my closing remarks. But when it came 

to doing a major energy bill, we failed until I made up my 

mind that I would not do it unless I did it in a bipartisan 

manner. 

I went to my fellow Senator, Senator Bingaman, and I 

said, ‘‘Are you willing to give it a try? We will do it in a bipartisan manner.’’ I was chairman for 3 years. And he said, 

‘‘It will be great.’’ I can tell you that the last 2 years were 

the best years of legislating here that I have had, and I 

think he would say the same. He recalls he pushed me, and 

he knows I pushed him. That means I took him as far as I 

could, and when I got to a certain place, I said, ‘‘I better 

agree with him, he doesn’t want to do this, because he is apt 

to quit, he is at the end of the rope.’’ I don’t know how many 

times he did that to me, but that is how you do it. You have 

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to push and push, and then you have to give. That was a 

very exciting thing and a lesson for all of us. 

There are too many people who don’t know what is in that 

bill and they talk about it. But that bill is the reason why 

we are going to have a rebirth of nuclear power. It is the reason we are moving ahead as rapidly as we are in solar energy and wind energy, no question about it. It is a bill that 

set the ground rules for improving the national grid for electricity so we might have a day soon when we can say the national grid will not break again. It will continue unabated. 

No matter what you do to it, you will not knock the whole 

thing offline. Those are the kinds of things that are in this 

bill, and much more, on conservation and a host of other 

issues. 

We did that bill in 2 years because we walked hand in 

hand, Republican and Democrat. He had to, as it goes, because I was chairman, take a lot less notoriety in New Mexico than I got. I never heard him complain a bit. He should 

have probably told me every now and then, ‘‘Why don’t you 

shut up for a week and let me talk about the bill so New 

Mexicans will know I am working too.’’ But he didn’t do that. 

When we finally finished, the President of the United States 

made sure he got his credit because Senator Bingaman went 

for the signing of that bill. The reason he got so much credit 

is because I put on a pair of glasses to hide from the Sun. 

They were so big and bulky that people didn’t know who I 

was. They surely knew who he was because he was clear and 

lucid and I had these glasses hiding me. So he got his just 

due. 

My last comments have something to do internally to the 

Senate that I have achieved with the help of some mighty 

fine people, with Steve Bell and Bill Hoagland as leaders. 

We passed a bill in 1974 called the Budget Impoundment 

Act of the United States. That was done for two reasons. 

One, President Richard Nixon got involved a little too much 

in impounding as a means of cutting budgets. So he would 

impound ongoing projects, such as a water project, I say to 

David sitting there. 

I should comment that without David Schiappa and all his 

staff, we cannot make it. This place needs the young, smart, 

dedicated, and honest. 

Here is what happened in that law. That law was passed, 

and it was bragged about that Senator Robert Byrd joined 

with those who put it together, and it will run and operate 

exactly as it was written, and there are no loopholes in that 

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bill. Maybe there were not and maybe there were, but early 

on, we found you could not get anything out of the Budget 

Act by just adopting budget resolutions because there was no 

way to enforce anything other than points of order. So we 

found a little section in there called reconciliation. That is a 

funny word. We said: We are going to interpret reconciliation 

to mean our committee can order another committee to do 

something and how. What they are ordered to do is reconcile 

with the budget. We soon found we could reconcile tax bills. 

We could reconcile entitlements. We could reconcile direct 

spending. 

Lo and behold, the committees had to do it or we would 

do it. They said: You will never do it because you are not the 

committee chairman; it is my committee. I said that is the 

perfect intent of this provision. If you don’t want me to do 

it, you better do it. We never had to find out whether the 

chairman could because they always did it. 

Why is that so important? Because reconciliation was provided to make sure you could not delay matters of budget. 

It was not filibusterable, let me say. A matter in that budget, 

anything in that Budget Act that was put forth before the 

Senate was not subject to filibuster. 

Senator Byrd, the first or second time we used it, came to 

the floor and said, ‘‘That is not what we intended.’’ And we 

said, ‘‘Well, we think it is. We had a vote. The Senate said 

it was.’’ 

If you wonder why almost all the major legislation of the 

U.S. Government has been appearing with a funny name— 

it is usually called something that says ‘‘Budget and Reconciliation Act of’’ such and such a year. That is generally 

the major piece of legislation that we passed—major tax 

changes, major Medicare changes, major Social Security 

changes, if any. All of them will come out in that form. That 

means every one of those bills became law because of that 

interpretation of the Budget Act that we put on it called reconciliation. That is how all the bills passed. 

What does it tell you then? It tells you that a filibuster 

doesn’t work because to get the work of budgeting done, you 

abandon filibuster. You send it to a temporary ash heap—not 

permanently—because if you tried to do it permanently, everybody would die because they think the filibuster would be 

abolished and maybe there would be a vote. But that is not 

what happens in the Budget Act. You can read it in the act 

and interpret it and say you cannot stop budgets indefinitely. 

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mentation indefinitely, you kill the budget. Right? That is 

where it comes from. 

I certainly took a lot more than 20 minutes, but I didn’t 

take 2 days to say goodbye and to tell you how I felt about 

this place. But it took a long time. Some of you certainly 

could have gone a long time ago, but out of courtesy to me, 

you have sat here, including you, Mr. Leader. 

I do hope whoever reads the Record and whoever hears me 

today and those of you who are on the floor, at least got out 

of this that I worked pretty hard at being a Senator. I somehow got myself involved in a lot of different things, and it 

was kind of fun that way. We got things done. We didn’t always make a lot of noise, although I am known to make 

noise, if necessary. But those were not the areas I was involved in. 

I wish to close with one funny story about my wife, Senator Ted Kennedy, and myself. One night I was over here 

and Senator Kennedy was over there. My wife sometimes 

watches the television to see what we do here on the floor. 

It was between 7 and 9 in the evening. When I talk loud, you 

notice my face gets red. I didn’t talk very loud today, but you 

have seen plenty of times late in the evening when I talk 

loud and my face gets red. Some people say it is because you 

are yelling. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it is yelling, 

maybe it is just talking too loud. 

I got a note. I was called to the Cloakroom, so I went to 

the Cloakroom while Senator Kennedy held the floor. My 

wife had written a note and said—my family nickname is 

Bocci, not PETE: ‘‘Bocci, you don’t do any better when you 

yell and get red in the face than when you talk low and you 

don’t get red in the face. I love you.’’ 

I came back. I said to Senator Kennedy, when it finally got 

to be my turn: ‘‘Senator Kennedy, I want you to know I got 

a note from my wife.’’ 

He said, ‘‘Oh, you mean Nancy.’’ 

I said, ‘‘Yes, Nancy.’’ 

He said, ‘‘What about it?’’ 

I said, ‘‘She sent you a note. Really.’’ So I read him the 

note with his name in place of Bocci my name: ‘‘Dear Senator Kennedy, you don’t do any better when you yell and get 

red in the face than you do when you talk low and you don’t 

get red in the face.’’ I said, ‘‘I don’t know why my wife said 

that to you, but she did.’’ My wife would almost not let me 

in the door that night. But we made our point and both of 

us tried from time to time to yell a little less. 

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I hope he is getting well or feeling better. We finished a 

bill that I did not mention—maybe I did in passing—but we 

did a bill together over the past 8 years, which is a very important bill for the mentally ill of our country. I have worked 

on mental illness issues for about 25 years. The treatment 

of the mentally ill in the United States is one of the most 

disgraceful ways of handling a social problem of almost anything. We let them all out of dungeons and then provide no 

physical facilities for them. We just thought it will happen, 

but it didn’t happen. That is the worst. We acted like it 

wasn’t a disease, even though it is. In the meantime, insurance companies decided not to cover it. Even if they had an 

insurance policy that covered everything, they would cover 

the mentally ill less. This bill says that will not happen anymore. Insurance companies would not be able to do that any 

more—the bill is called parity, which means fairness, which 

means equality. We are going to have fairness and equality 

of treatment by all insurance companies for the mentally ill. 

Senator Kennedy was as excited about that as I was. He 

is very sorry he couldn’t be here when you helped me, Mr. 

Leader, get that through the other day. We called him and 

told him and sent him a letter saying we couldn’t have done 

it without him. 

That bill will cover 113 million people who will no longer 

have the threat of having less than full coverage for their 

mental illness, such as they do for other diseases. 

That seems like it is pretty close to the end of my time, 

my 36 years. It will soon actually be, literally, 36 years, but 

for now, I will act as if it is and say this is my time to say 

thank you to the Senate and to all those who have worked 

with me and with whom I have been privileged to work. 

What a magnificent opportunity I have had. Coming from 

Albuquerque, my father never went to school. He got here at 

13. He claimed he was lucky. He didn’t have to go to school 

because the law said if you are 13, you don’t have to. He 

didn’t know education was valuable, so he was glad to go to 

work. He didn’t want me to go to law school because he was 

quite sure I had been overeducated. But when I explained it 

to him, he paid for everything. He said, ‘‘I want you to be 

a lawyer,’’ which was absolutely fantastic. 

It has been an honor to serve my home State of New Mexico. With that, I just want to say thank you and goodbye. 

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TRIBUTES 

TO 

PETE V. DOMENICI 

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Proceedings in the Senate 

THURSDAY, July 24, 2008 

Mrs. MCCASKILL. Mr. President, I thank my friend from 

New Mexico [Mr. DOMENICI]. I know his service in this body 

is one that every American should admire. He is a good Senator for his State. He has been a warm and friendly senior 

Senator to this very junior Senator from Missouri. I appreciate his friendship very much. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. I will 

not use her time, I will use mine. It has been a pleasure 

since I first met the Senator. I don’t always remember all of 

the new names, but the Senator has the same name as one 

of my daughters. We have become friends. I admire the Senator from Missouri too, and say I do believe she is learning 

to be a Senator very fast. I am proud to be her friend. I 

thank her for her kind words. 

SATURDAY, July 26, 2008 

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I would just say what an 

honor it has been to serve with Senator DOMENICI. There is 

no more effective advocate, no more courageous Senator in 

terms of speaking the truth about complex matters in words 

that Americans can understand, and no stronger Senator in 

committing to a sound economic policy than Senator DOMENICI. We are going to miss him in this body, there is no doubt 

about it. 

Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I would like to first 

thank my colleague from New Mexico and ask him a question, because this will be the last year he is serving in this 

body. He has served in it for many years, very distinguished. 

It has been my pleasure to get to know him. Senator DOMENICI can be irascible sometimes, but he is always fair. I find 

he will get on both sides, depending on which way he makes 

the call. . . . 

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Mr. ALLARD. I think the Senator from New Mexico, Mr. 

DOMENICI, has done a fabulous job with the energy issue, not 

just this year when it is fashionable—and this is the big 

issue—but he has devoted his whole legislative career to energy, making it available, how we can use research and technology to meet the energy needs of this country. He is recognized not only by me but nearly all Members of this Senate 

for his hard work on energy. We all should appreciate that 

work. 

I join in the chorus of those who have congratulated Senator DOMENICI on a distinguished career. His dedication to 

energy—I cannot think of another subject one could pick up 

that would have more of a long-term impact on this country, 

whether we are talking about economic security, whether we 

are talking about military security, or whether we are just 

talking about a secure home where one can rely on utilities 

and everything to have a comfortable lifestyle in this country. The Senator needs to be recognized for that. It is a 

pleasure for me to do so, as I have served on several committees now with him. He is very articulate on this subject, and 

he does a great job. 

TUESDAY, September 23, 2007 

Mr. DODD. . . . Let me mention PETE DOMENICI. PETE is 

a wonderful friend of mine. We are two people of opposite political parties who don’t agree on a lot, looking back over the 

years we have been here together. We have taken different 

sides of many issues. But PETE and Nancy Domenici are remarkable people. He will be leaving the Senate in a few days 

after a distinguished career. I had the honor of being with 

PETE and Nancy in Las Cruces, NM, to speak at a dinner for 

him at the Pete Domenici Center for Public Policy, which is 

now going to be part of New Mexico State University. I had 

dinner with PETE and several colleagues, past and present, 

who have worked with him over the years. 

WEDNESDAY, September 24, 2008 

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, Senator PETE DOMENICI, 

who is retiring from the Senate this year after serving since 

1972, once said to me that we don’t say goodbye in the Senate very well. As a matter of fact, we don’t say hello very 

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well either. We have a little orientation program, but we 

abruptly arrive and leave. We leave in the midst of a lot of 

turmoil and discussion with very little time to say goodbye. 

Yet in between that arrival and leaving, we have very intense personal relationships. We virtually live with each 

other. We see each other often for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We see each other more than we see our families. So 

when there is a time for saying goodbye, we look for ways 

to say it a little better. 

There are five Members of our body, all of them Republicans, who have announced their retirement for this year. 

While I won’t be speaking at length about them here today, 

I want to recognize their service. I will do it in the traditional way in the Senate, which is to start with seniority. By 

‘‘seniority,’’ I mean from the time I have known them. . . . 

Senator DOMENICI from New Mexico has been here since 

1972. That is a long time. He arrived as a young man. He 

had been a chairman of the Albuquerque City Commission, 

a math teacher, a baseball player. It was unusual for a Republican to be elected to the Senate from New Mexico. He 

has served with distinction all that time. He was the first 

Republican chairman of the Budget Committee. He has been 

a leader in a renaissance of nuclear energy in this country 

which is so important because of its low cost and because it 

is clean. A great many people, including myself, are concerned about global warming. Well, 70 percent of our carbonfree electricity in the United States comes from nuclear energy. Senator DOMENICI, more than almost anyone, has been 

behind the revival of interest in nuclear energy. He has truly 

been one of the most consequential Senators of the last half 

century. . . . 

I say to all five of those Senators, we will miss them. We 

are grateful for their service. I know people must look at the 

Senate in many different ways. 

Let me conclude by telling a story about how some teachers look at it. We have a tradition in the Senate of making 

a maiden address. It is kind of a funny name, but we still 

call it that. We pick the subject of most interest to us. My 

subject was to put the teaching of U.S. history and civics 

back in its proper place in the school curriculum so our children would grow up learning what it means to be an American. There is not too much the Federal Government can do 

about that, but what we were able to do is to begin summer 

academies for outstanding teachers and students of American history. One group of those teachers was here in July, 

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one from each State. I brought them on the Senate floor 

early one morning. I took them to Daniel Webster’s desk, 

which is occupied by the senior Senator from New Hampshire right here by me. I took them back to that part of the 

Senate where Jefferson Davis’ desk is, occupied by the senior 

Senator from Mississippi, and told them the story of how the 

marks in the desk are because a Union soldier came in during the Civil War and started chopping on it with his sword. 

His commanding officer came in and said, ‘‘Stop that. We are 

here to protect the Union, not to destroy it.’’ 

This Chamber is full of history, full of our country. Anyone 

who stands on this floor and sees the engravings of ‘‘In God 

We Trust’’ or ‘‘E Pluribus Unum’’ and gets a sense of what 

has happened here has respect for it. The teachers had that 

respect. When we got to the end of our visit, one teacher said 

to me, I think it was the teacher from Oregon, ‘‘Senator, 

what would you like for us to take home to our students 

about our visit to the Senate floor?’’ 

I said, ‘‘I hope you will take back that each of us takes our 

position a lot more seriously than we take ourselves. We understand we are accidents, that we are very fortunate and 

privileged to be here, that each of us reveres our country, 

and we respect this institution. I can only speak for myself, 

but I think it is true of Senators on both sides of the aisle 

that we get up every day thinking first of how we can make 

a little contribution before we go to bed at night that will 

help the country be a little better off than it was in the 

morning. That means serving in the Senate is a very great 

privilege. I hope you will take that back to your students. I 

don’t know what they see on television or read in the newspaper about the Senate, but that is how we feel about the 

privilege we have to serve here.’’ 

To these five Senators—Warner, DOMENICI, Craig, Hagel, 

and Allard—we say goodbye. They are members of our family. We appreciate their service. We know they have believed 

it has been a very great privilege to serve in the Senate. For 

us it has been a great privilege to serve with them. 

I yield the floor. 

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I wish to make a few comments about some of our departing colleagues who will not 

be joining us for the next session of Congress. They are great 

colleagues, people whom I have enjoyed working with in my 

31⁄2 years here in the Senate. They include Senator Allard 

from Colorado, Senator PETE DOMENICI from New Mexico, 

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Senator John Warner from Virginia, Senator Chuck Hagel 

from Nebraska, and Senator Larry Craig from Idaho. . . . 

PETE DOMENICI from New Mexico, the senior Senator from 

New Mexico, is one of the Senators here who comes from the 

same place my family came from many generations ago. 

His constant reminding me of the beauty of the Land of 

Enchantment and his work on behalf of securing an energy 

future for America is second to none. We will be missing him 

also in terms of his major contributions to the Energy Committee. He also has done a lot with respect to a whole host 

of other issues, too many to mention, but in particular I 

want to mention his work on the mental health parity initiative which would not have happened without his leadership. 

We were successful in getting mental health parity in legislation we passed in the Senate yesterday, and it was in large 

part because of his passion and willingness to work hard on 

a bipartisan basis to bring people together to help create 

that achievement. . . . 

I will miss my five colleagues. All of them are Republicans 

who are departing. Many of them brought a true spirit of bipartisanship and working together, which is worthy of the 

emulation of many Members of the Senate who will serve in 

this Chamber in the next Congress and in many Congresses 

to come. 

I yield the floor. 

THURSDAY, September 25, 2008 

Mrs. DOLE. Madam President, let me say, first, following 

one of my dearest friends in the Senate, I cannot tell you 

how much I admire and respect this great man and how 

much he will be missed in the Senate. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I say to the Senator, 

thank you very much, Senator Dole. 

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I thank Senator 

DOMENICI for his 36 years of service here in the Senate, 

longer than any New Mexican in the State’s history. I have 

had the pleasure of serving with Senator DOMENICI on the 

Budget Committee, where his leadership has been a cornerstone of the committee’s work for decades. I have always appreciated his willingness to listen to and accommodate different points of view through the years. I also thank him for 

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his work on biennial budgeting, something I also strongly 

support and was proud to work on with him. 

Senator DOMENICI’s commitment to mental health parity is 

well known and deserves special recognition. It is fitting 

that, on the eve of Senator DOMENICI’s retirement, the Mental Health Parity Act of 2008, which he worked on with Senators Dodd, Kennedy, and Enzi, should pass the Senate. I 

was pleased to co-sponsor this bill and look forward to it 

being enacted. 

Finally, I thank Senator DOMENICI for his vote in support 

of the McCain-Feingold legislation when it passed the Senate 

in 2002. It was his support, along with 59 other Senators, 

that gave us that victory after a long fight to ban soft money. 

I will always remember and appreciate his support, and I 

wish him all the best as he retires from the Senate. 

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

to a great U.S. Senator and friend, Senator PETE DOMENICI. 

His tireless work as New Mexico’s longest serving Senator in 

history has greatly benefited the people of his State and the 

United States of America. I am proud to have served with 

such a great statesman. 

During his time in the Senate, PETE has been instrumental in passing thousands of pieces of legislation on many 

different issues. However, I got the distinct honor of serving 

with him on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he serves as the ranking member and former 

chairman. Over the years, he has been instrumental in passing comprehensive energy legislation to help our Nation 

adapt to changing energy needs and demands. By working 

side by side with PETE on the committee, I have gotten to 

witness first hand the hard work he puts into every piece of 

legislation that comes before him. He also has the ability to 

reach across the aisle to other Senators who routinely join 

him in passing bipartisan bills to benefit our country. I know 

that I can speak for all of my colleagues when I say that 

PETE’s absence will be felt by all of us. 

While I will greatly miss my friend’s leadership on the 

Senate floor and in the Energy Committee, I know that he 

is looking forward to retirement and being able to spend 

some much-deserved time off with his wife Nancy and their 

family. I want to thank PETE for his contributions here in 

the Senate and wish him and his family well as they enter 

into a new chapter in their lives. 

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FRIDAY, September 26, 2008 

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I want to take just a few 

minutes to speak about our colleagues who have announced 

their plans to retire at the conclusion of this 110th Congress. 

We obviously will miss them. There are five individuals 

about whom I wanted to say a brief word: Senators Allard, 

Hagel, Craig, Warner, and DOMENICI. They have all brought 

their intelligence, principles, and perspectives on the issues 

confronting our Nation. The Nation is better for their efforts. . . . 

The most senior Senator retiring this year, of course, is my 

colleague and friend, Senator PETE DOMENICI. He is not only 

the most senior Senator retiring this year from the Senate, 

he is also the most senior Senator New Mexico has ever had. 

When PETE leaves the Senate this year, it will be after 36 

years of unstinting work doing his best for his country and 

for our State of New Mexico. 

He will be the first to say that his success and longevity 

here could not have been possible without two important elements: his family and his staff. The love and support of his 

wife Nancy have been invaluable. Also, from the first, he has 

had a fine staff. It was true when he came to Washington 

and it is certainly true today, here and in New Mexico. They 

are skilled individuals who make it their business to be helpful to the people of our State. 

Senator DOMENICI’s contributions are well known to all of 

us. His work on the Budget Committee and the Energy and 

Natural Resources Committee and the Appropriations Committee over the years has made a lasting impact on national 

policy. As a member of the Budget Committee, from the day 

he was sworn in, he was either the chairman or ranking 

member of that committee for 12 of his 36 years on the committee. 

One of the things in which he takes great pride is helping 

to get us to a balanced Federal budget twice. We can all appreciate how difficult that kind of undertaking is. 

Senator DOMENICI and I, of course, served on the Energy 

and Natural Resources Committee together. The Senate Historian has told us that as far as his office can tell, it is the 

only instance in the history of the Senate where Senators 

from the same State served as chairman and ranking member of the same committee at the same time. Obviously, I 

will miss that arrangement. 

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New Mexicans, including me, have great affection and respect for PETE DOMENICI. ‘‘People for PETE’’ is the motto 

PETE has used in each of his campaigns for many years. It 

is not just a famous campaign phrase in our State—although 

it is seen on bumper stickers all over our State whenever a 

campaign is underway involving PETE—but it is a bit of a 

twist on what his career has been all about; that is: PETE for 

the people of New Mexico. That has been his commitment. 

He has carried through in great form. 

We will miss his service to the State of New Mexico here 

in the Senate. 

I yield the floor. 

Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, today I wish to make a few 

comments about some of our departing colleagues who will 

no longer be with us next year. I have known some of them 

for just a little while, others I have known for a long time. 

And, to all of them I bid a fond farewell and mahalo for their 

service to their State and to this country. They are dear colleagues and friends of mine and I know that even if they 

leave this fine establishment, our friendships will continue 

long into the future. 

The Senators that I am referring to are Senator John Warner from Virginia, Senator PETE DOMENICI from New Mexico, Senator Larry Craig from Idaho, Senator Chuck Hagel 

from Nebraska, and Senator Wayne Allard from Colorado. 

Please allow me just one moment to reflect on my service 

with each of these valuable Members. . . . 

Another good friend and colleague, the senior Senator from 

New Mexico, Senator PETE DOMENICI has been serving the 

people of his home State and this Nation for 36 years. Like 

Senator Warner, Senator DOMENICI also works beyond party 

lines to address controversial issues and the concerns of 

stakeholders. He is truly an exemplary role model for all 

Members of Congress. 

Senator DOMENICI is a man of his word and has respectfully worked with Members on both sides of the aisle. As a 

dedicated advocate he has helped encourage informed debates in the Senate. He has been a passionate advocate for 

many causes and has sought workable solutions. 

I have had the distinct pleasure to serve with Senator 

DOMENICI as a member of the Senate Energy and Natural 

Resources Committee, as well as the Senate Indian Affairs 

Committee. Senator DOMENICI has played an integral role in 

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nessed his genuine concern and commitment to improve the 

well-being of, and increase opportunities for, indigenous communities in Hawaii, across the Nation, and extending to our 

insular areas. 

Senator DOMENICI has been one of the leading advocates 

for mental health care in our country. He and Senator Paul 

Wellstone were great partners in trying to bring about mental health parity. Since Paul’s death, Senator DOMENICI has 

led this initiative and worked with all of us in a continued 

effort to ensure that individuals can access essential treatment. 

Senator DOMENICI is a statesman and a gentleman. It has 

been a pleasure to work with him in the U.S. Senate. I am 

going to miss Senator DOMENICI and I extend my warmest 

aloha and heartfelt well wishes. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I regret that I am not able 

to be in the Senate today to pay tribute to my friend and colleague, Senator PETE DOMENICI of New Mexico. 

Throughout my years in the Senate, I have been honored 

to serve with some of the brightest, most committed elected 

leaders in our Nation. But Senator DOMENICI stands out in 

particular. He has the unique ability to rise above partisanship and find real solutions to real problems. 

He comes to every issue with a deep knowledge and desire 

to improve the lives of the people of New Mexico and the Nation. It has been a special honor to work with him for nearly 

36 years, including many years on mental health issues. We 

both share a deep commitment to those issues because we 

know the immense toll that mental illness has taken on beloved members of our families, his daughter Clare and my 

sister Rosemary. 

PETE and I are on opposite sides of the aisle in the Senate, 

but he has never approached mental health issues in a partisan way. Instead, he thinks of himself as an advocate for 

mental health reform and basic fairness for all our citizens. 

Through PETE’s skillful guidance and leadership, Congress 

has made major progress in breaking down the walls of discrimination against the mentally ill, especially in the judicial 

system and in education. On reform in mental health care, 

it has been a long, difficult battle for over a decade, but Senator DOMENICI’s will and dedication has never wavered. 

Years ago, young PETE played baseball for the Albuquerque Dukes, which was part of the old Brooklyn Dodgers 

farm system. Back in those days, disappointed Dodger fans 

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coined the phrase, ‘‘Wait ’til next year’’ after coming up short 

of a championship season so often. 

Now, at last, because of PETE, Americans suffering from 

mental illness may not have to ‘‘wait ’til next year’’ any 

longer. We are now closer than ever to finally passing mental health parity and putting an end to the long-standing 

shameful practice of discrimination in health insurance 

against persons with mental illness. On this issue, Senator 

DOMENICI has been absolutely relentless and absolutely brilliant. We could never have made it this far without him. 

My only regret is that at the signing ceremony, when 

President Bush signs this landmark bill into law and looks 

up and hands the signing pen to Senator DOMENICI, we will 

all be sad that PETE is retiring from the Senate this year. 

He has been a continuing source of hope and inspiration to 

me and to millions of other people and their families across 

the Nation. He has made a truly extraordinary difference in 

the lives of families struggling with mental illness. It has 

been a great honor to serve with such a talented and dedicated public servant as Senator PETE DOMENICI. I will miss 

him very much in the years ahead. 

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

my very dear friend and colleague, Senator PETE DOMENICI. 

Other than the members of the Utah congressional delegation, Utah has had no better friend in the Senate than the 

senior Senator from New Mexico. My State of Utah is made 

up mostly of public lands, and we have often relied on this 

good Senator for the support and expertise of solving some 

of our most difficult natural resource problems. Senators who 

understand the complexities of living in a public-land dominated State are few and far between, especially here in 

Washington. Having Senator DOMENICI in a leadership position on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resource Policy has been my State’s salvation many times over. 

In my personal view, Senator DOMENICI’s crowning 

achievement was the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 

2005. This was one of the most comprehensive and bipartisan energy proposals ever passed by Congress. I have no 

doubt that this summer’s energy crisis would have been dramatically worse had EPACT 2005 not been passed when it 

was. It was a matter of dread and grave disappointment for 

some of us in the Senate to watch as the leadership of this 

Congress pursued efforts to turn back some of the most important steps that legislation took toward securing a better 

energy future for our people. And it is fitting that before this 

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Congress ends along with Senator DOMENICI’s Senate career, 

we have voted to reinstate and to extend many of the provisions established in EPACT 2005. 

In particular, I praise Senator DOMENICI for his unfailing 

vision and leadership in working with me to establish the 

possibility in this country of developing our Nation’s gigantic 

untapped oil shale resources. A lot has been said in the 

media about how oil shale development has not been proven 

yet and therefore is not likely to be successful. However, 

what these critics fail to consider is that the government has 

long had a policy to not develop its oil shale. We should keep 

in mind that the United States controls about 72 percent of 

the world’s oil shale and that 73 percent of our resource is 

on Federal lands. 

Without Senator DOMENICI’s leadership, we would not 

have been able to pass the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Development Act as part of EPACT 2005. We would not now have 

a large, tristate environmental impact statement on oil 

shale, a voluminous task force report on oil shale from the 

Department of Energy, a research and development lease 

program ongoing at the Bureau of Land Management, and 

the soon-to-be-released final regulations on commercial oil 

shale leasing on Federal lands. He has maintained the vision 

of oil shale’s potential benefit to our Nation’s future and has 

never relented. I will ever be grateful to Senator DOMENICI

for that. 

My friend from New Mexico is not flashy. And I mean that 

as a high compliment. Where some Senators fight with rhetoric, Senator DOMENICI relies on reason. Where others 

search around for wedge issues, Senator DOMENICI finds solutions. Where others in the Senate seek to widen the aisle 

that divides us, Senator DOMENICI reaches across to bring us 

closer. The Senate is a better place because the people of 

New Mexico have sent us their senior Senator, and we will 

miss his presence here. As this Congress comes to a close, I 

say to my friend, arrivederci, ti voglio bene. 

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I would like to speak 

about my great friend, Senator PETE DOMENICI of New Mexico. 

The longest serving U.S. Senator in New Mexico history, 

PETE has been a respected leader on some of the most important issues of our time, including energy security, nuclear 

proliferation, and fiscal responsibility. 

PETE was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and is 

serving his sixth term. 

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PETE is the ranking member of the Senate Energy and 

Natural Resources Committee, having previously served as 

its chairman following a long tenure in charge of the Senate 

Budget Committee. 

When he became chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2003, PETE put his years of legislative 

experience to work to craft the first major comprehensive energy bill since 1992. 

Many thought that the task was nearly impossible, but 

Senator DOMENICI gained bipartisan consensus and passage 

of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This new energy law created incentives to accelerate U.S. development of its own energy resources—including solar, wind, and nuclear power. 

Then, in late 2006, Senator DOMENICI engineered the enactment of a new law that will open areas of the Gulf of 

Mexico for energy exploration. This could yield 1.26 billion 

barrels of American-owned oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of 

natural gas in the near future. 

Senator DOMENICI’s commitment to America’s prosperity is 

also exemplified in his work to make the United States more 

competitive in the global marketplace. He is a co-author of 

the America Competes Act, a landmark bill that will force 

substantial changes to promote science and technology education and ensure that the United States does not lose its 

place as the world’s innovation leader. 

Senator DOMENICI is a nationally recognized advocate for 

people with mental illness, having written the 1996 mental 

health parity law to ensure fair insurance coverage for people who suffer from that disease. 

PETE has also been a champion in promoting New Mexico’s 

economy. He has worked to ensure equal opportunities for 

women and minorities. He has worked to find consensus on 

difficult environmental issues. It has been a true honor to 

serve with him. The Senate will truly miss his leadership, 

and I will miss his friendship. Indeed, we will miss all our 

departing friends. I wish them well. 

SATURDAY, September 27, 2008 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, few Senators have 

meant more to this body than PETE DOMENICI, and few are 

more deserving of that praise. I am honored today to say a 

few words on the floor of the Senate about the good and 

humble man we all know around here as ‘‘Uncle PETE.’’ 

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PETE is a classic American story that reminds us why 

America is so great. His parents were Italian immigrants 

who taught their five children the importance of faith, the 

rewards of hard work, the blessings of a big family, and an 

abiding love for their adopted country. 

As an only son, PETE grew up fast, working in his father’s 

wholesale grocery business, studying hard at St. Mary’s High 

School in Albuquerque, and developing a good enough 

fastball to become a star pitcher at the University of New 

Mexico. 

In a sign of his future success as a lawmaker, PETE put 

together an impressive 14 to 3 record his senior year in college. He was such a good pitcher, in fact, that he caught the 

attention of some major league scouts and soon earned a spot 

in the starting rotation of the Albuquerque Dukes. 

Now, for most American boys growing up in the 1940s, 

being a minor league pitcher would have been enough. But 

not for the son of Alda and Cherubino Domenici. After earning his JD degree at the University of Denver, PETE became 

a lawyer. From there, he had the tools he would need to go 

to bat for the people of New Mexico for the next 5 decades. 

Elected to the Albuquerque City Commission in 1966, he 

became chairman of Albuquerque the following year at the 

age of 35. It was there in the shadow of the Sandia Mountains that he got to know the needs and the ambitions of his 

friends and neighbors and seemingly everyone else. 

Today there is almost no one in New Mexico—from the 

high plains in the east, to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains 

in the north, to the high plateaus that cover much of the rest 

of the State—who does not offer a smile of recognition at the 

familiar name of PETE DOMENICI. 

Five years after becoming mayor, the people of New Mexico sent PETE to Washington. It was one of the best decisions 

the voters of any State have ever made. 

In six terms, PETE has built a reputation for honesty that 

is second to none. The undisputed leader on energy issues in 

the Senate for nearly four decades, PETE saw the need to secure America’s energy future before it was cool, even writing 

a book on the promise of nuclear energy. 

Thanks largely to his efforts last year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission received its first application in 29 years 

for a nuclear powerplant. 

PETE is the only American to be awarded the French nuclear society’s highest award. He spearheaded efforts to pass 

the landmark Energy Policy Act of 2005, a comprehensive 

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bill that has spurred the growth of renewable energy such as 

wind and solar and which has set America on a path of increased energy efficiency. 

PETE authored the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 

2006, a bipartisan bill that opened new areas of the gulf to 

oil and natural gas exploration. Long before people were calling on Congress to find more and use less, PETE was showing 

us that it could be done. 

PETE’s tenure on the Budget Committee earned him a 

well-deserved reputation as one of the strictest fiscal hawks 

in Congress. As chairman or ranking member for nearly 23 

years, he co-authored the original Budget Reform Act of 

1974, which started the modern budget process and established the Congressional Budget Office. He authored the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, leading to 4 straight years of surpluses. 

There is no greater friend of the disabled in this country 

than PETE DOMENICI. A co-author of the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, he has fought tirelessly to expand it ever 

since. And just this week, all that hard work paid off when 

the Senate approved full mental health parity as part of the 

tax extenders bill. After years of patient effort, PETE’s vision 

for expanded benefits for millions of struggling Americans 

will—we hope—soon be the law of the land. 

PETE’s contributions to his home State are literally legendary. He helped protect and preserve New Mexico’s 

breathtaking natural beauty by working to create nearly 1 

million acres of wilderness throughout the State. In concert 

with the National Park Service, he authorized the Route 66 

initiative to help preserve the look and feel of this iconic 

American road. 

He has helped bring water to rural communities through 

the water supply bill. He secured funding for the only major 

Western dam project of the last decade. All of this is just 

part of PETE DOMENICI’s legacy. 

Fortunately, the people of New Mexico will be able to get 

the whole story thanks to an effort that was recently announced at New Mexico State University to study PETE’s impact on public policy and contributions to the State in 36 remarkable years of service in the Senate. 

The people of New Mexico are not the only ones who are 

grateful for PETE’s service. He may not know this, but PETE

has a lot of fans in Kentucky. Back in the late 1990s, when 

Kentuckians were beginning to learn the extent of the environmental and health damage caused by the Paducah GasVerDate Aug 31 2005 16:09 Aug 24, 2010 Jkt 047105 PO 00000 Frm 00040 Fmt 6688 Sfmt 6688 H:\DOCS\BYEBYE\BYEBYE08\PETE7.BST CRS2 PsN: SKAYNE
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eous Diffusion Plant, PETE offered a helping hand. Whether 

it was appropriating funds for the cleanup, making sure 

workers were screened for lung cancer, or compensating 

those who had been wrongfully injured, Senator DOMENICI

has been a reliable partner to me and a great friend to the 

people of Paducah every step of the way, and we are grateful 

for his help. 

A record such as this is not easy to achieve in the Senate. 

It takes vision, hard work, patience, and an ability to cooperate with Members on both sides of the aisle. One mark of 

PETE’s skills in working with Members of both sides is the 

praise he has received not only from local media but the national press as well. Here is what the New York Times had 

to say about PETE in 2001: 

If Mr. DOMENICI sounds like a serious man, he is. A colleague once described him as having a case of terminal responsibility. He is not cut from 

the same bolt as most politicians. 

Like most of us, PETE never could have done it alone. And 

he has not. Around the same time the minor league scouts 

noticed PETE, PETE noticed a young lady named Nancy Burk. 

And 50 years ago this year, PETE and Nancy were married. 

Fifty years of marriage is a remarkable achievement in 

itself, and it is well worth noting. 

Apparently PETE and Nancy were both overachievers. Over 

the years, they raised eight children, which, of course, makes 

all the other accomplishments look a little less challenging. 

They are a remarkable couple. They made the Senate a 

more friendly place. And I know my wife Elaine has enjoyed 

getting to know Nancy and working with her in the Senate 

Spouses Group. 

The members of my staff are going to miss Uncle PETE a 

lot as well. They will miss his frequent visits and his stories 

about the old days and the way he lit up like a child whenever he talked about his faith, his children, his grandkids, 

and his beloved wife Nancy who, thanks to PETE’s bragging, 

is known to everyone on my staff as a great cook. 

They will miss his warmth, his good cheer, and his passion 

for the issues of the day. They will miss the same things that 

his colleagues will miss: an honest statesman and a good 

man who made all of us proud to be Members of the same 

institution as him. 

Whenever PETE is reminded of all that he has done for the 

people of New Mexico and for our country, he always says 

the same thing: It is an honor. Now we, his colleagues in the 

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Senate, say the same thing about the time we have spent 

working alongside this good man. 

Senator DOMENICI, it has been an honor. 

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, let me take a few moments to say what an absolutely outstanding privilege it has 

been for me, for 10 of the 12 years I have served in the Senate, to serve on the Energy Committee with Senator DOMENICI. 

It is rare to see a person in public office who cares equally 

as deeply about his family and his children and his work. 

Sometimes families get pushed aside because of the work of 

men and women who think the work they do is somehow 

more important than raising their children. I have experienced struggling for that balance in my own life, watching 

my father struggle with that balance. Sitting on the committee watching Senator DOMENICI has been an inspiration 

to me, to watch him handle some of the biggest issues of our 

time, truly, over 36 years. He spoke about some of them— 

the budgets of the entire Congress, the nuclear renaissance 

in the country, major pieces of social legislation he has shepherded and nurtured and loved. But in between many of 

these discussions I have been privileged to have with him, he 

will stop in the middle of a conversation and talk about one 

of his children or one of his grandchildren. He is the father 

of eight. I am one of nine and the mother of two. 

I just want to tell him, in these brief moments—and I am 

just going to speak for 2 or 3 minutes—what an inspiration 

he has been to me as a man who loves his wife and his children and his grandchildren so deeply and has managed to 

serve his State with such passion and grace and love for 36 

years. And New Mexico is not a next-door kind of place. New 

Mexico is a long way from Washington, DC, but it has never 

been long from the Senator’s heart. 

The final thing I want to say is that, on behalf of the people of my State, I want the Senator from New Mexico to 

know we will be forever grateful for his leadership when it 

came to passing, for us, something in the nature of the Declaration of Independence. And I don’t mean to belittle that 

document, but for the people of Louisiana, who for 60 years 

have struggled to try to find some way to preserve this great 

coast of ours and to save our communities, our culture, and 

our economic livelihood, this Senator stepped up, this Senator from New Mexico—not much water there—and his 

heart was with the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast. 

He and his wife flew over this great expanse of land, which 

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has been under water now for quite some time with these 

storms in the last years, and he basically took the lead on 

establishing for us something that had eluded us for 60 

years—since President Truman was the President of the 

United States. Senator DOMENICI changed the fortunes of 

Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama by putting in a 

major piece of legislation that will establish a way for us to 

secure this coast. 

So, Senator, I could speak for a long time—many more 

hours—about what you have done, but there are other Members much more senior to me and in your own party who 

wish to speak. I just wanted to lay down for the Record the 

comment to you—and I will submit a more formal statement 

for the Record—that the people of Louisiana whom I represent will be forever grateful for your leadership. 

I yield the floor. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah. 

Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I am sorry to see PETE

DOMENICI leave the Senate for a variety of reasons but one 

highly personal: He is reducing by 25 percent the number of 

Senators now serving who served with my father. Senator 

Byrd, Senator Kennedy, Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, 

and Senator Biden all served with my father, as did Senator 

DOMENICI. Now he has told me that my father was never 

quite able to pronounce his name correctly, for which I apologize. I have learned how to do it so that the Bennett family 

is relieved of that particular problem. 

This demonstrates a degree of continuity and a degree of 

dedication to the problems related to the West because New 

Mexico and Utah are neighboring States. We touch at one 

tiny point. It is the only point in the United States where 

four States come together. It is called the Four Corners, 

where four States, in a straight divide, come and touch each 

other. But New Mexico and Utah share many of the same 

problems, and as I have come to the Senate with the problems of the West and had to turn somewhere for a mentor 

to help guide me through those problems, I have turned to 

Senator DOMENICI. His advice has always been good, his 

help has always been available, and he has proven to be as 

good a friend to his western neighbors as he has been to his 

New Mexican constituents. 

If the Senate seniority rule holds in place, I will succeed 

him as the ranking member of the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations. These are 

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very big shoes to fill. In true DOMENICI style, instead of just 

waving goodbye and walking out the door, he has tucked me 

under his arm and taken me around to all of the national 

labs to make sure that these beloved institutions, which he 

has tended and funded and guided so carefully, got introduced to me under his tutelage and so that he made sure 

that I understood fully how important they were. In very 

kind and subtle ways, he made it clear to me that if I didn’t 

stand up to the responsibility of keeping those national 

treasures alive, he would haunt me in one way or another. 

Now, I hope he does. I hope he is available for years to come 

for advice and counsel. 

The other thing that has been referred to here, on which 

I have been delighted to join with him, is his crusade for insurance equality for the mentally disturbed. He and I both 

have some experience with that with members of our own 

families. We understand how important that is, and it has 

been easy to be a foot soldier in the ranks, with PETE

DOMENICI leading the charge. 

There is a phrase that has been used and vastly overused 

around these halls in Washington for a long time, but it applies accurately to PETE DOMENICI. He truly has been a national treasure, and we shall miss him but wish him well. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Levin). The Senator from 

Virginia. 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, what a privilege it has been 

for myself and many of my colleagues to sit here in the presence this afternoon to not hear a goodbye to the Senate, because the Senate, Senator DOMENICI, will always look up to 

you. You will be the model which young men and women 

coming to the Senate will wish to follow. 

I don’t know whether anyone can do what you have done 

throughout the Senate with greater feeling and sincerity. 

Mr. President, when Senator DOMENICI greets and visits 

with you, he always finishes that with ‘‘I love you, brother’’ 

or ‘‘I love you, sister.’’ 

God bless you and your family. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Thank you. 

Mr. WARNER. I yield the floor. 

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, if I may, I want to give my 

accolades to Senator DOMENICI, with whom I have worked on 

the Energy Committee since I came to the Senate, and also 

to wish him well in his days ahead. When I arrived in the 

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Senate some 31⁄2 years ago, he was one of the people who 

welcomed me here. He welcomed me here as the man from 

the Land of Enchantment, la Tierra Encantada, as we say 

in Spanish in New Mexico. He did so in large part because 

many of my family members are from the State of New Mexico. My family helped found the city of Santa Fe, the city of 

Holy Faith, now over 400 years ago. 

During many times as I was growing up as a young man, 

and later on in my professional life, traveling in New Mexico, 

I would hear about the great Senator of New Mexico, the 

great PETE DOMENICI. Now, for the last 4 years it has been 

a tremendous privilege and personal honor for me to be able 

to serve with him. 

I want to make two comments about him—first, in terms 

of the substance of the legislation that we have worked on 

together. We have passed three significant pieces of bipartisan energy legislation with him—in 2005, the Energy Policy Act of that year; again, we passed another energy package in 2006; and again in 2007. In the passage of those 

major pieces of legislation, it was Senator DOMENICI, working closely with his good friend, Senator Bingaman, who said 

that we could agree on things for the future of this country 

on this signature issue that is so important to our national 

security and to our economic prosperity. He brought us together to make sure that we would work on those things 

that we all agreed upon. That is why we were able to pass 

those very important pieces of legislation. I very much appreciate what he has done in that committee. 

Second, as he and I have talked many times over the last 

several years, there are issues that are unique to the West, 

the issues of public lands, where much of our lands—for example, in my State of Colorado, 33 percent is owned by the 

Federal Government. It takes an understanding of those realities, of issues like payment in lieu of taxes, or how we deal 

with the mining law in the West, or how we make sure that 

the water issues of the West are protected, and how we recognize the compacts of our States as being important. For all 

those issues he has been a tremendous leader and an inspiration. 

I will miss him dearly as a friend. He has been a dear 

friend. But I also will miss his leadership because on so 

many issues he has worked across the aisle. I appreciate his 

leadership as well in what he has done for mental health 

parity for the United States of America. 

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There will be not hundreds of thousands, not millions, but 

hundreds of millions of Americans who will come to benefit 

from his leadership on the mental health parity issue. Also, 

the building blocks he has laid for us to try to take the moon 

shot that will get us energy independence. Those building 

blocks will remain in place for decades and for generations 

to come. 

So I appreciate his leadership, and I appreciate his service. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I want to thank my good 

friend, Senator Salazar, from the State of Colorado. I don’t 

know what brought us together on our Energy Committee. 

Maybe it was a little bit of common language—we both spoke 

a little Spanish to each other, and it made us both understand and feel like we were friends. But we became that, we 

became friends rather quickly in his short 4 years. 

I obviously remember your very first 6 months when we 

became friends and worked on many issues. I compliment 

you on your constant effort to work in a bipartisan way on 

issues. It is tough around here. It is going to have to move 

in that direction or we are going to continue to have trouble 

getting things done. For that, I hope you will stand your 

ground and at least keep trying. 

I appreciate the kind words you said in my behalf. Let’s 

hope we see each other frequently, if not in your State, in 

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. 

Thank you very much, Senator. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia is 

recognized. 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, these are one of the periods 

of our lives in the Senate we shall always remember. My 

good friend, the Senator from New Mexico, steps down and 

departs the floor. But you will be a Member of this decisionmaking body through the next few days, which will be critical when your vast experience will be brought to bear, as it 

will. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Senator, I tell you, I said a little bit in 

my remarks a while ago about it. I get very excited and anxious because it takes too long. But that is the deliberative 

body. But we don’t have a long time to give the Secretary of 

the Treasury the kind of authority he needs to fix a broken 

train. 

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We have had a wreck—lots of wrecks. All the freeways are 

clogged. We have to take away the things that are clogging 

them. We could look at it as a freeway with cracked-up cars, 

but actually the assets that are piled up there are the toxic 

assets that have been accumulated by those banks. If you 

don’t get them out of the way, the line continues growing because of the broken-down cars, the toxic assets. The running 

cars can run no more. They are stopped in place. They contain everything that has given us a decent life in America. 

We have to fix that. I am going to be here. Let’s hope our 

negotiators will put something together that the executive 

branch tells us will work and that the world accepts it with 

confidence. When we come off this floor, when we vote that 

in—whatever it is, Monday or whatever—we will join, you 

and I, with great confidence that we have once again done 

something important. 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I was present today in our 

group of Senators. When you spoke, you inspired them. We 

have got to rebuild the confidence in America. That is what 

underlies this decision. I also wish to say a few words about 

our dear friend from Colorado. I cannot altogether make 

these remarks without divulging I have a bias. I have visited 

that beautiful State many times. But my daughter makes 

her home there, together with my grandson, and the Senator 

from Colorado allowed my grandson to be an intern in his office. He served as an intern briefly in my office, both without 

pay to the taxpayers, I hasten to say, when I make these remarks. 

But he has been a great friend. We have worked together 

on many things. He has dignity. But above all it is his enthusiasm and love for this institution. There is not a day 

when he walks on this floor, either to say to other Senators 

or to say it quietly to himself: How fortunate I am to be a 

Senator, to come here to represent the people of Colorado, to 

represent the people, as each Senator does, of the whole of 

the United States. 

So as I step down, and others, we do so with a sense of 

confidence, behind us remain individuals like yourself and 

indeed the distinguished presiding officer who for 30 years, 

he and I have served together on the Armed Services Committee. He will remain on. The Senate will be in good hands 

with you and our other colleagues to carry on and solve the 

problems for this great Nation and indeed much of the world. 

I yield the floor. 

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ORDER FOR PRINTING OF SENATE DOCUMENT 

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 

that the tributes to retiring Senators that appear in the Congressional Record be printed as a Senate document and that 

Senators be permitted to submit such tributes for inclusion 

until Friday, November 21, 2008. 

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

MONDAY, September 29, 2008 

Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, while the Senator from 

New Mexico [Mr. DOMENICI] is on the floor, I want to, one, 

thank him for his characteristically lucid and honorable putthe-national-interest-first statement and also to say that I 

gather, this afternoon, colleagues will be coming to the floor 

to pay tribute to some who are not running again, as Senator 

DOMENICI is not running. I have to go to Connecticut to join 

my family for a celebration of Rosh Hashanah right after the 

vote, so I wish to take this moment to thank Senator 

DOMENICI for his extraordinary service and to say to him 

what an honor and a pleasure it has been. Sometimes it is 

an honor to work with some people but not a pleasure; sometimes it is a pleasure and not an honor. With you, it has 

been both. 

You just spoke to our responsibility to our country in this 

economic crisis, and you spoke from your inner characteristically American core of optimism, that we have the best financial system in the world and we have every reason to be 

optimistic, but we are really in a crisis. To me, that is the 

kind of service you have given our country. And you are a 

characteristic American story because your family does not 

go back to the Mayflower, as we used to say in my family, 

like yours. Your family came from Italy to this country, and 

they gave you a love for this country, a confidence that if you 

worked hard and used the abilities God gave you, there was 

no limit to how far you could go. 

Like so many others, you have served your country with 

extraordinary honor and effect across a wide range of subject 

areas. I think particularly of the great work you have done 

in trying to regularize and make orderly and efficient and responsible our budget process; from that kind of nuts-andbolts dollars-and-cents to the passionate advocacy you have 

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given for equal treatment in our insurance system for those 

who need assistance from our medical system for mental illness, to treat mental illness exactly as physical illness. 

So, Senator DOMENICI, it has been an honor to serve with 

you. If I may get a little ethnic, which you and I usually do, 

I would say, in leaving the Senate this year, you are following in the footsteps of another great Italian-American 

hero whom I grew up admiring in a different field of endeavor, Rocky Marciano. Remember, Rocky retired undefeated, 

and you are too. 

Mr. DOMENICI. It has always been a pleasure working 

with you and being with you, and I wish you the very best. 

I know you are heavily involved in another kind of campaign 

and you are doing something very difficult, and I know you 

must go through difficult times even though you are enthusiastic about what you are doing. That must be difficult because it is, in fact, very different, and you choose these situations and you handle them well. 

I compliment you, wish you the very best, and hope after 

the Presidential election, whatever happens, you come back 

and have a very good life in the Senate. 

Mr. LIEBERMAN. I thank my friend. 

Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, it is with mixed feelings of remorse and pleasure that I speak on the subject of 

the retirement from the Senate of my colleague and friend 

from New Mexico, PETE DOMENICI. He and his wife Nancy 

have been close and dear personal friends. When I was elected to serve in the Senate, they reached out to my wife Rose 

and me and made us feel at home and very comfortable in 

our new Senate environment. That was 30 years ago. 

The Domenici family will surely be missed, but I know we 

will stay in touch. I wouldn’t be surprised to get a call from 

PETE if he sees or hears about my not doing right on an 

issue he feels deeply about. He is not bashful, nor easily intimidated, and he is going to continue to be consulted for advice and counsel from time to time by me and others who respect him so highly and realize they would benefit from his 

good judgment and insight. 

From public works to budget and energy, to appropriations, he has been a conspicuous and forceful advocate of 

public policy in the Senate committees. His contributions to 

public policy during the years of his service in the Senate are 

unsurpassed, and the genuineness of the respect in which he 

is held by his colleagues is unequaled. It has been a great 

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honor to have served with PETE DOMENICI. I extend my sincere congratulations to him on his outstanding career in the 

Senate. 

TUESDAY, September 30, 2008 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, a lot of people think they know 

Senator PETE DOMENICI. They know him as a man who has 

been a leader in the Senate for decades on energy issues, 

and he was the chairman of that committee, and on budget 

issues, and he has been the chairman of that committee. He 

is a man who has been a leader on the Appropriations Committee. I have known Senator DOMENICI in that regard, as 

have the American people, but what I think is so interesting 

about PETE DOMENICI is a side that a lot of people don’t 

know about him. Here is a man who can talk about Wall 

Street, he can talk about financial markets, he can talk 

about the budgetary problems facing this country, but in a 

personal, private conversation, he can talk about baseball. 

Here is a man who was a star athlete. He was a great 

baseball player. As a young man, he played American Legion 

Baseball. I played American Legion Baseball, but PETE’s 

team was good. Mine wasn’t so good. PETE led his team to 

the regional championship. 

American Legion Baseball used to be the baseball for 

young men. 

They did not have all the State tournaments they had in 

high schools, so in the summer, the best athletes would get 

together, the best baseball players would get together and 

play American Legion ball, and the winter regional championship was significant. 

Senator DOMENICI went on to letter all 4 years, of course, 

in high school. He was a standout pitcher for the University 

of New Mexico, and he was All Conference. His final year he 

had a record of 14 and 3. That is quite a record. In those 

days, when Senator DOMENICI was in high school and college, they would play a lot of games, as they do now. A 

record of 14 and 3 is a very significant record. 

But that was not the end of his career. He went on to play 

professional baseball. After college he played for the hometown crowd as a left-handed pitcher for the Albuquerque 

Dukes. I know he must have had a great fastball and a great 

curveball to accomplish what he did in baseball. But in the 

Senate, PETE DOMENICI does not throw curveballs, it is the 

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high hard one all the time. He is a person who tells people 

how he feels. 

With my longtime relationship with Senator DOMENICI, I 

only had one problem my entire career with him. That was 

a time when—I, frankly, do not remember whether I was the 

ranking member of the subcommittee or the chairman of the 

subcommittee because we went back and forth often. That 

was the Energy and Water Subcommittee of Appropriations. 

As a relatively young Senator, I had a position of power, 

and I thought what I would do is go and talk to members 

of that conference and get the votes. I did it very quietly. I 

did not say a word to Senator DOMENICI. I surprised everybody. I called for a vote unexpectedly and I won. Senator 

DOMENICI did not say a word to me there publicly. Well, 

when that was over, we had a little heart-to-heart talk. He 

said, ‘‘We have to work together. If we are going to work together on this subcommittee, I want to tell you something 

about how we do things in the Senate. We do not surprise 

each other. If you had a problem with that issue, talk to me. 

If you have the votes, you do not need to try to embarrass 

me publicly, you go ahead and do what you need to do.’’ 

I learned a great lesson there. I learned a lesson that can 

only come by someone teaching you, such as when I practiced law. It is not pleasant to talk about, but you learn from 

your mistakes in the practice of law. When you make a mistake, you never do that again. As a result of the teaching 

moment I had with Senator DOMENICI, I never, ever, did that 

again. So I appreciate, if for no other reason than that, that 

one experience with PETE DOMENICI. It made me a better 

Senator and a better person. 

It was very clear that when Senator DOMENICI realized he 

would not be playing for the New York Yankees, even though 

he was a good athlete, he decided he would become a teacher. Then he went to law school, and after graduating, PETE

DOMENICI entered politics. First, he was elected to the city 

commission in Albuquerque. Then he climbed up that ladder 

of local politics and became mayor of Albuquerque and was 

elected in 1972 as a young man to the Senate. 

My relationship with Senator DOMENICI began, my first 

experience coming to the Senate, in 1986. I was very fortunate that year. I was a brand-new Senator. I got on the Appropriations Committee. As we now know, Senators wait a 

long time to get on that committee. I was so fortunate that 

Barbara Mikulski and Harry Reid, two brand-new Senators, 

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were placed on that committee. From that day, I got to know 

PETE DOMENICI. 

My experience on the Appropriations Committee goes back 

to the day that John Stennis, the Senator from Mississippi, 

was chairman of that committee. By the time I got to the 

Senate, he was in very frail health. He had been shot in a 

robbery, he had lost a leg, he had cancer. So he was very 

weak. 

His chief of staff was a man by the name of Frank Sullivan. He had been chief of staff of the Armed Services Committee and then the Appropriations Committee. And he 

called me. After I met Senator Stennis, he called me in his 

office and said to me, ‘‘Senator Reid, you got on the best committee in the entire Senate.’’ He said, ‘‘You can do a lot of 

good things for your State, but do not be greedy.’’ 

That was a real good lesson for me. I have always tried to 

follow that. Senator DOMENICI has been someone I have 

worked with on that committee. I did not immediately get on 

the Energy and Water Subcommittee. It takes awhile to get 

on that. That is one of the most sought after subcommittees 

you can get on in the appropriations process. 

I worked with PETE DOMENICI since the first day I have 

been in the Senate but on a very close basis from the time 

I got on that subcommittee. So we worked together on that 

Energy and Water Subcommittee for 22 years. Some of these 

years PETE was the chairman, as I indicated, or I was the 

ranking member, and other years it was the reverse. 

But, frankly, for the two of us, it did not matter which 

party controlled the Chamber. We continued to work for the 

people of Nevada and New Mexico and the country on a bipartisan basis. We have traveled the country. We have gone 

to some of the labs that are so necessary for our country’s 

science—Livermore—and the great facilities we have in New 

Mexico—Sandia. I can remember going there so clearly. It 

was a wonderful experience. The two labs in New Mexico are 

among the best. We also traveled to a facility we fund in 

Missouri. 

Anyway, we have done a lot of things together over the 

years. In addition to that, because of the relationship of the 

spouses, his wonderful wife Nancy and my wife Landra, have 

become very good friends. They are very small people physically but big people in other ways. They are both generous, 

thoughtful, kind wives, mothers, and good people. They have 

done a great job of raising our children, and they have many 

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conversations about the good and the bad, as all families 

have in raising their children. 

PETE DOMENICI is now the longest serving U.S. Senator in 

the history of his State, New Mexico. But longevity does not 

tell the story of PETE DOMENICI’s legacy. He has established 

himself as one of America’s premier leaders on energy policy, 

national security, scientific research. While I talk about national security, one of the things I am very satisfied—I do 

not want to use the word ‘‘proud’’—satisfied that PETE

DOMENICI and I worked together on was the safety and security of our nuclear arsenal. 

Now, you cannot put these nuclear weapons we have in 

some storage facility and leave them alone. There must be 

a way of making sure they are safe and reliable. We worked 

for years to accomplish that goal, and we have been successful. 

PETE DOMENICI has been one of the leaders on scientific 

research because of his work on the national labs and fighting nuclear proliferation. He has been to the Nevada test 

site, 90 miles outside Las Vegas, on a number of occasions. 

He has worked hard to ensure the competitiveness of American workers in the global marketplace. 

We hope within the next—before this year ends, that we 

can pass the legislation—we have done it here, it has not 

made it through the House—that we can pass the legislation 

he and Senator Wellstone started working on more than 10 

years ago. It is no secret that these two great individuals, 

wonderful Senators, did it because they had experience in 

their own families, problems with mental illness. 

As a result of that, they became the experts, the leading 

advocates to do something about mental health parity in our 

country. If we eliminate the work he has done on scientific 

research, national security proliferation, competitiveness, 

eliminate all that, if he had not done that and all he had 

done is lead us on the road to mental health parity, that 

would have been enough to have a very successful career. 

But for the millions of Americans who suffer from mental 

illness, PETE DOMENICI is the hero. He has joined Senator 

Kennedy, as I have indicated, the late Senator Wellstone, as 

national champions on issues related to mental health. 

So I would hope that one of the last things we do during 

the year, that will be the end of his great Senate career, is 

figure out a way to make sure we get this legislation passed. 

Senator DOMENICI made his farewell remarks this past Saturday. He described himself as nearly incapable of sitting 

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still in a crisis. With these years of service to New Mexico 

and our country, that description fits him perfectly. 

PETE and Nancy have eight wonderful children. 

Now, how can I describe in my words how I feel about 

PETE DOMENICI leaving? I guess we should, as Dr. Seuss 

said, ‘‘. . . not cry before it’s over, smile because it happened.’’ 

That certainly applies to our relationship. Don’t cry before 

it is over, even though there are times when you would like 

to shed a tear, smile because it happened. 

No distance or place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of his work. I am 

persuaded of the work of my friend, PETE DOMENICI. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

New Mexico. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise to say thank you to 

the distinguished majority leader for his kind words about 

my service in the Senate with him and my service in the 

Senate generally. I wish to say you have been far too generous in your words. I accept them and appreciate them 

abundantly. 

I also wish to correct one slight error. I was a righthander, not a left-hander. But that is all right. Everything 

else you said was correct. 

Mr. REID. I have described him as left handed all the time 

I have known him because I did not think we had two righthanded pitchers. I thought Bunning was the only righthander. 

Mr. DOMENICI. My pitch was a very gifted one. I was 

right handed, but the ball broke automatically as if I was 

pitching left handed. So you were close. When you have a 

right-handed pitcher who throws a certain kind of fastball 

that breaks into the right-handed batter, that is the screwball. You go to a lot of trouble throwing a screwball; but 

mine, I did not have to go to a lot of trouble, it did it anyway. I wish there were things around here that worked that 

way, that you did not have to work so hard to make something happen. But you have to work here. 

It has been my pleasure to work on many measures, so 

people will know it is not just talk when you say you work 

in a bipartisan manner—on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, a strange-sounding title. We 

have had the task of maintaining the safety of the nuclear 

arsenal. We were given a brand-new approach, this Senator 

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and I, to saving and securing our arsenal without testing for 

the first time. 

So we inherited a job of seeing that nuclear weapons were 

safe, and we were no longer going to test them as we had 

from their inception. We were given a concept called sciencebased stockpile stewardship. Remember those words, Leader? For a long time we had trouble saying them, sciencebased stockpile stewardship. 

That meant we were going to use a scientific manner of assessing what was going on inside a nuclear weapon as it matured. We had put together a plan, paid for it, and it took 

a long time. Every national laboratory had to have something, as you recall, some piece of this project. We are not 

yet finished with the biggest piece, which is in California, at 

the laboratory there, a gigantic laser facility, multilaser facility that will look inside nuclear weapons and see that they 

are safe. 

But I give you this one example: Two Senators did that. 

No audiences. No television. They were all welcome. It was 

open. But we went about our business. As we moved along, 

nobody could tell who was chairman and who was ranking 

member. It was a pleasure. I could count on you and you 

could count on me. I do not think we ever once deceived each 

other. 

Your story about my getting perturbed at you was slightly 

different than it was. You were ranking member and you 

went to the Republican side and got a proxy. What I told you 

was to never do that again. When you get a proxy from a Republican on my side, you have to tell me. And you were very 

apologetic and found out that I was telling you right. We 

never had another word. We never had another situation 

where proxies got mixed up. Republican proxies were sought 

after by the Republican person. If you couldn’t get them, you 

would go somewhere else. But we had to have an open hand 

there and tell each other what was going on. That is the way 

we did it. We told each other the truth. With the truth came 

great things from that subcommittee on which we were totally bipartisan. 

We had kept the nuclear arsenal safe enough where those 

who ran the three laboratories could tell the President every 

year that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was safe and sound. They 

must do that as a matter of law, you recall. 

I say thank you. I close and say I, too, am sorry about 

leaving. You indicated something about sadness, but I am 

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hopeful things will be all right with me, and certainly the 

Senate will have to continue to be a great place. 

As we close, we had this one dialog this morning, and I 

have the chance, before my distinguished Republicans waiting to speak, just to say I hope with all the strength of my 

being that we can put together a package that will gather 

the votes in the House and Senate to put this plan, this recovery plan, in place so we are not going to suffer irreparable 

harm for the people by the financial markets falling apart. 

I am so sorry we got started with this concept of calling 

it a bailout. There is nothing to bail out. We are buying assets that are stopping up the system. I don’t know how that 

got to be a bailout. You buy them and you own something 

and you sell it later. If you don’t buy it, the entire system 

behind those bad assets, which were stuffed into the system 

over a number of years because we sold mortgages that were 

not good mortgages—I wish the people could understand 

that we are not bailing out Wall Street. We are not bailing 

out anything. We are trying to make sure the American financial markets in your own backyard—your bank, your savings and loan, all the other things, your payroll checks—are 

going to function under this very fabulous American financial system which has some very big kinks in it now. It won’t 

work. We have to make it work. 

Again, I thank the majority leader for his comments. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

Arizona. 

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, while both the majority leader 

and Senator DOMENICI are here, I want to say I appreciate 

the opening remarks of the majority leader today. It is precisely that tone of necessity and bipartisanship that will enable us to achieve the result to which Senator DOMENICI referred. I hope to continue in that same vein with some comments I will make in a moment. 

If I could turn to Senator DOMENICI, the majority leader 

pointed out several of the things that have been commented 

upon before regarding Senator DOMENICI’s leadership. I want 

to focus on two other things briefly. The majority leader 

spoke to his leadership on matters relating to the preservation of our great national laboratory assets, two of which are 

located in New Mexico. He referred to Senator DOMENICI’s 

leadership on mental health reform, on nuclear power; that 

is to say, our production of electricity on which Senator 

DOMENICI has worked so hard. I don’t recall if he mentioned 

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all of the budget reform that Senator DOMENICI put in when 

he was chairman of the committee, but we are certainly all 

aware of that. 

I would like to briefly mention two others, to express appreciation to Senator DOMENICI for his help in achieving one 

of the landmark Indian water settlements in the history of 

the country related to Arizona a couple of years ago. Without 

his help, that wouldn’t have been possible. And I want to indicate something that probably not a lot of folks are aware 

of, but people in New Mexico will become aware of, that Senator DOMENICI has worked hard to lay the foundation for an 

equally historic water settlement for New Mexico. Unfortunately, that will not be completed before the end of Senator 

DOMENICI’s service, but it will not be completed without the 

foundation he helped to lay. 

Finally, something that has happened recently that only 

his Republican colleagues would be familiar with, but in 

these last several weeks in which we have confronted this financial crisis, several leaders have risen to accept the challenge of leadership. Senator DOMENICI is one of those. Perhaps because he had been here a long time, had the respect 

of his colleagues, always spoke thoughtfully on these issues, 

it would be expected that he would perhaps rise to that leadership role. I know in our Republican conference during the 

meetings we have had to discuss this, and others, it was frequently the case that Senator DOMENICI stood and thoughtfully and quietly expressed the words that only very respected leaders can speak. He did that on one occasion to 

bridge a gap between two groups of Republicans, to compliment one group and to demonstrate how we all could work 

together to restore confidence to our markets. He has done 

that subsequently in a thoughtful and, I even suggest, profound way. 

I have heard Senator DOMENICI speak eloquently before, 

but I have never heard him speak more eloquently than 

when he has been addressing this crisis. It allows us to return to the proposition that as this great Senator nears the 

end of his service in the Senate for the people of New Mexico 

and the people of America, he is joining together in a bipartisan way to work on a problem of great significance to the 

people. He has done everything he can. 

I know when he leaves, he will be able to say he did everything he could do—and he did it well. I appreciate his service. I have appreciated the personal relationship we have 

had, the friendship we have had, his assistance to me. I 

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know that will continue even though he and Nancy will not 

be here in the Senate. But we will be close, since we are 

neighbors in the great Southwest. I join the remarks of the 

distinguished majority leader and compliment my friend for 

his years of service to the people of this country. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

New Mexico. 

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I once again thank my 

friend from Arizona. He has given me far too much credit, 

but I appreciate it. . . . 

Mr. DODD. . . . The last Member I want to talk about is 

PETE DOMENICI with whom I have had the privilege of working on so many issues over the years. In fact, only a few 

weeks ago I was honored to be asked to come and speak on 

behalf of PETE DOMENICI in Las Cruces at New Mexico State 

University where the Center for Public Policy is named for 

PETE DOMENICI. It was quite a gathering at which I was the 

keynote speaker, where PETE was being recognized for his 

contribution to the State and our country. 

Jim Baker, former Secretary of State, spoke at the conference as well over that weekend. It was quite a gathering 

of people from that State to express their appreciation for 

PETE’s 36 years of serving the people of his home State. 

Again, a legislative record that is clear and almost without 

peer in many ways. 

Because of PETE DOMENICI our country will soon recognize 

that mental illness is as serious as any physical illness. He, 

Ted Kennedy, and Paul Wellstone were so pivotal in making 

us all aware of how important this issue is. Without PETE’s 

leadership, I don’t think this would have happened. Without 

PETE going to his colleagues and saying, ‘‘Let me tell you 

about my family’’—he had the courage to talk about his own 

family and what they have been through—it has made a difference. Today millions of people will benefit as a result of 

PETE’s leadership on an issue that is going to make a difference in their lives. Because of PETE’s leadership, candidates for President in both parties now acknowledge that 

we have to be serious about doing something about global 

warming; again, serious about reducing our emissions, ending our dependence on oil. 

Again, John Warner and PETE DOMENICI are classic examples of people who step out of what you might normally associate them with on an issue and get involved and make a difference, almost overnight, because they said this is worthy of 

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our attention and certainly serious, so serious that it demands action. 

Thanks to PETE’s relentless vigilance, I am confident that 

safe and secure nuclear energy, which I happen to be a supporter of as well, will play a large role in helping us address 

one of our largest problems in the years ahead. Because of 

PETE, last year over 5 million children in 51 counties studied 

what character means in the classroom. PETE and I are the 

authors of that idea. It started out as a small idea in his 

State and my State, to insist that part of the day, on the athletic fields, in classes—not just for some 15 minutes—students embrace one of the six pillars of great character and 

make it a part of the seamless garment of a classroom. 

Today, as I say, in 51 counties, as well as in virtually almost every State, Character Counts is there, to help children 

learn early on the importance of what honesty and integrity 

mean, among the other pillars of good character. 

Yet when we talk about PETE and what he has accomplished for our communities and our country, we would be 

doing a great disservice if we were to sum up his legacy as 

some series of issues. My affection for these Members I am 

talking about transcends the substantive issues which they 

have championed over the years. It goes deeper than that. 

PETE’s contribution to the Senate will be measured in a 

volume of bills he introduced with a number of votes he took; 

some 13,000, by the way, for which I think there are only 8 

or 10 Senators who have a similar record. 

But PETE DOMENICI is much more than that. Long before 

he was a Senator, PETE was a wonderful father and husband. He grew up in a remarkable family, an immigrant 

family to our country—the classic American story. Many of 

our fellow colleagues can tell similar tales of how they arrived in this great Nation of ours and the contributions they 

have made. 

Long before he dreamed of becoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, PETE was a boy counting pennies at 

his father’s grocery business in New Mexico. So often all we 

hear about politicians is negativity—and it breeds cynicism, 

too much, frankly. But in my experience, the most effective 

legislators have remarkable strength and an inner confidence. That is PETE DOMENICI in so many ways. 

You only need to know his wife Nancy, whom Jackie and 

I have gotten to know—they are neighbors of ours on Capitol 

Hill. We have had wonderful dinners together on Sunday 

nights, with PETE doing some of the cooking, and Nancy, I 

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suspect, doing most of it, but PETE taking credit for most of 

it, as we would gather and have wonderful family gatherings, as they would embrace and cherish the new arrivals 

of my family, my two daughters. So we are losing not just 

a colleague but a neighbor and a friend and a person I care 

deeply about. 

Together, these two people, Nancy and PETE, have raised 

eight wonderful children. As one of six myself, their house 

reminds me so much of growing up in my own house—kids, 

very independent thinkers, all challenging their parents on 

every imaginable subject matter, and then going out the door 

and parroting their parents’ positions on every issue—the 

parents never to appreciate the fact that their words were 

actually carrying the day. It can be messy in those households, but it is never boring, and certainly never so in the 

Domenici household as well. 

That is why there is one legislative accomplishment that 

best captures PETE DOMENICI, and that is the Character 

Counts bill that we started together in 1994. Character 

Counts was founded on a simple notion: that core ethical values are not just important to us as individuals, they form the 

foundation of a democratic society as well. 

Values like trustworthiness and respect, responsibility and 

fairness, caring and citizenship are at the core of who PETE

is as a human being. Despite the fact that it was PETE’s own 

family, heritage, and faith that taught him character’s importance—his mother and father, the nuns in his Catholic 

school—he recognized something that too often gets lost 

today: that in a society that celebrates our differences—our 

heritage, our personal interests as individuals—character is 

the one thing that transcends them, whether they be cultural, religious, economic, or social. 

Somewhere along the way we lost that as a country. We 

forgot how important character is to the strength of our families, our communities, our institutions, and who we are as 

individuals. 

Quite frankly, when PETE retires at the end of this year, 

in a matter of days now, I am worried we will be losing a 

piece of that from the institution in which he and I serve— 

the value that he has brought on this subject matter and so 

many others. 

So let me say thanks to PETE for his warmth and friendship, and I wish him and Nancy the very best in the years 

to come. He is a remarkable individual and one who will 

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mainder of his life. I thank him for all of his contributions, 

and I look forward to seeing him and Nancy as often as we 

can in the years to come. 

Mr. DURBIN. PETE DOMENICI of New Mexico has been an 

institution in the Senate for many years. It has been a pleasure to serve with him for 12. I once visited New Mexico and 

went to a roadside stand where they sell these Christmas 

wreaths made out of chili peppers. There was a MexicanAmerican lady. I started to buy the Christmas wreath to 

take home to my family, and I said to her, ‘‘So I understand 

you have a Senator in this State named DOMENICI.’’ ‘‘Oh, I 

love PETE DOMENICI,’’ she said, and went on and on about 

what a great man he was, how much she liked him. She 

said, ‘‘You know, I am a Democrat, but I am a DOMENICI

Democrat. I always voted for PETE. I think he is a good 

man.’’ 

He is a good man. He and his wife Nancy have raised a 

good family. He has done so many things. He feels passionate about so many issues, but the one I wish to particularly credit him for leadership on is the issue of mental 

health parity. 

He and Paul Wellstone stood up on that issue when nobody else would. Paul passed away 6 years ago in a plane 

crash. We have continued to find a way to pass that bill. We 

still have a chance in the closing hours of this session, and 

I hope we do. 

In a magnanimous gesture, PETE came forward and said 

this should be known as the Wellstone-Domenici bill; Paul 

Wellstone deserves top billing on it. I am glad he did that. 

It showed character and the kind of man he is. We need to 

pass that bill before we go home, not just for PETE DOMENICI

and the memory of Paul Wellstone but for the millions of 

people across America counting on us to make sure victims 

of mental illness are given fair treatment under hospitalization policies across this Nation. He certainly deserves it. . . . 

Those Senators leaving our ranks leave positive memories 

for this Senator from Illinois. The fact that I have been able 

to serve with them, know them, and count them as friends, 

I count as one of the real blessings of my service in the Senate. 

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WEDNESDAY, October 1, 2008 

Mr. BOND. . . . Mr. President, I want to say that the passing of the mental health parity bill will be a great tribute to 

a wonderful friend, PETE DOMENICI, a true icon. He has been 

a longtime champion of this issue, and this will be a great 

testament to his leadership. 

I worked with PETE on the Budget Committee. I say 

thanks, PETE, for making me take all the tough votes. It was 

ugly but necessary, just like the financial rescue package. 

He is most recognized for his work on energy. I am very 

proud to have supported him in his efforts over many years 

to develop an abundant energy resource, long before $4 gasoline brought the issue home to every American. 

Just as important to me, I will miss the great friendship 

of a wonderful man, PETE DOMENICI, and his magnificent 

wife Nancy. 

PETE is known for his devotion to his friends and family— 

to his wife Nancy of 50 years and their eight children. 

PETE is also known for his devotion and dedication to New 

Mexico. 

Born and raised in New Mexico, PETE has served his State 

in the U.S. Senate now for 36 years—making him the most 

senior Senator New Mexico has ever had. 

PETE has also earned the title as the only Republican to 

ever be elected by New Mexico for a 6-year Senate term—in 

a State not known to lean Republican. 

PETE’s contributions to his State are well known to his 

constituents in New Mexico—whether it is fighting for solutions to the State’s water crisis, supporting New Mexico 

schools, or ensuring New Mexico gets their fair share of tax 

dollars. 

PETE’s contributions to our Nation are also well known. He 

understands the importance of keeping America as a leader 

in science and technology and has worked for improvements 

to the math and science education our schoolchildren need to 

succeed. 

PETE has also fought passionately for fiscal responsibility 

to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and curbing nuclear proliferation to keep our communities safe. 

In recent years, PETE has used his role as chairman or 

ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to fight for our Nation’s energy security. 

PETE worked across the aisle to pass the first comprehensive energy legislation since 1992. Because of PETE and the 

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bill he got through Congress, our Nation began investing in 

our own energy sources. This bill provided incentives to expand the production of energy from wind, solar, geothermal, 

and biomass sources to promote cleaner alternative sources 

of energy. 

PETE also ensured that this bill promoted research and development of hydrogen and fuel-cell technology. 

PETE didn’t end the fight for our Nation’s energy independence in 2005 though. Since that time, he has been a leader 

in the Senate calling for more action. 

Before the gas price crisis that is now affecting families 

across the country, PETE sounded the alarm. He has called 

for bringing relief to families struggling with pain at the 

pump by tapping our own domestic supplies of gas and oil. 

PETE has proposed the commonsense proposal—the Gas 

Price Reduction Act—to end our Nation’s energy crisis. 

It is this foresight, this leadership, and this passion to 

making our Nation a better place and for making our communities better for our families that will make PETE DOMENICI missed by all—Republicans and Democrats alike. 

Mr. President, I thank the chair and yield the floor. 

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today, as one of those 

who made the weighty decision not to seek reelection, to 

share my most personal thoughts—tributes—to my esteemed 

colleagues who will quietly, humbly, and with a deep sense 

of gratitude to their States, to our Nation, bring to a conclusion their public service as U.S. Senators. 

This is a diverse group of Senators. Whether we hail from 

small farms, small cities or, in my case, from major metropolitan areas, we bring different backgrounds, different interests. That diversity gives the Senate its strength to serve 

equally all Americans. What we share, however, is an unwavering love for our States, our country and for the institution of the U.S. Senate. 

We aspire to Winston Churchill’s quote: ‘‘We make a living 

by what we get; we make a life by what we give.’’ 

It has been my privilege, over my 30 years in the Senate, 

to serve with a total of 261 Members. Each, almost, shall be 

remembered as a friend. 

I want to say a few special, heartfelt words about Senator 

PETE DOMENICI. 

I first came to know PETE DOMENICI when I arrived in the 

Senate in 1979. He beat me here by 6 years, and now has 

served New Mexico with distinction for 36 years. PETE is a 

veritable renaissance man: baseball player, math teacher, 

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lawyer, city commissioner, Senator and, most important, a 

loving husband, father, and grandfather. 

Senator DOMENICI made his mark with his leadership on 

fiscal and energy issues, especially with his influence in promoting clean, carbon-free, nuclear energy and moving America forward now that we have the reality of an energy shortage and a mission to lessen America’s dependence on imported energy. America must move forward by increasing 

and enhancing its capability to develop nuclear powerplants. 

At one time in my career, I was privileged to be Secretary 

of the Navy, and during that period, America had, either at 

sea or in port, some 70-plus naval vessels powered by nuclear plants, and we had a safety record second to none. That 

can, and will, be duplicated with our growing domestic programs. 

A hallmark of my dear friend PETE, whom we sometimes 

call a ‘‘grizzly old cuss,’’ is how he so often expresses his feelings for his fellow Senators by saying, ‘‘I love you, brother.’’ 

PETE, we return that deep respect and affection. . . . 

I am proud to say I have come to know each of these fine 

men. And I firmly believe that this is but yet another beginning in all of our lives, for, to quote Churchill again, ‘‘the 

chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.’’ 

Mr. CORKER. Madam President, there are a number of 

distinguished Senators who are leaving this body this year. 

I know there have been a number of tributes given to all of 

them and their service. . . . 

There is one particular Senator with whom I have spent 

more time than the others just because of committee assignments, and that is PETE DOMENICI. PETE is the ranking 

member on our Energy Committee. I have loved listening to 

his many insights. He has with him Frank and Scott who, 

hopefully, will stay with us and who, together as a group, I 

think have offered wise counsel to all of us on that committee. 

There is something about PETE, though. His kindness and 

his encouragement to me as a person have been most 

unique. As Chairman Dodd mentioned earlier, I am one of 

the most junior Members here, but PETE has constantly encouraged me to step out, to make my positions known, to go 

ahead and forget the fact that I am positioned where I am 

here in the Senate and to take on a leadership role where 

it is important for me to do so. There is a special place in 

my heart for people such as PETE DOMENICI who encourage 

all of us to step out and to try to exercise our full potential. 

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I will miss him greatly. I know he loves this body. I know 

that in many ways he will be lost as he leaves this body. But 

I want to assure him today that as he leaves, this is one Senator he has encouraged, he has caused to be a better person, 

and PETE DOMENICI will always be a part of the Senate service I offer in this body. So I wish him well. I wish the others 

well. 

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to PETE DOMENICI, one of the finest 

Senators I have known and one who represents the Senate 

at its best. Senator DOMENICI is someone whom I respect 

greatly and whose counsel I have very much appreciated 

over the years. I will miss him very much when he retires 

at the end of this session. 

Senator DOMENICI and I share many interests, but one 

above all is our deep and abiding interest in the fiscal affairs 

of our Nation. In the world of budgeting, Senator DOMENICI

is a giant. He is, of course, one of the pioneers on the Budget 

Committee. He joined the committee in 1975, literally a few 

months after it was created in July 1974. So he was there 

at the beginning, helping to shape and guide this new committee. 

He rose to become chairman in 1981, and he served in that 

capacity through 1987 and then again between 1995 and 

2001. In 2001, we faced the unique circumstance in a closely 

divided Senate, as he and I traded off being chairman and 

ranking member in that year. In total, Senator DOMENICI

has served 34 years on the committee, 12 years as chairman 

and 10 years as ranking member—the most distinguished 

record of any Member. 

His impact on the Federal budget and the budget process 

has been unprecedented. He authored many of the Senate’s 

budget rules that we use today to protect taxpayers. He also 

helped author major deficit-reduction plans during the 1980s 

and 1990s, as well as the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 

and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995. 

But Senator DOMENICI will be remembered for more than 

his service on the Budget Committee. He has been a strong 

and important voice on the need to diversify our Nation’s energy sources. As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he helped enact the Energy Policy Act of 

2005. He has been a passionate advocate on the issue of 

mental health and has been a leader in pushing for mental 

health parity legislation. Senator DOMENICI was also one of 

the architects of the Human Genome Project, which I believe 

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people will look back on as one of the greatest accomplishments of all time. 

And, of course, Senator DOMENICI has been a tireless advocate on behalf of the citizens of the beautiful State of New 

Mexico. Born in Albuquerque, he is that State’s longest serving Senator. As a young man, PETE DOMENICI had many options. At one time, he pitched for the Albuquerque Dukes, a 

farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and may have had aspirations of going to the major leagues. But I am sure that 

the citizens of New Mexico—and, indeed, all of us—are 

happy that he chose the path of public service. 

Let me conclude by saying, and I know that I speak for all 

of my colleagues, how much we respect, admire, and appreciate his service. For me personally, it has been an absolute 

honor to serve along with him on the Budget Committee. He 

has made an extraordinary contribution to the work of the 

Budget Committee, to the Congress, and to the country. We 

will miss him greatly. 

THURSDAY, October 2, 2008 

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise this morning to recognize 

and pay tribute to several colleagues who are concluding distinguished careers in the Senate. These gentlemen have distinguished themselves. They have dedicated themselves to 

representing their States and representing the best interests 

of the Nation. 

Senator PETE DOMENICI is an individual who has worked 

many years to strengthen our country in so many different 

ways. He has been a key member of the Committee on Energy and Water, and he has been a key member of the Appropriations Committee and the Budget Committee. 

He was first elected to the Senate in 1972—36 years of 

outstanding service to the Nation and to his State of New 

Mexico. 

He will be remembered for many things but particularly 

for his unswerving commitment to mental health parity in 

the health care system. It is fitting that legislation we 

passed will bear his name, along with that of Senator Paul 

Wellstone. Senator DOMENICI’s advocacy for those with mental illness, his understanding of these issues in a profoundly 

personal way, accounted for the momentum and ultimately 

the success of the legislation. I commend him and thank him 

for his service. . . . 

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To these Members, I wish them well. I thank them personally for their kindness to me and their thoughtfulness on so 

many other occasions. 

Mr. ALLARD. I wish to mention some of the committee 

chairmen I have had an opportunity to work with. One of the 

committees I was successful in getting on was the Budget 

Committee with PETE DOMENICI as chairman, and then Judd 

Gregg following him, and now we have Senator Kent Conrad. 

All of these chairmen have been very gracious and helpful in 

working with me on issues. . . . 

I wish to say a few things about those people who are retiring, starting with Senator PETE DOMENICI, who I mentioned was my chairman on the Budget Committee. I have 

worked with him also on the Appropriations Committee. I 

worked with him on energy issues and issues that are common to New Mexico and the State of Colorado. His service 

here in the Senate has been remarkable and dedicated. The 

West has been blessed that we have had such a good spokesman as Senator DOMENICI out there, carrying many of the 

issues that are important to his neighboring States, as well 

as New Mexico. The institution will miss him. I am sure 

New Mexico will miss him. I consider it an honor and a 

pleasure to have served with him. 

Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I would like to begin my remarks this afternoon acknowledging four of our colleagues 

who will be leaving the Senate along with me at the end of 

this Congress, the 110th Congress, and then make some additional comments. 

Mr. President, this body will lose two of the most respected, highly regarded consensus builders in the history of 

this body. I speak of the senior Senator from New Mexico, 

Mr. DOMENICI, and the senior Senator from Virginia, Mr. 

Warner. Between the two of these distinguished national 

leaders, they have given the Senate and this country 70 

years of service. 

Most Americans are aware of Senators DOMENICI and 

Warner and the contributions they have made. Those of us 

who have had the privilege of serving with these two individuals know what they have meant to our country. They have 

been role models, leaders, men of conscience, of vision, of integrity, of courage. And all of those most-valued human characteristics have been evident when America has needed 

them most. 

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For their voice and their courage and their vision, we 

thank them. For the kind of men they are, and the Senators 

they have been, we thank them. We are all much enriched 

by our association with Senators Warner and DOMENICI, and 

this country will miss them greatly. 

But they leave strong legacies. They leave men and women 

who have been touched by their leadership and their values 

who will carry on behind them, emulating their leadership 

and their vision. . . . 

Senator Craig, Senator Allard, Senator Warner, and Senator DOMENICI all leave the Senate a better institution for 

their service. 

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, after six distinguished terms in 

the U.S. Senate, PETE DOMENICI is retiring. I am certain 

that this change of pace is a challenge in itself for a man 

who has over the years impressed all of us with his energy 

and drive and decency. 

I have had the privilege of serving with PETE DOMENICI on 

the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, 

and working with him on that committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. I have seen and long respected 

Senator DOMENICI’s expertise on energy policy; his depth of 

knowledge in that area has made him a steady voice through 

many challenges and will be very much missed by his colleagues. The Senate is also losing his great depth of experience on the budget process. 

PETE DOMENICI has also earned bipartisan admiration for 

his extensive work on mental health issues, including his 

leadership to pass the bipartisan Mental Health Parity Act. 

I know that mental health issues are very personal to Senator DOMENICI and his family; his firsthand insights have 

contributed significantly to congressional efforts to improve 

mental health care in America. 

I wish PETE DOMENICI and his wife Nancy all the best as 

they enjoy life after the Senate. 

Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the Senate will be a different 

place when Senator DOMENICI departs at the end of this session. I say that as a colleague and as a neighbor in the great 

Southwest. 

Senator DOMENICI has served in this body for six terms, 

longer than any Senator in the history of New Mexico. Judging from the energy that he has displayed during the past 

months, he could serve another; but he has decided to retire, 

and it is well deserved. 

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During his time in the Senate, Senator DOMENICI has been 

involved in some of the most difficult issues to confront the 

body. Recently, he has spoken eloquently about the financial 

stabilization plan the Senate just passed; and earlier in the 

summer, he was one of the more vocal advocates of securing 

this Nation’s energy future. Of course, he has long supported 

reducing the country’s dependence on foreign sources of energy, but this summer he addressed the issue with renewed 

vigor. 

Senator DOMENICI has been of great help to his neighbors 

in Arizona. Without his assistance, we would not have an Arizona Water Settlements Act, one of the landmark settlements in the history of the country. He has also been working hard on a water settlement for New Mexico. It won’t be 

completed before he leaves the Senate, but Senator DOMENICI has been instrumental in getting the settlement as far as 

it has. 

Senator DOMENICI should also be proud that legislation he 

has worked on for some time now is poised for passage. Mental health parity has long been a priority for Senator 

DOMENICI, and it appears he will be able to add it to his long 

list of accomplishments in the Senate. 

When a Senator has served as long as Senator DOMENICI, 

it is difficult to imagine the Senate without him. My Senate 

colleagues and I will miss PETE and Nancy, and we will remember his legacy of leadership and years of distinguished 

service to the Nation. 

Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, one of the lessons of our 

history is that America is not great because our leaders were 

somehow superhuman, but because regular people enjoy extraordinary freedom and use it to pursue ideals beyond their 

individual concerns. Senator PETE DOMENICI is a wonderful 

example of this unique brand of American greatness, and as 

he completes his service to the Senate, I wanted to take a 

few minutes of the Senate’s time to honor him and thank 

him. 

PETE DOMENICI was born to Italian immigrants during the 

Great Depression in Albuquerque, NM, which was a long cultural distance from Washington, DC. He worked in his family grocery businesses and played for a farm team of the 

Brooklyn Dodgers, which is enough to endear him to me 

right there. He became a junior high math teacher and then 

earned a law degree. 

He served in local government for 6 years before his first 

election to the Senate in 1972. And he has served six full 

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terms in the Senate, which is amazing in and of itself. But 

what is perhaps most amazing is he has remained the regular person he was brought up to be in Albuquerque and has 

always applied his commonsense values to the most complex 

national problems. 

Senator DOMENICI has been a stalwart in the difficult job 

of trying to curb Washington’s seemingly endless appetite for 

more spending. Politics tends to be a business in which all 

the rewards flow to those who say ‘‘yes.’’ But for the sake of 

the taxpayers and children and grandchildren of ours who 

cannot yet speak, PETE DOMENICI has been willing to say 

‘‘no’’ to more spending in order to say ‘‘yes’’ to their economic 

future. 

Senator DOMENICI has made a tremendous contribution to 

the advancement of science by focusing resources and efforts 

to understand the human brain. For decades from now, a 

wide spectrum of discoveries and therapies to improve 

human life will come out of his insistence on progress of the 

basic science of brain research. It has been a great privilege 

to work with him closely on his signature issue for the last 

several years: mental health parity. His tireless commitment 

to ending insurance discrimination, and willingness to share 

his own family’s struggles, have broken down barriers to 

treatment and brought hope to millions of Americans living 

with mental illness. 

The legislative process has regrettably become more divisive and partisan over the last decade, but through it all 

Senator DOMENICI has been a role model of civility, diligence, 

and goodwill. The Senate was built to achieve consensus on 

the great issues of the day, and PETE DOMENICI was always 

focused on what we could get done, rather than on who got 

the credit. 

His ability and willingness to find consensus and produce 

legislation the American people need has been showcased by 

his 30 years of service on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It is a testament to his abilities that as 

either chairman or ranking member, PETE DOMENICI has 

guided three energy bills into law in the last 3 years: the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security 

Act of 2006, and the Energy Independence and Security Act 

of 2007. PETE found a way to cut through a tough, partisan 

climate in the Senate to address our dependence on foreign 

oil. 

Personally he has been a connecting point for me with the 

great compromisers and policy experts of the Senate’s recent 

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past. And he has always reminded me that we are not Senators who happen to be people; we are people who happen 

to be Senators for a time, and we need to nurture the roots 

of faith, family, and friendship that give us life. 

PETE DOMENICI is a great American success story, and it 

has been an honor and privilege to serve with him in Washington. His influence on me will continue long after he has 

left this body. 

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, at the risk of embarrassing him, I want to take a moment to say how vital Senator DOMENICI has been in solving most of the nuclear puzzle. He really led the rebirth of the nuclear industry and I 

want to say how much I will miss him since he has been a 

prime mover in the effort to bring about a new nuclear age 

in this country. 

As most of you know Senator DOMENICI has served 36 

years in the Senate. But some of you may not know that he 

gave up a promising career in baseball to become a public 

servant. He started playing when he was 10, eventually 

pitching for a minor league team called the Albuquerque 

Dukes. But he left baseball to become a math and science 

teacher at Garfield Junior High in his native State of New 

Mexico, later went onto law school and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1972. And he’s been here ever since. 

About a dozen years ago the Senator realized that this Nation desperately needed a new source of electricity. He realized that there are higher uses for high-priced natural gas 

than to burn it for power generation, and that until carbon 

capture and storage can be perfected and widely practiced 

that the expansion of coal-fired power might have environmental drawbacks. So he crafted the forerunner of policies 

that today make up the Nuclear Power 2010 Program, which 

is designed to have the government partner with industry to 

approve the design and speed the licensing of the next generation of power plants that absolutely preclude the type of 

radiation accident that happened three decades ago at Three 

Mile Island. 

He has been the sponsor of the loan guarantees, the architect of reauthorizing a responsible liability program and the 

person most responsible for harnessing the research capacities of America to breathe life into the research and nuclear 

construction sectors. One news outlet called him ‘‘the nuclear 

renaissance man.’’ And he is recognized by all as the driving 

force behind the industry’s resurgence. 

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But he has done so much more. His work on the Energy 

Policy Act of 2005 and on last year’s Energy Independence 

and Security Act were landmarks in bipartisan legislating. 

He helped renewable and alternative energy, from wind and 

solar to biomass, and especially biofuels to develop, helping 

create Clean Renewable Energy Bonds to pay for the construction of renewable energy plants. During the bills he refereed more policy disputes and generated more compromises 

than I have time to mention. 

But he also was the sponsor of so much other landmark 

legislation during his storied career. One bill finally passed 

the Senate earlier this week to require parity for mental 

health treatment benefits. As Senate budget chairman, he 

helped set up the Nation’s budgeting system, which was still 

working well when he assumed the chairmanship of the Energy Committee in 2003. 

PETE DOMENICI’s legacy has inspired so many of us and 

his retirement will leave some pretty big shoes for us all to 

fill. I will miss the Senator’s smile, as well as his lighthearted and joyful presence. He is known as a man who is 

firm in his convictions, but gracious in his negotiations. He 

is an example of a true statesman who has served his country well. 

I will truly miss him. I could say a lot more, but I clearly 

am out of time. 

MONDAY, November 17, 2008 

Mr. INOUYE. Madam President, I rise to recognize the 

service of a great public servant and an outstanding leader. 

Senator DOMENICI has been a tremendous and dedicated 

servant to his home State of New Mexico. His distinguished 

career spans 36 years, making him the first New Mexican to 

serve six full 6-year terms and the longest serving Senator 

of his State. 

Senator DOMENICI has been a devoted champion of the 

State of New Mexico. His relentless commitment to the people of New Mexico is evident to all who know him. As a respected leader in the Senate, he has pushed to strengthen 

energy security, curb nuclear proliferation, promote fiscal responsibility in the Federal budget, and has demonstrated 

profound leadership skills in his desire to continuously improve New Mexico’s economy. 

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Among his many accomplishments and priorities, Senator 

DOMENICI has placed the importance of our future generation at the forefront. He recognizes the necessity of cultivating the young minds of today to ensure a bright future. 

Over a decade ago, Senator DOMENICI introduced the Character Counts Program into New Mexico’s school curriculum. 

Under the guidance of this program, schoolchildren learn the 

value of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, 

caring, and citizenship as they build their character. Such 

traits are reflected in Senator DOMENICI. His legacy of public 

service has truly left its mark on Congress and will forever 

remain in the hearts of New Mexicans. 

Madam President, I ask my colleagues to join me in paying 

tribute to this magnificent Senator and friend. 

WEDNESDAY, November 19, 2008 

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, as the 110th Congress 

draws to a close, I rise to say thanks and farewell to one of 

our hardest working and most dedicated Members, Senator 

PETE DOMENICI of New Mexico. 

PETE DOMENICI’s story is truly the American dream come 

to life. The son of immigrants, PETE worked in the family 

grocery business, earned a college degree, taught school, obtained a law degree, and served in local government before 

his election to the Senate. 

I cannot overlook one vitally important part of his biography, and that is his stint as a pitcher for a farm team of 

the old Brooklyn Dodgers. Who knows how much different 

history would be if his fast ball had had a little more ‘‘pop’’ 

to it? 

For 36 years, however, baseball’s loss has been the Senate’s gain. The character developed by athletic competition— 

determination, hard work, a sense of fair play—is fully evident in PETE’s six terms in office. 

When the people of New Mexico chose PETE DOMENICI to 

be the longest serving Senator in their State’s history, they 

chose wisely. His tireless work on a wide range of issues has 

helped to ensure a better future for all Americans, rural or 

urban, large State or small. He is a respected leader on some 

of the most important challenges of our time, such as 

strengthening energy security, curbing nuclear proliferation, 

and promoting sound Federal budget policy. 

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PETE’s understanding of the budget process is matched 

only by his appreciation of the critical role fiscal responsibility plays. His service on the Budget Committee established his universal reputation as one of the Senate’s hardest 

working, most intelligent, and best-informed Members. His 

focus on results rather than the limelight led one colleague 

to describe him as having ‘‘a terminal case of responsibility.’’ 

Senator DOMENICI is also a true champion for biomedical 

research, and especially for Americans suffering from mental 

illness. He has worked unceasingly over the years to increase 

the understanding and to eliminate the stigma associated 

with mental illness. He has led the effort in the Senate— 

first in partnership with Senator Paul Wellstone, and later 

with our colleague Senator Ted Kennedy, to pass legislation 

that requires insurers to cover mental illness in the same 

way they cover physical illnesses. 

Thankfully, those efforts have finally borne fruit with the 

inclusion of his legislation in the economic stimulus bill, the 

stabilization bill passed in the Senate. It is a victory not just 

for Senator DOMENICI’s long-standing efforts but also for the 

estimated 50 million Americans who suffer from some kind 

of mental illness. It is a testament to his dedication and his 

compassion. 

Senator DOMENICI’s tenure has been marked by vision, 

common sense, and a commitment to results. When he became chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2003, Senator DOMENICI set to work to craft the 

first major comprehensive energy bill in more than a decade. 

Many thought it would be impossible to put together the bipartisan support to pass the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but 

Senator DOMENICI did it. That landmark law laid the foundation for American energy independence, the responsible 

use of existing resources, and the development of new technology. We can build on that foundation by following the 

model he set of informed debate and thoughtful consensus. 

While most of his many accomplishments have national 

significance, there is one that may not be well known outside 

of his home State. More than a decade ago, PETE DOMENICI

introduced a program that has helped the schoolchildren of 

New Mexico learn trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, 

fairness, caring, and citizenship. This program is called 

Character Counts. It fully epitomizes what PETE DOMENICI

is all about. It fully describes his legacy because, with PETE

DOMENICI, character has always counted. 

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Senator DOMENICI leaves this Chamber with an overflowing and bipartisan store of good will and gratitude. We 

are all losing an outstanding colleague. On a personal note, 

I am also losing an outstanding Washington, DC, neighbor, 

since PETE and his wonderful wife, Nancy, live right down 

the street from me. I am pleased to be among the many Senators offering thanks for his years of service and best wishes 

to him and to Nancy. 

Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I wish to honor our distinguished colleague, PETE DOMENICI, who will be ending his 

historic Senate career at the end of this Congress. For the 

past 32 years it has been my privilege to serve with PETE

DOMENICI in the Senate. During that time, he has epitomized devotion to public service and to his State of New 

Mexico. He will leave the Senate having cast more votes 

than all but six other Senators in the history of this body. 

He is the longest serving Senator in New Mexico’s history, 

and he rightly occupies an iconic status in his home State. 

PETE DOMENICI experienced a modest upbringing as the 

only son of first generation Italian immigrants. He secured 

his first job after college as a pitcher for the Albuquerque 

Dukes, then a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Following a stint as a teacher, PETE won a seat on the Albuquerque City Commission in 1966. The next year, we both 

became mayors of our respective cities: PETE served Albuquerque as I served Indianapolis. After 6 years in the Albuquerque City Hall, he became the first Republican to win a 

Senate seat from New Mexico in 38 years. 

I entered the Senate in 1977, 4 years after PETE. By that 

time, he already was recognized as a leading Republican authority on the budget process. I looked to PETE as a mentor 

on the intricacies of the Federal budget, and he graciously 

tutored me on both substance and process. Year after year, 

as the lead Republican on the Budget Committee, PETE was 

indispensable as floor manager of the budget resolution. Frequently, when the Senate lost its way during a difficult 

budget debate, Senator DOMENICI functioned as a touchstone 

to bring the debate back to sober reflection and verifiable 

statistics. I doubt the Senate will ever experience a leader 

who has a more detailed command of the budget process and 

who could explain it with greater clarity. 

It is telling that even though PETE derived much annual 

power from his roles as Budget chairman and Appropriations 

Subcommittee chairman, this status did not dissuade him 

from proposing a reform idea that implicitly would reduce 

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his opportunities to exercise this authority—namely a 2-year 

budget cycle. I have always been impressed by his embrace 

of this idea, and his endorsement influenced my own support 

for a 2-year budget process. Senator DOMENICI’s advocacy 

went against standard expectations that Members of Congress will protect their own prerogatives even if their best 

judgment tells them that reforms are necessary. But PETE’s 

service in the Senate was never based upon accruing personal authority or maximizing his notoriety. 

I was extremely pleased that Senator DOMENICI’s assiduous efforts over many years were recently brought to fruition with the passage and signature into law of the Mental 

Health Parity Act. PETE joined the late Senator Paul 

Wellstone in promoting this bipartisan legislation that will 

ensure that health plans make mental health treatment 

available for those in need. It will provide parity between 

health insurance coverage of mental health benefits and benefits for medical and surgical services and help avert the development of future physical problems that could arise from 

untreated and increasingly debilitating psychological illness. 

I am especially sad to see PETE leave because he has been 

an outstanding partner in work to prevent nuclear proliferation and to improve response to attacks involving weapons of 

mass destruction. In concert with the efforts of Senator Sam 

Nunn and myself to establish the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative 

Threat Reduction Program at the Department of Defense— 

which is aimed at securing and destroying weapons of mass 

destruction in the former Soviet Union—Senator DOMENICI

spearheaded the expansion of the Energy Department’s involvement in safeguarding nuclear material. He also was an 

effective advocate for the role of our national laboratories in 

nonproliferation work. Scientists from the national laboratories have been on the front lines of our engagement with 

the brain trust of the Soviet nuclear program. PETE understood the unique skill set possessed by our laboratories, and 

he made sure that they were well funded and authorized to 

implement numerous nonproliferation projects. Senator 

DOMENICI also joined with Senator Nunn and me to pass the 

Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act of 1997. Long before September 

11, 2001, this legislation was working to improve the capabilities of local and State first responders, especially with regard to weapons of mass destruction attacks. The experience, 

awareness, and structure established by this program have 

been valuable to our Nation’s post-9/11 homeland security efforts. 

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The Senate will miss deeply Senator DOMENICI’s experience displayed over 36 years. He will be remembered as a 

workhorse able to shoulder the daily burdens of a thousand 

details, but also as a thoughtful observer who saw beyond 

the politics of the moment to provide perspective on the direction of our country. I wish my good friend the best as he 

leaves the Senate to experience new adventures with his 

family. 

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, the departure of Senator 

PETE DOMENICI will deprive the Senate of our foremost expert on energy and budget legislation, For 36 years, I have 

enjoyed and learned from PETE’s frequent presentations in 

our Republican Senators’ caucus meetings. 

His chairmanship of the Budget Committee during the 

Reagan administration led to sensible economies in Federal 

spending which have not since been duplicated. If his comprehensive ideas on energy had been followed, the United 

States would long ago have shed its dependence on foreign 

oil. 

Through it all, PETE has been a most congenial colleague. 

Always smiling, always helping, PETE has constantly been 

available to offer guidance to Members not as well versed on 

his areas of specialty. Enormously popular in New Mexico, it 

is understandable why he is called ‘‘Saint PETE.’’ 

Senator DOMENICI came to my rescue when I was called 

upon to make the presentation at the Senate Wednesday 

prayer breakfast after I had been a member for a short period of time. I chose to talk about a new edition of the New 

Testament which had been published by a friend, Irwin 

Borowsky of Philadelphia. The text omitted all references 

which might have been interpreted to be critical of Jewish 

people in connection with the crucifixion. 

I made the point that these references had caused young 

Jewish boys to be beaten up in some communities on Christian religious holidays motivated by the anti-Jewish comments in the Bible. My theme was sharply, really vehemently, opposed by some Senators at the breakfast. PETE

DOMENICI then supported my contention reciting some of the 

barbs, insults and worse which had been inflicted on 

Italians. 

When PETE told me of his plan to retire because he 

thought he was failing, I urged him to make a full disclosure 

of his medical condition to his constituents but to stay on. I 

told him of a conversation I had with Senator Paul Tsongas 

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cause he had lymphoma, as I recall it. Since the medical evidence suggested Paul might well serve out his term, I urged 

him to stay on, leaving the voters to decide after making full 

disclosure as to his medical condition. Paul Tsongas felt otherwise and elected to leave. He not only could have served 

his full term through 1990 but then became a candidate for 

the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1992. After 

telling him about the Tsongas situation, PETE stuck by his 

decision. In recent days, Senator DOMENICI has looked 

stronger than ever but I totally respect his decision, saying 

only that we will miss him very much. 

THURSDAY, November 20, 2008 

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, it is always a bittersweet moment in time for me when we come to the close of a session 

of Congress. As the clock counts down the final hours of our 

legislative activities, it also signals the day when several of 

our colleagues will be retiring and ending their service in the 

U.S. Senate. When the current session ends, one of my good 

friends and great allies in the Senate will be returning home 

to his beloved New Mexico. He is Senator PETE DOMENICI

and I know we will all miss him and his powerful presence 

in the Senate. 

In the months to come, PETE may no longer be serving 

with us, but he will not be forgotten. He has left his mark 

on the Senate and on us all in too many ways for us not to 

remember him and how hard he has been working for the 

people of New Mexico, the West, and the Nation over the 

years. Every day he came to the Senate he was focused on 

what he could do today to make our tomorrows better for us 

all. The leadership he provided on so many issues will be 

very difficult to replace. 

PETE began his career right out of college when he was 

deemed to be a good enough pitcher to be signed by a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. It was a good life, but it wasn’t the 

one for PETE. He decided after the season was over that 

baseball wasn’t what he wanted to do and so he decided instead to do a different kind of pitching—to the people of the 

city he lived in. That pitch helped launch him on his true 

life’s work—serving the people of his State and helping to 

make New Mexico a better place to live. 

When PETE decided to get involved in politics his friends 

told him he was making a big mistake. They warned him 

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that it was a tough way to make a living and that it would 

be a rough life. Politics is a harsh affair, they told him, and 

they warned him that people would attack him and his reputation. They wondered why a guy who had such great gifts 

wanted to take on what would be a very difficult challenge. 

We are very fortunate that PETE didn’t take their advice. 

Instead, he decided to run for the Senate and to bring his 

case to the people. To no one’s surprise they liked what they 

heard and PETE came to Washington after the 1972 elections. They have been sending him back here with enthusiasm ever since. 

It is not an easy thing to sum up a career in the Senate 

that has spanned four decades. That is the mark of an individual who has dared to try to achieve great things—and 

succeeded. He came to the Senate with a great awareness of 

what needed to be done and with a combination of his own 

brand of style and substance he has been part of a great effort to make those goals a reality. 

Looking over his record in the Senate, it shows that PETE

has been a key player in our work to achieve energy independence. Together with his New Mexico colleague, Jeff 

Bingaman, PETE worked to bring a national energy bill that 

seemed doomed to be stalled forever to the floor for a vote 

and on to the President’s desk for his signature. PETE was 

always willing to work with any Member, no matter their 

place on the political spectrum, if it meant making progress 

on a key issue. That is why I would sum up PETE’s career 

in one word—success. PETE has a knack of finding a way to 

make things happen and we have all benefited from his 

abilities. 

For my part, I also worked with him on the mental health 

parity bill. For too long the provisions of our health care system provided unequally for physical health and mental 

health problems. PETE knew that was unfair, and he was determined to do something about it. Working together with 

me and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, 

Education, Labor, and Pensions, Senator Edward Kennedy, 

PETE was able to help bring a bill to the floor that required 

health insurance plans that offer mental health coverage to 

provide it on an equal level with that afforded to physical illnesses. It is a major change in health care coverage that will 

make life better for millions and millions of Americans. It is 

a major accomplishment and it will serve as a special part 

of his legacy of achievements in the Senate. 

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In the months to come we will also miss PETE’s leadership 

and his wise counsel as we continue to work on the economic 

problems facing the Nation. PETE is an expert on budget 

issues and he has served as our Budget Committee chairman. As I have served alongside him over the years, I have 

appreciated having the opportunity to observe him in action 

and work with him on measures of concern to us both. He 

has been a tireless worker in the effort to bring the Nation’s 

expense account to a biennial budget. He has also fought 

long and hard to try to put a rein on runaway Federal 

spending. He was willing to do whatever was necessary to 

reach an agreement that would balance the budget. He got 

that done by once again working with Members of both sides 

of the aisle and a Democratic administration. That was just 

like him. If there was a way to get something done, PETE

usually found it, and the new way he helped develop usually 

got the bill passed and signed into law. 

For me and for most of us, what I will most remember is 

PETE’s personality and his great warmth. He is a genuine 

good guy who is very down to Earth. He is a gentle man and 

a gentleman in every sense of the word. He is a man of great 

faith who believes that public service is the rent we pay for 

the space we occupy on God’s green Earth. Simply put, he 

is the kind of person you would want to have for a friend. 

That is why so many of us treasure his friendship. He is 

loyal and close to other Members and to all his staff. He 

treats his staff like Members of his extended family and not 

like staff. I think that is why they work so hard for him. 

They love him like a father because he treats them, as he 

treats everyone he knows, with kindness and respect. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention his wife Nancy. She 

has been a pillar of strength and a source of great support 

and encouragement to him in his life. I like to say that PETE

and I both overmarried. She has been an essential member 

of his team since they met and I know he would say that 

whatever success has come to him in his life he owes in 

great degree to her influence. She is his greatest friend, his 

wisest counselor and his closest confidante. Together they 

have done a tremendous job for the people of New Mexico 

and the influence they have had on it can be seen from one 

corner of the State to the other. She has been a partner in 

the fight for mental health parity. 

The story is told that when PETE was accepted into law 

school his father made him a deal. ‘‘I will finance your law 

school education,’’ he told him, ‘‘but only if you agree to my 

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terms. If you do well, I will be proud to pay your way. If you 

bring home an ‘F’ I will expect to be repaid.’’ 

Well, my friend, as you return home, your father would be 

very proud of the report card you will take with you from the 

Senate and from the people of New Mexico. You have done 

a great job and everything you have done in your life and in 

your career you have done very well. You take with us our 

great praise and an ‘‘A’’ from us all for effort, for the work 

you have done and for the results you have achieved. God 

bless and be with you, PETE and Nancy. I know we will all 

miss you and think of you often. Make sure you leave your 

number with us for I know we will be reaching out to you 

for your advice and thoughtful suggestions in the days to 

come. That is one thing that will never change. 

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

that the order from September 27 regarding tributes to retiring Senators be modified so that Senators be permitted to 

submit such tributes for inclusion in a Senate document 

until Friday, December 12, 2008. 

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

MONDAY, December 8, 2008 

Mr. ALEXANDER. . . . With the departures of Ted Stevens 

and two other Senators of whom I have already spoken— 

PETE DOMENICI and John Warner—the Senate loses more 

than 100 years of service. More than that, this country loses 

three men whose view of America was rooted in the last 

years of World War II and the remarkable ascendancy of our 

country since then. Looking around the Senate, it will be difficult to find many among those of us who remain with the 

breadth of vision and old-fashioned patriotism that these 

men have contributed. 

TUESDAY, December 9, 2008 

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, when the Senate convenes next 

January, it is difficult to accept that Senator DOMENICI will 

not be here. 

This son of an Italian immigrant grocer was elected to the 

Senate in 1972, making him the first Republican in nearly 

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40 years to be elected to the Senate from the great State of 

New Mexico. He is now the longest serving Senator in the 

history of New Mexico. 

In the Senate, he established himself as an expert on fiscal 

policies and the intricacies of the Federal budget. Having 

served with Senator DOMENICI on the Appropriations and 

Budget Committees, I have come to know and respect him 

not only as a dear friend and colleague, but also as a formidable opponent. Senator DOMENICI and I have clashed 

swords many times on the Senate floor, and, believe me, 

when you clashed with him, you would have the fight of your 

life. He has one of the sharpest minds on Capitol Hill. He is 

one of the most knowledgeable people on the budget on Capitol Hill. And he is always prepared. 

Oh, how I regret that he will be leaving us all too soon. 

But I would like to use this opportunity to thank the senior 

Senator from New Mexico for his wonderful service and to 

congratulate him on an outstanding career in the Senate. 

Thank you, Senator DOMENICI, for all your work for your 

State, and our country. And, thank you, PETE, for being a 

friend. 

THURSDAY, December 11, 2008 

Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I would like to pay tribute 

to the senior Senator from New Mexico, a dedicated public 

servant, a respected lawmaker, and a man I am proud to call 

my colleague, PETE DOMENICI. 

From his first days in the Senate in the 93d Congress, to 

now 35 years later, Senator DOMENICI has earned a reputation as a powerful champion for New Mexico. While he and 

I have not agreed on some issues, I have never questioned 

his commitment to do what he believed was right for this 

country and the State of New Mexico. However, I might 

question which of our Italian grandmothers made a better 

meatball, but then again I wouldn’t want a fight to break out 

here on the Senate floor. 

Senator DOMENICI has too many accomplishments to list 

here today. Senator DOMENICI has had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Senate. However what stands out 

most to me is his unending drive to enact mental health parity legislation which he worked on so closely with our late 

colleague Paul Wellstone. I believe it was a fitting tribute to 

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enact this legislation in the closing days of the 110th Congress. 

I know it can sound repetitive when people hear Senators 

make remarks such as these about our colleagues as they are 

leaving the Senate. But I think it is important for the public 

to know that despite all the squabbling that goes on in 

Washington, there is the deep respect, affection, and caring 

that goes on among the Members of this body. After an incredible 36 years of service to New Mexico the United States 

is grateful, and I consider myself fortunate to have served 33 

years with PETE DOMENICI in the U.S. Senate. Marcelle and 

I wish PETE and Nancy the best. 

FRIDAY, December 12, 2008 

Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor an undeniable, universally acknowledged legend of the U.S. Senate, 

an outstanding public servant who has been a legislative 

master of this institution and its most labyrinthine but pivotal and influential procedures, and a U.S. Senator who, 

with passion and verve, brilliantly grasped the complex nuances of legislation without losing the broader perspective 

driving the national issues of the day. I am referring, of 

course, to the senior Senator from New Mexico, PETE

DOMENICI. 

In his 36 years serving the people of New Mexico in this 

venerable institution, Senator DOMENICI embraced and confronted the most difficult or consequential of matters regardless of opposition or the complexity of the subject. Indeed, 

Mr. President, as our country faces myriad challenges, it is 

with a heavy heart that we lose not only an exceptional colleague and friend to many of us, but one of the Senate’s finest legislators. 

I had the distinct privilege of witnessing PETE DOMENICI’s 

sterling leadership and political acumen first hand when he 

chaired the Senate Committee on the Budget from 1995 to 

2002 in three successive Congresses. Having been a member 

on the House Budget Committee, I can tell you that serving 

on the Senate Budget Committee during PETE’s chairmanship represented a magnificent opportunity for a freshman 

Senator—not to mention the fact that PETE empathized with 

me as he had been offered a seat on the committee as a 

freshman Senator as well. 

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Although PETE was quoted as saying that he joined the 

committee in 1973 ‘‘because it was available to me as a 

freshman, when other committees were not,’’ history will 

show that the Senate Budget Committee, the U.S. Senate, 

and the country were all well served because of PETE

DOMENICI’s undaunted command of the budget process and 

the esteem and respect with which he was held by his colleagues. 

As I joined the Senate Budget Committee in 1995 with 

Chairman DOMENICI at the helm, we worked hand in glove 

to reprioritize our Federal budget, instill greater fiscal discipline, and pass a balanced budget for the first time in 26 

years. Success was going to require dedication and pragmatism or in PETE’s words, ‘‘guts.’’ 

I well recall standing on the floor of the Senate as we were 

debating the budget resolution, and, referencing Winston 

Churchill’s famous remark, I said: 

I feel we finally have reached the ‘‘end of the beginning’’ of what I hope 

will eventually be known as the first 7-year budget to reach a balance in 

over a generation. 

And the force behind that legislative and budgetary milestone was the Senator we honor today, PETE DOMENICI. The 

ramifications of our work on that budget resolution, along 

with our strong bipartisan 92 to 8 victory on the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, represent a historic template for how this 

institution tackles budgetary issues today and likely will in 

the future. 

However, what has resonated the most through the 

years—and what is certainly one of the crowning hallmarks 

of his monumental legacy—is how PETE reminded us that 

the Senate can indeed achieve resolution by bridging the 

partisan divide and forsaking polarizing acrimony in favor of 

substantive action advancing the public good. 

Senator DOMENICI brought this same constancy of purpose 

and tireless commitment to the common good to his advocacy 

for mental health parity in health care coverage. Vigorously 

working across the aisle with Senators Wellstone and Kennedy, Senator DOMENICI demonstrated that building bipartisan coalitions based on common objectives and good will 

was not only possible but fundamental to creating good policy. 

As Senator DOMENICI made his compelling case against 

the inequality of mental health care to the White House and 

to each Member of the Senate, his personal history with the 

disease was conveyed in a manner that could not have been 

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more poignant and powerful. The story of Clare, Senator 

DOMENICI’s daughter, mirrors that of millions of Americans 

afflicted with a mental health disorder, and Senator DOMENICI courageously recognized that he was uniquely positioned 

to help shepherd the message that health care coverage 

should not financially discriminate on the basis of this disease. 

Although Senator Wellstone characterized his partnership 

with Senator DOMENICI as ‘‘an odd couple,’’ where their political philosophies diverged, their common allegiance to making a difference paved the way for enormous strides that engendered an effective bond. And with stately leadership, Senator DOMENICI and Senator Kennedy rallied the Senate, 

which at that point had mourned the tragic loss of Senator 

Wellstone, to action, passing the Mental Health Parity Act 

which the President signed into law. Once again, Mr. President, Senator DOMENICI confounded the status quo and 

fought for meaningful change. 

I believe we ought to have more, not fewer, ‘‘odd couples’’ 

and alliances in the Senate, given that compromise and conciliation are the true and necessary lifelines to achieving real 

results. To that end, my hope is that the DomeniciWellstone-Kennedy example will constitute a model for generations to come of bipartisanship and comity. And I couldn’t 

have been more pleased, having been a longtime leader on 

this issue myself, to work in accord with Senator DOMENICI

in bringing this matter to fruition in the 110th Congress. 

Last, I cannot help but applaud Senator DOMENICI for his 

indispensable role in championing the 2005 Energy Policy 

Act. And while we had some differences on policy, once 

again, true to his relentless work ethic, his can-do optimism, 

and dogged determination, what was most conspicuously 

vital and on display was Senator DOMENICI’s pragmatism in 

crafting this legislation. 

Advancing this measure required Senator DOMENICI to 

compromise with his own colleague from New Mexico, Senator Bingaman. Yet they sought, found, and maximized the 

common denominators that would, in the end, allow this bill 

to be signed into law. It stands as an enduring testament to 

Senator DOMENICI that the final energy bill in 2005 passed 

with 71 votes, and Congress took a serious step forward in 

addressing our energy crisis. 

Time and again, Senator DOMENICI has placed legislative 

performance above political posturing, and a desire for concrete results above the din of discord and rancor. And in the 

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process, Senator DOMENICI leaves a formidable legacy of establishing the standard for facilitating the budget process, 

providing mental health parity for millions of Americans, 

and forging a critical first step toward altering the course of 

our long-dormant energy policy. 

For well more than three decades, this institution has been 

blessed to have among our ranks one of the giant legislators 

of his generation and our time, and we will miss you PETE

and all you brought to the Senate, to public service, and to 

the people of New Mexico. As the son of Italian immigrants, 

who worked in your father’s wholesale grocery business, and 

who would later become a minor league baseball pitcher, 

math teacher, lawyer, and then a legendary Senator—you 

truly exemplify the very best of the American story and 

dream. To Nancy and the entire Domenici family, thank you 

for sharing PETE with us and our country. We are all the 

better for knowing him, working with him, and calling him 

our colleague and friend. 

Æ