January 14, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S381 

caring or has as much empathy for others as 

Tom Watson,’’ Mattingly said. ‘‘I think 

those are real traits in a leader.’’ 

Watson’s term wasn’t without its controversies, and his effort to seek state approval and funding for a joint partnership between the city and development firm Gulfstream Enterprises Inc. opened up a rift in 

the community. 

The city was hoping its partnership with 

Gulfstream for the proposed Gateway Commons development on Kentucky 54 would 

allow it to receive millions of dollars in tax 

increment financing. 

Some viewed the push as an abandonment 

of efforts to develop downtown, while others 

saw the project as the only way to get state 

funding for a new mixed-use events center. 

The proposal prompted a lawsuit against 

the city and failed to pass muster with the 

state, but it was followed by the community 

backing the creation of a downtown master 

plan. 

‘‘You always knew where he stood,’’ said 

City Manager Bill Parrish. ‘‘I’ve seen him as 

a man of great energy where you know where 

he comes from and he wants to get things 

moving. He is a man of unbounded enthusiasm.’’ 

Though not able to attend Thursday night, 

Commissioner Cathy Armour sent her 

thoughts about the mayor in a letter read by 

Mattingly, and wished him luck and now 

more time to enjoy his grandchildren. 

Commissioner Candance Castlen Brake announced Thursday night that the city staff 

and the commission would be making a donation in Watson’s name to the Daniel 

Pitino Shelter, an organization that he has 

personally supported in the past and urged 

the city to commit money to. 

Watson counts the proclamations he has 

announced and the recognitions he has handed out as some of his fondest moments, 

which also include visits to classrooms to 

talk about city government and work to help 

open the Department of Veterans Affairs 

clinic in the city. 

‘‘Really it hasn’t been a job,’’ Watson said 

Thursday night. ‘‘It’s been another opportunity in my life to participate in my community.’’ 

When asked if he had any second thoughts 

about not seeking a second term, Watson explained that he is a ‘‘front windshield’’ kind 

of man. 

‘‘I don’t like to look out the rearview mirror too much,’’ Watson said. ‘‘But you still 

have that piece of you that wants to see 

things completed that you started. . . . It’s 

almost like a blur, really, it went by so 

fast.’’ 

f 

TRIBUTE TO DAVID STEVENS 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I 

rise today to honor a well-respected 

Kentuckian, Mr. David Stevens. Mr. 

Stevens’s outstanding dedication to 

public service is truly immeasurable, 

as is his devotion to our Commonwealth. 

Recently the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, KY, published a story 

about Mr. Stevens. The story highlights not only the major initiatives he 

took as a Lexington-Fayette urban 

county councilman, but the keen sense 

of humor that contributed to his significant presence in Kentucky. Mr. Stevens’s noteworthy pursuit as a public 

servant is a true testament of his devotion to not only Kentucky, but his loyalty to our great Nation. 

Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to 

join me in honoring Mr. David Stevens 

as a true patriot and Kentuckian whose 

dedication to his city will be long remembered. I further ask unanimous 

consent that the full article be printed 

in the RECORD. 

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the 

RECORD, as follows: 

[From the Lexington Herald-Leader, Dec. 15, 

2008] 

MODEST STEVENS’ IMPACT SEEN IN SMOKING

BAN, SUNDAY DRINKING

(By Michelle Ku) 

David Stevens isn’t exactly a household 

name in Lexington, but the modest man’s 

work has had a huge impact on the city. 

Thanks largely to Stevens, Lexingtonians 

can drink a little longer on Sundays but 

can’t light up a cigarette inside a workplace. 

Stevens, 79, leaves the Urban County Council this month after 15 years. 

He has served three terms as an at-large 

councilman and one term as the District 5 

representative. He chose not to seek re-election for his district seat. 

He has been involved in many of the major 

initiatives in Lexington over the last 15 

years. 

Stevens pushed to extend the hours of Sunday alcohol sales and expanded who was eligible to sell. He helped develop the city’s 

farmland preservation program, the Town & 

Gown Commission and ethics code. 

But what he will be most remembered for 

is the passage and implementation of Kentucky’s first smoke-free law. Since 

Lexington’s was passed in 2003, 20 other Kentucky communities have enacted some type 

of a smoke-free law or regulation. 

Stevens is probably the most significant 

Lexington figure, said former Vice Mayor 

Mike Scanlon. 

‘‘If you look at any councilman who has 

ever served, or any mayor who’s ever served, 

I don’t think that there’s anybody who’s 

going to leave a bigger footprint on Lexington than David Stevens.’’ 

Stevens’ departure will leave very large 

shoes to fill because of his institutional 

knowledge of Lexington dating back to the 

writing of the city-county charter, Scanlon 

said. ‘‘The council changes all the damn 

time, but the government is going to be 

changing because David’s leaving.’’ 

Last month, the council approved the first 

revision to Lexington’s smoking ban. 

Stevens engineered the revision, which extended the ban to all workplaces, not just 

those open to the public, and closed a loophole that had allowed smoking in bingo 

halls. 

‘‘Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights calls 

Lexington’s law the shot heard round the 

world,’’ said Ellen Hahn, director of the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy. ‘‘It was 

so landmark because this region, including 

the other tobacco states, really lagged behind the rest of the country.’’ 

Many people think the smoking ban was 

his biggest accomplishment while on council, Stevens said. While it certainly got the 

most attention, ‘‘the other things are of 

equal importance.’’ 

The parks master plan he worked on with 

former Councilwoman Sandy Shafer was important even though the city has never been 

able give parks enough funding, Stevens 

said. 

Much of his work on council was done with 

a vision for Lexington that’s 50 years out, 

said Councilwoman Linda Gorton. ‘‘That was 

obvious when he helped write the charter 

and helped with merger. It will take that 

long for much of his beautification efforts on 

the city’s corridors to grow.’’ 

In addition to the legislation he sponsored, 

Stevens will be remembered for his dry wit. 

He has a penchant for delivering a welltimed one-liner. 

For example, during Stevens’ final budget 

and finance committee meeting last Tuesday, the council discussed the city’s projected budget shortfall in the next fiscal 

year. 

‘‘I will be happy to forgo any salary for 

next year,’’ Stevens said to a round of chuckles. 

Stevens plans to remain active in the community and city government despite his retirement from the council. 

He wants to continue his work on the corridors committee, including a project to add 

sidewalks to Tates Creek Road from Lakewood Drive to New Circle Road. Neighbors 

are opposed to the idea. 

‘‘I’m determined to get those sidewalks 

down Tates Creek,’’ he said. 

Also, he wants to complete a project he 

began several years ago to document discussions that took place on the commission 

that drafted the city’s charter. He had the 

audio tapes from those meetings transcribed, 

but still has to review the tapes to identify 

the speakers, he said. 

Outside of city government, Stevens will 

continue on as the president of the Blue 

Grass Council of the Boy Scouts of America 

and board chairman of the Kentucky Blood 

Center. He also wants to finish fund-raising 

for a children’s garden at the Arboretum on 

Alumni Drive. 

His one regret while on the council was not 

pushing as hard as he could have for a dedicated tax for the parks department. When 

parks explored the idea six years ago, Stevens was running for his third term as an atlarge councilman. 

‘‘I thought if I spent all my time working 

on the parks referendum, I might not get reelected,’’ Stevens said. ‘‘I feel kind of bad 

about that. I let the people in the parks 

down.’’ 

Being on the council is a lot like playing a 

game of golf, Stevens said. 

‘‘When you play a game of golf, you’re only 

going to hit three or four perfect shots out of 

the 70 in every round,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s the 

same on the council, you know, you’re not 

going to hit every one just right.’’ 

f 

(At the request of Mr. REID, the following statement was ordered to be 

printed in the RECORD.) 

REMEMBERING DR. SHUKRI KHURI 

∑ Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute 

to the life of Dr. Shukri F. Khuri who, 

until he passed away last September 26 

from a brain tumor, was one of Massachusetts’ foremost physicians and a 

true public servant, contributing especially to the health care of our veterans. 

Dr. Khuri was born in Jerusalem in 

1943, and fled with his parents in 1948 to 

Syria, later settling in Lebanon. He 

graduated from American University of 

Beirut, where he met his wife Randa, 

and also completed medical school at 

the university. He then completed his 

surgical training at Johns Hopkins in 

Baltimore and the Mayo Clinic in 

Rochester, MN. 

Dr. Khuri was remembered for the extraordinary way he answered the call 

to public service. He refused lucrative 

offers to join private surgical practices, and chose instead to combine his 


rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with SENATE
S382 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 14, 2009 

passion for research with his commitment to patient care. He joined the 

Surgical Service of the Veteran’s Affairs Boston Healthcare System in 1976, 

where he spent the rest of his career. 

He rose to become Chief of Surgery at 

the West Roxbury VA Medical Center 

in 1984, Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1992, and Professor of 

Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 

1987. 

Early in his tenure at the VA, Dr. 

Khuri realized the need for a methodology to assist surgeons in managing 

the health of the heart during 

cardiothoracic surgery. In his quest to 

identify a metabolic indicator of intraoperative myocardial ischemia, Dr. 

Khuri invented and patented a probe 

that would measure the pH of the heart 

muscle, a device currently in the final 

stages of research and development. 

In addition to his work in surgical 

heart protection, Dr. Khuri was deeply 

interested in improving the quality of 

care for all surgical patients. In 1978, at 

West Roxbury VA Medical Center, he 

established the first automated data 

management system in a surgical intensive care unit in the Northeast. 

Today, the electronic patient record in 

the VA is by far the most advanced and 

comprehensive electronic medical 

records system in the world. 

Dr. Khuri also led a unique national 

effort within the VA which established 

the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program in 1994. The program is 

now recognized by the surgical community as the standard for the comparative assessment of quality of surgical 

care and for continuous improvement 

in surgery. This program has now become the model for a joint effort between the VA and the American College of Surgeons to incorporate data in 

the private sector to see that all patients receive the best care possible. 

In the course of his outstanding career, Dr. Khuri achieved national and 

international prominence. His research 

laboratory at West Roxbury has been 

continuously funded for 24 years and 

has trained more than 60 residents and 

postgraduate students in applied research. He was a member of numerous 

professional organizations, including 

the prestigious American Surgical Association, and he served on and chaired 

many regional and national committees, including a 3-year term as president of the Massachusetts Affiliate of 

the American Heart Association. 

Dr. Khuri was the author of more 

than 200 peer-reviewed publications. He 

was also a regular reviewer for more 

than ten scientific journals, and served 

on the editorial board of the Journal of 

Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 

He was the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the 1998 

Frank Brown Berry Prize, which honors an outstanding physician in the 

federal health care system each year. 

Just days after his death, Dr. Khuri 

was named the recipient of the 2008 Ernest Amory Codman Award for improvements in the safety of care to the 

public. 

As a Palestinian American, he felt 

the pain of the conflict in the Middle 

East firsthand, and he devoted much of 

his life to seeking peace in the region. 

He worked with groups in the Boston 

area to create and sustain dialogue between Israelis, Palestinians, and Jewish and Arab Americans. 

Dr. Khuri embodied the American 

story of hope, opportunity and service. 

He built a remarkably successful professional life as a public servant, and 

he also built a beautiful and loving 

home. His hobbies ranged from carpentry to photography to actively serving in his church. His love of life, his 

profound humility, his steadfast faith, 

and his eternally optimistic outlook 

will continue to inspire all those whose 

lives he touched. He is deeply missed 

by his wife and three children, his four 

grandchildren, his mother and brother, 

his many loving family members, his 

friends and patients, and the community he loved to serve and served so 

well.∑

f 

TRIBUTE TO RICH ARENBERG 

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, as the Nation celebrates a new beginning by welcoming a new administration to town 

next week, my office will be saying 

goodbye to a longtime trusted adviser 

and friend. Today, I pay tribute to my 

legislative director, Rich Arenberg, 

who will retire from Congress after 34 

years to take a teaching position at 

Brown University. 

In the nearly 15 years that Rich has 

led the legislative team in my office, 

he has provided invaluable guidance on 

innumerable issues that have arisen. 

No doubt, he has a detailed record— 

likely in chart form—of the legislative 

back-and-forth behind each bill, if not 

each vote, we have confronted together. And when Rich announced his 

retirement to the legislative staff last 

month, the number of long faces 

around the table spoke volumes about 

his skills. 

Rich has an encyclopedic knowledge 

of Senate history, procedure, and protocol. He has been a mentor to countless Hill staffers, as well as a thoughtful, reasonable, skilled adviser to the 

Members he has served. He is a gifted 

storyteller who enlightens and entertains my office with anecdotes of his 

decades on the Hill. And above all, he 

is an incredibly decent human being, 

devoted to his work, loyal to the people 

around him, with a passion for life. 

Rich takes a distinct interest not 

only in understanding the policy implications of the bills that came before 

the Senate but also in appreciating the 

subtleties of each vote the significance 

of procedural votes and the connotations of each Senator’s stance. Rich 

revels in the obscure though sometimes 

critical anomaly: for example, he often 

tracked which Senators reversed their 

positions between or during votes. 

With his competence, focus, and passion, Rich has endeared himself to 

those who had the pleasure of working 

with or near him. Beyond his personal 

qualities, he has distinguished himself 

with a remarkable record of legislative 

contributions. Rich and I arrived in the 

Senate at the same time following the 

election of 1978. As a staffer for Senator Paul Tsongas, whom he had previously worked for in the House of Representatives, Rich was initiated in the 

Senate in a pursuit that also dominated my first year: securing loan 

guarantees for Chrysler that helped 

save the company and had an enormous 

positive impact on the vibrancy of our 

domestic auto industry. He contributed 

significantly to the Alaska Lands Act, 

enacted in 1980, which remains of the 

most significant pieces of environmental legislation of the last several 

decades. 

Beginning in 1984, he served as chief 

of staff to Senator George Mitchell. His 

work to investigate the Iran-Contra affair could fill a book—and, in fact, Rich 

helped Senator William Cohen and 

then-Majority Leader Mitchell write 

‘‘Men of Zeal,’’ a book detailing the 

1987 Iran-Contra hearings in which 

Rich played a critical role. As a special 

assistant for national security affairs 

for Senator Mitchell in the early 1990s, 

Rich handled a variety of intelligence 

matters, and his work required extensive travel around the world. 

Since joining my staff in 1994, Rich 

has contributed to legislation protecting the Great Lakes, improving 

treatment for drug abuse, and preserving American jobs. Rich has been 

on the front lines of legislative efforts 

that have sometimes spanned years. He 

has been at my side at the crack of 

dawn each Wednesday morning for 

weekly radio interviews, at the ready 

to answer questions. His performance 

reflects a deep respect for the Senate 

and an understanding that the root of 

senatorial accomplishment is cooperation and collaboration. 

He has worked long hours with a zeal 

for legislative maneuvering matched 

only by his passion for the Red Sox and 

exceeded only by his love for his family. I was honored that he and his wonderful wife Linda chose my Capitol 

hideaway as the site to celebrate their 

wedding, a joyful day that included a 

spirited procession through the Senate 

building and Capitol subway. And when 

his Red Sox won the World Series or 

when his beloved cocker spaniel had a 

new litter of puppies or when his sons 

or daughter were in the midst of an adventure, there was a glint in his eye 

and a smile would break across his 

face. 

But there is no doubt that Rich’s engaging stories, insightful observations, 

and flair for humor will be a treasure 

trove for the students who are fortunate enough to be in his classroom. 

They will learn the ins and outs of the 

Senate from the best. They’ll learn 

about Rich’s ‘‘tilted deck’’ theory, 

which predicts that the Senate will 

take until the eve of adjournment or 

weekend recess to act, and then, if it 


rfrederick on PROD1PC67 with SENATE