My friend chuck for their remarks. I will have more to say to them later. On march 9th, 1967, senator howard baker junior, the newly elected senator from tennessee made his maiden address, his first speech on the floor of the senate. He spoke for too long. The republican leader of the senate who was also bakers father in law, walked to congratulate him and said howard, occasionally you might enjoy the luxury of unexpressed thought. Which is good advice for farewell address as well. Senator bakers legislative assistant, i was also a speechwriter that made an address, or at least i thought i was. He developed a bad habit of not saying what i wrote for his speech. I asked to see him, do i have a problem with our relationship . Write what you want to write and say what i want to say. I learned a couple other things about saying what i want to say. One came from alex haley, the author of roots, you heard him speak once and said may i make a suggestion . If when you begin a speech you would start by saying, let me tell you a story. And david broder who gave this advice to ruth marcus when she got this opinion for the washington post, one idea per column. So here is a story about my one idea for this speech. In august of 1968 senator baker was in the Republican Leaders office where senator mcconnell is today. He overheard this conversation. Senator dirksen was saying no, mister president , i cannot come down and have a drink with you tonight and very unhappy with me. 30 minutes later there was commotion in the hall and in the Republican Leaders office came two big ones, three secret service men and the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson said if you wont come down and have a drink with me i will have one with you and they disappeared into the back room. Later that same year around a long cable in the same office the democratic president and the republican leader worked out the Civil Rights Act of 1968. It took 67 votes to break a filibuster but when the bill passed and johnson signed that the senators who voted no went home and said it is the law. We have to accept it. It still is today along with many other civil rights laws. That is the one idea i have for this speech. Our country needs a United States senate to work across party lines, and force broad agreements on hard issues creating laws that most of us have voted for and that a diverse country will accept. We needed the senate to create social security. After world war ii the united nations. In the 60s medicare, 1978 ratify the panama canal treaty. In 2013 more recently to tie Interest Rates to Student Loans to the market rates, saving student borrowers hundreds of billions of dollars coming in 2015 to fix no child left behind. That bill had 100 alligators in the swamp. The wall street journal said when we finished it was the largest evolution of power from washington to the state in 25 years. When president obama cited he said it was a christmas miracle because in the end 85 senators voted for it. 2016 the senator mcconnell mentioned the 21stcentury cures act, medical miracles faster into patients and doctors offices, that bill ran off the track every 2 or 3 days. On one of those i called the Vice President , joe biden and said joe, i am stuck in the white house. Ive got the president s personalized medicine in this, i have your case of moonshot, senator john mcconnells Regenerative Medicine proposal, speaker ryan worked out a way to pay for it but i cant get the white house to move. I am standing outside the oval office with a silver platter and nobody will open the door and take the order. Joe biden said if you want to feel like the butler try being Vice President. [laughter] in the next few weeks the senate literally forced us to come to an agreement and in the end we almost all voted for it. Senator mcconnell said it was the most important legislation of that congress. Today, helping to create vaccines and treatment and record times. 2018, once in a generation changing copyright laws to help songwriters be fairly paid, this year the greater working outdoors act everyone agrees it is the most important outdoor environmental bill in 50 years. All that took a long time. A lot of levering. Many amendments, too many years, civil rights advocates, students, patients, songwriters, conservationists say those bills didnt just pass. They passed by big margins. The country accepted them and they are going to be there for a long time and most of them were enacted during divided government when the presidency and at least one body of congress was of different political parties. That offers an opportunity to share the responsibility or the blame for doing hard things like controlling the federal debt. That is why our country needs a United States senate to thoughtfully and carefully and intentionally put country before partisanship and personal politics, to force broad agreement on controversial issues that become law that most of us will vote for and a diverse country will accept. Nearly 60 years ago i traveled from my home in the mountains of tennessee to New York University law school in manhattan on washington square. It was my first trip ever to new york city and i asked for a roommate whose background was as different from mine as possible was one of those roommates turned out to be a tall skinny guy from new jersey, i would go to his home in new jersey and spent the night with his mother, she was a seamstress, his dad was a contractor, they were italian immigrants, his mother would come so concerned about my frayed caller on my wondrous white shirt that she would turn it while i slept. Years later that roommate invited me to go to the italianamerican dinner in washington, bursting with pride for the italianamerican heritage. Chairs for scalia, the justice, proposals for congress, stallone, the actor, the National FootballLeague Commission but what struck me was as proud as they all were a italian heritage they were most proud to say we were all americans. Ken burns whose films tell story of who we are reminds us the late arthur solicitor once wrote that our country needs less pluralist and more them onem. The fact that weve attracted people from everywhere in the world makes the country richer and stronger but it is more important and greater achievement that we combined that diversity into one country. That is why the motto is not one word, it is e pluribus unum. Out of many, one. More than ever our country needs the United States to turn that, to lead the american struggle to forge unity from diverse city. Some advocate operating the senate in a different way, end the filibuster. The senates best known tradition. In the movie mister smith goes to washington he calls it the right to talk your head off. Dont worry about party lines, pass everything with majority vote. President s would like that, they said though. They would get their way more easily. If we allow that to or through the senate like they do the house of representatives. If the democrats are in charge we could abolish every right to work law, repeal all limits on abortion and pass restrictions on guns. Very appealing for the moment. What about if the train doors in the other direction and republicans say lets impose right to work law on every state and prolife laws and gun rights laws, such back and forth and back and forth what we really want as a country. The framers didnt think so. They created this cooling saucer for those patients but washington talked about, the filibuster is the preeminent tool we use to force broad agreements on tough issues most of us will vote for in the country can live with. Remarkable young frenchman who wanted to our country in 193132 and wrote the best book on democracy in america saw two great dangers for our future, one, russia, 2, but here any of the majority, ending the filibuster would destroy the impetus for the broad agreements i have been talking about and woods unleash the tyranny of the majority to steamroll the rights of the minority. You may say the senate isnt solving some big problem that you would be right. We are not voting on big problems. Sometimes because the majority doesnt bring it up and sometimes the minority it obstructs. Of a carbon tax is a good idea, if we want to help the daca kids, or the federal debt is out of control wire we voting on it . Doesnt take a genius to figure out how to gum up the works in a body of 100 that operates mostly by unanimous consent but here is my different view of why we are here. It is hard to get here, hard to stay here. We might as well try to accomplish something good for the country. But it is hard to accomplish something if you dont vote on amendments, lately the senate has been like joining the grand a lot free and not being allowed to sing, a real waste of talent. Think about this body. Over the years we had astronauts and former governors, Supreme Court law clerks, military heroes and others that ran the olympics, a group of that much talent out to accomplish a lot more and dont have to a limited the filibuster to accomplish a lot more meaning restore the senate to the time when it was working across party lines more often to solve a big problems, not so long ago, the senate works monday through friday, considered hundreds of amendments, most votes were by majority, conferences worked out broad agreements, that was under the existing rules. Let me say that again. That was under the existing rules. The senate doesnt need a change of rules, it needs a change of behavior and the behavior to change first is to stop blocking each others amendments. Why stop the entire body from considering it . Why join the grand old opry if you dont want to sing . It 15 to 20 democrats and 15 to 20 republicans decided to change that practice they could do it. Some governors dont like being a United States senator but not me. The jobs are different. Both jobs cause you want to see an urgent need, develop a strategy and persuade half the people you are running but the governors job is more like moses who said lets go this way. The senators job is more like a parade organizer. You pick the roots, select the music, pick the drum major and then march in the middle of a parade and hope it doesnt run off the road more than half a dozen times. I love the traditions of the senate. The hard marble floors, the elaborate courtesies, bury blacks prayers, scratching my name behind howard baker and Fred Thompsons name. I made a lot of friendships. My best friendship began at a softball game between senator powers of texas and senator baker in the summer of 1967 with a 21yearold Smith College graduate named honey slid into first base wearing red shorts. I was not only surprised but captivated and 18 months later we were married and for 52 years she has been an unselfish wife, caring mother, advocate for families and children especially her own. In 1969 as the leader mentioned senator baker said to me you are to get to know that smart young legislative assistant, that smart young legislative assistant was Mitch Mcconnell and he began a halfcentury of friendship. Mario dangelo in the barbershop cut my hair in 1977 when i came up for 3 months to work with senator baker when he was suddenly elected republican leader. Some of my experiences in the senate have not been so friendly like my confirmation hearing in 1991 when senator metzenbaum of ohio said governor alexander, i heard some disturbing things about you but dont think i will bring them up here. He then put a hold on my nomination for two months until i was mysteriously confirmed late one night and still dont know how. I found a new way to make friends among senators when i went to the republican retreat and said stop talking and play the piano, support bushs Education Program so i did and they did. I strengthen friendships and the socalled inner sanctum Chuck Schumer and i resurrected that provides private space for senators that have a snack or conversation, senators and spouses have come to the Smoky Mountains to be our guests for the weekend. We dont talk about politics, we talk about lost hikers and told their stories and i even learned how to count, how to count my friends. In 2006 i wrote 27 thank you notes for 24 votes when i lost the race by one vote to be the republican member. I got to be the republican conference chairman, i enjoyed that but then i left the focus on issues that i care the most about and since then ive done my best to leave footprints that i hope are good for the country. Fixing no child left behind, 21stcentury cures, working with patty murray, Michael Bennett was there to start, working with diane feinstein, building up our national laboratories, joining the bipartisan parade, manchin, created the american outdoors act. In permanently funding black colleges, the shark tank of the National Institutes of health creating diagnostic tests, new ways, manchin and king, casey and in the on the perkins act, harry reid and bill frist remaining leaders on the american competes act, this couldnt be done without exceptional staff but instead of thinking of them in a rushed way now, i will make a separate salute to the staff tomorrow. Made the will start a tradition. My favorite time in the United States senate has been with American History teachers i invite to the senate floor before it opens. While they are attending the academys created by the legislation i introduced in my maiden address 18 years ago. After that address ted kennedy without my knowing it went around and got 20 democratic cosponsors. In the house, were roger whitaker, Marsha Blackburn helped pass the bill where they were. The teachers who came to the floor before we open invariably go to our desks to find daniel websters desk. They look for the kennedy brothers desk. They ask where is jefferson daviss desk. Jefferson davis resigned the senate to become president of the confederacy because they heard the story the chalk mark on the desk that was imposed by Union Soldier when they captured washington. They are there to save the union not to destroy it. What would you like us to take back for being a United States senator . My reply is always the same. Please suggest they look at washington dc as if it were a put screen television. On the other side democratic and republican senators strengthen national defense, national laboratories, National Institutes of health. Please remind what a remarkable country this is and best universities. Tell them we are not perfect. The constitution says we work to form a more perfect union. Most of the arguments are about conflicts among principles with which most of us agree and most of our politics are about disappointments in not being able to reach the normal goals we set for ourselves like all men are created equal. The naacp resident who used to Teach University memphis students, america is a work in progress. Weve come a long way and have a long way to go. Please remind students the rest of the world wishes they had our system of government and the United States senate has been and i hope continues to be the single most Important Institution that helps to unify our country by creating broad agreements most of us can vote for and citizens of the United States will accept. Finally please tell them i wake up every day thinking i might do something good to help our country and i go to bed most nights thinking i have. Please tell them it is a great privilege to be a united state senator. I yield the floor. [applause] on a completely different matter the senate revolves around people. The body consists of 100 individuals with one a key duties concerns personnel when we examine and confirm and all the dedicated professionals who