Remembering Senator Ted Stevens

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, on the morning of Tuesday, August 10, in Alaska, in Washington, and around the world, time seemed to stand still. It was then we received word that a floatplane carrying our beloved Senator Ted Stevens had gone down in the remote Bristol Bay region of western Alaska. Senator Stevens traveled to that area, as he did practically each summer for decades, to pursue one of his dearest passions--fishing.

Along with Senator Stevens on that flight were several of his closest friends. Sean O'Keefe, the former Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Jim Morhard, who came to the Senate in 1983 as an aide to Senator Pete Wilson of California and retired in 2005 as chief of staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Bill Phillips, a distinguished Washington lawyer and former chief of staff to Senator Stevens was on the flight; as was Dana Tindall, one of Alaska's best and brightest who made a career of bringing 21st century telecommunications technology to our vast territory. Three of their children were on the trip as well: Sean's son Kevin, Bill's son Willy, and Dana's daughter Corey. The pilot was Theron ``Terry'' Smith, an accomplished aviator who retired as chief pilot after 25 years with Alaska Airlines in Anchorage.

When it became apparent that the floatplane was overdue en route to a remote fishing camp, a massive search was quickly mobilized. The wreckage was located and, thankfully, there were survivors.

Sean and his son Kevin, Jim Morhard and Willy Phillips survived the crash. We pray for their swift and full recovery.

At the same time our hearts dropped at the news that the crash claimed the lives of Senator Stevens, Bill Phillips, Dana Tindall, her daughter Corey, and pilot Terry Smith.

At a later time I will have more to say about the distinguished careers of Bill Phillips, Dana Tindall, and Terry Smith, as well the lost promise of Corey Tindall, a champion debater at South High School in Anchorage and an aspiring doctor.

I will also have more to say about the heroes that responded to the crash site. That story begins with the Good Samaritan pilots who located the wreckage, Dr. Dani Bowman, and local first responders who were brought in by helicopter--they cared for the survivors and the dead in poor weather through a long night awaiting rescue--the elite Alaska National Guard and Coast Guard search and rescue teams that accomplished the rescue, the medical teams in Anchorage that tended to the survivors.

Today, I would like to devote a few moments in memory of my mentor, a man who stands tall among our Senate family as one of the truly great Senators of all time, my dear friend, Ted Stevens.

It would take days and days to enumerate all of Senator Stevens' accomplishments in this body over the course of 40 years. The Senate began the process of chronicling Senator Stevens' place in history in S. Res. 617, which was enacted on August 12. Our colleagues will fill in the details in the coming days.

Let me digress for a moment and extend my deepest appreciation, and that of the Stevens family, to our colleagues and the staff--all of those who pulled out the stops--to ensure that S. Res. 617 could be enacted during a brief lull in the recess. The resolution was presented to the Stevens family following the funeral in Anchorage. It was well received.

So how to summarize the remarkable career of Ted Stevens in a few moments. Ted Stevens was the longest serving Republican in the Senate's history. He served as President pro tempore and President pro tempore emeritus. He was the assistant Republican leader. At various points during his career he chaired the Appropriations Committee, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Committee on Governmental Affairs, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. He was involved in numerous other leadership roles.

He was a dear, dear friend of our men and women in uniform. In the early 1970s he helped to bring an end to the draft and encouraged the All Volunteer military force. He worked diligently to ensure that service members were compensated fairly, that their benefits were not eroded, and that they received the best health care.

A family man always, he was deeply concerned about the length of time that service members were separated from their families. And when service members returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD and TBI, he ensured that funds were shifted from lower defense priorities to address these immediate concerns. He used his key position on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to make this all happen.

During his more than 40 years in the Senate he traveled to visit with service members on the battlefield. He visited Vietnam, Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. On those trips he spent time with those in the lowest ranks, asking whether they had the right equipment, how the food was, and how their families back home were coping.

Although he will long be remembered as a tireless advocate for the responsible development of Alaska's abundant natural resources, his friends and even his foes readily admit that he leaves a substantial conservation legacy. He was key to the compromise that led to the enactment of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, a leader in fishery conservation through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act.

He was a champion of the Olympic movement, a champion of physical fitness, a champion of amateur athletics. He played a significant role in ensuring that female athletes could compete on a level playing field with their male counterparts. He was one of the best friends public broadcasting could possibly have in Washington. He championed family friendly policies for America's civil servants. These are some of his legacies to the Nation.

But to many Alaskans he was known simply as ``Uncle Ted.'' And it was not just for the Federal dollars he brought to the State of Alaska, the energy facilities, hospitals and clinics, roads, docks, airports, water and sewer facilities, schools and other community facilities, although these were substantial.

The Almanac of American Politics observed, ``No other Senator fills so central a place in his state's public and economic life as Ted Stevens of Alaska; quite possibly no other Senator ever has.''

Truth be told, Ted Stevens was known as Uncle Ted because so many Alaskans viewed him as a friend of their own Alaskan families. Alaskans treasure the photographs and the letters that Senator Stevens sent them. Some of those photographs and letters were decades old, yet treasured keepsakes.

He gave Alaska's young people an opportunity to intern in Washington, inspiring many careers in public service. I am proud to be one of those interns. He hired many young Alaskans, once they graduated college, as junior staff members. He encouraged the best to go to law school and then brought them back as legislative assistants and committee staff. Many went on to accomplish great things in their chosen fields.

In the aftermath of Senator Stevens' death, hundreds upon hundreds of Alaskans lined the streets of Anchorage bearing signs that read, ``Thank you, Ted'' as his funeral procession drove by. Makeshift memorial services were conducted in Alaska's Native villages.

Why did Ted Stevens' loss shake Alaska so hard? The answer is simple. For generations of Alaskans he had been their Senator for life. Ted Stevens became Alaska's Senator less than 10 years after Alaska was admitted to statehood. I was 11 years old when he first came to the Senate.

In so many respects, his elevation to the Senate in 1968 was the culmination of a career of service to Alaska that began in the 1950s. It was, if you will, his second career of service to the people of Alaska.

Ted's first career began when he was named the U.S. attorney in Fairbanks. In a 2002 speech to the Alaska Federation of Natives, Ted recalled that this position gave him the opportunity to carry out President Eisenhower's commitment to equal rights for everyone. He traveled throughout the area requesting business owners to take down signs that read, ``No Natives Allowed.''

Ted then moved to Washington to serve as legislative counsel in the Interior Department. He played a key role in the enactment of the legislation that admitted Alaska as America's 49th State.

He helped draft that section of the Alaska Statehood Act which committed the Federal Government to the settlement of the Alaska Native land claims. After leaving the Interior Department he opened a law practice in Anchorage. Among his clients was the Native Village of Minto. The State of Alaska was about to select Minto's traditional lands in advance of a land claims settlement. Senator Stevens took on Minto's case pro bono. He invited Alaska Native leaders to his home to explore strategies for a more comprehensive settlement of Alaska Native land claims.

Ted Stevens could not have guessed at that point that he would join the U.S. Senate and have the opportunity to make the dreams of Alaska's Native peoples a reality.

That was the first order of business when Ted came to the Senate. He began work on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1969 and on December 18, 1971, the dream that Alaska's Native people would hold title to their ancestral lands became a reality.

This December marks the 39th anniversary of the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act--ANCSA. That landmark legislation returned some 44 million acres of land to Alaska's Native people and created the regional and village Alaska Native Corporations.

ANCSA led to a resurgence in Native pride and self-confidence. It gave our Native people unparalleled opportunities to lead. It has proven a valuable legacy for the continuation of Alaska Native culture through the generations.

Senator Stevens played a significant role in bringing Alaska's Native people together to create today's great institutions of Indian self-determination. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the Southcentral Foundation, which together operate the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, are just two examples.

The Alaska Native Medical Center, Alaska's only certified level II trauma center, has earned national recognition for the quality of its nursing care. It is connected through innovative telemedicine technology to regional Native medical centers in rural Alaska and clinics at the village level. None of this would be possible without Senator Stevens' leadership.

Senator Stevens deplored the Third World conditions that stubbornly persisted in rural Alaska, threatening the health of Native children. He helped build showers and laundromats in rural Alaska--we call them washeterias--and he helped construct water and sewer facilities so that our Native people did not have to haul their waste to an open dump site. I am sad to say that this work is far from done. There is that last 25 percent or so that remains to be done.

It is often said that a society is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable members. It is appropriate that we judge the character of our elected officials in the same manner. In Alaska, our Native people are the most vulnerable. For decades, Alaska's most vulnerable people have had no better friend than Ted Stevens.

As I noted in my response to Ted's farewell speech on November 20, 2008, ``When I think of all of the good things, the positive things that have come to Alaska in the past five decades I see the face and I see the hands of Ted Stevens in so many of them.''

Not just in rural Alaska but throughout Alaska I think of Senator Stevens whenever an F-22 takes flight from Elmendorf Air Force Base. I think of him when I drive through the front gate of Eielson Air Force Base, which was spared from the 2005 BRAC round largely through his leadership. His face is in the new VA Regional Clinic in Anchorage and in the Community Based Outpatient Clinic in the Mat-Su Valley. I think of Ted when I am fishing on the Kenai River and all of his efforts to help with conservation and restoration of this world class river. These are just a few of Senator Stevens' contributions to Alaska. There is so much more.

At the close of his farewell remarks to the Senate, our friend Ted, told us that he had two homes: ``One in this Chamber, the other his beloved State of Alaska.'' He closed his remarks with the phrase, ``I must leave one to return to the other.''

How prophetic. For on the afternoon of August 9, a cold and gloomy day, yet the kind of day when fishing is great, the Lord called our friend Ted Stevens from Alaska to yet a third home.

Ted's departure leaves a tremendous hole in the hearts of the people of Alaska, a hole in the collective hearts of his Senate family, and a hole in my heart that will take a long time to heal.

On behalf of a grateful Senate and a grateful American people, I extend condolences to Ted's wife Catherine; to his children Susan, Beth, Ted, Walter, Ben and Lily, and to all of the grandchildren.

As our friend, the late Senator Robert Byrd, knew and often recounted on the Senate floor--of all of the things that brought Ted Stevens joy, his family brought Ted the greatest of joys. In Ted's words, his family gave him the kind of love, support, and sacrifice which made his 40-year career in the Senate possible and gave it meaning. We thank Ted's family for sharing this remarkable man with Alaska, the Senate, and the Nation.

Thank you, Ted. We will never forget you.

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