Sam Farr: “I am not from Illinois, but I have to tell my colleagues that Senator Simon was a man of all seasons, was a mentor and a…”

“I am not from Illinois, but I have to tell my colleagues that Senator Simon was a man of all seasons, was a mentor and a teacher. And most importantly, when he talked, people listened. I remember when the Defense Language Institute, which is our premier language school in the world, and he was very dedicated to having Americans learn languages, and it was threatened for closure, he called President Clinton and said, do not take that off the list. Clinton said, why are you interested in a base that is in California? And Senator Simon said, because it is an intellectual capital for languages and we need to keep it that way. A very impressive man. The country will greatly miss him. He was the epitome of politics, the greatness of politics in America.”