Tom Harkin: “with the close of the 112th Congress, the Senate will lose its most determined champion of fiscal prudence and balance…”

“with the close of the 112th Congress, the Senate will lose its most determined champion of fiscal prudence and balance, Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. Senator Conrad is best known nationally for his leadership as chairman of the Committee on the Budget. Again, that committee has limited legislative power, but that did not stop Senator Conrad from using that committee relentlessly for fiscal restraint, for honest budgeting. As we all know, he has spent countless hours on the floor educating, exhorting Senators on budget issues, driving home his points by displaying a seemingly endless array of charts and graphs. Indeed, I would note in 2001, the Committee on Rules and Administration assigned Senator Conrad his own printing equipment because he was producing more charts than all his colleagues combined. The other day, we had this so-called Secret Santa that Senator Franken had established, where we draw names out of a hat and we exchange these little gifts. You never know who is going to give you a gift. You know to whom you are giving, but you do not know who is giving you a gift. It turned out my gift giver was Senator Conrad. So I got a nice little book. But most importantly, I got three charts. They were charts from the 2008 farm bill we both worked on, and of which I was chairman at that time.…”