Dick Durbin: “before I speak on a different topic, let me acknowledge my colleague and friend from Iowa and thank him for a lifetime…”

“before I speak on a different topic, let me acknowledge my colleague and friend from Iowa and thank him for a lifetime of service in the House of Representatives and the Senate. He has announced his retirement at the end of this year. That is a loss for our great institution and for our country. Tom Harkin, more than any other Senator today, as much as any other Senator, has been a clarion voice for the disabled across generations and across country borders for decades. He has changed America and he has changed the world. There are not many people who serve in this Chamber who can say that. But when he joined with Bob Dole, a Republican World War II disabled veteran from Kansas--when this Democratic Senator from Iowa, a Navy veteran himself, joined with Bob Dole and passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, it held America to a higher standard. It guaranteed that our values we express so often would be values we live by. Now he is calling on us to join a family of nations that have admired our leadership in disability rights and wonder why we have not approved this basic treaty or convention on disabilities. I was honored today to vote for that in the Foreign Relations Committee again. We had bipartisan support. We are going to continue to strive for it. I thank the Senator for his unmatched contribution when it comes to speaking out for the disabled across America and around the world.…”