Dan Coats: “I wish to make some remarks about the Senator from Louisiana. I had the pleasure of serving as ranking member of the…”

“I wish to make some remarks about the Senator from Louisiana. I had the pleasure of serving as ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, and Mary Landrieu was the chairman. I wasn't sure about what to expect when I joined that committee. I knew of Mary's passion and her persuasion, which is given in a gentle but effective way. She reaches out. I thought, she is going to convince me out of just about everything. I will not be able to hold my own with her, but she was so gracious in terms of working together with me as we worked through some very tough issues. She was a knowledgeable and effective leader. She couldn't ask enough questions, couldn't gain enough information, making wise decisions, given the limitations that we had relative to appropriations and given the process that, unfortunately, was not the way the Appropriations Committee should go forward. Nevertheless, working together on that and on a whole number of issues turned out to be a very pleasant experience because of the nature of the leader of the committee and their willingness to work together. You get to learn something about someone when you spend 3 days trekking along the southern border on the immigration issue. We climbed into tunnels, driving along fences, talking to Border Patrol agents, looking at the enormous channels that exist relative to that border and our Border Patrol people and immigration control people.…”