On the recordDecember 19, 2012
I am joining my colleagues in rising today to pay honor and respect to the service of Jon Kyl, a tribute to his passion for public service and his State of Arizona and his country in this Congress for 26 years. I echo all the sentiments and all the words that have been said by our colleagues. There are not enough adjectives to adequately describe the extraordinary service Jon has provided to this country. I have had the pleasure of serving alongside him in the House of Representatives, in the Senate--two times, as some know. I served before and then was out for 12 years and then came back. In my many years of service here, it is hard to think of a person who has been more influential and been more of someone I wanted to emulate and to learn from and to look at as a wise counsel than Jon Kyl. He has been described as an influential member of the Judiciary and Finance Committees. Yes, he has been an outspoken leader on issues of very significant importance to this country--significant issues including the landmark Crime Victims Rights Act, progrowth tax policies that we have been debating here, patient-centered health care reform, and antiterrorism laws, nuclear proliferation, safeguarding our nuclear stockpile. On and on it could go. Jon recently called me to his office and said, you know, there are 13 separate things here that have been the highest priority for me.…
