Kent Conrad: “before Congress adjourns for the year, I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to Senator Frank Lautenberg of New…”

“before Congress adjourns for the year, I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, who is retiring this year. Senator Lautenberg served our nation in World War II, and later became a successful businessman. He helped to found a payroll services company, Automatic Data Processing (ADP), and built it into one of the largest computing services companies in the world. In 1982 Frank Lautenberg launched a new career, in public service, when he was elected to the United States Senate. He has represented his state well. Frank Lautenberg has been a leader on budget issues, a good friend to the environment, and an accomplished legislator in the areas of transportation and health care. I have served on the Senate Budget Committee with Frank Lautenberg since 1987; he became Ranking Member of the Committee in 1997. Senator Lautenberg played a key role in the 1997 negotiations on the bipartisan Balanced Budget Act, which completed the work of balancing the federal budget. That legislation provided important resources for education and health care, while cutting taxes for millions of Americans. Senator Lautenberg has also been a good friend to the environment, serving as the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Superfund.…”