Don Nickles: “I would like to pay a brief tribute to my friend and colleague and neighbor from the State of Arkansas for his 24 years…”

“I would like to pay a brief tribute to my friend and colleague and neighbor from the State of Arkansas for his 24 years of service in the Senate. I have had the pleasure of working with Senator Dale Bumpers since I was elected to the Senate 18 years ago. So I am completing three terms. He is just completing four terms. Twenty-four years in the Senate is a long time. But I think the Senate has been blessed by his humor, his levity. The camaraderie that Senator Bumpers has brought to the Senate floor and to the Senate group has been enjoyable, educational, and humorous, to say the least. I have had the pleasure of serving with Senator Bumpers on the Energy Committee where he has been ranking member for the last several years. We have worked together on a lot of legislation. We passed some good legislation, I might add, as well. So I compliment him for his years of service. He served 4 years as Governor of Arkansas; I think he was elected in 1970; and elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974. It seems like he has been in the same chair for years. He has been the same Senator who will still get excited on a speech and pull his microphone cord to the limit. Maybe he might test the limit of the cord as much as anybody I know in the Senate--a very good speaker, a very good friend who has served his State very well.”