Jack Reed: “I rise today to pay tribute to an outstanding public servant, my former colleague and friend Senator Herb Kohl who…”

“I rise today to pay tribute to an outstanding public servant, my former colleague and friend Senator Herb Kohl who passed away on December 27, 2023. Over his 88 years, Herb rightfully earned a reputation as a civic-minded champion, whether it was in his many business ventures, his ownership of the Milwaukee Bucks, or his four terms representing his home State of Wisconsin. Herb was the son of immigrants who came to America from Poland and Russia and joined in our Nation's entrepreneurial tradition by opening their own business: a small grocery store. Along with his parents and siblings, he helped grow this one store into a successful regional chain. Even with the enormous success of the business, Herb never forgot where he came from. Reflecting on his parents later in his life, he said that ``[t]hey came with zero . . . None of us [children] ever thought we could get by on anything less than a full effort in life.'' Herb remained deeply and personally involved in the business. He would visit dozens of Kohl's stores each week and would personally interview every full-time employee from the top on down. Herb knew that by focusing on his workers, by making sure they were secure in their jobs and able to thrive, that his business would flourish. One of Herb's closest friends once said of him, as noted by the University of Wisconsin's alumni magazine, ``With any store we walked into, he knew every employee by their first name, and he knew all their families . . .…”