Larry Pressler: “I pay tribute to Senator Stevens of Alaska. He is the father of spectrum auctions. In my opinion, he is a real U.S.…”

“I pay tribute to Senator Stevens of Alaska. He is the father of spectrum auctions. In my opinion, he is a real U.S. Senator. Everybody seems to be leaving the Senate, and they get a 21-gun salute when they leave. Some stay and do the hard work on difficult bills. Ted Stevens is such a man. He and Senator Hollings are examples of people who stay and do public service--honest, hard-working experts on this technical legislation. Some day I will be a professor in a university, I hope, out in western South Dakota. One of my lectures will be on real U.S. Senators--those who are not necessarily media stars, but who do the hard, honest work on the technical things, the real U.S. Senators. Certainly Ted Stevens is one of those, along with Senator Hollings. I believe both are in about their fifth term, and if they announced they were retiring, they would get a 21-gun salute. I thank Ted Stevens, the father of spectrum auctions and one of the originators of this legislation.”