[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11058-S11060]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING LULA DAVIS
Mr. BAYH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 707, submitted
earlier today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 707) honoring Lula Davis.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution.
Mr. REID. Madam President, every working body needs a strong heart to
function. This legislative body, the Senate, is no different. For many
years--as long as I have been in the Senate, and that is a while--Lula
Davis has been the heart of the Senate.
In 1997, when we elected her as assistant Democratic secretary, she
was the first woman to hold that position. Before the 111th Congress,
we elected her to be the secretary of the majority--the first African
American in that role. Over the last 2 years, she has expertly tackled
one of the toughest jobs anywhere in politics.
More importantly, the last 2 years have also seen the debate and
passage of some of the most historic legislation in the entire history
of the country--laws to protect Americans from health insurance
companies, from Wall Street banks, from credit card companies, from
tobacco companies, from mortgage fraudsters, from unsafe food, from
discrimination, from inequality, and so, so much more.
Any one of these bills by itself would define a session of Congress.
We did all of them in just the last 2 years, and we could not have done
any of it without Lula Davis's leadership.
Lula has come a long way since her days as a teacher and guidance
counselor, and even further from her time in rural Louisiana. She
started her Senate career as a legislative aide to her home State
Senator, the legendary Russell Long, and went on to serve in almost
every position on the floor staff: office assistant, floor assistant,
chief floor assistant, assistant secretary, and secretary.
Anyone who has watched the Senate knows it is not always an easy
place to understand, and I am an expert on how hard it is to understand
it. Anyone who has studied this institution, its idiosyncrasies and
intricacies knows it can be extremely baffling. But Lula knows this
place inside and out like no one else. She is fluent in the rhythms of
the Senate. She knows and respects its complex rules, both formal and
informal. Her counsel, as a result, has always been thoughtful and
reliable to every one of us.
She is loyal to the Senate and to its Senators, and she respects the
traditions that make this body great--which is why, in return, this
body has great respect for her and her hard work.
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Lula has spent her Senate career behind the scenes not just helping
Senators do our jobs but also quietly helping young people, the hungry,
and those in need. As tough and hard as Lula must be here on the Senate
floor, she has a heart of gold.
She founded and runs a nonprofit called Leadership Cares, which each
year helps children in our community provide quality meals to more than
650 families. She has encouraged many of her fellow Senate staffers to
join her family and friends and volunteer to help. She has never asked
for any recognition for this work or any of her work because that is
the kind of person she is. But Lula deserves our praise and thanks for
so much more.
Senator Landrieu of Louisiana likes to tell a story about how much a
part of the Senate Lula really is, how great an institution our
outgoing secretary of the majority is. Senator Landrieu once asked a
group of Senate pages if they had had a chance to meet the Senate
leaders. They said: Yes. They had met Lula.
Lula Davis has been the heart of the Senate, and our appreciation for
her is heartfelt. I speak for each Senator, Democrats and Republicans.
For me, personally, Lula has been strong, resolute, and very wise.
Words cannot describe how I will miss Lula Davis. She has been
indispensable and she is irreplaceable.
On behalf of every Senator, I thank Lula for her years of service to
our caucus and for her more than 25 years of service to the Senate and
the United States of America.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I rise this evening to acknowledge
the retirement of Lula Davis, in appreciation of her dedication to the
Senate and her many years of service to this institution. Lula has been
a force in every legislative effort we have engaged in since my tenure
as Republican leader began, and long before that. I have come to
respect her deep knowledge of the Senate rules and the important role
she has played in advising Democratic Senators over the past 2 years.
She is a constant presence on the floor and an important part of Senate
life. We congratulate her on her professional success, from her days as
a school teacher to her work on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and we
wish her every happiness in the years ahead.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, before I make a statement on another
issue, I join the majority leader in his comments about the retirement
of Lula Johnson Davis from the Senate.
Before I came to the Senate, I was a Member of the House of
Representatives for 14 years, and I greatly enjoyed that experience. It
was certainly an amazing change to come from the House to the Senate,
to move from one congressional district to representing the entire
State, to move from a 2-year term to a 6-year term, to move from 434
colleagues to 99 fellow colleagues. All of these things took some
getting used to, plus the fact that, in the House, you were constricted
on the use of time for speeches on the floor, and in the Senate, there
is almost no limit. If you want to speak forever, I think the Senate
rules will accommodate you.
Those changes all pale in comparison to the single biggest change I
ran into here, and that was facing the secretary to the majority, Lula
Johnson Davis. I knew that people throughout Capitol Hill on both the
House and Senate sides at the staff level were extremely courteous,
kind, and helpful. I found that throughout my career in the House, and
I certainly found it in the Senate. But the good thing about Lula Davis
was that she was respectful of Senators, but not deferential. She would
be happy to tell you when she thought you had stepped out of line in
what you were wearing, and what you were chewing, and what you might be
using your microphone for, your conversations on the floor, and on and
on. She did this in a way that first startled me, because I wasn't used
to it in the House. There was nobody like Lula in the House of
Representatives to keep you in line. She did it, and I came to not only
like it but respect it so much, because I knew she was doing it not in
any personal way but because of her love for the Senate.
They do a Roll Call survey about the most powerful staffers on
Capitol Hill, and they rate them in four ways: know-how, muscle, spin
control, and access. Lula always received the highest check marks in
every category but one--spin control. That is about right. Lula Davis
was never one to mince words in her role as secretary to the majority
of the Senate. Tough, fair, insisting on the strict observance of
Senate rules and protocols, she reflected love for this institution in
all that she did for us.
The National Journal described her as ``an internally legendary
staffer.'' That is true. In the 221-year history of the Senate, Lula
Davis is only the second woman--and the first African American--ever to
hold the position of secretary to the majority.
Her loyalty and devotion to this Senate are unmatched. She was the
first one here in the morning and the last one to leave at night.
I know I speak for all Senators from the Democratic side and the
Republican side, as well, in saying she is going to be missed. Unlike
many, Lula Davis did not move to Washington to get involved in
politics. She started her career as a high school teacher and guidance
counselor. A friend told Lula about an opening in the office of her
home State Senator, Russell Long, of Louisiana. She started her Hill
career at the bottom, as a legislative correspondent, answering mail.
When Senator Long retired in 1989, Lula moved to the Democratic floor
staff and worked her way up from the lowliest assistant position to
become secretary to the majority.
As many hours as Lula devoted to the Senate, it is hard to believe
that she had time for anything else. But she founded an organization
called LeadershipCares, which tries to guide young people into
successful lives by helping others who are less fortunate. Almost every
class of pages on the Democratic side would tell a story about Lula,
because she became not only their boss but their friend. She taught
them a lot about life in their life experience here in the Senate.
I join my colleagues in wishing Lula the very best of luck as she
begins the next chapter in life.
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, although I don't have anything written,
I was listening to the leader speak and the whip talk about Lula Davis
and all she has done here in the Senate. I, too, wish to pay my
respects and give my thanks and my best wishes to Lula Davis as she
leaves the Senate.
For 30 years, she has been a loyal, hard-working, passionate advocate
for the people of this country in an unelected role--a role that
required her to make sure the business of the Senate was conducted. I
know of no one who knows the rules and how things work and how things
should go better than Lula Davis. At times, she knew everything, it
seemed to me. Many times, we would go to her because we would have a
bill on the floor and we would have something that would get tied up. I
would be managing a bill, and things would get into a big ball of wax
sometimes or seem like a big ball of string and you had to figure out
how to unwind it. I would always go to Lula Davis and say: OK, how do
we get out of this mess? We have an amendment on an amendment and a
motion to recommit and all these things piled up. And she always knew
how to do it. She always knew how to make sure the place would run.
If you ever needed advice on how to do something or accomplish
something, you could go to her. Of course, sometimes she would give you
advice you didn't want to hear. Sometimes you wanted to do something,
and she had to be the person to say: Well, the rules just won't allow
you to do that. So there were times I would get frustrated, and I would
say: But I want to do this; this is for the good of the country. And
Lula Davis would say: Well, Senator, you are just going to have to find
some other way to do it.
So that is just my way to pay respect to a person who devoted so much
of her life to this Senate. A lot of times, we find ourselves here late
at night, and once in a while, I would think I was the last person to
leave, but Lula was always the last person to leave and always the
person--if you came in early in the day, she was the first person here.
So she has really been such an integral part of the Senate, the Senate
floor is going to have a vacancy without her in the future.
So to Lula Davis, I say: Thank you for so many years of friendship
and
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loyalty and hard work in helping to make the Senate a more efficient,
compatible working environment.
I thank Lula Davis, and I wish her the best in her retirement. I hope
she doesn't get too far away from the Senate and that she comes back to
see us once in a while to help us untangle that ball of string, as I am
sure it is bound to become tangled again sometime.
Mr. BAYH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to
reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate,
and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the
Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 707) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
S. Res. 707
Whereas Lula Davis, the Secretary for the Majority, will be
retiring at the end of the 111th Congress, after a long and
distinguished career;
Whereas Lula Davis was first elected as Assistant
Democratic Secretary in 1997, and she was the first woman
ever to hold that position;
Whereas Lula Davis was elected to be the Secretary for the
Majority at the beginning of the 111th Congress, the first
African American to serve in this position, and during the
111th Congress she has expertly tackled one of the toughest
jobs in politics;
Whereas throughout her time in the Senate, Lula Davis has
played a major role in managing the debate and passage of
many significant pieces of legislation;
Whereas many legislative accomplishments over the years
would not have happened without the leadership of Lula Davis;
Whereas Lula Davis lived in rural Louisiana, and worked as
a teacher and guidance counselor;
Whereas Lula Davis remains committed to children in our
community, founding and continuing to run a nonprofit
mentoring and charitable organization called ``Leadership
Cares,'' which provides holiday meals to more than 650
families annually;
Whereas Lula Davis has encouraged many of her fellow Senate
staff to volunteer alongside her family and friends to make a
difference for those in need;
Whereas Lula Davis started her Senate career as a
legislative aide to her home-state Senator, Russell Long, and
went on to serve in almost every position on the floor staff,
including office assistant, floor assistant, chief floor
assistant, Assistant Secretary, and Secretary;
Whereas Lula Davis is a master of the complex formal and
informal rules under which the Senate operates;
Whereas Lula Davis has consistently provided thoughtful and
reliable advice to both Democratic and Republican leadership
and all members of the Senate;
Whereas Lula Davis is loyal to the Senate and to Senators,
and respects the traditions that make this body great;
Whereas the Senate has tremendous respect for Lula Davis
and her hard work, and deeply appreciates her enormous
contributions to the Senate and to the United States: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate expresses its deepest thanks to
Lula Davis for her many years of outstanding service to the
United States Senate and to the United States of America.
____________________