Community Update

Cowan Delivers Farewell Address on Senate Floor

The following is from the Office of Senator Cowan:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) went to the floor of the United States Senate to deliver his farewell address and mark the end of his tenure.  Cowanexpressed his deep gratitude to his fellow colleagues and thanked the people of the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the honor to serve on their behalf.

Senator Cowan was appointed to the United States Senate by Governor Deval L. Patrick on February 1, 2013, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John F. Kerry.

For a video clip of Senator Cowan’s remarks, click here.

Senator Cowan’s address, as delivered, is below:

Mister President, I rise today in my final full work week, and not yet 150 days into my Senate career, yet at the precipice of the close of that career.  On January 30th of this year, Governor Deval Patrick sent me to this chamber to represent the people of Massachusetts and their interests.  Yesterday on June 25th, those same people took to the voting booths and called me home. 

And in doing so they called Senator-Elect Ed Markey to the high honor of serving in this august body. 

After 37 distinguished years in the House, Senator-Elect Markey now has the opportunity to offer his voice, wisdom, accumulated experiences, humor, esprit de corps, and tireless commitment to justice and equality to the United States Senate. 

And I, for one, believe that Massachusetts and the country will be better for it.  Like the majority of Massachusetts voters who expressed themselves yesterday, I am quite confident that Senator-Elect Markey will serve with distinction and act in the best interests of the citizens he now is privileged to represent. 

The Senator-Elect bested a strong candidate who brought a new voice and – yes – a new visage to the Massachusetts political scene. 

I applaud Gabriel Gomez on a well-run campaign and, most importantly, his willingness to sacrifice so much in an effort to serve the people of the Commonwealth.  He started this journey as a relative unknown but I suspect we have not heard the last of Mr. Gomez.  I thank him and his family for their sacrifices and their willingness to engage.

Mr. President, when it comes to Farewell Speeches few will top the words offered by John Kerry on this floor a few months ago.  After 28 years of distinguished service to the people of Massachusetts, now Secretary Kerry spent nearly an hour reflecting on his service in this body. By the same measure, Mr. President, as merely an interim Senator serving but for a few short months, I probably should have ended my remarks about 45 seconds ago.

But before I yield, Mr. President, I will take a few minutes to reflect on my brief time in this body, and extend my gratitude to a number of folks. 

First, I want to acknowledge and recognize the outstanding staff members in Boston and DC who have helped me serve our constituents to the best of my ability. 

When Governor Patrick named me as interim senator a few people – okay…more than a few – openly questioned whether I would be up to the task and whether I was capable of accomplishing anything other than locating the lavatory during my temporary assignment. 

But I knew something those doubters did not know: I knew I was going to be able to do my best for the folks back home because I came to the Senate armed with knowledge of the issues by dint of my time in the Patrick-Murray Administration and I planned to make a few key hires and convince the bulk of Secretary Kerry’s Senate staff to stay on and help me do the job the Governor sent me to do. 

In other words, I knew what I didn’t know… but I knew enough to hire the people who knew the considerable rest.

And boy have they proven me a genius. 

If you work in the Senate but a day – and I suspect the same is true for the House of Representatives – you will learn quickly that staff make this place hum and good staff make all the difference in the world.  I hope my team will forgive me if I do not list them all by name – thereby avoiding the sin of omission – but, instead, all of the staff will accept my heartfelt appreciation for their willingness to join my team, show me the ropes, teach a new dog some old tricks, educate me on all the rules that matter -- but seem to be written nowhere -- and their exhibition of degrees of professionalism and service to country that the public too often thinks is missing in their Congress. 

To my entire staff: I have been in awe at your greatness and I am forever in your debt for your immeasurable contributions to our work and the interests of Massachusetts residents.  And I look forward to your many successes yet to come. 

And to two of my team in particular – Val Young, my Chief of Staff, and Lauren Rich, my scheduler – who have known and worked with me for years: thanks for your continued willingness to partner with and trust in me.

And if I am being honest about the people who helped me look like I belonged here I must spend a moment or two acknowledging the wonderful women and men who comprise the Senate staff.  From the Capitol Police (who protect us every day and knew my name on the first day)… to the subway operators (who always deliver us on-time and unfazed)… to the elevator operators (who excel in the art of cutting off reporters and their questions)… to the cloak room staff (who field every cloying call about voting schedules and presiding hours)… to the clerks and parliamentarians (who discretely tell you what to say and do as Presiding Officer while the public in the gallery silently wonder why everyone addresses you as Mister or Madam President while sitting in that chair)… to the generous food service staff (who look the other way when you go back for seconds…or thirds)… and to so many others who are the oil that makes this engine hum. 

Each of you has shown me such patience, support and grace that I know your love for this institution may trump even the members’ affections for this place and will sustain the institution long after any one -- or all -- of us leaves this chamber. 

You are tremendous resources for every new senator and, I suspect, great comfort to even the longest serving among us. 

The public may not know you by name or know the importance of your work but…I do. 

And I have been honored to serve with you.

The next folks I recognize are the youngest – and most silent – among us. 

Of course, I speak of the pages, the young women and men who spend part of a high school year dressed and acting in the formal traditions of this body. 

I have yet to speak with an uninteresting page or a page uninterested in the Senate and our government. 

These are dynamic young people who could be doing so many different things with their time but they give their time in service to the Senate and its members. 

And they are indispensable to both. 

I look forward to the day when my young boys will be of age to follow in the footsteps of these outstanding young people.

Last, and by no means least, I want to thank the many family and friends who supported my family and me during my short tenure. 

We often say that it takes a village to raise a child but I can attest that it also takes a village to help an interim senator meet his duties in Congress and at home. 

Whether offering me a spare bedroom in Silver Springs or agreeing to last minute baby-sitting duties so my wife and I both could celebrate Black History Month at the White House, our village is vast and generous. 

And, of course, every village needs a Queen, and the Queen of that village is my bride, Stacy. 

I was able to serve because she was willing to be Mom and Dad and sacrifice in ways known and unknown while I have been in DC. 

Over the past few months I missed many homework assignments, birthday dinners, pediatric appointments, school performances, and parent-teacher meetings. 

But our sons never felt that their Dad was absent and unaccounted for because their Mom – a SuperMom – more than made up for my absence. 

Stacy has been my rock and salvation for nearly 20 years now and I am better every day for it. 

Let the Senate record show for now and all time, my love and dedication to Stacy.

Mr. President, in January of this year, I planned to leave Deval Patrick’s administration and transition back into private life.  I was looking forward to more conventional hours, a reprieve from working under the public scrutiny of the press, and to spending more time with my wife and our young sons. 

So, I came to the United States Senate.

Go figure.

I was surprised, but deeply honored, when Governor Patrick sent me here to represent the folks back home.  And I am eternally grateful for the Governor’s faith and trust in my ability to serve.

This floor, on which I stand today and with which I have become so closely acquainted over the past 5 months, has been occupied by some of the greatest political figures of our nation’s history. 

From my own state of Massachusetts alone, names like Adams, Webster, Sumner, Saltonstall, Brooke, Kennedy, all who held a seat in the Chamber before me, are enough to make any person feel daunted when assuming a desk on this floor. 

And I was appointed to the Senate to fill the seat of another great Senator, John Kerry, and work alongside another great Senator, Elizabeth Warren.  Thank you for being here, Elizabeth.

With my work here - though my time was short - I sought to uphold not only Secretary Kerry’s legacy in this body, but the work of all those esteemed Senators who have dedicated their service to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts… and I pledged to be the best partner with Senator Warren I could be. 

I entered the Senate at a vexing time in this body’s history.

As we all know, Congressional approval remains dismally low. 

People across the nation and political pundits across the airwaves believe that partisanship is a divide too wide to bridge, a wall too high to overcome.

Yet despite the overwhelming public pessimism, I came to Washington with two achievable objectives: to serve the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the best of my ability, and to work with any Senator willing to implement smart, sensible, and productive policy to advance the ideals of our nation. 

From the outside, the prospects for bipartisanship may seem slim.  Party line votes are the norm.  The threat of the filibuster demands a supermajority to pass meaningful legislation.  And the American people have come to believe Congress is more committed to obstruction rather than compromise.

To the everyday observer, we have reached a standstill where partisanship outweighs progress and neither side is willing to reach across the aisle for the good of the American people.

But what I have encountered in the Senate is not a body defined by vitriol but one more defined by congeniality and common respect.

And that began before even I started, Mr. President. 

On the day the Governor announced my appointment I was pleasantly surprised to receive calls on my personal cell phone – still don’t know how they got that number – from Senator’s King, Hagan, and Cardin.  And I had the pleasure of receiving warm welcomes from Majority Leader Reid and Republican Leader McConnell among so many others. 

One of the first persons to congratulate me after Senator Warren and Secretary Kerry escorted me for my swearing in, was my colleague from across the aisle, Senator Tim Scott. 

Since then, Senator Rand Paul and I have recounted our days at Duke and affection for college basketball. 

On a bipartisan congressional delegation to the Middle East, I traded life stories and perspectives with Senators Klobuchar and Hoeven and discussed the comedic genius of Will Ferrell with Senators Gillibrand and Graham. 

Senator Portman stopped by my Commonwealth Coffee last week to wish me well as I leave the Senate and encouraged me every day during my time here.

Senator Burr – my next door neighbor in the Russell Building – has always been good to remind me that I came from North Carolina before I had the privilege to serve Massachusetts. 

Senator McCain invited me to co-sponsor my first Senate resolution. 

Senator Manchin has shown me more kindnesses than I can count. 

The freshman senators on both sides welcomed me to their class and offered never-ending encouragement. 

And, indeed, one of them, Heidi Heitkamp, has become the North Dakota sister I never knew I had.

I wish I had time to recount every kindness each of the other 99 – including the late Senator Lautenberg – gifted me while here, but I don’t.  But each has been recorded indelibly in memory and is returned with gratitude.

In April, I experienced the very best of this body’s character in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, when members from every corner of this nation extended their sympathies, their prayers, and pledged their assistance and support to the City of Boston, and to all those affected by that tragedy.  In the aftermath, we all came together as Americans to honor those killed and to support the wounded during their time of recovery.

We saw the same in the wake of the terrible tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma.

Upon closer inspection, it is clear that all of us here have common bonds and share similar goals… if only we are willing to seek out those bonds and focus on the goals best for our great nation. 

While we may not agree on every policy, every line item, or every vote, we have each embraced the role of public servant, committed to improving the country we have pledged to support and defend. 

And as I have discovered in my time here, there is more opportunity for cooperation than the American public might believe.

And this cooperation has led to some noted successes. 

Thanks to bipartisan work in the Agriculture Committee and on the Senate floor, we were able to send a Farm Bill to the House. 

Through the joint leadership of the so-called Gang of 8, we are debating a workable approach to Comprehensive Immigration Reform. 

We have confirmed five cabinet secretaries. 

And in what will remain the most memorable all-nighter of my Senate career, through a marathon session and more votes in one night than most interim Senators have in a career, the Senate passed a budget and now anxiously await the urgent opportunity to conference with House.

I have seen progress and I remain a true believer in the democratic process, the core functionality of our government endowed to us by our founding fathers so many decades ago. 

And I remain a true believer in our system of government and the Senate’s role in that system. 

If I have been asked any question more frequently than “what are you going to do next, Mo” it has been “Is our system of government broken? Is Congress broken?”

And I have answered truthfully each time: No.

Our system of government is the greatest ever known and the best example of democracy in human history. 

The genius of our Founding Fathers is on display every day on Capitol Hill, in every state capitol, and every city or town hall across this nation.

And part of the Founder’s genius was the birth of a government designed to function as the people need it to but function only as effectively as the privileged few empowered to work within it want it to work. 

Or, as Secretary Kerry himself said it best a few months ago in his final floor, and I quote: “I do not believe the Senate is broken…There is nothing wrong with this Senate that can’t be fixed by what’s right about the Senate – the predominant and weighty notion that 100 American citizens, chosen by their neighbors (or their Governor, in my case) to serve from states as different as Massachusetts to Montana, can always choose to put parochial or personal interests aside and find the national interest.”

What an awesome responsibility and privilege. 

And in my scant five months I have seen the promise of those words realized in more ways and in more interactions than the public, unfortunately, has had occasion to witness. 

So I believe in that unlimited promise still.

I have also been part of history while I was here.

With my appointment, in coincidence with the appointment of Senator Scott, two African Americans are serving in this body concurrently for the first time in our nation’s history. 

Senator Scott and I are, respectively, the seventh and eighth black Senators to serve in this body.  

While I believe this number to be far too few, I am also hopeful that it is a sign that these United States will soon be represented by a more diverse population that more closely reflects the diverse country that we are, and the diversity of opinions that exist across and within our diverse nation. 

With different perspectives, different backgrounds, different races, religions, and creeds, we are better equipped to confront the issues that face our vast and changing nation. 

America has been and always will be a nation of immigrants, where religious freedom is in our DNA, where more and more we are chipping away at the barriers preventing us from achieving true marriage equality and where people worldwide still yearn to reach our shores to enjoy our freedoms. 

And a Congress that is more reflective of this America – as this Congress is becoming – will be good for America.

Finally, Mr. President, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to the people of Massachusetts. 

Not one person was given a chance to vote for or against me but I have gone about my work every day as if they had.  I came to this body beholden to Massachusetts, her residents, and the country only, and leave confident that I have stayed true to that honor.  And, ladies and gentleman of the Commonwealth, it has been a true honor and privilege to represent you as the junior Senator in the United States Senate.

With that, Mr. President, and for what likely will be the final time, I yield the floor.