The Honorable Patrick Leahy

United States Senator
United States Senate
December 6, 2012

Today, the Committee should report the judicial nominees from the hearing last September and the executive branch nominees recently cleared by home state Senators. We will also begin our consideration of Senator Franken's location privacy bill.

Before we proceed and as our quorum gathers I wanted to take a moment to recognize two long-time members of the Committee who are retiring from the Senate after this session.

Senator Kohl was elected and reelected by the people of Wisconsin four times. He has served on this Committee since coming to the Senate in 1989. He has served as Chair of the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee and most notably as Chair of our Antitrust Subcommittee. I believe it was at his initiative that it became the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. He served as the ranking member of that subcommittee and the Terrorism and Technology Subcommittee, and contributed to our crime and other subcommittees, as well.

I know I am embarrassing him, but everyone likes Senator Kohl. I speak for Senators on both sides of the aisle when I note how much we all enjoy working with him and how much we will miss him next year. The Senate will miss him. He is a consensus builder. He works in a bipartisan manner. That is how he chaired the Ruby Ridge oversight investigation. That is how we passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization in 1992, and economic espionage bills.

The people of Wisconsin and especially fans of his beloved Milwaukee Bucks will be lucky to have him back. He is a public servant and civic activist of the first order.

I have served with Jon Kyl since he came over from the House in 1995. In his three terms in the Senate, Senator Kyl has served as the Chair of our Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security Subcommittee, as its ranking member and as the ranking member of our reconstituted Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee. I enjoyed working with him on cyber legislation early in his Senate career, on matters protecting crime victims, and more recently in connection with our patent reform efforts. He is a great ally and a formidable adversary. I wish him and his family all the best as he takes on his next challenge.