WASHINGTON, D.C. — After 40 years of public service to Kansas, Republican U.S. Senator Pat Roberts Thursday delivered his final speech on the Senate floor, noting it had been an honor to serve the Sunflower state and urging colleagues to emphasize dignity in the halls of Congress.
“I have had the honor and privilege of representing Kansans for 16 years in the House and 24 in the Senate,” Roberts said.
“I have held six gavels in the House and Senate, and that, in and of itself, might be a record.
Roberts has served on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee for 40 years – since first elected. He has been chairman during the 114th, 115th, and 116th congresses.
“But, it’s what happened during my tenures as chairman that I believe have had the most lasting impacts,” he said. It’s not just having the gavel – it’s what you do with it.
“To be a member of this United States Senate is a true privilege. A working family, it is the greatest deliberative body in the world,” he said. “But, today, as compared to when I first came to the Senate, it’s the deliberative part that gives me great concern. I lament the loss of comity, the ability to work together, or just to get along. Sadly, gridlock appears to be the new normal. However, it does not have to be.”
He’s been proud to serve as chairman of a committee that does get along, and gets things done. And, it really is not that hard, he said.
“Here, in the Senate, only we can decide what our new normal is, and we ought to get to know one another,” he said. We don’t have to let the apparent gravitational pull of more and more politics in pursuit of power to change what our founders gave us – the creation of a nation of liberty and freedom, the envy of the world – and to literally move the United States Senate from the moorings of its historic and great past to simply be a rubber stamp for radical change.”
He offered this entreaty – “Let us once again become a body of respect, humility, cooperation, achievement and friendship. That can and should be our new normal.
“The entire country could use a little bit of what we say in Kansas, ‘Ad astra per aspera’ – to the stars through difficulties.”
Following Roberts’ remarks fellow Kansas Republican and Sen. Jerry Moran spoke on the Senate floor to honor his longtime colleague.
“Pat’s role model – the person he may admire the most – is Kansan Dwight Eisenhower,” said Moran. “Pat Roberts, I have no doubt that you’ve lived up to that role model, that Kansan that is esteemed around the world, and you’ve led like Ike led. I thank you and your staff for all you have done for Kansans and America. I thank you for what you’ve done for me and my team.”
“You said thank you to Kansans; you said thank you to this Senate,” continued Sen. Moran. “I think it’s the time for me to say in return, on behalf of all Kansans, thank you for your service to our nation and to our state. A life being well lived, you are the example.”
Roberts is a fourth generation Kansan. He was born in Topeka, graduated from Holton High School, and earned a journalism degree from Kansas State University. For 16 years, he represented the Big First District, including his home of Dodge City, in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1996, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Roberts is the longest serving member of Congress in the history of the State of Kansas. He and his wife Franki have three grown children and seven grandchildren.
