{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2E8ED978-A3C9-49A8-B496-92EEFE64D7FD", "McConnell Honors Retiring Senator Richard Shelby", "2022-12-19", "2022", "2022-12", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL):\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve saved my tribute for the most senior retiring Republican member for late in the year.\n\n\u201cBut even with mere days remaining until the end of his term, our colleague\u2019s calendar has been packed \u2014 not with fancy farewell parties, but with a final chapter of high-stakes negotiations and tireless legislative work on behalf of his state, our nation, and in particular our Armed Forces.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that Senator Richard Shelby\u2019s final days in the Senate see him running through the tape and burning the literal midnight oil.\n\n\u201cThe state of Alabama has sent some prolific and powerful Senators to this chamber over its history. But Richard Shelby has surpassed them all. He is not just the longest-serving Senator from Alabama, he is the most influential. Our friend is one of the most effective legislators the United States Senate has ever seen.\n\n\u201cGrowing up outside Depression-era Birmingham, Richard Shelby was not automatically predestined for the halls of power.\n\n\u201cBut even before our friend had grown into the fullness of his commanding stature, I understand that young Richard Shelby was never afraid to throw his weight around, whether he was fighting for his team on the football field or putting himself between a classmate and a bully on the streetcar.\n\n\u201cAs a young man, there was hardly any academic or athletic test that Richard didn\u2019t pass with flying colors. But the way I hear it, the most important test was ensuring that a pretty girl named Annette was delivered back home in time for curfew after their first date.\n\n\u201cAnnette was intrigued by this handsome young man, but she also loved and respected her own family, so she declared that if Richard was late dropping her off, the first date would be the last!\n\n\u201cThus, a partnership for the ages was born.\n\n\u201cAnd ever since the Shelbys\u2019 very first campaign victory in 1970, the people of Alabama have had a natural campaigner, a trailblazing problem-solver, and an intellectual giant looking out for their interests\u2026 and in addition to Annette Shelby, they\u2019ve also gotten Richard in the package deal!\n\n\u201cDr. Annette Shelby has charted an historic course of her own here in Washington, including becoming the first woman to hold a tenured professorship at Georgetown\u2019s Business School.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, across the city, the other half of the Shelby partnership was developing a reputation for visionary leadership here in Congress. Where Richard is concerned, the word \u2018visionary\u2019 is neither throwaway praise nor exaggeration. It\u2019s simply accurate. People around the Senate like to say that Richard Shelby doesn\u2019t just see down the road; he sees down the road and around the corner.\n\n\u201cOur colleague has not just known how to fight for Alabama in the individual issues and debates that each day has brought. He has also invented creative, new, forward-looking visions and missions that nobody else had dreamed of \u2014 and then methodically set about turning them into reality.\n\n\u201cRichard has trained his efforts on a small number of core priorities at one time \u2014 the places he is most convinced he can make an outsized difference. And once one of those big priorities is identified, it\u2019s been a dog after a bone.\n\n\u201cTake the city of Huntsville. As the story goes, a few decades ago it was a sleepy town by the Tennessee border. Today, it\u2019s a booming technological hub for cutting edge industries like space exploration and missile defense.\n\n\u201cOr take the Port of Mobile. The way I understand it, the spark was an overseas trip where Richard saw firsthand the latest international shipping infrastructure that was rapidly taking shape in Asia. I think the sentiment was more or less this: If Singapore can do this, why not Mobile?\n\n\u201cSo, today, what used to be a small inlet on the Gulf Coast is now a booming hub for shipping. A transformation that\u2019s sending ripples of prosperity across the entire region. But even our visionary colleague\u2019s prolific foresight occasionally hit its limits.\n\n\u201cRichard\u2019s good friend, our former colleague Phil Gramm, had the good judgment to switch to the Republican Party way back in 1983. He immediately started working on his good buddy to follow suit.\n\n\u201cBut even after a charm offensive that I\u2019m told involved multiple White House lunches with President Reagan\u2026Even after Robert Byrd had skeptically accused Senator Shelby of harboring, \u2018definite Republican tendencies.\u2019\u2026It still took our friend until after Republicans\u2019 landslide victories in 1994 to finally cross the threshold and join our team.\n\n\u201cWell, the rest is history.\n\n\u201cThe iconic phrase \u201cChairman Shelby\u201d could refer to our colleague\u2019s time steering sensitive oversight at the helm of the Intelligence Committee\u2026Or his mastery of the most complex matters as head of the Banking Committee\u2026Or his time lending a steady hand to institutional priorities as Rules Committee chair\u2026Or, most recently, the years our colleague has spent in the number-one or number-two slots on top of the Appropriations Committee, directing the American people\u2019s money into key national priorities, most especially our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense.\n\n\u201cBut Richard\u2019s Washington expertise never came at the expense of his home-state roots. Just the opposite. The national renown that Richard Shelby accrued was just a pathway by which his beloved Alabama came to punch more and more above its weight.\n\n\u201cA long line of Shelby staffers have learned that there\u2019s no need for a road map or a GPS when they\u2019ve got the Senator himself in the car. Our friend knows every single back-road and highway exit. He knows every good \u2018meat-and-three.\u2019 And if there\u2019s ever time to stop in for lunch or coffee, just pick a spot, and Richard will know a handful of the folks inside.\n\n\u201cHow, exactly, has our colleague sustained this level of sharpness and influence over such an historic career? For one thing, I understand the seasoned Chairman is a frequent visitor to the \u2018Health Committee\u2019 \u2014 his moniker for the Senate Gym.\n\n\u201cLikewise, I have it on good authority that, at one point, our friend held the distinction of having more books checked out in his name from the Library of Congress than any other member in either chamber.\n\n\u201cOccasionally, though, having such a voracious reader for a colleague can lead to trouble.\n\n\u201cYears ago, shortly after the passing of President Reagan, I was wrapping up a meeting with my Banking Committee colleague when I half-wondered whether we could find a way to honor the Gipper with a place on our currency.\n\n\u201cWith no particular malice toward Alexander Hamilton in mind, I loosely suggested, what about, perhaps, the $10 bill?\n\n\u201cBut alas, little did I know, I was sitting across from the most recent person in America to finish Ron Chernow\u2019s gigantic, newly-released biography of Hamilton. This was the book that would go on to inspire the hit musical and spark a big revival of interest in Hamilton. Richard Shelby had spent weeks eating up every page, admiring Hamilton\u2019s genius more and more with every chapter.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s just say, a few minutes later, I was back at the drawing board.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to imagine the Senate without Richard Shelby. But I\u2019m not too concerned that the opposite will hold true. As much as Richard has loved this institution, and excelled in it, we know our colleague can imagine life beyond the Senate just fine.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019ll be even more time to stay a student of history. Even more time for duck-hunting with good friends. The visionary brainstorming for Alabama and our nation won\u2019t stop, oh no\u2026\n\n\u201cBut our friend will get to balance it out with a whole lot more time with his beloved Annette, their two sons, and their grandkids. More time to enjoy the home state that has been literally transformed by Richard\u2019s passion and vision.\n\n\u201cRichard, thank you so very much.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=2E8ED978-A3C9-49A8-B496-92EEFE64D7FD"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4952120836824179, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}