{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=EA9E781F-BE9B-4B15-9DDE-A6E03F29B1B0", "Thune Honors Retiring Senators Braun and Romney", "2024-12-05", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today honored U.S. Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on the Senate floor for their years of service in the Senate. Thune congratulated both of them on their success in delivering for their states and extended his best wishes in their next endeavors.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, one of the drawbacks of the end of a Congress is the need to say goodbye to departing colleagues.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re losing two Republicans this year \u2013 Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Braun.\n\n\u201cMitt gave his farewell remarks yesterday, and they were characteristic of the man I\u2019ve come to know.\n\n\u201cHumble. Faith-filled. Patriotic.\n\n\u201cMitt\u2019s what would I call a character guy.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s guided by a moral compass, and he\u2019s not afraid to live by it.\n\n\u201cAnd in a world where being religious isn\u2019t always highly regarded, he\u2019s unapologetic about his faith.\n\n\u201cMitt is also a big family guy.\n\n\u201cLike me, he married up, and he and his wife Ann have shared the good times and the tough times for well, now, over 50 years of marriage.\n\n\u201cHard to believe to look at him!\n\n\u201cBut they say children keep you young, and Mitt has five sons and an incredible 25 grandchildren.\n\n\u201cA beautiful legacy all on its own.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Mitt\u2019s professional legacy needs no recounting.\n\n\u201cHe is well-known as a successful businessman.\n\n\u201cA successful Republican governor of a deep blue state.\n\n\u201cAnd most recently, as a successful senator.\n\n\u201cHe may be leaving us after just one term, but that term was filled with an outsized amount of work.\n\n\u201cAnd he has more than earned his retirement.\n\n\u201cMr. President, in addition to Mitt, Mike Braun is leaving us at the end of this Congress \u2013 in his case to go and serve as the governor of Indiana.\n\n\u201cMike is another guy who has had an outsized impact here in the Senate in a short amount of time.\n\n\u201cIn fact, he was named the most effective first-term Republican senator in the 117th Congress.\n\n\u201cAnd no surprise.\n\n\u201cIt was clear from the beginning that Mike came here because he wanted to get things done.\n\n\u201cAnd now he\u2019ll bring that same drive and effectiveness \u2013 the drive and effectiveness that helped him grow a small business with 15 employees into a national company \u2013 to his work as governor of Indiana.\n\n\u201cI have no doubt at all that the state will thrive under his leadership.\n\n\u201cAs I may have told Mike, Hoosiers is one of my top five movies of all time, which has automatically made me a big fan of the Hoosier State.\n\n\u201cSo I look forward to seeing all the great things that are going to happen to Indiana during his tenure.\n\n\u201cI know he will be incredibly busy as governor, especially because Mike is a guy that gives his all to what he does \u2013 witness the fact that he has visited all 92 of Indiana\u2019s counties every year during his time here in the Senate.\n\n\u201cBut I hope he\u2019ll still find time for his beloved mushroom hunting.\n\n\u201cAnd I know he\u2019ll be finding time to spend with his wife Maureen and their four children \u2013 three of whom work for the family business \u2013 as well as with their seven grandchildren.\n\n\u201cMike, congratulations on your election as governor.\n\n\u201cIt has been a pleasure to work with you here in the Senate.\n\n\u201cAnd I look forward to seeing all the great things you will do in Indiana.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=EA9E781F-BE9B-4B15-9DDE-A6E03F29B1B0"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5302218962460756, "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"}