Mr. Speaker, I guess it is not a secret, Paul Coverdell and I were about as different as night and day. But vastly different paths in life led us both to serve in the Georgia legislature and then on to Congress so that we could work together on behalf of the people of the great State of Georgia. And when it came to the interests of the people of Georgia, we often saw eye to eye.

I want to send all of my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the Coverdell family and to all the people who knew and loved Paul Coverdell .

Immediately after the 1996 election, when I had been redistricted and had a vastly changed district and we were able to pull out a victory in a very close race, Paul Coverdell and I got together and decided that we needed to build bridges with each other so that we could do the work that the people of Georgia sent us both to do.

Our first project together resulted in about $20 million being protected on the Senate side for my constituents who live in and about the environs of Peach Tree De Kalb Airport.

Paul Coverdell 's latest project that we all were working on was a veterans cemetery for our Georgia veterans.

But more than anything else, I have to say that I am struck by the finality of death and the incomplete way many of us in public life lead our lives. We are so busy, we are rushing here and rushing there and going to meetings and going here and going there and always, always, always in a rush and too busy to appreciate the people around us, too busy to stop and say `I love you,' too busy to stop and say `I thank you' to the people who make a difference in our lives.

This past weekend, I was looking at the Coverdell report on television; and now I am standing here today sending condolences to Paul Coverdell 's family.

I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), the dean of our delegation, for providing us this resolution so that we can pay our respects to our senior Senator. I want to thank all of the people who are responsible for all of us being here serving our people of our State.

I would like to thank my colleagues, who, through difficult times, have stood beside me in particular. And perhaps I have not said thank you appropriately enough, but I want to say thank you today. I want to say thank you to my Georgia delegation members. Because we do not see eye to eye on a lot of issues and we do not even meet as often as we probably should, but I do not think there is a single issue that will benefit the people of our State that we do not come together and work on.

And then finally, I would like to thank the Coverdell family for sharing their leader with the people of our State and the people of our country for about 30 years of public service.

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