[国会记录：2011年9月22日（参）] [第S5895-S5896]悼念MICHAEL DAVIDSON范斯坦太太。主席女士，我今天认识到迈克尔·戴维森先生，在智力专责委员会的总顾问，他长和卓越的服务，美国参议院。Mike quietly retired from the U.S. Senate for the second time on Labor Day, September 5, 2011. At the Select Committee on Intelligence, where he worked for 8 years during his second career here in the Senate, he was always a source of wisdom and optimism. Mike was invariably calm, thoughtful and constructive. These qualities, in combination [[Page S5896]] with his brilliant legal mind and prodigious memory, made him an invaluable member of the committee staff. Indeed, Mike had a unique ability to recall past legislation, reports, or other parts of Senate history, and find them in archives and mostly forgotten records, to make sure that present day decisions were informed by the past. In addition, Mike was known and respected throughout Washington. He will be greatly missed, not only by our committee, but by the many people who have had the privilege to work with him from other offices in the Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector. I know, and am appreciative, that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be honoring Mike in October for his numerous services to the committee and the intelligence community. I have often been amazed at the varied backgrounds of Senators and Senate staff alike, and Mike Davidson is another example why. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where his father was a professor of theater at Brooklyn College, and where we believe his devotion to the New York Mets was born. Mike received his bachelor of arts in history from Cornell University in 1961 and his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1964. With law degree in hand, Mike became one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in Kenya where he served for 3 years. Upon his return to the United States, he worked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund between 1967 and 1973, trying civil rights cases and arguing appeals in various Federal courts. From 1974 to 1977, Mike taught clinical law at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Moving to Washington in 1977, he served as the chief staff counsel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In 1979, Mike became the Senate's very first legal counsel, representing the Senate in separation-of-powers and other litigation, and assisting committees in ethics, impeachment and other special investigations. One of the separation-of-powers cases Mike argued before the Supreme Court was INS v. Chadha. It turned out that Mike from his Peace Corps days actually knew the appellee Jagdish Chadha, who had been born in Kenya of Indian parents. Not only did Mr. Chadha not take personal offense that the Congress, through opposing counsel Michael Davidson, was trying to deport him, but because of his respect and admiration for Mike, Mr. Chadha brought a bottle of champagne to the Senate Legal Counsel's Office the next day to celebrate Mike's appearance before the Court. In 1995, Mike retired from the Senate for the first time, but he soon found himself directing or serving as counsel to projects led by current or former U.S. Senators, including a project at the Aspen Institute, a joint project of the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution, and a project at the Constitution Project. Mike returned to the Senate in 2002 to serve as the general counsel for the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001. Mike's work for the joint inquiry involved not only fact finding about the conduct of U.S. intelligence agencies prior to the terrorist attacks, but also successful advocacy before Judge Leonie Brinkema in the case of United States v. Moussaoui. The appearance was necessary to ensure that the congressional Joint Inquiry had the testimony it needed to tell the story of the FBI's Moussaoui investigation prior to the 9/11 attacks without interfering with the Moussaoui proceedings or other pending criminal prosecutions and investigations. Shortly after the completion of the Joint Inquiry in 2003, Mike joined the Select Committee on Intelligence as minority counsel for then-Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller. In 2007, he became the committee's general counsel, first for Chairman Rockefeller and later myself. As general counsel, Mike led the work of the committee on all legislation referred to it and reported from it. Mike's tireless efforts, and his skill in bringing people together to talk about the issues, even after others had given up, led to the passage of an intelligence authorization act signed into law in October 2010, the first authorization bill for the intelligence community enacted in 6 years. I can certainly attest that passage of that legislation was far from assured. The administration showed little enthusiasm for it, other committees objected to numerous provisions included, and the House of Representatives appeared insistent on two provisions--having to do with intelligence notifications to Congress and with investigations by the Government Accountability Office into intelligence matters--that were subject to veto threats. Mike was instrumental in resolving both those issues, and with working through countless other hurdles, in achieving enactment. Within 9 months, the committee also saw passage and enactment of its second intelligence authorization act, with the fiscal year 2011 bill signed into law on June 8, 2011. We are well on our way with a third authorization bill in 12 months with the intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2012. Mike's careful legislative approach was very much in evidence during the much more prolonged congressional consideration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008, during which he worked patiently to find legislative solutions that would satisfy the concerns of the intelligence community in modernizing one of the most important of its authorizing statutes, while also addressing a range of views in the Senate and the House and respecting the privacy and civil liberties concerns of Americans. Mike's painstaking attention to detail in the committee's reports and statements, with this act and throughout his tenure, has resulted in exemplary legislative histories for the bills we have reported--an important, and sometimes neglected, aspect in how our laws are implemented and interpreted. Mike also paid special attention to building the public record concerning the work of the Intelligence Committee. Because of his efforts, the committee has greatly increased the number of public documents available on the committee's website, from the committee's own biennial activities reports to the yearly legislative request from the executive branch. Behind the scenes, Mike sought systematic approaches to informing the public about U.S. intelligence activities to the maximum extent possible consistent with national security. Mr. Davidson was also essential in the committee's efforts to honor the sacrifices made by the men and women of the intelligence community, and their families, and to ensure that all intelligence agency employees received fair treatment and appropriate recognition by the Nation they served. All Senators understand the importance of taking care of their constituents. The Intelligence Committee attempts, where possible, to take care of intelligence professionals who often have no other place to turn. Not surprisingly to those who know him, Mike took special care with this responsibility. I recall one example--involving a legal dispute over a family member of an intelligence officer--where Mike's intervention led to justice being done, a family being preserved, and an intelligence professional being able subsequently to focus his attention on an absolutely essential operation. As I mentioned, Mike retired from the Senate very quietly, working away on committee business to the last minute of his last day on the job. We know, however, that he is relishing the chance to spend more time in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where he and his wife Karen have a second home near Denver, the home of son Jesse, daughter-in-law Ellen, and grandchildren Jordan and Garrett, and where his daughter Kate often visits. We fully expect, however, that with Mike's great energy and legal abilities he will continue to make a contribution to his country from his home here in the District of Columbia as well. With gratitude for his service to the Senate and the Nation, for myself and the many others who have benefited from that service, I wish Mike the very best in all his future endeavors. ____________________