Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) honored her friend and colleague Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on the floor of the United States Senate.
Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery. Senator Cortez Masto’s remarks are available in both AUDIO AND VIDEO FORMAT. You may download video of the speech HERE and audio HERE.
M. President, I come to the floor today to honor and express my gratitude for my friend and colleague, Senator Dean Heller.
Dean has spent 30 years serving the Great State of Nevada.
There’s no doubt that if you have a conversation with Dean Heller, you will learn about Nevada, his love for Nevada, and why it’s a wonderful place to live.
He has advocated for the people of Carson City as a member of the Nevada State Assembly and served as Nevada Secretary of State, where he made Nevada the first state in the nation to adopt paper records for electronic voting machines.
In Congress, Dean has fought tirelessly on behalf of our nation’s veterans, first as the representative for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, then as a United States Senator.
In the Senate, Dean and I have worked across the aisle to get things done for Nevadans.
When I first came here to the Senate as the junior senator from Nevada, he welcomed me and we had a conversation about how we’d work together in the best interest of the State of Nevada. He made a commitment then, and he followed through on that commitment.
We’ve worked together to improve critical infrastructure, support our local law enforcement, and fund programs that serve our seniors, veterans, and low-income families.
Dean and I have found common ground, just as Nevadans expect us to do, and introduced bipartisan legislation to protect our public lands in Eastern Nevada while also prioritizing long-term economic growth in our rural communities.
Dean and I fought side by side to stop any attempts to revive Yucca Mountain, introducing bipartisan legislation requiring the Secretary of Energy to obtain the written consent of the Governor and impacted local and tribal communities before building a nuclear waste repository.
In the aftermath of the deadly 1 October shooting, Dean and I were on the ground together – along with the entire delegation – doing everything we could to support our community.
Dean was everywhere – talking to the people on the ground, thanking first responders, stopping by the hospitals, talking with the families. It was his commitment to his home state to do everything he could to help that community heal. He continues to do so today.
One thing I know, when it comes to our beloved state, it is about putting Nevada and its people first and coming together no matter the climate of division and partisanship.
I thank Dean for that commitment and his willingness to bring this junior senator in and have the conversation about how we could work together to the benefit of our community.
Thank you, Dean, for your decades of service and for your friendship. I wish you and Lynne, your beautiful children and grandchildren the best in this new chapter of your lives.