Utah Sen. Mike Lee delivered a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, a picture of Orrin Hatch situated behind him, honoring the life and legacy of the state’s longest-serving senator, who died Saturday.
The nearly 12-minute address detailed Hatch’s upbringing as the son of a mechanical laborer, his service as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his years in Congress and even the short stint when he was Lee’s boss.
“He instilled his hallmark good humor and sense of duty on the newer members of the Senate,” Lee said. “I was one of them. He greeted and accepted me warmly, mentioning only a few times over the years the fact that I had decades previously served as his Senate page.”
Now Utah’s senior senator, Lee remembered a picture of himself and Hatch that hung on his wall as a teenager, as well as a note and a $10 check he received from the lawmaker years later when he was serving his own church mission. Hatch told him to use the money to buy lunch.
“I cherished the note and never could cash the check,” Lee said. “... The memory and the memento were worth so much more than the lunch it could buy. I still have that check. It’s a prized possession.”
For 42 years, Hatch represented a staunchly conservative presence in Congress, before ultimately retiring in January 2019. In his speech, Lee called him “a giant of the Senate and a veritable pillar in Utah.”
Hatch was not only Utah’s longest-tenured senator but also the longest-serving Republican in U.S. Senate history. He became Senate president pro tempore in 2015 and passed an “astounding” 750 bills during his years in Washington, more than any other living legislator at the time of his retirement, Lee said. The resulting laws impacted issues ranging from welfare reform to tax cuts.
“His 42 years of service in this body are marked by successes, historic and prolific legislation and, of course, statesmanship,” Lee said.
The current lawmaker lauded Hatch’s influence on the nation’s judicial system, noting his role in the nomination of several Supreme Court justices and saying he “helped rein in activist federal judges and reformed the entire federal judiciary and has helped restore the true meaning of the Constitution.” Hatch served as the longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as overseeing the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees at various points in his career.
Lee also highlighted how Hatch consistently gave back to Utah and his local community and repeatedly referenced the man’s pioneer roots.
“There’s perhaps no more noble title in Utah than that of pioneer,” Lee said. “Orrin Hatch was a pioneer, through and through, not just the descendant of pioneers but a pioneer in his own right.”
Sen. Mitt Romney’s speech came a day after his counterpart’s and focused primarily on Hatch’s character, friendship and “unparalleled legislative accomplishment.”
“I know that there have been a number of senators who take responsibility for accomplishing many things,” Romney said, “but I don’t think there’s ever been a legislator that has gotten more done, legislatively, than Orrin Hatch.”
He shared several anecdotes of his run-ins with Hatch over the years. He said the late senator helped him ensure the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, were safe following the 9/11 attacks. He also said that Hatch had sent him a page of jokes to read during his 2012 presidential bid.
“The man had an extraordinary capacity with music, with humor, with legislation, with friendships,” he said. “... Not surprisingly, he had, and still has, a lot of friends.”
The senator also recounted a phone call between the two of them in 1994, when he was campaigning against Hatch’s friend, the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, for a seat in Congress.
“He called me and said, ‘Mitt, you know, I’m a Republican, too. I’m responsible for helping get a lot of Republicans elected, but I’m not going to come campaign for you ... because Ted Kennedy is just that good of a friend,’” he said.
“Orrin put friendship above politics,” he added.
Decades later, after Hatch had promised not to run for reelection, he wrote Romney a letter encouraging him to run for his seat in the Senate — which Romney won and currently holds.
Romney concluded his remarks, saying, “I hope you’ll feel that I haven’t let you down taking your place in this great chamber.”
Lee’s and Romney’s eulogies add to a growing number offered for one of Utah’s most prominent political figures of the last century.