The Standing Rules of the Senate are drafted to encourage vigorous public debate on our nation’s most important issues. Indeed, the U.S. Senate is often referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” The Rules allow any Senator to seek recognition from the Chair at any time and, absent a temporary agreement to the contrary, to speak without interruption so long as he or she wishes. Debating important questions before the Senate is one way a Senator can highlight an issue, advocate for a change in policy, or voice his or her opinion on pending legislation.
Senate debate occurs in public, and is televised on CSPAN and transcribed in the Congressional Record. For your convenience, I post transcripts of my Senate floor speeches on this site for your review. I hope you find them informative and useful. My web site also makes available information on my voting record and legislation that I have sponsored in the Senate.
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Sessions Pays Tribute to James H. Faulkner, Sr.
Born in Lamar County, AL, the son of a schoolteacher and a farmer, he lost his father at the age of 12. He attended college in Tennessee and the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. At age 20, he purchased The Baldwin Times newspaper and moved to Baldwin County, AL, where he lived his life and became one of, if not the most, well known of its citizens.
Mr. Jimmy served as the Mayor of Bay Minette, AL, from 1941 to 1943, when he was called to serve in World War II as a first lieutenant, pilot, and flight instructor. Following that service, he represented Baldwin County in the Alabama State Senate, where he became an advocate for education and the State's teachers.
He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Alabama Christian College in Montgomery, and as a testament to his success in putting that institution in a position of financial stability and his personal generosity, it was renamed Faulkner University in his honor in 1985. Remarkably, because he was instrumental in bringing Faulkner State University, a community college, to Baldwin County, that State university is also named for him. Few persons, if any, have had both a private and State university named in their honor.
Mr. Jimmy believed in Baldwin County. He brought business to the county. A friend of his, Scott Hunter, told me that Jimmy told him in 1990 to buy all the real estate he could in Baldwin County because it would double in population by 2010. And it has. Jimmy was able to predict economic, demographic, and political changes with uncanny accuracy. He lived to know 14 Alabama governors and he wrote, ``We have had some good ones and some not so good. Because of my longevity, it has been my privilege, and usually my pleasure, to have known personally, and been on friendly terms, with every governor back to Bibb Graves.''
During his lifetime, he served as president and founder of two insurance businesses, and owner and publisher of three newspapers in Baldwin County. He was the recipient of more than 35 awards including 8 honorary doctorate degrees.
Jimmy Faulkner was a great man, and a world traveler who visited over 100 countries during his lifetime. He had a unique view of the entire world and the part of it he occupied, and he used that view and his knowledge to make Alabama and our Nation a better place. Those of us who knew him are all better for having shared his interesting life and benefitted from his brilliant mind.
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