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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Senators paid tribute Thursday to the late Paul Wellstone, marking the fifth anniversary of the Minnesota senator's death in a plane crash with calls for passage of mental health parity legislation.
  
Both Minnesota senators, Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman, said the legislation would provide an important legacy for Wellstone, who had championed the cause for years.
  
The legislation would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. The Senate passed the bill last month, and the House leadership is hopeful for a vote before the end of the year.
  
"For years, he fought to allocate funding for better care, better services and better representation for the mentally ill," said Klobuchar, in remarks on the Senate floor. "And, for years, he fought for mental health parity in insurance coverage. And this year, at last, it looks like Paul's dream will finally come true."
  
Klobuchar said that final passage would be a victory for millions of Americans with mental illnesses.
  
"For Paul, this was always a matter of civil rights, of justice, and of basic human decency," she said.
  
Wellstone died along with his wife, Sheila, their daughter Marcia Wellstone Markuson, three staffers and two pilots on October 25, 2002, in the midst of a re-election campaign.
  
Klobuchar said that Paul and Sheila Wellstone would want people to not just look back at what they had accomplished.
  
"They would be the first to insist that it's our responsibility to look ahead to the work that still must be done to carry their legacy forward," she said. "Although Paul and Sheila are no longer with us, we know their dreams and passions remain very much alive."
  
Coleman was locked in a bitter campaign with Wellstone when the Democrat's plane went down just days before the election. Coleman went on to defeat Wellstone's replacement, former Vice President Walter Mondale.
  
"Since he arrived in the Senate, he worked day in and day out to pass mental health parity legislation, put an end to discrimination against people with mental illness and chemical addiction," Coleman said on the Senate floor.
  
"I can't imagine a better way to honor Paul's legacy than sending a strong mental health parity bill to the desk of the president of the United States and have him sign it into law," Coleman added.
  
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Wellstone "idealistic, determined, and most importantly, effective. He came here refusing to be fazed by the politics of division, refusing to be fazed by business as usual."
  
"When he found injustice in the treatment of the mentally ill, he stepped forward to ensure parity for sufferers of what were known as 'unspoken' illnesses when it came to insurance caps," Reid said. "When he found injustice in the treatment of our veterans, he stepped forward to help them -- especially those who were homeless. When he found injustice in the way our earth was treated, he stepped forward to protect the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge from drilling."
  
Reid said that Washington never changed Wellstone.
  
"He left this earth with the same idealism and passion he always had," he said.
  
On Wednesday, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., told his colleagues that "in many ways I have dedicated my service and take great inspiration from Senator Wellstone."
  
"Paul Wellstone was a leader in many ways and was an example to young people like myself," he said. "And as I think what his life means to me, means to the people of Minnesota, I have to consider that it is also that awesome responsibility that he laid out there. A servant leader, Mr. Speaker. Not just somebody who was looking to be served but a person who was looking to serve."

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Wellstone was preceded by Rudy Boschwitz and succeeded by Dean Barkley in the U.S. Senate.

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