[Senate Document 114-25]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TRIBUTES TO HON. JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
UNITED STATES VICE PRESIDENT AND
PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES SENATE
TRIBUTES
IN THE CONGRESS OF
THE UNITED STATES
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
S. Doc. 114-25
Tributes
Delivered in Congress
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
United States Vice President and
President of the United States Senate
2009-2017
United States Senator
1973-2009
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2017
Compiled under the direction
of the
Joint Committee on Printing
CONTENTS
Biography.............................................
v
Proceedings in the Senate:
Tributes by Senators:
Alexander, Lamar, of Tennessee.................
53
Bennet, Michael F., of Colorado................
45
Blumenthal, Richard, of Connecticut............
46, 65
Boozman, John, of Arkansas.....................
76
Boxer, Barbara, of California..................
36
Cardin, Benjamin L., of Maryland...............
54
Carper, Thomas R., of Delaware.................
68
Casey, Robert P., Jr., of Pennsylvania.........
58
Collins, Susan M., of Maine....................
27
Coons, Christopher A., of
Delaware..............................
4, 5, 31, 72, 75
Donnelly, Joe, of Indiana......................
66
Durbin, Richard J., of Illinois................
20
Enzi, Michael B., of Wyoming...................
74
Feinstein, Dianne, of California...............
34
Graham, Lindsey, of South Carolina.............
75
Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah.......................
14
Hirono, Mazie K., of Hawaii....................
49
Isakson, Johnny, of Georgia....................
23
Kaine, Tim, of Virginia........................
63
King, Angus S., Jr., of Maine..................
50
Klobuchar, Amy, of Minnesota...................
67
Leahy, Patrick J., of Vermont..................
17
Markey, Edward J., of Massachusetts............
65
McCain, John, of Arizona.......................
18
McCaskill, Claire, of Missouri.................
65
McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky..................
3, 7
Mikulski, Barbara A., of Maryland..............
28
Murray, Patty, of Washington...................
4, 25
Nelson, Bill, of Florida.......................
61
Portman, Rob, of Ohio..........................
76
Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island....................
72
Reid, Harry, of Nevada
...............................................
..............
3, 4, 9
Schumer, Charles E., of New York...............
13
Stabenow, Debbie, of Michigan..................
38
Udall, Tom, of New Mexico......................
41
Warner, Mark R., of Virginia...................
44
Warren, Elizabeth, of Massachusetts............
52
Whitehouse, Sheldon, of Rhode Island...........
40
BIOGRAPHY
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., was born November 20, 1942,
in Scranton, PA, the first of four siblings. In 1953, the
Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, DE. He
graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law
School and served on the New Castle County Council. Then,
at age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever
elected to the U.S. Senate.
Just weeks after the election, tragedy struck the Biden
family when Joe Biden's wife, Neilia, and their 1-year-old
daughter, Naomi, were killed and their two young sons
critically injured in an auto accident. Joe Biden was
sworn in to the U.S. Senate at his sons' hospital bedsides
and began commuting to Washington every day by train, a
practice he maintained throughout his career in the
Senate.
In 1977, Joe Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, who
holds a Ph.D. in education, is a lifelong educator and
currently teaches at a community college in Northern
Virginia. The Vice President's son, Beau (1969-2015), was
Delaware's attorney general from 2007 to 2015 and a major
in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National
Guard. He was deployed to Iraq in 2008-2009. The Vice
President's other son, Hunter, is an attorney who manages
a private equity firm in Washington, DC, and is chairman
of the World Food Program USA. His daughter Ashley is a
social worker and is executive director of the Delaware
Center for Justice. Vice President Biden has five
grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel (``Maisy''),
Natalie, and Robert Hunter.
As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Joe Biden
established himself as a leader in facing some of our
Nation's most important domestic and international
challenges. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate
Judiciary Committee for 17 years, then-Senator Biden was
widely recognized for his work on criminal justice issues,
including the landmark 1994 crime law and the Violence
Against Women Act. As chairman or ranking member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years, then-
Senator Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S.
foreign policy. He has been at the forefront of issues and
legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass
destruction, post-cold war Europe, the Middle East, and
Southwest Asia.
As the 47th Vice President of the United States, Joe
Biden continued his leadership on important issues facing
the Nation. The Vice President was tasked with
implementing and overseeing the $840 billion stimulus
package in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
which helped to rebuild our economy and lay the foundation
for a sustainable economic future. The Vice President also
led the Ready to Work Initiative, the administration's key
effort to identify opportunities to improve our Nation's
workforce skills and training systems to help better
prepare American workers for the jobs of a 21st century
economy.
The Vice President drew upon his years in the U.S.
Senate to work with Congress on key issues including the
2013 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. As
a longtime advocate against sexual assault and domestic
violence, the Vice President appointed the first-ever
White House Advisor on Violence Against Women. The Vice
President was also tasked with convening sessions of the
President's Cabinet and leading interagency efforts,
particularly to reduce gun violence and raise the living
standards of middle class Americans in his role as chair
of the Middle Class Task Force. Vice President Biden
traveled to 48 States as part of the administration's
continuing efforts to focus key priorities such as college
affordability and American manufacturing growth.
With decades of foreign policy experience in the U.S.
Senate, including serving as chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Vice President Biden advised
President Obama on international issues. The Vice
President was a leading architect of the U.S. strategic
vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace. During his
time in the Senate, the Vice President led the effort to
enlarge NATO to include the former Warsaw Pact countries
of Eastern and Central Europe after the collapse of the
Iron Curtain. The Vice President's speech at the Munich
Security Conference in February 2015 laid out a vision for
how to revitalize NATO, strengthen democratic institutions
in Europe, prioritize investments to bolster energy
security, and grow trade and investment ties across the
Atlantic. The Vice President led the administration's
effort to support a sovereign, democratic Ukraine,
visiting the country three times in 2014. In the Middle
East, the Vice President was deeply involved in shaping
U.S. policy toward Iraq, visiting the country several
times. He met with the leaders from around the Middle East
and championed Israel's security. The Vice President also
played an active role in supporting the administration's
rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. He developed deep
relationships with the region's leaders, demonstrating
U.S. commitment to high-level, face-to-face diplomacy.
Vice President Biden was the administration's point person
for diplomacy within the Western Hemisphere. He worked to
realize his vision of a hemisphere that is ``middle class,
secure, and democratic, from Canada to Chile and
everywhere in between.'' In this capacity, the Vice
President led the administration's regional efforts to
address economic, social, governance, and citizen security
challenges.
Vice President Biden represented our country in every
region of the world, traveling to more than two dozen
countries including: Afghanistan, Belgium, Brazil, China,
Colombia, Egypt, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Japan, Kenya,
Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South
Korea, Turkey, and Ukraine.
TRIBUTES
TO
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR.
Proceedings in the Senate
Monday, December 5, 2016
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is a rare day when we
see the Vice President presiding. We welcome him here
today. We look forward to welcoming him back later in the
week. I know Members will have plenty to say about his
life and his legacy later in the week, but today the
Senate would like to specifically acknowledge his efforts
to help Americans struggling with cancer.
He has known the cruel toll this disease can take, but
he hasn't let it defeat him. He has chosen to fight back.
He has taken a leading role, and the Senate will soon pass
the 21st Century Cures Act as a testament to his
tremendous effort.
I think it is fitting to dedicate this bill's critical
cancer initiatives in honor of someone who would be proud
of the Presiding Officer today, and that is his son Beau.
In just a moment, that is exactly what the Senate will
do--renaming the NIH's cancer initiatives in this bill
after Beau Biden.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to all my colleagues,
the Presiding Officer (Mr. Biden) served in the Senate for
36 years. During that time he was here, he was about as
much a man of the Senate as anyone could be. He was a
Democrat, but he was also available to anybody anytime. I
so admire him. I know that he has worked very closely with
the Republican leader on some very important issues the
last 8 years.
I want the Record to be spread with the fact that the
Presiding Officer is as proud of his family as anyone
could be, and doing this for Beau only furthers the effect
that this man, the Presiding Officer, has had on this
country. I am grateful to the Republican leader for
allowing me to cosponsor this important amendment,
changing the name of this bill to the Beau Biden Memorial
Moonshot.
I am grateful to you, the Republican leader. All of the
Senators understand that the man presiding is really a man
of the Senate and always will be.
(Applause.)
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to start by
expressing my appreciation to all of my colleagues who
have worked so hard on the priorities in the 21st Century
Cures bill, including investing in tackling our hardest to
treat diseases, confronting the opioid epidemic,
strengthening mental health care, and advancing medical
innovation.
The legislation that we will be voting on either really
late tonight or tomorrow morning takes important steps to
improve the care that patients receive.
I am very grateful to every Senator and Member of
Congress who worked across the aisle to make this
legislation the best it could be for those whom we serve.
In particular, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to
Vice President Joe Biden. Not everyone has the strength to
respond to profound personal tragedy by doing even more to
protect and help others, but that is exactly what he has
done. I know we are all grateful for and inspired by his
leadership, and I am confident it has given a lot of
families hope, knowing that Joe Biden is fighting for them
and their loved ones. ...
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the following Senators who wish to speak in honor of the
Presiding Officer [Mr. Biden] be recognized in the
following order for up to 4 minutes each: me, the majority
leader Senator McConnell, the minority leader Senator
Reid, Senator Schumer, Senator Hatch, Senator Leahy,
Senator McCain, Senator Durbin, Senator Isakson, Senator
Murray, Senator Feinstein, Senator Collins, Senator
Mikulski, and Senator Carper.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Democratic leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the Senator from Delaware amend his request so that
Senator McConnell and I will use our leader time. That
will not count against his hour.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President--and it does bring me some joy
to call you Mr. President. I am honored to be here today
with so many of our colleagues, and I am grateful to
Majority Leader McConnell and Leader Reid for their
enthusiasm in pulling together this bipartisan tribute. I
am honored to be joined by my senior Senator from
Delaware, Tom Carper, who will make closing remarks this
afternoon.
Before I begin, I would like to remind my colleagues
that there will be a reception for the Vice President in
the Mansfield Room, after we conclude here, beginning
sometime after 4. We have many Senators who wish to speak
so we will move quickly through the order. I encourage my
colleagues to submit their remarks for the Record, those
who are not able to speak in the next hour. Their remarks
will be combined with all the other remarks given on the
floor, and the resulting speeches printed, bound, and
presented to the Presiding Officer.
Mr. President, in a place known these days for some
disagreements, my colleagues--our colleagues, Republicans,
Democrats, and Independents--are all here today because we
agree on one powerful and simple thing: our deep gratitude
for the difference you have made in your decades in public
service.
The greatest honor of my life is to serve in the seat
that you held for 36 years--and not just literally this
seat in the Senate but also a seat on the 7:15 Amtrak
train down from Wilmington every morning. You logged over
2 million miles on Amtrak and millions more traveling
around the world fighting for our country, and as long as
I have the privilege of representing our State in the
Senate, I will be humbled by the challenge of living up to
your legacy of fighting for and making a real difference
for the people of our shared home.
Like so many Americans, I have long been inspired by
your loyalty to your family, and I am so glad to see so
many familiar faces in the gallery today. This job
requires a strong partner and teammate, and to Dr. Biden,
Jill, your unwavering support for your family, for
Delaware, and your country is something for which we are
all deeply grateful.
As a son of Delaware, and of Catherine Eugenia and Joe
Senior, you have never forgotten from where you came or
for whom you are fighting. Even as Vice President, our
fellow Delawareans have the blessing of a surprise visit
week in and week out, to see you at the Columbus Day
Breakfast or Return Day or St. Anthony's Procession.
Whether meeting personally with world leaders you have
known for decades, whether chairing the Judiciary or
Foreign Relations Committees or just stopping by a
Claymont diner, there is universal agreement about what
you have brought to this work--your passion, your heart,
your character, and your integrity. That is because you
genuinely listen to people, you ask them questions, and
then you lift them up. We know that when you give us your
word as a Biden, you mean it, and you will keep it.
Your service as a Senator stands as a model for all of
our colleagues and for me. Through challenging times, you
always worked across the aisle, through eight Presidents.
You were willing to reach across to anyone willing to roll
up their sleeves and get to work for the American people.
So many families across Delaware and this country and
I, myself, as we have struggled with loss--maybe the loss
of a job or loss of hope or the impending loss of a loved
one--have experienced the incredible personal comfort and
power of a call from you. When it comes to providing
advice and inspiration that touches our hearts and makes a
real difference, no one is better than you. We know you
will share our challenges, you will give us meaningful
comfort and encourage us, and you will fight for us.
As we look ahead to next year and beyond, I know you
and Jill have so much more great and good work to do,
starting with the fight to cure cancer through the Cancer
Moonshot. This next chapter will be every bit as exciting
and meaningful as the life of service you have led for 44
years. What an honor to see you in that chair earlier this
week as the majority leader led the Senate in a unanimous
vote to rename a title of the 21st Century Cures Cancer
Initiative after Beau. That bill, which we passed finally
just an hour ago, would not have happened without your
leadership.
Now, let me close with a line you know all too well, a
line you shared countless times in this Chamber, sometimes
from this very desk. As the Irish poet Seamus Heaney once
wrote:
History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of Justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
No one, sir, no one has done more to make hope and
history rhyme than you. Thank you, Mr. President, for your
service, your counsel, your advice, your friendship, and
your leadership.
It is now my pleasure to yield to the majority leader,
Senator McConnell of Kentucky, who has been so generous
with floor time and support this afternoon.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The majority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is great to see the
Presiding Officer back in the Senate. It is good news for
everyone he is in the chair. Good news for him because, as
Senator Coons said, the rest of us have to call him ``Mr.
President.'' Good news for the rest of us because he has
to let everyone else talk.
The amazing thing is, the man we honor today wasn't
always a talker. He suffered from a debilitating stutter
for most of his childhood. He was teased for it, but he
was determined to overcome it, and so he did--with hard
work, with determination, with the support of his family.
It is classic Joe Biden. He has never stopped talking
since.
He cites overcoming that stutter as one of the most
important lessons in his life. It led him down a path few
might have foreseen: winning election to the county
council, securing an improbable victory for the U.S.
Senate, becoming our Nation's 47th Vice President.
Now, the Presiding Officer would be the first to tell
you that he has been blessed in many ways. He has also
been tested, knocked down, pushed to the edge of what
anyone could be expected to bear, but from the grip of
unknowable despair came a new man--a better man: stronger
and more compassionate, grateful for every moment,
appreciative of what really matters.
Here in the Senate he heeded the advice of Mike
Mansfield. Here is what Senator Mansfield had to say:
``Your job here is to find the good things in your
colleagues. And, Joe, never attack another man's motive,
because you don't know his motive.''
Look for the good. Don't attack motives. It is the
basis of a simple philosophy and a very powerful one.
Vice President Biden says he views his competitors as
competitors, not enemies, and he has been able to
cultivate many unlikely friendships across the aisle--with
Jesse Helms, with Strom Thurmond, with me.
Over the years, we have worked together on issues of
mutual interest, like Burma--and regarding the vote we
just took a few moments ago--21st Century Cures, and the
Cancer Moonshot.
We have also negotiated in good faith when the country
needed bipartisan leadership. We got results that would
not have been possible without a negotiating partner like
Joe Biden. Obviously, I don't always agree with him, but I
do trust him implicitly. He doesn't break his word. He
doesn't waste time telling me why I am wrong. He gets down
to brass tacks, and he keeps in sight the stakes. There is
a reason ``Get Joe on the phone'' is shorthand for ``time
to get serious'' in my office.
The Vice President is a likeable guy too. He has a
well-developed sense of humor. He doesn't take himself too
seriously either. When The Onion ran a mock photo of him
washing a Trans-Am in the White House driveway, shirtless,
Americans embraced it, and so did he. ``I think it's
hilarious,'' he said, but ``by the way, I have a
Corvette--'67 Corvette--not a Trans-Am.'' So you see what
I mean.
Joe Biden may exist in the popular imagination aboard
an Amtrak, but this son of a used car salesman will always
be a muscle guy at heart.
What a road he has traveled, from New Castle to the
Naval Observatory, from Scranton to the Senate. His
journey in this body began by the side of those who loved
him; hand on the Bible, heart in a knot, swearing the same
oath he now administers to others. It is a journey that
ends now by the side of those who care about him still--
those like his wife Jill, who understands the full life he
has lived.
Here is a man who has known great joy, who has been
read his last rites, and who has never lost himself along
the way.
``Champ,'' his father used to say, ``the measure of a
man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly
he gets up.'' That is Joe Biden right there--unbowed,
unbroken, and unable to stop talking.
It is my privilege to convey the Senate's warm wishes
to the Vice President on this Delaware Day as the next
steps of his long journey come into view. There are many
here who feel this way in both parties.
I am reminded of something the Presiding Officer said
when he addressed the University of Louisville several
years ago. It was one of the McConnell Center's most
popular lectures ever. As I sat beside him, he offered his
theory as to why that might be: ``I think you're all here
today''--remember, these are young people, students. He
said, ``I think you are all here today because `you want
to see whether or not a Republican and Democrat really
like each other,''' he said. ``Well,'' he continued,
flashing a smile, ``I'm here to tell you we do.'' It was
true then, and it is true today.
I hope the Presiding Officer won't mind if I conclude
with some words directed to the Chair.
Mr. President, you have been a real friend, you have
been a trusted partner, and it has been an honor to serve
with you. We are all going to miss you. Godspeed.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The minority leader.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, to everyone listening, Joe
Biden's life has been the material of which movies are
made.
Joe was born in Scranton, PA, to Joe and Jean Biden,
the first of four children. As a young man, as we have
heard about today--once in a while, though not very often,
Joe Biden talks about his stammering. He didn't get any
professional help, no therapy. He did it on his own, long
hours of reading, mostly poetry. He would stand in front
of a mirror and recite poetry time after time, watching
himself to make sure he didn't contort his face when he
stammered or stuttered. This wasn't easy for a young man.
People made fun of him, but he knew he could do it on his
own. He felt that, and he did it. He worked hard. He
developed a rhythm and a cadence of speaking that helped
him overcome his stammer to become one of the U.S.
Senate's alltime great orators, without any qualification.
Joe was an outstanding high school running back and
wide receiver. His coach said he had never seen anyone
with such hands. His coach saw in Joe what we all see, a
hard worker who refuses to fail. His coach said, ``Joe was
a skinny kid. But he was one of the best pass receivers I
had in 16 years as a coach.''
In college, Joe continued to display his athletic
prowess, playing football for the University of Delaware.
This is quite a story. During spring break, his junior
year--Joe and I were traveling from Indianapolis to Reno,
NV, and he talked to me about this, just the two of us. I
will never forget that conversation. He and one of his
college buddies had gotten a tax return, and they were
going to take a little vacation away from the cold of
Delaware. They went to Florida. Frankly, they didn't like
it. They had a few dollars left over from their tax
returns, and I believe they went to the Bahamas. They got
an inexpensive hotel. I was going to say ``cheap,'' but I
will say ``inexpensive'' hotel.
Right next to them was an exclusive hotel, and they
noticed when the people came out of the fancy hotel off
that private beach, many times they would lay their towels
on the fence. Joe and his pal said, ``Well, those towels
aren't even wet.'' They went down to that private beach,
and it was there that he met a young woman by the name of
Neilia Hunter. I am sure that, just like Jill, she must
have been a knockout to look at. She went to the
University of Syracuse. She was on the dean's list. She
had been homecoming queen.
That was the beginning of the relationship that they
had. Joe had been smitten. After graduating from the
University of Delaware, he enrolled in law school in
Syracuse to be closer to her.
The story of his and Neilia's relationship is stunning.
I repeat, it was something that movies are made of.
Without being too personal, I will say it the way it is
because it is a wonderful story, and I can identify with
it so well because of Landra and me. There came a time
when her father came to her and said, ``You know, he is
not that much. He comes from a family that is not like
ours.'' She said, ``Dad, stop. If you make me choose
between you and Joe, I am going to choose Joe.''
So that was that relationship. I repeat, Landra and I
understand that story quite well. They were married a
short time later. They had three children, Beau, Hunter,
and Naomi.
After starting his law practice and serving as city
councilman in New Castle, DE, Joe stunned and embarrassed
a few of his friends and relatives by saying he was going
to run for the Senate.
``You will run for the Senate against a two-term
incumbent, Caleb Boggs?''
``I think I can do it.''
I am sure he said to himself: A lot of people said I
couldn't overcome certain things, and I did, and I am
going to do my best to overcome this race I am in. I am
starting way behind.
Joe and his family went at this as hard as they could.
They canvassed the entire State. They pulled off an
incredible upset. Joe Biden was elected to the U.S.
Senate. In every respect, Joe's life has been unique. It
has been special. His election to the Senate was no
different.
The great Constitution that leads this Nation
stipulates that the person must be 30 years old to be
elected to the Senate. Joe was 29 on election day. He
turned 30 2 weeks after the election. Just a few weeks
later, tragedy struck and struck really hard. Neilia and
their three children were in a terrible car accident just
days before Christmas. He had not been sworn in as a
Senator yet.
His wife was killed, their baby girl was killed, and
Beau and Hunter were grievously injured--hospitalized, of
course. To say Joe was grief-stricken is an
understatement. How can you describe how he felt? I am
sure, as I have heard, he didn't know what to do. He had
two boys to raise. He wasn't a man of great means. He
strongly considered: I shouldn't be sworn in to the
Senate; I can't do this.
He had friends, people who didn't know him who were
Senators, who treated him as fathers. Without the help of
Valerie, his sister, Joe Biden's life may have been
completely different because with the support he got from
her, the encouragement he got from Democratic and
Republican Senators, and the fact that she moved in, took
care of Beau and Hunter to replace their mom--she was
there for 4 years helping with those boys.
Joe is a remarkable man. When I was in the House of
Representatives, he agreed to come to the house in Nevada
for me. It was a big deal to get this senior Senator to
come to Nevada. He came. Every place he traveled, he had
one of his boys with him.
With the support of his sister and other members of his
family, Joe embarked on a long, storied, 36-year career
that was productive and unsurpassed in the history of the
Senate.
That was not the end of Joe's difficulties. Joe is, as
you can see now, a very well-conditioned man. He always
has been. As a Senator, he suffered a massive bleed on the
brain, and he was hospitalized for a long time. He didn't
come to the Senate for a long time. When I got hurt, one
of the first people to call me was Joe. He said, ``Look,
the fact you are going to be missing a little time in the
Senate doesn't mean you can't be a good Senator.'' That
was the example that Joe Biden set.
He recovered, and he became chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Relations chair, author
of many pieces of legislation--Violence Against Women--too
numerous to mention.
In a love story unsurpassed, he also met a woman who
has been by his side for 40 years, Jill Biden. It is an
incredible love story. Joe says it was love at first
sight. It was the same for his boys. Joe remembers the day
that Beau and Hunter came to him with the recommendation:
``Daddy, we were talking and we think we should marry
Jill,'' not he should marry Jill. ``We should marry
Jill,'' a direct quote.
Joe and Jill were married, and before long, Beau and
Hunter had a new sister, Ashley, and a new mom. There is
not a family that I know of who is any closer, more tight
knit than the Bidens. Joe Biden loves his family above all
else. He is a good Senator, a terrific Vice President, but
he is a family man.
For the last 8 years as Vice President, he has traveled
the world, meeting with dignitaries in trouble spots on
behalf of this country, oftentimes at the direction of
President Obama. He has done it with dignity--more than a
million miles.
As we have heard from the junior Senator from Delaware,
that pales in comparison to the miles he has traveled on
Amtrak. He has traveled more than 2 million miles on
Amtrak. He took the train home every night to Delaware. If
we worked late, he would go to a hotel here. If it had
been necessary, he would have gone more than 2 million
miles to take care of his boys and to be with Jill.
Vice President Biden's time serving at President
Obama's side has been historic. He has been the
President's rock, his confidant, and his friend. I have
been told that not by Joe Biden but by the President. Joe
has had a stellar career as Vice President of our great
country. He has used his skills and his experience to help
shape American diplomacy.
Vice President Biden is helping lead the quest for a
cure for cancer. His Moonshot Initiative is the most
ambitious plan ever to accelerate cancer research. I say,
through the Chair, to my friend Lamar Alexander, that this
would not have happened but for the good man from
Tennessee.
We know that Joe and Jill know first hand the pain and
heartache caused by cancer and the toll it takes on
families. Tragically, just last year, Beau was diagnosed
with terminal cancer, which took his life. He was somebody
I knew well. He was an Iraq veteran. He didn't have to go
to Iraq, but he did. He was attorney general of the State
of Delaware.
Beau was a light to everyone who knew him but
especially to his family. Beau's passing broke Joe's,
Hunter's, and Jill's hearts and, of course, their
sister's. As with all the other heartbreaking challenges
and setbacks, Joe Biden continues his life's work. He is
still the same kid that his coach praised. His No. 1 asset
is that he works hard; he does the best he can.
Joe Biden continues to serve his country, and he will
continue after January 20. He continues to do what is
right. Above all, he continues to love and take care of
his family.
I have been gratified to call Senator Biden a man of
the Senate, Senator Biden, Vice President Biden, Joe. He
is an awe-inspiring man, so Steven Spielberg, Hollywood,
you should be listening. Joe Biden's life is that which
movies are made of.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is such a pleasure and
honor to rise to recognize a great son of Scranton--
sitting next to me, another son of Scranton--a grandson of
Ireland--sitting in this Chamber are many grandchildren of
Ireland--and a Syracuse University graduate. How many
others in the room can say that? More important than any
of those, he is one of the most dedicated public servants,
one of the most successful public servants I have ever had
the pleasure to serve with during my time in Washington.
Everyone knows Joe is proud of his ancestry. His
ancestors came from Ireland, as many millions have. He is
deeply proud of being an Irish-American. Like so many
others from the Emerald Isle, our Vice President inherited
the gift of gab, and thank God for that because he has
used his booming voice to speak out on so many issues.
We have only a little time today. I know my colleagues
are eager to speak, so I will just focus on one of the
issues that Senator Biden led the charge on and changed
America. I worked with him on the Assault Weapons Ban and
the Brady law when he was a Senator and I was a
Congressman and we were each head of the crime committees.
But maybe the thing he was proudest of was the Violence
Against Women Act. It sounds like a different world, but a
few years ago, a few decades ago, rape and domestic
violence and abuse were considered in many ways lesser
crimes--crimes in which the victim was as much at fault as
the perpetrator. It was disgraceful. If you were beaten,
abused, sexually assaulted, you faced a hostile, skeptical
criminal justice system. That got at Joe Biden and his
sense of justice, so he exploded the myths behind domestic
violence.
I remember hearing the speeches against sexual abuse
and as a result we put together the strongest ever
violence against women law. Not only did the law make
women safer; it made men better. It moved our society
forward.
Our work on these issues is not nearly over, but I am
certain there are literally millions of women who have
avoided pain and suffering--both physical and mental--
because of the courage, the steadfastness, and the
legislative brilliance of the then-senior Senator from the
great State of Delaware.
I could go on and on and almost write a book on
accomplishments like that where Joe almost singlehandedly
changed the world. He was also a great friend and leader
to so many of us.
I will conclude with one little story. I was elected to
the Senate after 18 years in the House, and an issue I
wanted to get going on was college affordability. I had
run for the Senate on the promise of making college
tuition tax deductible. So I get to the Senate, introduce
my bill, make my speech, and get ready to lead the way on
what I thought was my issue. We have all experienced this.
A call comes into my office from Joe's chief of staff. Of
course I spoke to him. ``Mr. Biden has been working on
this issue for 10 years. Go work on something else.'' That
was the nice version. Naturally, me and my brandnew office
were in a panic. I was chastened. I didn't know what to
do. I am sitting on the floor and feeling really forlorn.
Why did I even come here? I was a senior Member of the
House. I feel an arm on my shoulder, and I look up. There
is the revered and exalted Senator Joe Biden. He says to
me, ``I understand you have your college tuition tax
deduction bill. Go ahead, take the issue. I know what it
is like for new Senators to carve their own path.''
How many times can any freshman say any senior Senator
has said that to them? They can't because he is unique.
Not only is he a towering figure and superb man, but he
has a good heart and looks out for the Members of this
body. He always has, does to this day, and always will
because I know in Joe's heart, with all of his
accomplishments, he is still a Senator--our Senator.
Mr. President, I say to Mr. Vice President, thank you.
Thank you for your heart and passion, thank you for
bringing every ounce of yourself to public service, and
thank you for that lesson of humility and leadership you
taught me when I first came to this Chamber.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, it is an honor for me to rise
and talk about our friendship and what you have done for
this country.
I rise today to pay tribute to a dedicated public
servant, distinguished leader, and dear friend, Vice
President Joe Biden.
For more than three decades, I had the distinct
privilege of serving alongside Joe in the U.S. Senate. As
anyone who worked closely with Joe can tell you, he was no
ordinary Senator. He had boundless energy and undeniable
charm. He paired an unmatched work ethic with a disarming
smile that dared you not to smile back. Joe's innate
ability to befriend anyone--and I mean anyone, including
his fiercest political opponents--was critical to his
success as a legislator. His genuine sincerity endeared
him to all, and his gregariousness transcended partisan
boundaries.
Even in the most polarizing debates, Joe never let
politics stand in the way of friendship. One minute Joe
could be scolding you from the Senate floor, and the next
minute he could be hugging you in the hallway, cracking
jokes and asking about your grandkids. I am, of course,
speaking from plenty of personal experience. It is no
secret that Joe and I often found ourselves on opposite
sides of almost every major issue--that is not quite true.
We agreed on a lot of things. In countless legislative
battles, Joe proved himself to be a worthy political
opponent and an able sparring partner. Whether on the
Senate floor or in the Judiciary Committee hearing room,
Joe and I locked horns on a number of occasions, sometimes
on a daily basis. Indeed, we were at odds about as often
as we were on C-SPAN.
At the end of the day, I couldn't help but admire the
man. You see, Joe Biden was beloved by everyone in this
Chamber, even those he drove crazy from time to time, and
I count myself among that group. Through his ability to
forge friendship even amid conflict, he embodies the ethos
of a noble generation of legislators--a generation that
embraced the virtues of comity and compromise above all
else. I believe this body--indeed, this Nation--could
learn from Joe's example of kindness, courtesy, and
compassion.
For 17 years, then-Senator Biden served as chairman and
ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, overseeing some
of the most significant court appointments of our time.
Chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee is no easy task. I
know because I have been there. The committee boasts some
of the biggest egos on this side of the Potomac--or this
side of the Milky Way, for that matter. It takes a certain
kind of political genius to navigate the assertive
personalities and lofty ambitions of its members, but Joe
was more than up to the task. As both chairman and ranking
member, he was tough and tenacious but also decent and
fair. Through his trademark work ethic, he won the respect
of every member of that committee.
Joe also served admirably as the chairman and ranking
member of the Foreign Relations Committee. In this
capacity, he played an indispensable role in shaping
American foreign policy. When President Obama tapped Joe
to be his Vice President, the Senate lost a seasoned
statesman, but our Nation gained a wise and capable leader
with unparalleled experience in public affairs.
Joe was the administration's bridge to Congress, often
serving as an intermediary between the President and
legislators. On more than one occasion, his close
relationship with lawmakers and his deft negotiating
skills helped our Nation to overcome some of its greatest
obstacles. He was the President's trusted emissary and an
invaluable asset in helping Congress resolve the fiscal
cliff dilemma in late 2012--something I wasn't sure we
could resolve. He was also a brilliant Ambassador for our
country, leveraging his foreign policy expertise in
meetings with leaders across the world.
I am deeply grateful for my friend Joe Biden. I have
long admired his devotion to his family, as well as his
grace amid suffering, and he did suffer, and I know it. I
was here. Having experienced tremendous loss in his family
life, he draws from a rich reservoir of empathy to connect
with everyday Americans. Ask anyone Vice President Biden
has served: When you speak, Joe listens. He loves, and he
cares. He is perhaps the most personable public figure in
American politics today.
In the nearly 8 years he has served as Vice President,
Joe Biden has become a fixture of American public life.
Today, I wish to join my colleagues in thanking Vice
President Joe Biden for his dedication to the American
people. Although his tenure as Vice President is drawing
to a close, I am confident that his service to our Nation
will only continue. This is said by a Republican who loves
Joe Biden and believes he is one of the truly great people
who served here in this body.
I just want Joe Biden to know that we all respect him,
and I think most all of us love him. Those of us who have
worked with him really appreciated how he would from time
to time put his arm around us, put politics aside, and
speak the truth.
Joe Biden is a wonderful man. I wish him the absolute
best as we go into the future, and I will be there to help
if he needs it.
God bless Joe Biden.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I enjoy calling you by that
title. I hope you do, too--because you know that you could
easily hold that title as President of this body or
President of the United States--you have shown your
qualifications for either one.
But let me speak about your role as President of the
Senate. It makes you a Member of this body, a body that
can be, and on some occasions has been, the conscience of
the Nation. You have served longer in this body than any
other Member here. The fact is you came here 2 years
before I did, so as the other longest serving member, I
look at you as my senior Senator, and I am delighted to be
your junior.
I think back to some of the things we did together, Mr.
President. I remember when I was running for the Senate in
Vermont in 1974, and people told me I was far too young to
get elected to the Senate at 34 years old. My predecessor
was somebody who had been elected here when I was born and
served there until I arrived. You put your arm around me
and you said, ``it would be nice to have an older person
that I could look up to.'' I believe you were 32, and I
was 34. But that helped.
Of course, little did I know until I came here how
closely we would work together. We served on the Judiciary
Committee throughout that time. We worked on such duties
as Supreme Court nominations, civil rights, and the
criminal justice system. Then, when you were chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee, and bringing the rest of
the world American values--which happened to be Joe Biden
values--how I enjoyed traveling with you.
I think of the time, Mr. President, when you and I, and
our wives, Jill and Marcelle, traveled together. We had
been good friends throughout all of that time. I will take
the liberty of telling one story. When the four of us were
in Paris, we had gone out to dinner. It was a cold, winter
night. We were coming back. I think Marcelle mentioned
that the Eiffel Tower lights up on the hour. You and Jill
stood on a bench and were hugging each other, the Eiffel
Tower behind you. I snapped a picture. Now, we had a close
friendship. We never lied to each other, but that was one
time I lied to you because you asked me, ``Where is the
picture?'' I said, ``I think I lost it.'' I apologize. We
were conspiring to print out that picture, and I know your
wonderful wife gave it to you for a wedding anniversary
present with words to the effect that you ``light up her
life.''
Well, you lit up many lives. I think of our Irish bond
of friendship, stories I can't tell. Some of those closed-
door sessions with other Irish-Americans, such as Pat
Moynihan, Chris Dodd, and Ted Kennedy, when we would have
some holy water together. Somehow it came from Ireland. It
was usually at least 12 years old. We would tell Irish
stories. After 42 years here, I know the rules well
enough, I can't repeat any of those stories here. But they
were good ones because it was a friendship and we worked
together. We learned how to bring in others from both
parties.
Mr. President, I remember you and others showing all of
us how to find common ground, and we did things together.
I respect you so much for that. I must admit, I learned
something else on the Judiciary Committee. I learned the
Amtrak schedule because, if we had a meeting that was
going on a little bit long, we were reminded what time the
train was going to Delaware. I know you kept in good shape
because you could run to the station in 3 minutes and get
on the train, where you would go home to Beau and Hunter
and, later, Jill and Ashley--because even though you were
a leader in the U.S. Senate, and later Vice President, you
were, first and foremost, a father and a husband.
You and I and Marcelle talked about that this summer,
when you came to Vermont for the Cancer Moonshot. I told
you what an important part of our lives you have been. You
have gone through tragedy and glory, but you have remained
yourself throughout all of it.
The memories of those evenings when you let this Irish-
Italian boy come in and sit as a member of the Irish--we
would speak of our values, we would speak of America, we
would speak of friendship. That is why I admire you, Mr.
President, and I am glad to be here on the floor with you.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I join my colleagues today
in addressing a few thoughts directly to the occupant of
the chair, to commend his long and honorable service to
the United States and to thank him for his friendship. Mr.
President--I know how much you enjoy my calling you Mr.
President--you and I have served together in this body for
three decades. We have been friends for almost 40 years,
since I was the Navy Senate liaison and used to carry your
bags on overseas trips.
I joked recently that I resented it ever since. But
that was part of my job description--escorting and
handling logistics for Senate codels, including making
certain everyone's luggage arrived at our destinations.
Back then, some Senators, unlike the 100 egalitarians who
occupy the Senate today, could be a little haughty and
highhanded. A few held an exalted opinion of themselves
that exceeded the esteem with which their colleagues and
constituents held them in. If they paid any attention to
staff, it was only because we had annoyed them somehow.
But not my friend Joe Biden--he was fair and courteous
to everyone, even people who did not always deserve it. He
is always an example of how a powerful person with
character and class treats anyone in a subordinate
position. He treats them with humility, as God's children,
with dignity equal to his own.
In the book ``The Nightingale's Song,'' the late
journalist Bob Timberg wrote about one military liaison
officer, escorting a codel to Athens, who joined some of
the Members in a tavern for a little after-hours merriment
and was later observed dancing on a tabletop with Senator
Biden's lovely wife, Jill.
I don't recall witnessing such an event myself, and I
can't testify to it having actually happened. Neither can
I imagine the temerity of that rascal, whoever he was. He
was lucky the Senator whose spouse he made endure awkward
moves he euphemistically called ``dancing'' was Joe Biden.
Few other Senators would have seen the humor in it.
Many years have passed since we shared those
adventures, and many events have transpired, personal and
public, that enriched our lives with the rewards and
disappointments, blessings and challenges. We were still
young when we came to the Senate. We are old men now.
Although you can't tell from looking at us, the Vice
President is actually a little younger than me, though we
both passed the Biblical threescore and ten.
This place, the Senate, has been central to both of our
lives. Here we work together on our country's challenges.
Here we fought and argued over the country's direction.
Here we compromised and joined forces to serve the public
interest. Here we watched history made and made our small
contributions to it. Neither of us is the shy and retiring
type. We both have been known to hold a strong opinion or
two. When circumstances warrant, we would rather make our
points emphatically than elliptically. I know that Joe
appreciates the adage that I have tried to follow in my
public life: a fight not joined is a fight not enjoyed.
When we have had differences of opinions over the
years, we have managed to make our positions crystal clear
to each other, perhaps in the persistent triumph of hope
over experience. We both still cling to the expectation
that we can persuade the other that he is mistaken. I
think deep down we probably know better.
In addition to being regularly mistaken, here is what I
have also known about my friend and occasionally sparring
partner. He is a good and decent man, God-fearing and
kind, a devoted father and husband, a genuine patriot who
puts our country before himself. I know, too, that it has
been a great privilege to call him my friend.
Mr. President, if I haven't made clear to you over
these many years how much I appreciated your friendship
and have admired you, I beg your forgiveness. We both have
been privileged to know Members of this body who were
legends in their own time and are remembered as important
historical figures. But I haven't known one who was a
better man than you. You are an exemplary public servant,
a credit to your family, to the Senate, and to the
country.
On behalf of the country and the Senate, thank you for
your lifetime service to America. Thank you for your
example of how to represent your constituents with honor
and humility and how to remain the same good guy that you
were when you first got here. Thank you, most of all, for
your friendship. My life and the lives of many have been
enriched by it.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there is a story about an
Irishman walking down the street. He passes two guys who
are fighting. He asks them: ``Is this a private fight or
can anybody get into it?''
Well, you know a little bit about that; don't you, Mr.
Vice President? For 40 years or more, you have always been
ready to fight for those who needed a champion and never
walked away from a good fight for a good cause. Your
public career has been marked by so many amazing victories
but also by unbearable losses and sorrows. You have had
joys and passions, determinations, and immense
accomplishments.
The list of your legislative achievements has been
recounted on the floor today. One of them I am sure you
are most proud of is the Violence Against Women Act. You
made a big difference in the lives of so many people whom
you will never meet, in protecting them and giving them
hope in a hopeless circumstance.
Between 1993, when your bill was passed, and 2010, the
rate of violence against intimate partners--almost all
women--declined by 67 percent in the United States. We
often wonder here, when bills we take to law are passed
and signed by the President, whether they can make a
difference. We know that your unsparing effort when it
came to violence against women made a significant
difference.
I had that in mind 9 years ago when I was riding around
Florida in a recreational vehicle. It was with my fellow
Senator from Illinois by the name of Barack Obama. He was
running for President, and we were in the back of this RV
as he was cruising through Florida. We were talking about
potential running mates, someone who could be his Vice
President.
We went through a short list. We came to your name, and
I said to the soon-to-be President, then Senator and my
colleague, ``You couldn't pick a better choice than Joe
Biden. I know him as a person. I know him as a fellow
Senator. I know his heart. You would be blessed to have
him on your team.''
He made that choice, even though at the beginning, I am
sure both of you wondered: Is this going to work? It did.
It did for your purpose and for his and for America's. I
am reminded of that famous poet Seamus Heaney. He wrote:
History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of Justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
Obama-Biden--hope and history certainly did rhyme. The
things that you have been able to achieve with this
President have made a difference in America to millions of
lives. Whether we are talking about coming out of a
recession where we were losing 800,000 jobs a month,
making sure that Wall Street didn't make the same mistakes
again at the expense of businesses and families across
America, or making sure that some father did not face the
heartbreak of a sick child with no health insurance. You
made a difference in their lives.
Just this week, there is the Cancer Moonshot. Who
knows, Mr. Vice President, what will happen as a result of
that investment in your son's name. But I sense that
something good is going to happen for a lot of people
around this country. I am glad that the Biden name is
closely associated with it.
Mr. President, there is an old story--a joke--about the
Pope. The story goes that the day came when he said to his
driver, ``You know, I haven't had a chance to drive the
car in a long time. Why don't you sit in the back and I'll
drive.''
The story goes that the Pope started driving the car
and started speeding and got pulled over. This policeman
looked inside the car, then looked out again, and looked
back and said, ``Excuse me.'' He got on his cell phone and
he called the police station. He said, ``I have an
extraordinary circumstance here. I have just pulled over a
car with someone very important in it.''
They said, ``Well, who is it?''
He said, ``I don't know who he is, but he has the Pope
for a driver.''
The reason I remember that story is that one time I was
on Air Force Two with Vice President Joe Biden. We flew
you home to Delaware. I was going to catch an Amtrak train
at Wilmington, and I asked you to drop me off.
You said, ``No, I'm going to take you up to the
train.''
So we get up to the train, and the train is pulling in
the station. You look at what I have for a ticket and you
said, ``That ticket is not good. You need a real ticket. I
will get it for you.''
You grabbed it and took off running, with the Secret
Service trailing behind you as the train pulled into the
station. I am thinking: Am I going to make this train? Is
he going to make it back? You came running up the steps
with the Secret Service trailing behind you while the
train was stopped. All of these passengers were looking as
the Vice President of the United States ran up to me,
handed me a ticket, and said, ``Go ahead and get on the
train.''
Now, the people on the train had no idea who I was, but
they knew if the Vice President was carrying my ticket, I
must be somebody important.
Let me say one personal word. You and your wife Jill
really embody what I consider to be the best of public
life--not only your commitment to people who are less
fortunate around the world but your genuine sense of
caring and your good heart, both of you. I recall when my
colleague Marty Russo of Illinois had a son who was sick
with cancer. There was one person who called every day to
make sure that he was doing well.
Well, that is the way you not only build a friendship
but you build a reputation as not just a glad-handing
politician but someone who really cares. I have been
honored to count you as a friend. I am honored that the
President whom I love chose you as his Vice President. I
am honored that we have served in the Senate together and
that I can tell my kids and grandkids. I wish you the best
whatever life brings you next.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Georgia.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a
person who has had a tremendous impact on my life and my
career in the Senate and also a tremendous impact on my
country, the United States of America. I still remember to
this day the date and time Mitch McConnell called me in
2007 and said, ``Hey, we have an opening for a Republican
on Foreign Relations and nobody will take it. Will you
take it?''
I did not know if that was a benefit--a perk or
whatever--but I said, ``Anytime you are offered a gift,
don't look a gift horse in the face.'' So I did it.
Two days later, Joe Biden saw me at the committee and
said, ``I am glad you joined our committee. I am glad to
have you. I have an opening on the Africa Subcommittee. I
can't get a Republican to take it. Will you do it?''
I said, ``Mr. Biden, I have never been to Africa.''
He said, ``Well, you will soon. How about taking it?''
I did. I have been to Africa 12 times since. It has
become a passion in my career, and I give Vice President
Biden a lot of credit for the influence he had on that. I
also remember the day when the mock swearing in took place
down on the second floor, and I had my nine grandchildren
here to watch me being sworn into the Senate.
At the mock signing ceremony, Joe stood there, and we
all raised our hand, and we repeated the ceremony that we
had done on the floor. Then Joe greeted each one of my
grandchildren one by one as they walked by. When little
Jack, who was then 7 years old, stopped, Joe Biden said,
``Jack, what don't you like about the Capitol?''
Jack said, ``Well, Mr. Vice President, there is no Lego
store.''
Joe Biden said, ``The next time you come here, there
will be one.''
I want to tell the Vice President that he is coming on
January 2 to see me sworn in again. I have already bought
the Lego box. It is on the desk in my hideaway, and I am
going to tell him that Vice President Joe made sure he had
Legos when he came back to the Capitol. You know the real
character of a man and the real credit to a man is what
influence he has on children. I can tell you from that
story, it is just one of many that Joe Biden has had.
On me, personally, I will never forget the day Joe
Biden called me as Vice President of the United States and
said:
Johnny, I have got the mayor of Baltimore and the mayor
of Philadelphia going with me to Panama City next week to
look at the deepening of the Panama Canal. I know
Savannah's port is important to you. I know you have been
fighting with us to get the authorization you need to
deepen the Port of Savannah. How about flying with me down
there and let's take a look at it and let's do a press
conference together.
I did and he did and we did, and today the Port of
Savannah is being deepened to 47 feet. Panamax ships will
be sailing through it in 4 more years. I am convinced it
would not have happened at the level of the administration
had it not been for Joe Biden, the Vice President of the
United States but more important, my friend.
Joe, I don't have the words to adequately tell you how
much I appreciate you as a person and as a leader, but
there is a little poem I know that says more about what
you really are than anything I could say.
I'd rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me
Than merely tell the way.
The eye's a better pupil
And more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing
But example's always clear;
And the best of all preachers
Are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action
Is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it
If you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action,
But your tongue too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver
May be very wise and true,
But I'd rather get my lessons
By observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you
And the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding
How you act and how you live.
Joe, you have lived the life of a patriot and you act
like a gentleman. You are my friend, and may God bless you
and your family and thank you for your service to the
country and your friendship to me.
I yield back.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President--and it is a pleasure to say
that. Some may know him as ``the guy in the aviators''
deboarding Air Force Two or the man in the 1967 Corvette
in the viral Internet video, gleeful, as he had the rare
opportunity to drive himself around in his favorite car.
Mr. President, it is so clear that the American public
has embraced this grinning, approachable, unstoppable life
force known as Vice President Joe Biden, but little do
many Americans know of the heart of our Vice President.
They have caught glimpses of it in 1972, when his wife and
daughter were killed in a terrible car accident and his
two sons severely injured. It is hard to imagine that kind
of devastation, and Joe picked himself up and was sworn in
to his first term in the U.S. Senate from his son's
hospital room.
Maybe they saw it last year when Joe's son, Beau,
following in his father's footsteps to be an extraordinary
public servant and, more important, a wonderful father,
lost a long and hard-fought battle with cancer. I know as
a mother and grandmother myself that I will never
understand what Joe went through.
Mr. President, again, Joe picked himself up and
continued to serve our country as a strong, dedicated Vice
President in the midst of a raucous election season when
Americans needed him the most. Joe Biden's commitment to
his family, his struggles, and his service, encompass what
it means to be not just Vice President and a brilliant
husband and father but an American.
Joe grew up in a middle class family who worked hard
for everything they had. He was just 29 years old when he
ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Mr. President, you might have been young, but you
already saw what divided people in Delaware.
He knew that people across the State also held the same
hopes for themselves and their families, and he believed
he could work through those disparities. In an upset
victory, he won a seat in the Senate in November 1972.
Since his swearing in, Joe has worked every day on
behalf of families in Delaware and for the entire country,
especially the last 8 years.
When Joe lost his son to cancer, he launched a Moonshot
for this generation to end cancer as we know it today. He
is now working on behalf of every family that ever lost a
loved one to cancer to push forward on medical innovations
and discoveries. I am so proud Joe's Moonshot is included
in the final cures bill we just voted on this afternoon
and even more so that the Senate renamed the provisions to
support cancer research in that bill to honor Beau in
calling it the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot. We will now use
those investments to fight to cure cancer so we can look
forward to a world where no family has to go through what
the Bidens did and the devastation that millions of other
Americans have experienced after being touched by cancer.
Mr. President, back when I was serving with the
Presiding Officer, Joe, my friend, in the Senate in 1994,
I had the pleasure of working with him to pass the
Violence Against Women Act, VAWA, as we know it. It was a
landmark piece of legislation that changed the way our
country responded to domestic violence and sexual assault.
Joe has come out as a strong advocate for ending violence
against women through his campaign, ``1is2Many,''
spreading awareness and working to help reduce dating
violence and sexual assaults among students, teens, and
young adults. His ``It's On Us'' campaign has been a wake-
up call to the epidemic of campus sexual assaults across
the country. Women are safer today in America than they
were 20 years ago due in part to Joe's fearless leadership
on these issues that affect too many in our Nation.
Despite everything he has been through or maybe because
of everything he has been through, he gets back up and he
fights on and he fights on behalf of every family in our
country, and that is heart. That is heart, the way he
always wants to make people happy, no matter what the
circumstance.
Last time he was in Seattle, he brought a little
stuffed animal--a little dog--to give to my granddaughter.
Now, she is very shy, but the second he smiled and handed
her that little dog, she became his best friend ever, and
she keeps it by her side, Joe. That is why he is going to
be missed, by his colleagues and by the entire country,
because of his humanity. That is the Joe Biden I know and
I want everyone else to know that too.
It has been an honor to call Joe a fellow Senator, Mr.
Vice President, but mostly a great friend.
I want to thank Joe for what he has taught me and all
of our colleagues through his service and thank him for
his extraordinary and inspiring leadership throughout his
life in the best of times and in the worst. Joe--and his
aviators--will be sorely missed.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Thank you, Mr. President.
In 1974, a freshman Senator from Delaware named Joe
Biden was identified as one of Time magazine's ``200 Faces
for the Future.'' That prescient prediction anticipated
the more than four decades of contributions and
accomplishments that followed. Joe Biden served six terms
in the U.S. Senate and became Vice President of the United
States, but he is exactly the same person today as he was
when more than 40 years ago he took that first train trip
from Wilmington to Washington to be sworn in as a U.S.
Senator. He is everybody's friend--but nobody's fool.
While Joe Biden changed Washington, Washington never
changed him.
It is an article of faith among those of us who know
and love Joe Biden that nothing is more important to him
than family. It is, therefore, a cruel irony that this
good and decent man has faced so many family tragedies
during his long and fruitful career in public service.
Although he has been sorely tested by several wrenching
losses, Vice President Biden's irrepressible spirit has
never been broken. He is as optimistic about his country
today as he was in 1972, when as a county councilman he
defeated a long serving Senate incumbent and began the
journey that ultimately led him to the second highest
office in the land. With his Cancer Moonshot Initiative,
Joe Biden once again has turned personal tragedy into a
public cause that undoubtedly will save lives.
To know Joe Biden is to admire him, his warmth, his
devotion to friends and family, his commitment to all
things Delaware, and his fierce loyalty to his party that
somehow never alienated those of us on the other side of
the aisle. Perhaps that is due to the many thoughtful
gestures the Vice President demonstrates every day.
How well I remember bringing my younger brother to the
White House holiday party one year and running into the
Vice President just as he was leaving after a long day of
work. He instantly stopped and asked if we would like for
him to give us a personal tour of the West Wing of the
White House. For the next 45 minutes, instead of being
driven home, the Vice President of the United States took
my brother and me on the best tour of the White House that
anyone could ever have. I still remember the shocked look
on the face of the marine at the situation room when we
arrived there.
Another wonderful memory that I have was of the time
Joe Biden and I were named Irish Americans of the Year by
the American Ireland Fund. I thought it was so telling
that both of us brought our family members to the
celebratory dinner, and both of us talked about our Irish
mothers. Now, I do remember that Joe's speech was
considerably better than mine, but mine was much shorter.
In a time of almost suffocating partisanship, Joe Biden
is a breath of bipartisan fresh air. People may disagree
with Joe on 1 or 2 or even 10 issues, but nobody finds him
disagreeable. It is often said that if you don't love Joe
Biden, it is time for some serious introspection. You may
have a serious problem.
No one can say with certainty what lies ahead for Vice
President Joe Biden, but this much is certain: He will
face the future with unbridled enthusiasm, extraordinary
energy, and an unwavering commitment to his family, his
friends, and his country.
I thank the Vice President for his outstanding service
to our country, but most of all I thank him for his
extraordinary friendship to me. I wish the Vice President
and his wonderful family all the best.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Thank you very much, Mr. President and
Vice President.
Well, Mr. President, we all take pleasure in calling
you that. Mr. Vice President, Senator, foreign policy
guru, the Senator who was tough on crime but a soft touch
when it came to compelling human need, a longtime
colleague, but most of all, I know you as my friend Joe.
It is not only that I know you as my friend Joe, the
people of Delaware know you as ``my friend Joe.'' The fact
is, your colleagues, both present and past, here feel the
same way about you and so do the American people.
You have a unique ability to make a visceral connection
to people. You actually connect to them, not only on the
abstraction of big ideas, of which you were more than
capable, but I think your connection was hand to hand,
heart to heart. I think when you talk with people, that is
why you have this visceral connection.
Sure, you can debate the great ideas, whether it is
national security or economic growth, but it is that heart
connection you are able to make that I think has been one
of your great signatures.
We in Maryland know you as a neighbor, the Delmarva
gang from Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. We also know
you as ``Amtrak Joe.'' I think that is so fitting because
not only have you been a champion of Amtrak and ridden the
train so faithfully--which has now become the stories of
fact and fiction--but also Amtrak Joe is right because,
really, in the way you have lived your life, conducted
yourself in public service, you have kept America on track
and going in the right direction because you knew what
your destinations were. I salute you for that. You have
done a great job in everything you have undertaken.
I know you because while others just go for the pomp
and they love the policy--if I hear one more ``I'm going
to dive deep in policy,'' I am going to shake my head.
I am like you. I believe that we do need policies that
help people, keep our Nation strong and safe, help our
people be able to help themselves, and make sure there is
an opportunity structure here. But we are here to be
champions of the people. That is what you have been, a
champion of the people, and you have been a steady friend.
When I arrived in the Senate, I was the only Democratic
woman. I have often said that, though I was all by myself,
I was never alone. I was surrounded by the good men in the
Senate, and particularly the Democrats reached out their
hands and helped me.
Of course, my very good friend Paul Sarbanes, who is
here today, was my senior Senator when I came and was my
colleague and my champion, but you were right up at the
top of the list too. I call the men who were so incredibly
helpful to me, Galahads. You help me in every way you can.
In my time in the Senate, when I reached out to you,
you were always there. When I reached out to fight for
women to be included in the NIH protocols, you were there
to help me. When I reached out to fight against the skimpy
and spartan money for breast cancer research, you were
there to help me. When we organized the women of the
Senate, the Democratic women, to fight then-President Bush
on the privatizing of Social Security, when we said we
shouldn't rely on the bull of political promises while we
fear the bear market, you joined right there with us, side
by side, shoulder to shoulder. Whether it was equal pay
for equal work or so many issues, you were always there
when we called upon you. You were always such tremendous
help.
I was also there to try to help you. I remember a day
in the mid-1990s when I got a call from you. Maybe you
remember that, but I remember it. You said you really
wanted to stop violence against women. You knew of my
social work background, my advocacy for what was then
called battered women. You said, ``Can you help me kind of
go over this legislation to make sure that the money goes
to people who will help those women and not to people who
just want to get grants?''
So we worked together. We talked about the need for
shelters. We talked about the reform of police, courts,
and so on. Then you came up with that fabulous idea to
have a hotline. So it didn't matter whether you lived in
Delaware or in Des Moines or in San Diego, there was
always help on the other side of that line.
I was so happy to work with you and to support you as
you led that battle through--as only a good man could--to
stand for women who were being battered in their own homes
and facing danger.
Lately I checked on the statistics on that hotline. Joe
Biden, since that hotline legislation passed, over 4
million have called that hotline. Many of them were in
lethal danger. Because of you, Joe Biden, there are
thousands, if not tens of thousands, of women and children
alive today because you had the foresight and the
fortitude to create this legislation. That in and of
itself would have been enough for a career. But, oh, you
did so many other things.
Now we know you are advocating the national Cancer
Moonshot, but you have been a champion on finding the cure
for cancer for a long time, whether it was for women with
breast cancer or others. I am so pleased that in that
cloture vote we are going to include $352 million for
that. So on issue after issue, we were there.
I know you have been a great leader, but I also know
that behind great men there are also very terrific women.
I think we owe a salute to Jill. She is a wonderful woman,
a leader in her own right, with a belief in higher
education, a belief in working at the community college
level so people who had big dreams in their hearts but not
a lot of money in their pockets could be able to go on to
college. What a champion she has been there and also what
a champion for our veterans and for our wounded warriors.
Wow, she is just terrific. I know she has been at your
side.
There are so many stories I could tell, but I want to
wrap up with one. I met your mother. She was spunky. She
was feisty. She was a delight. If there is anything
spunkier, feistier, or more delightful than an Irish
mother, it is a Polish mother. I wish you could have met
mine. Those two would have been kindred spirits.
Do you remember when the Pope came to Baltimore? The
Pope was coming to Baltimore, and I told my mother I
wanted to greet the Pope in Polish. My mother's response
was, ``Oh, my God.''
I grew up in a family that before World War II was
bilingual. I was bilingual as a child, but during World
War II we stopped speaking all foreign language, so my
pronunciation is really awkward. My mother made me
practice Polish words, how to say hello to the Pope and
how to say goodbye to the Pope.
You and I were at the Baltimore-Washington Airport.
There goes the Pope in his popemobile. He is heading up,
he is getting on ``Shepherd Two,'' and you are saying
goodbye: ``Goodbye Your Holiness.''
I say, ``No, say it in Polish. You have a large Polish
community.''
I taught you how to say one simple phrase, ``sto lat.''
In the tongue of my ethnic heritage, when you say ``sto
lat'' to someone, you say may they live 100 years.
So, Joe, sto lat.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I wish to recognize the
presence in the Chamber of five former Senators--Senators
Bayh, Harkin, Kaufman, Salazar, and Sarbanes--and to thank
many Senators who have asked that their comments be placed
in the Record.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed
in the Record, given the lateness of the hour, the lengthy
and moving remarks that former Senator and now Secretary
of State Kerry has provided.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to
be printed in the Record, as follows:
Secretary of State John Kerry
Statement on Joe Biden
December 7, 2016
Mr. President:
Almost 4 years ago this winter, after almost 29 years
serving in the Senate from Massachusetts, and after five
times the people of Massachusetts voted to send me to
Washington--my Senate colleagues were kind enough to vote
to send me away, but not far away, just up the street to
the State Department.
So, as a prodigal U.S. Senator, I am especially grateful
to Senator Coons for the privilege to share some thoughts
about my colleague of a quarter century in the Senate, and
my colleague of the last 4 years in the Obama
administration--the Vice President of the United States,
Joe Biden. That Senator Coons--who sits in the Senate seat
which Joe held for almost 37 years--organized this
remarkable tribute says something about Delaware--a small
State where politics is personal, where courtesy is still
the currency--but it says much more about the kind of
friend and mentor Joe has been to Chris, and to so many of
us who have known the Vice President. It is, simply, the
right thing to do--but the kind of thing that doesn't
happen enough these days in Washington, in politics, or in
the institution which Joe reveres, the U.S. Senate.
I first heard the name ``Joe Biden'' about 38 years ago.
It was 1972--the 1st year Joe and I ran for national
office. We shared a set of friends and political teammates
in progressive politics, friends Joe and I have shared to
this day--and they shuttled between Wilmington, DE, and
Lowell, MA, trying to help us both to victory. In that
improbable year, I lost and Joe won--and weeks later
tragedy intervened and changed the trajectory of Joe's
life not as a Senator, but as a father and a person. I
won't forget reading his words back then: ``Delaware can
find another Senator, but my boys can't find another
father.'' We are all grateful that Joe was persuaded not
to give up on public service, but to be sworn in, and to
rely--as the Bidens do in their remarkable way--on the
closeness of family--of Val and Jimmy in particular--to
help him be both a remarkable father and a remarkable
public servant.
Twelve years after Joe was elected, I finally arrived in
Washington--a junior Senator, second to last in
seniority--and one of the first people to pull me aside
and offer himself up not as a generational rival, but as a
slightly older big brother ready to show me the ropes was
the then, senior Senator from Delaware--2 years older than
me, Senator Joe Biden.
I loved serving with Joe--and I don't just mean we
served contemporaneously; we were friends and partners in
so many efforts--environment, civil rights, the
empowerment of women, foreign policy--and always with Joe
Biden, whether you agreed or disagreed with him, no matter
where you were from in the country or where you stood
ideologically, you knew exactly what you could expect: a
person of conviction, a person of character, a person who
studied the issues and never cut corners--and a Senator in
the best tradition whose word was his bond.
For Joe, that's a quality that's deeply personal. The
Vice President lives by a very old-fashioned code of
loyalty: You always tell the truth, you never forget where
you came from, and your word is your bond. I can't tell
you how many times in the Senate when I was listening to
Joe negotiate or we were working on something he would
say, ``I give you my word as a Biden.'' And you knew you
had a very special commitment that would not be broken.
That never changed when he became Vice President.
That code also guided his approach as a legislator--not
just in how he worked with his colleagues, but to how he
approached the issues. I'd been a prosecutor back in the
days when some people still argued that violence against
women wasn't a crime--but it was Joe Biden who was far
ahead of the curve in the Senate--throughout the 1980s and
1990s--beating the drum on the Judiciary Committee to pass
a Violence Against Women Act because there was no crime
comparable, as he saw it, in robbing a human being of two
things to which everyone is entitled, two words Joe talks
about often: dignity and respect.
That is why he was so outspoken about the horrors
happening in Bosnia and Kosovo--thousands of miles from
our shores--and why as one of those most powerful voices
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he stood up to
Slobodan Milosevic, looked him in the eye, and called him
a war criminal. That's Joe Biden--on issues of moral
clarity, you know exactly where he stands. It is no
surprise to me then that long before he served in Iraq,
his beloved son Beau volunteered to go to Kosovo and do
legal work helping victims find justice, helping victims
reclaim dignity through the judicial system. For the
Bidens, this was an article of faith.
Over the years, I had the privilege of traveling with
Joe overseas--often with Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham. I
saw first hand that when Senator Biden traveled overseas,
it wasn't government tourism, whether the administration
was Democratic or Republican, Joe always traveled with a
constructive purpose in mind: To learn first hand about
foreign leaders and other perspectives--to forge
relationships--and to advance America's cause. In long
flights and long meetings headed into places like
Afghanistan and Pakistan, again and again I saw someone
who leads by listening, who leads by learning, and who
speaks with conviction--wherever the place, whatever the
language.
Joe's leadership as Vice President has been a terrific
asset on domestic issues, and his fluency in the ways of
the Senate a special tool called upon at many key moments
by Leaders McConnell and Reid. But as Secretary of State
I've been particularly grateful for the role he has played
on foreign policy. Joe believes to his core that American
diplomacy isn't about admiring problems--it's about
solving them. When thousands of unaccompanied children
showed up on our Southwestern border, Joe Biden worked
with Congress to provide funding to help Central America's
leaders make the difficult reforms and investments
required to address the region's multifaceted challenges--
because he knew the security and prosperity of Central
America are inextricably linked with our own. As the
conflict in Ukraine has pressed on, Joe has worked hard--
not only to keep the Minsk deal in place, but to encourage
and help the Government of Ukraine take on corruption and
make necessary economic reforms that will help Ukraine
flourish and thrive in the years to come. Again and again,
in our breakfasts at the Naval Observatory and in phone
calls from farflung places, he always encouraged me to
keep pressing--to speak up and speak out, and to fight--
even inside the administration--for the policies I
believed in, even when he didn't agree. That's Joe Biden.
We still joke about a trip that we took with Chuck Hagel
to Afghanistan back in 2008. We went up to a forward
operating base up in Kunar Province. Our helicopter, on
the way back, got caught in a snow squall in the
mountains. Our pilot found himself effectively snowblind,
and suddenly we were banking and heading down and braced
for an emergency landing on this snow-covered road high in
the mountains near Bagram Airbase. Joe Biden turned to
Chuck Hagel and me and he offered an alternative. He said,
``Maybe we could keep the helicopter aloft if the three of
us just started to give a speech.'' But laughter aside, on
that frozen mountaintop, as we waited to be rescued, you
learn the measure of a person. Throughout that time, what
Joe kept coming back to was the gift of family, and the
privilege of public service.
America has known Vice President Biden in moments of
great triumph and also on occasions of immeasurable pain.
We revere the dignity with which he carries himself
through all of it. We admire him. We love him. Above all,
we thank him--a great Vice President, a ``Senate man''
still to the core, and someone I know I can call on and
count on as a friend long after we both leave office on
January 20. Thank you, Senator--Mr. Vice President--
``Joe''--and I know you will carry on in contribution to
the cause of country.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I wish to honor
Joe Biden, the 47th Vice President of the United States.
After I came to the Senate in 1992--known as ``the Year
of the Woman''--then-Senator Joe Biden invited me to lunch
at his office in the Russell Senate Office Building. We
sat at a small table in his elegant office and discussed
the importance of having a woman on the Judiciary
Committee, of which he was chairman at the time.
This was in the wake of the Anita Hill hearings, and
there were no women on the committee. It was a real honor
when Joe Biden asked me to join. He then asked Senator
Carol Moseley Braun to join, giving the committee two
women for the first time.
Serving on the committee with him, I noticed
immediately that he had a commanding presence. As I
watched him chair the committee, I was impressed by the
passion he displayed while working to slow the drug trade,
protect women from domestic violence, and help advocate
for a ban on assault weapons. These were issues that I,
along with millions of other Americans, felt strongly
about, and we had a champion in Joe Biden.
During discussions about a proposed crime bill in 1993,
I told Joe I was working on an assault weapons ban. This
was in the wake of a mass shooting in San Francisco that
shocked me. I told Joe we had at least 48 votes and I
wanted to introduce it as an amendment to the crime bill.
He laughed--a big raucous laugh--and said, ``Well, you're
just a freshman. Wait till the gunners get to you.''
He may have had his doubts, but he was a staunch
supporter of the amendment, and with the help of President
Clinton and Chuck Schumer in the House, we were able to
secure bipartisan support and pass the amendment. It was a
proud day for me when it was signed into law.
Joe was right about the gunners, though. The gun lobby
did come after us, and they continue to oppose commonsense
gun laws today.
During that debate and in every fight since then, Joe
Biden has been staunch, impassioned, and a committed
partner.
That crime bill was a monumental piece of legislation.
In addition to our assault weapons ban, it put 100,000
more cops on the street, protected children from dangerous
predators and included a very important piece of
legislation: the Violence Against Women Act.
It has been two decades since Joe introduced the
Violence Against Women Act. In that time, domestic
violence rates have decreased by 64 percent, conviction
rates for abusers increased, and 4 million women and men
have been helped by the National Domestic Violence
Hotline.
Beyond the numbers, Joe changed the debate around
domestic violence with enactment of this bill. States and
localities changed outdated laws. Victims were given
courage to speak out and seek help, and millions of women
felt empowered knowing that in America, they had the right
to be free from violence and free from fear.
Joe's legacy as chair of the Judiciary is matched by
his time leading the Foreign Relations Committee. From
atop the committee, he was a forceful advocate for peace
and stability around the world. He called for strategic
arms limitations with the Soviet Union, helped secure
peace in the Balkans, helped bring former Soviet bloc
states into NATO, called for U.S. action to end the
genocide in Darfur, and spoke out against failed policies
in Iraq.
He was also a critic of the CIA's detention and
interrogation program and backed our efforts to release
the torture report. During heated debate, Joe made the
argument simple and easy to understand: America will be
stronger by saying the following: ``This was a mistake, we
should not have done what we've done and we will not do it
again.''
He was right, and our Nation is stronger for having the
courage to admit that.
Joe Biden's willingness to speak the truth is one of
the many reasons President Obama tapped him to be his
running mate. The President knew Joe would discuss every
issue with the same frank honesty--whether he was offering
counsel in the Oval Office or chatting with someone on the
train ride back home.
President Obama relied on his Vice President to oversee
the recovery after the worst economic recession since the
Great Depression. He was tasked with implementing the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Ready to Work
Initiative and to chair the Middle Class Task Force.
Joe Biden was the perfect choice for the job. He is the
product of his Catholic faith and the values instilled in
him growing up in Scranton. Those same values that he
carried throughout his career in Delaware and into the
Vice Presidency.
He is a tough individual who has faced adversity that
would knock a lesser man down; yet through it all, Joe
never wavered from his commitment to serving others.
To those of us who have had the pleasure of working
with him and to millions of Americans, Joe Biden is a good
and honest man who simply wants to make the world a better
place.
After 44 years in this Chamber, the last 8 as the
President of the Senate, Joe can leave knowing he has
accomplished just that. The world is a better place thanks
to you, and it is grateful for your service, Joe Biden.
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, for more than 30 years, Vice
President Joe Biden has held a big place in my heart.
Through thick and thin, he trusted me to be his partner in
so many fights, and I will be forever grateful to him.
Joe first impressed me after he took a stand against
the Reagan administration's support of South Africa when
it was still in the depths of apartheid. So when he asked
me to help organize women for his 1988 Presidential
campaign, I was all in.
While that race wasn't meant to be, I fell in love with
Joe's vision of ``reclaiming the idea of America as a
community'' and his beautiful, persistent optimism and
hope--qualities we all still love him for today.
I cherished our time serving in Congress together, and
I was so honored that he asked me to carry the Violence
against Women Act in the House. Joe was determined to put
the spotlight on this quiet epidemic--and he has been
doing just that ever since.
It took 5 years, but President Bill Clinton finally
signed VAWA into law in 1994. It was one of Joe's many
monumental achievements.
By then, I had won election to the U.S. Senate where
Joe played a major role in one of my own biggest personal
accomplishments: the dolphin-safe tuna label law. Well, if
I am being honest, it was his then 8-year-old daughter,
Ashley, who got him involved.
Schoolchildren across the country were boycotting their
tuna fish sandwiches after learning that dolphins could be
killed as tuna was caught, and Ashley was begging her
father to take action.
I was so proud that Joe chose to partner with me on a
bill that required companies that sell dolphin-safe tuna
to prove that dolphins were not hurt in the fishing
process. Like any good father, Joe wanted to show Ashley
that he would come through for her--and he did.
Our bill became law in 1992, and it is estimated that
it saves tens of thousands of dolphins every year.
Joe also served as an extraordinary chairman on the
Foreign Relations Committee, where I am a member. He was
gracious and respectful, listening to every viewpoint, but
he also wasn't afraid to speak up and take charge. I
thought he was very courageous to point out a better way
to solve the civil war in Iraq, and I was so proud to
stand with him.
For all of these reasons, and so many more, it is no
surprise that President Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to
serve as his Vice President.
It is no surprise that Joe will go down as one of the
most effective Vice Presidents in history because of his
warm, open relationship with President Obama. They have
spent a great deal of time together, exchanging thoughts
and ideas, and Joe was one of the key advisors who
influenced President Obama as he successfully confronted
horrific challenges, such as: two wars; the worst
recession since the Great Depression; and rising violence
in our communities.
Who could ever forget Joe Biden's immense respect and
gratitude for our men and women in uniform and their
families and his determined fight to bring them home
safely?
Who could ever forget how he shepherded the Recovery
Act through Congress--a near impossible feat in this
polarized political climate?
Who could ever forget his long history of fighting for
community policing and to strengthen the bonds between
police officers and their communities?
No one has fought harder for the things he believes in
than Joe Biden--no one--and there is nothing that he will
not do for the country he so deeply loves.
Love of country is second only to the love Joe has for
his beautiful family. When he talks about his incredible
wife, children, and grandchildren, you know they are his
guiding star.
It is because of this love that we have all come to
know and adore Joe, and for that same reason, it is why
our hearts broke for him over the profound, unspeakable
loss of his son, Beau. All of America mourned with Joe.
He had every right to stay down, but Joe is as
resilient as they come. He likes to tell the advice that
his father gave him as a child: ``Champ, when you get
knocked down get up. Get up.''
Well, Joe always gets up. He gets up again and again
and again.
We are all so fortunate that he does because, from the
U.S. Senate to the Office of the Vice President, Joe has
never stopped fighting for the things he believes in--for
civil rights, women's rights, worker's rights, economic
fairness, a world-class education for our kids, health
care for all, and a safe and peaceful world.
Joe has taught me so much, and I am so proud to call
him my forever friend.
Many of you know that I love to rewrite song lyrics.
This is what I wrote for Joe:
Joe is a many splendored thing.
He is tough and smart and strong and wise.
Winter, fall and spring.
He's for kids and health and child care.
Our Joe will always be there.
A smile, a glow,
It's not for show, it's true.
Joe worked with us for years and years,
And there is no sleep for our busy Veep.
He has hope not fears.
Whether guy or gal,
Joe is our pal.
And this we know is true,
Joe Biden, colleagues,
All love you.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I join my colleagues today
in honoring you and thanking you for the incredible
devotion you have shown to the U.S. Senate and to express
my deep respect for you--respect that I know the people of
Michigan share.
You have been a longtime friend to me and to the people
of my home State. One thing we have always had in common:
our parents were both in the automobile industry. As of
course you know, your dad was a car salesman, and my
father owned an Oldsmobile dealership.
So we have both known, from the very beginning, how
critically important American manufacturing is for so many
people in Michigan and across the country.
We worked together, both when you were the Senator from
Delaware and then as the Vice President of the United
States, to save the auto industry back in 2008.
You know that the only way we succeed is if we do
everything we can to support and grow America's middle
class, which you have done your entire career.
There are countless instances over your 40 years of
service when you were on the right side of history: when
you led the passage of the Violence Against Women Act; in
your work as the chair of the Judiciary and Foreign
Relations Committee; through your wise counsel as Vice
President and your ability to work with us to get so much
done over the last 8 years; with Dr. Biden, who is here
today, for your work supporting Michigan's military
families and community colleges; and now in your effort to
cure cancer through the Cancer Moonshot.
Early on in your career, you said that the work that we
do here allows us to ``literally have the chance to shape
the future--to put our own stamp on the face and character
of America, to bend history just a little bit.'' I would
believe, as every one of my colleagues does, that you have
done more than bend the future of America ``just a little
bit.''
You have changed this Nation and you have changed this
Senate for the better.
There is a great quote from a poet I know that you
admire very much, William Butler Yeats.
It is a piece of advice that he gave out frequently to
young writers. It goes: ``Think like a wise man but
communicate in the language of the people.''
Yeats--like you Mr. President--understood that the best
way to reach people is by appealing to their heart,
meeting them where they are.
I think, moving forward, we have to remember that we
all have to reach people's hearts and strive to serve as
well as you have.
Thank you for your service to this Senate and to the
American people.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, it is fitting that Joe
Biden ascended from Senator to Vice President--or as the
office is known around here, President of the Senate.
Joe was elected to the Senate as a very young man. We
have heard Joe talk about how hard it was after losing his
wife, Neilia, and baby daughter, Naomi, in an automobile
accident, just weeks before he was to be sworn in, to come
to Washington and assume his duties. He credits his older
colleagues like Mike Mansfield, Ted Kennedy, Danny Inouye,
Hubert Humphrey, Fritz Hollings, and Rhode Island's
Claiborne Pell, who opened his Washington home to the
young Senator, with convincing him to stick it out, just
for a few months.
Well, he did more than stick it out. He dove in. The
Senate saved his life, he has said, in that time of grief.
In return, he gave his life to the Senate, serving the
people of Delaware for more than three decades.
Joe Biden presided over Supreme Court nomination
hearings as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He
shepherded the assault weapons ban and the Violence
Against Women Act. He served also as the chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, facing down dictators and
championing nuclear nonproliferation.
He is, of course, recognized in Senate lore as a
particularly strong speaker and debater. From his familiar
perch in the back row of the Chamber, Joe would hold forth
on the merits of legislative proposals and the positions
of his colleagues. If the Chamber was empty of Senators,
he would even turn and deliver his speeches to the captive
audience in the staff gallery behind him.
Joe can always be counted on for telling it like it is.
Not long ago, he was in my home State of Rhode Island to
tout needed infrastructure projects. Now, Rhode Island has
one of the highest rates of structurally deficient bridges
in the Nation, and my senior Senator, Jack Reed, and I
have worked hard to bring Federal resources to bear in
addressing that need. Joe put it in no uncertain terms.
Standing under the East Shore Expressway Bridge on Warren
Avenue in East Providence, the Vice President cried, ``For
10 years you've had Lincoln logs holding the damn thing
up! No, I mean go look at it.'' The press went and looked
at it. ``If everybody in Rhode Island watched the news
tonight and saw that, they'd try to go around the damn
bridge!''
Whatever his style or accomplishments, Joe will always
pin his success in the Senate on the personal
relationships he forged so deeply and so sincerely, with
ideological allies and strange bedfellows alike. ``Every
good thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken
in the 36-plus years I have been here, came not from the
application of pressure by interest groups but through the
maturation of personal relationships,'' he said in his
2009 farewell speech. ``Pressure groups can and are strong
and important advocates, but they are not often vehicles
for compromise. A personal relationship is what allows you
to go after someone hammer and tongs on one issue and
still find common ground on the next.''
That is why Joe Biden was uniquely well suited for the
one job in this country with one constitutional foot in
the executive branch and the other in the legislative. He
was at the center of a number of high-stakes compromises
between the White House, Congress, and the two parties.
And every once in a while, he still got to vote.
``Except for the title `father,''' he said, ``there is
no title, including `Vice President,' that I am more proud
to wear than that of U.S. Senator.'' Joe Biden is a great
father to Hunter and Ashley, and to Beau, whose passing
last year was felt by the entire Senate family. He served
honorably as Vice President. But he will always be the
pride of the Senate.
I thank him for his faithful service and for his
enduring example. I wish him and Jill great happiness in
the adventures to come.
Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I wish to pay tribute to Vice
President Joe Biden, a man who has dedicated his life to
serving our country, working across the aisle whenever he
can, and always doing his best to get things done for the
American people.
I am proud to have known and admired Joe a long time. I
first met Joe toward the end of his first campaign for the
Senate, in fall 1972. My father, Stewart Udall, had been
called to Delaware to help the young Democratic candidate
with environmental issues. I tagged along with my dad and
spent a day on the campaign trail with a man who would
come to spend 36 distinguished years in the Senate and
become our 47th Vice President.
The following summer, I worked as a staffer in his
Senate office--writing constituent letters, researching
policy issues, preparing press materials. That was my
first job in the Senate.
In so many ways, Joe Biden is the same person now as
then--caring, passionate, energetic, tenacious, and ready
and able to get things done.
Joe gave me my first Senate job, and in January--44
years later--he swore me in for the 114th Congress.
I note that Senators from across our country--from both
parties--have lined up to speak to Joe's character and
accomplishments. We respect him as a colleague, and we
love him for his passion and commitment to public service.
Joe has never forgotten his blue collar roots. He has
never forgotten our country's working class. Joe has
fought all his life to make sure the working class gets a
fair shake. He sounded the clarion call in the last months
and weeks of the Presidential campaign--that we not forget
working families and, more broadly, America's middle
class.
In his words:
The middle class is not a number; it's a value set. It's
being able to own your house and not have to rent it; it's
being able to send your kid to the local park and know
they'll come home safely. It's about being able to send
your kid to the local high school and if they do well they
can get to college, and if they get to college, you can
figure out how to [pay to] get them there, and when your
mom or dad passes away, you can take care of the other who
is in need and hope your kids never have to take care of
you.
That's Joe Biden's definition of the middle class, and
the middle class has been clobbered.
Joe championing the working and middle class helps my
State of New Mexico, helps all of our States.
His policy expertise is broad and deep but maybe in no
area as much as foreign policy. He has spent decades
working on international matters--as a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the committee's
chair or ranking member, as President Obama's foreign
relations troubleshooter.
From my service on the Foreign Relations Committee, I
have a keen appreciation for the complexity of foreign
policy matters in today's world.
Joe's foreign policy is at once pragmatic and
sophisticated. He has stalwartly promoted peace and
nonproliferation. But he understands the need for military
force when national interests are at stake, diplomacy is
not an option, and such action will bear intended results.
Joe recently summed up what can be called the Biden
doctrine in foreign affairs. He identifies the broad
themes of Obama foreign policy strategy and advises the
next administration. The essay should be required reading
for anyone serious about foreign policy, and I hope the
new administration takes his advice to heart.
While Joe's legislative accomplishments are too many to
list, I would like to underscore one achievement that has
made a difference in my home State of New Mexico--the
Violence Against Women Act.
As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe drafted
VAWA and led the charge for enactment. Passed in 1994,
VAWA reordered how the Federal criminal justice system
handled rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence cases.
VAWA gave victims needed protections and strengthened
prosecutors' tools.
I was attorney general of New Mexico in 1994. In the
wake of VAWA's passage, I formed the Violence Against
Women Task Force. We got strengthened antistalking laws
passed in the New Mexico Legislature in 1997.
While VAWA was easily reauthorized and strengthened
during the 2000s, reauthorization became difficult in
2012. As Vice President, Joe was instrumental in breaking
impasses.
VAWA represented a sea change for how our society
addresses violent crime against women.
The law was reauthorized and strengthened in 2013, and
now extends protections to gay and transgender persons,
immigrant women, and on-reservation Native Americans.
Like Joe, I am a husband and father of a daughter. I am
proud to have voted in favor of reauthorization.
We all know that Joe has faced deep, personal
tragedies. But he has confronted tragedy with courage and
love for his family and with an unimaginable determination
to keep working for the American people--turning his own
losses into ways to help others.
Joe and his equally capable, determined, and
indefatigable wife Jill have brought new energy and
urgency to the fight to cure cancer. The Cancer Moonshot
has already had many successes. Joe turned the premature
death of his son into actions to help others with cancer.
This week, the Senate that Joe gave so much to gave
something back, sending the 21st Century Cures Act to
President Obama for signature. The $1.8 billion cancer
initiatives in that bill are the direct result of Vice
President Biden's Cancer Moonshot Initiative.
It is fitting that we named the cancer initiatives in
the Cures Act after Beau Biden.
Joe Biden leaves the Vice Presidency, but he will never
leave the fight for all Americans--Black, Brown, White,
poor, working class, middle class, gay, straight, Muslim,
Christian--everyone--fighting for what is right, fighting
to make sure we all have a fair shot.
Joe's heart is as big as they come. I honor his decades
of work, commitment, and accomplishments, and I look
forward to Joe continuing being Joe--the same guy I met in
1972--working hard every day to make a difference in the
lives of all Americans.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the
contributions and the long and colorful career of Vice
President Joe Biden--the pride of Scranton, PA--and of
Wilmington, DE--and the pride of the entire United States.
Joe Biden lived, learned, and grew up among hard-
working Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, when everything
in America seemed possible--and it was. Remarkably, this
gifted orator grew up with a crippling stutter--a
challenge which he overcame through determination and
perseverance. He displayed that same uncommon strength
after he lost his wife and daughter in a horrific car
accident just weeks after being first elected to the U.S.
Senate.
Joe Biden considered giving up his seat to tend to his
injured children. It is one of this country's great
fortunes that Joe Biden decided against that. Scarred by
the tragedy and by a close brush with death himself and
more recently by the loss of his son Beau, the Vice
President has shown us the power of and the comfort
derived from a deep personal faith.
When he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972,
he was only 29 years old. In a Senate career spanning 36
years, Joe Biden left behind a legacy as chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Perhaps his greatest
achievement was his tireless advocacy for civil rights,
especially the protection of women and children from
domestic violence. The passage of the Violence Against
Women Act in 1994 is an enduring Biden legacy which we
will continue to build upon for years to come.
Now, even as he is about to retire from political life,
Vice President Biden has taken on a new cause: to find a
cure for the disease which has claimed too many millions
of Americans, including his beloved son, Beau. The Cancer
Moonshot has refocused and reinvigorated our Nation's
efforts to eradicate this devastating disease, and I was
proud to support renaming the legislation to honor Beau
Biden.
Vice President Biden is as honest and authentic a
person as you will find, providing a welcome dose of
humanity and authenticity to the business of governing. He
has served with great honor and humility.
I recall a dinner the Vice President attended at my
home where, before he greeted a single guest, he made sure
to spend time with my children--greeting them and engaging
them in a real conversation. They have never forgotten
that.
As the meal was ending, the Vice President said he
wanted to hear from each of our guests. Now, this may come
as no surprise to those of you who know Joe Biden, but he
actually spoke at some considerable length about how
important he thought it was to hear from everybody who was
there. Two and a half hours into a dinner scheduled to
last just 90 minutes, I think one guest got to ask the
Vice President a question.
I know Vice President Biden and his exceptional
partner, Jill, will continue to be engaged in the life of
our Nation, so I will simply thank him today for four
decades of public service--and pledge my continued respect
for his many contributions to this great Nation which he
loves so completely.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want to join in honoring
Vice President Biden's lifetime of service and sacrifice
to our country.
Throughout his career, Vice President Biden has carried
out his work with a sense of humility, integrity, and
authenticity that often seems missing in today's politics.
He served as either chairman or ranking member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years. In this capacity,
he crafted the Violence Against Women Act, which provided
critical new protections to victims of domestic violence
and sexual assault. The landmark bill also supported local
law enforcement to help increase prosecutions and
convictions of abusers. He has continued this legacy by
serving as the White House adviser on violence against
women.
Most recently, he led the White House's efforts on the
Cancer Moonshot Initiative, which seeks to hasten our
advances in cancer research, prevention, and treatment.
Earlier today, the Senate passed a bill to help make the
Cancer Moonshot Initiative a reality, which is a further
testament to the Vice President's leadership and
character.
The Vice President's involvement in the Cancer Moonshot
Initiative was born out of the death of his son, Beau, who
lost his battle with brain cancer last year. The Vice
President also grappled with tragedy at a young age when
his first wife and his 13-month-old daughter were killed
in a car accident. The poise, dignity, and humility that
the Vice President has been able to maintain in the face
of these tragedies speaks to his strength and his
character. Through all this, he has continued to serve the
American people with the utmost integrity and
authenticity, which have undoubtedly contributed to his
successful career in public service.
The Vice President has also consistently advocated for
the leadership role the United States plays in the world.
Over the years, Vice President Biden has lent his
diplomatic hand to U.S. engagement in development and
security in places like Eastern Europe and the Northern
Triangle countries of Central America. He has worked
tirelessly to strengthen our partnerships across the
globe, in places like Asia, Europe, and the Middle East,
in an effort to further U.S. interests and the values upon
which our Nation has thrived.
When he was in Denver this past September to speak at
the Korbel School, the Vice President warned against
``turning inward.'' Joe has no capacity to turn inward in
any walk of life. His career is characterized by reaching
outward to the American people and to the world, working
to listen, collaborate, heal, and serve. We can all learn
a lot from that open and inclusive approach.
We are grateful for the Vice President's leadership and
example. I thank him and his incredible family for their
service to our Nation.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I would like to pay
tribute to an incredible leader, public servant, mentor,
and friend.
It seems impossible to place a period on the public
service career of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
So perhaps this is just an ellipsis.
For 36 years, Joe Biden was a towering presence in this
body. As a member, ranking member, and chairman of the
Foreign Relations Committee, he dove headfirst into the
most challenging issues in a volatile world, shaping a
generation of U.S. foreign policy. He tackled arms control
issues, stood up directly to Slobodan Milosevic, fought
against apartheid in South Africa, and strongly advocated
for NATO bombing of Serbia in the 1990s. He once called
his contribution to ending the Yugoslav wars one of the
``proudest moments'' of his political career. For years,
he worked to shape our policy in Iraq and the Middle East.
He did so not just from his Washington office, but through
regular visits to war zones, where he met face to face
with military leaders and enlisted men and women, alike.
This is Joe Biden's legacy.
As a member and chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
Senator Biden spearheaded the Federal assault weapons ban,
presided over Supreme Court confirmations, and--in perhaps
his most significant legislative triumph--authored the
Violence Against Women Act.
For generations, violence against women was a private
matter--a tragedy suffered over and over by women with no
recourse against abusive partners. VAWA brought this
scourge out of the shadows and into the open, affirming
that domestic violence survivors would not also be
victimized by the system that was supposed to protect
them. Because of VAWA, which Senator Biden helped
reauthorize three times, 4 million women and men have
called the National Domestic Violence Hotline and gotten
the support they need. From 1994, when VAWA became law,
until 2010, the rate of domestic violence in the United
States has fallen by 64 percent. These are real
accomplishments and real people--not just statistics. This
is Joe Biden's legacy.
As everyone knows, he did it all commuting daily from
and to his beloved Delaware.
Then he got a job that included accommodation in
Washington, DC.
Joe Biden has transformed the job of Vice President. A
key liaison to Congress because of his years of
relationships on the Hill, Joe Biden stood shoulder to
shoulder with President Obama and brought our economy back
from the brink. Vice President Biden was tasked with
implementing and overseeing the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, which laid the foundation for the
sustainable economic future we are experiencing today.
He also tackled longer term economic challenges,
traveling the country in support of American manufacturing
jobs and working tirelessly to rein in the exorbitant cost
of college and spiraling student loan debt. Joe Biden
believes in his bones that all Americans deserve a fair
shot.
That is why he was an early advocate for marriage
equality. He accelerated change, forcing a conversation
that, at its heart, was about love and the simple premise
of all men and women being equal.
His belief in a fair shot for all is why Vice President
Biden devoted incredible energy after the Sandy Hook
shooting to sparing other families the heartbreak felt by
too many in Newtown. Some of the most challenging days of
the Obama administration were days of mass shootings.
Aurora, San Bernardino, Orlando, Fort Hood, Charleston,
Tucson, and of course Newtown--to anyone who has been
active in the push for commonsense gun safety measures--as
I have--the Vice President's steady hand, commitment, and
leadership in this space have been obvious. Along with the
President, he has comforted families, devoted countless
hours to healing, and contributed energy and ideas to a
years-long push that will eventually affect real change
and keep the most lethal weapons out of the hands of the
most dangerous people.
That will be Joe Biden's legacy.
Vice President Joe Biden was taught early on by his
parents that hard work mattered, that how you treat others
matters, and above all else that family matters most.
Throughout his career, he had a rule in his office: if one
of his children, his wife Jill, or a sibling called, staff
was to pull him out of a meeting so he could take the
call. The same rule extended to staff. He never wanted to
hear that someone had stayed at work instead of making it
to a graduation, Little League game, or school play.
That, laid bare, is Joe Biden. He came to Washington on
the shoulders of his family, which fanned out across
Delaware and knocked on doors until there were no more
doors to knock. When tragedy struck--between his
improbable election victory and his swearing in--and he
suffered the unimaginable loss of his wife and infant
daughter, his family pulled him closer. He stayed by the
hospital beds of his two sons, Beau and Hunter, and nursed
them back to health, questioning all along whether he
would ever serve in the Senate.
But this body--this Senate--pulled him closer, too.
Senators Inouye, Mansfield, Humphrey, Hollings, and
Kennedy all pleaded with him to give the Senate a chance:
``Just 6 months, Joe. Just stay 6 months.''
He stayed 36 years. He learned lessons about character
and motives--lessons we are all still learning today. He
learned from Mike Mansfield never to question another
man's motive--question his judgment but never his motive.
It was a lesson that bridged divides that too often keep
us apart. The lesson made for lasting friendships with
Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond--whose eulogy he delivered.
Joe Biden arrived in the Senate after a 1972 campaign
heavy on civil rights. Years later, the centerpiece in his
Senate office was a large table that had belonged to
Senator John Stennis, around which Senator Richard Russell
and Southern segregationists had planned the demise of the
civil rights movement. In 2009, Joe Biden became Vice
President to our first African-American President.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it does
indeed bend toward justice.
We have not seen the end of Joe Biden. Just this week,
he presided over this body as we took an important step
toward realizing the dream of the Cancer Moonshot--an
ambitious project to end cancer as we know it.
It is another effort that has profound personal meaning
to the Vice President, who lost his son Beau to this
horrible disease. It is also a place where Joe Biden's
work will have lasting, indelible effect on Americans--
indeed all of humanity--if he is successful.
That is Joe Biden's legacy.
He brought people together. He tackled the impossible.
He overcame obstacles. He bridged divides. Tireless and
fierce, Joe Biden put family and country first. We cannot
ask for more than that.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues
to pay tribute to Vice President Joe Biden.
Joe has made countless contributions to our country
throughout his more than 40 years in public service and
six terms in the U.S. Senate.
Whether it was passing the Violence Against Women Act,
leading the congressional opposition to apartheid South
Africa, or advocating for Amtrak, Joe honored the Senate
with his service.
This year, after the loss of his beloved son Beau, Joe
harnessed his grief to spearhead a new Cancer Moonshot
Initiative to accelerate finding cures for cancer.
This past Monday night, with Joe presiding, we named
this initiative in memory of Beau.
After Monday's vote, Joe said that it made him realize
all of the support he has had since Beau's passing.
In the face of his own loss, Joe has supported
countless other families in similar situations.
I will remember Joe for this incredible empathy.
This year we lost our colleague and friend Congressman
Mark Takai of Hawaii.
I affectionately called Mark my younger brother, and
his passing was a shock to many of us.
Joe joined us to honor Mark at a memorial service here
in the Capitol.
Reflecting on his own life, Joe spoke directly to
Mark's wife, Sami, and his children, Matthew and Kaila:
I promise you that the day will come when Mark's memory
brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to
your eye.
My prayer for you and your family is that they come
sooner rather than later. But I promise you. I promise you
it will come.
Like so many times in his life, Joe's words spoke to
our hearts.
From his own experience, he comforted the Takais and so
many of us who knew Mark.
That is who Joe is--a man of empathy and soul, who
always had a kind word, and who will leave a legacy of
commitment to doing the right thing, and a legacy of hope.
Joe, you will be missed.
Mahalo for your service.
Mr. KING. Mr. President, today I would like to join
with my colleagues to honor Vice President Joseph R.
Biden.
Though I did not have the privilege to serve with Vice
President Biden while he was a Member of the Senate, I
have long admired Joe and his sincere commitment to the
people of this country and especially to those in his
beloved home State of Delaware.
The details of Joe's early years are well known to this
body and to the Nation, but because they are so central to
his character, they bear repeating. After an upset win of
a U.S. Senate seat at just 29 years old, Joe experienced a
tragedy that most of us cannot even begin to fathom--the
death of his wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi,
in a car accident just weeks before he was set to take
office. A now-iconic photograph shows a young Joe being
sworn into office at his sons' hospital bedside.
A tragedy of that magnitude, so early in Joe's career,
would have been reason for most to put on hold--or even
end--a promising future in public service. Indeed, no one
would have faulted Joe had he decided that the demands of
the work he was set to undertake were not worth pursuing
after the unimaginable loss he had just experienced. But,
from the depths of his sorrow, Joe summoned the courage to
press forward, committing himself to his two sons and to
his work fighting for Delaware in the U.S. Senate.
Committed to caring for his young family in the wake of
such loss, Joe would take the train from Wilmington to
Washington each day the Senate was in session.
During his 36 years as a Member of this body, Joe
distinguished himself as a thoughtful, principled leader
on a number of critical issues. Joe's leadership on the
Senate Judiciary Committee put him at the center of some
of the most consequential debates in recent years, from
passage of the 1994 crime law to the enactment of the
Violence Against Women Act. In his role on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Joe garnered the respect of
lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as he helped to shape
U.S. foreign policy. His leadership in both of these
areas, as well as the respect of his colleagues in
Congress, made Joe a natural pick to join then-Senator
Obama as his running mate in 2008.
As Vice President, Joe has been a trusted adviser to
President Obama and has been tasked with overseeing
significant initiatives within the administration. From
his work on the economic stimulus package in 2009 to his
continued leadership in the fight against sexual assault
and domestic violence, Joe has brought to the White House
his characteristic dedication and charisma. It has been a
pleasure to observe the real friendship that the Vice
President has forged with President Obama, one grounded in
mutual respect and admiration for one another.
We saw again last year Joe's strength in the face of
adversity when cancer claimed the life of his son, Beau.
Like his father, Beau Biden was a gifted communicator, and
the Nation mourned alongside Joe at the news of his
passing. In the aftermath of Beau's death, Joe accepted
the President's charge to lead the Cancer Moonshot
Initiative to accelerate cancer research--yet another
shining example of Joe channeling his experience with loss
into advancement for the public good. It is a fitting
testament to Joe's leadership that the cancer provisions
in the bill currently under consideration in the Senate,
the 21st Century Cures Act, were renamed in honor of Beau.
I know of few people who have endured the magnitude of
loss that Joe has over the course of his life, and the
fact that he carries on every day with a full heart and
renewed dedication to fighting for the American people is
an inspiration.
Beyond his accomplishments--which are many--Joe is
perhaps best known for his good humor and genuine ability
to connect with people. In a city associated more with
political rancor than authenticity, Joe has long been a
breath of fresh air, an homage to a more amicable past.
His ability to get things done while making steadfast
friends on both sides of the aisle is a model for all of
us and an inspiration to me.
I wish Joe and his wife, Jill, nothing but the best as
they move onto their next adventure. I know in times of
trial, I will look to Joe's leadership and example for the
wisdom to make the right decision.
Mr. Vice President, on behalf of the people of Maine, I
thank you for your service to our country.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, today I join my colleagues
in celebrating the many contributions of Vice President
Joe Biden, a man who has spent his career fighting for
working families.
For more than four decades, Vice President Biden has
tirelessly served the people of Delaware and the United
States. As many of my colleagues have already noted, he
has been on the frontlines of some of our Nation's
toughest battles--from steering the Foreign Relations and
Judiciary Committees, to introducing the Violence Against
Women Act and championing efforts to reduce gun violence
in our communities. He takes on every fight with restless
energy and relentless optimism.
I first met then-Senator Biden back in the 1990s when I
was a law professor with no experience in the ways of
Washington. We tangled over an issue, each of us laying
into the fight with determination. Senator Biden won, and
I lost. Years later, when I next saw him, he held out his
arms and shouted from halfway across the room,
``Professor! Come here and give me a hug!''
He had not forgotten our earlier battle, but he made it
clear that he continued to think and rethink issues about
working families and that, even when we disagreed, we
could respect--and even like--each other. When I was later
sworn into the U.S. Senate, I thought about the example he
set to fight hard, but to treat each other with respect.
The Vice President has faced down hardship with
exceptional grace and courage, and he continues to wake up
every day with a steadfast commitment to ensuring that the
voices of ordinary Americans are heard here in Washington.
For me personally, he has provided encouragement, wisdom,
and good counsel, time and again--and for that, I am truly
grateful.
So, Vice President Biden: those of us here in the
Senate are fortunate to have had the opportunity to work
alongside you. I know I speak for millions of Americans
when I say that we all are enormously grateful for your
many years of service to this country. Thank you, and I
wish you the very best as you begin the next chapter of
your life and career.
Mr. COONS. We have five Senators remaining who have
asked to speak briefly: Senator Alexander, Senator Cardin,
Senator Casey, and Senator Kaine. My senior Senator, Tom
Carper of Delaware, will conclude this session today.
I yield the floor to the Senator from Tennessee.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, knowing there is a
reception coming, I will try to set a good example. After
hearing a speech, my late friend Alex Haley, the author of
``Roots,'' said, ``May I make a suggestion?''
I said, ``Well, yes.''
He said, ``If, when you make a speech, you would say
`Instead of making a speech, let me tell you a story,'
someone might actually listen to what you have to say.''
I have always remembered that, so let me tell one short
story about a Vice President who knows how to get things
done.
Nearly 2 years ago, you and President Obama invited
Senator Corker and me to go with you to Knoxville when the
President announced his community college program. Before
that, we had lunch privately, and we talked about many
things, but the President talked about his interest in
precision medicine.
I said, ``Mr. President, we are working on something we
call 21st Century Cures. Why don't we fold that into your
precision medicine interest, and we will do it together.''
At the State of the Union Address a year later, the
President talked about the Cancer Moonshot and announced
Vice President Joe Biden would be in charge of that. So I
talked to you and said, ``Well, we will just fold that in
as well.''
It wasn't moving along as fast as I would like because,
as you know and as most people here know, it is full of
difficult issues--FDA, safety, moving things through, drug
companies' incentives, and then the funding issue on both
sides of the aisle.
So I called you and I said, ``Joe, we are not moving as
we should.''
You said, ``Well, let me see what I can do.''
You held a meeting of the Democrats and Republicans in
the House--Senator Murray and me--and you moved us along
pretty well and off we would go. You didn't take credit
for that; nobody knew much about it. You were the key to
that.
Then it got stuck again. So I called you again. I said:
Joe, I have the precision medicine, I have the Cancer
Moonshot, we have the BRAIN Initiative, we have the
opioids money, but I can't get a response. I feel like the
butler standing with a silver platter outside the Oval
Office, and no one will take the order.
You said, ``If you want to feel like a butler, try
being Vice President.''
Well, the fact was, you went to work again. The
President called; he went to work. Speaker Ryan went to
work, Senator McConnell went to work, and today that
legislation on which you worked so hard passed the Senate
with 94 votes. That is an example of a man who understands
the issues, who knows how to get things done, and who has
the respect of everyone in this body.
This is Pearl Harbor Day. Pearl Harbor Day reminds us
of the Greatest Generation of men and women who cared
about the country, didn't care about the credit, resolved
their differences, and realized that diversity is
important but turning that diversity into one America is
even more important. You are not of that generation, but
you show the same spirit as that generation did. Your work
on 21st Century Cures and the fact that the Cancer
Moonshot section is not only something that is your
initiative--is named for your son--is important not just
to you but to all of us.
You are a friend of every single one of us. We honor
you today. We are delighted you came down to let us tell a
few stories about your effectiveness as Vice President of
the United States.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I also wish to join in
thanking you for your incredible service. Senator Mikulski
talked about a lot of things you have done. The two of us
represent the State of Maryland. Other than the two of us,
there is no other Senator who has spent more time in
Maryland than the Vice President.
Admittedly, most of that time was spent on an Amtrak
train, but we consider you to be a resident of Maryland.
We have tried to find a way to tax you, but we will let
you get by. We very much appreciate your interest in our
entire region and in our entire country.
When I was elected to the Senate in 2007, I talked to
Senator Sarbanes--the person whom I was replacing in the
Senate--about committee assignments, and we talked about
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said, ``Get on
the committee. Joe Biden is an incredible leader. Any time
you can spend with him is going to be time well spent.''
I talked to Senator Mikulski, and she told me the same
thing. I was honored to be able to serve on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and saw first hand your
extraordinary leadership on behalf of our country.
Bringing us together in that committee, you didn't know
who the Democrats and who the Republicans were. We worked
together in a unit in the best interests of our country.
That really was a model for all of us in the service of
the Senate and service on behalf of our people.
A little over 8 years later, I became a ranking member
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and we had some
extremely challenging issues that could have divided us.
You helped me through that period. I really wish to thank
you for that. Your extraordinary leadership in helping us
resolve some very difficult issues, your openness, your
willingness to listen, and your ability to find a way to
go forward were incredibly helpful. I think it allowed the
Senate to do the right thing on that issue--as well as the
oversight. I thank you very much.
That wasn't your only opportunity to help us resolve
issues. You have heard Members talk about the Violence
Against Women Act and how important that was. The Cancer
Moonshot is going to be incredibly valuable. Each one of
our families has been affected by cancer. Through your
efforts, we know we are going to find the answer to this
dread disease. You have done this in so many different
areas, law enforcement--the list goes on and on.
Last year I was in Central America. I think there you
could easily run for office and have no problems at all.
They know what you have done to give them a hope, to give
them a future. You take an interest in an area and find a
way to be helpful that I think has made our country
stronger. You have given hope to people all over the
world.
You have a love for people. You hear that. You hear
that often. It was Will Rogers who famously said he never
met a man he didn't like. That is true of Joe Biden. It is
incredible.
I remember when I was being sworn in, in the ceremony
in the Old Senate Chamber, you not only talked to Members
of the Senate, you talked to every member of our families.
I don't know if you had the best staff work or not, but
you knew every Member's family. To this day my
grandchildren talk about the conversation they had with
you during that swearing in ceremony. You really care
about people, and that shows. This is a family here, and
you have truly shown that to us. Myrna and I look at you
and Jill as people who are part of our family.
I think you are, perhaps, the most ebullient politician
in America. Horrific family tragedies and life-threatening
cranial aneurysms severely tested, but ultimately didn't
diminish, your faith in God or your love for the
``retail'' aspect of politics--meeting and greeting
people, making those human connections.
Mr. President, for those who may not know your story, I
would like to tell them part of it. Joe Biden was born in
Scranton and raised there before his parents moved the
family to Delaware. He was the first member of his family
to attend college. He earned his B.A. from the University
of Delaware and then went to law school at Syracuse
University, during which time he married his college
sweetheart, Neilia Hunter. They had three children--two
sons and a daughter.
In 1972, just 4 years after Joe graduated from law
school and when he was just 29 years old--he ran a bare
bones, long shot campaign for the U.S. Senate against the
incumbent, Caleb ``Cale'' Boggs, who had previously been
Delaware's Governor and had served three terms in the U.S.
House of Representatives. Joe's sister Valerie ran the
campaign; most of the other ``staff'' were other family
members. He demonstrated his extraordinary ability to
connect with voters and won the election by 3,162 votes
and became the sixth-youngest Senator in U.S. history.
Just a few weeks after the election, Joe's wife and
their infant daughter Naomi were killed in a traffic
accident; their two young sons, Hunter and Beau, were
seriously injured. Joe was sworn in to the U.S. Senate
next to his sons' hospital beds and steadfastly began
commuting to Washington from Wilmington every day by
train, a practice he maintained throughout his career in
the Senate.
In 1977, Vice President Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill
has a Ph.D. in education and is a lifelong educator.
Together, Joe and Jill had daughter, Ashley, who is a
social worker.
Joe's affinity for the people of Delaware was
reciprocal: he was reelected to the Senate six times,
including in 2008 when he was also elected Vice President.
In February 1988, Joe was admitted to Walter Reed Army
Medical Center. He had an intracranial aneurysm that had
begun leaking. The situation was dire, a priest had
actually administered last rites at the hospital. The
surgery was successful but he suffered a pulmonary
embolism and had to undergo another operation, which was
successful, in May 1988. Two brain operations might slow
down most people, but not Joe. Two years after he nearly
died, he won reelection to a fourth Senate term.
Joe's Senate career wasn't just long; it was
distinguished. He became the ranking member of the
Judiciary Committee in 1981. Three years later, he helped
to steer the Comprehensive Crime Control Act to passage.
It was the first of many major legislative accomplishments
which included the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994. That bill contained the assault
weapon ban and the Violence Against Women Act, and it
established the Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS) Program.
Joe's accomplishments on the domestic policy side are
impressive, but he also became a foreign policy expert.
When Congress refused to ratify the Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks (SALT) II Treaty Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter signed in 1979, Joe
met with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. He was
able to secure changes to the treaty to overcome the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee's objections. He has
played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy ever
since. I was honored to serve on the Foreign Relations
Committee for the last 2 years Joe served as chairman. I
have been honored to work with him in his current capacity
as Vice President to expand the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, NATO, to include the former Warsaw Pact
countries of Eastern and Central Europe and support a
sovereign, democratic Ukraine. He is a champion of Israel
and has been one of the principal architects of the
administration's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. He has
developed deep relationships with the world leaders by
excelling at face-to-face diplomacy.
Mr. President, we were all devastated when your beloved
son Beau lost his battle with brain cancer last year. Beau
was just 46. It was a poignant moment on Monday when you
were in the Chair, presiding over the Senate as we voted
to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House
message to accompany H.R. 34, the 21st Century Cures Act.
The bill contains provisions to implement the
administration's ``Cancer Moonshot''--yet another one of
your sparkling accomplishments. I want to commend Senator
McConnell and the majority for renaming that title of the
bill the ``Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot and National
Institutes of Health (NIH) Innovation Projects.'' I know
it means a lot to you and your family.
I have made my lifetime serving in public life. You
have made that profession an honorable profession through
the manner in which you have conducted yourself, your
integrity, who you are, and the way that you bring people
together. I am proud to have served with you in this body.
Mr. President, you have been an extraordinary public
servant for nearly half a century. You have also been a
dedicated family man and a good friend. I said at the
beginning of my remarks that you never met a man you
didn't like. I don't think anyone who has ever met you
didn't like you, too.
Congratulations.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, it is an honor to be here
today. I was thinking about what I would say today and
making it as brief and as personal as I could. I have to
say that on a day like today it is difficult. We all have
the privilege of being able to go to this floor on a
regular basis to talk about issues, to talk about our
country, and to talk about the world, but we also have one
of the great privileges to talk about those with whom we
have served and for whom we have great respect.
This is one of those moments. It is of great
significance for me that I am able to stand on the floor
of the Senate as a native of and as a resident of the city
of Scranton in Lackawanna County to talk about a son of
Scranton.
I know this is a big day for Delaware's No. 1 citizen
and a historic day for Delaware. I have to say I am so
grateful to be able to say on behalf of the people of
Scranton and Lackawanna County in northeastern
Pennsylvania how proud we are today to be able to pay
tribute to Vice President Joe Biden.
There is so much to say about that history, so much to
say about what it means to be able to stand on the floor
and talk about his record, his life, his achievements, but
mostly to talk about who he is.
When I consider what he has contributed to our country,
to his State, and to the world, it is difficult to
encapsulate it. I tried to jot down a few notes to remind
myself of how best to encapsulate that life.
I guess I would start with the word ``integrity.'' It
may be a word that we take for granted, but it is a word
that has to be part of the life of a public official. I
would say in the case of Joe Biden, he has the kind of
integrity that is uncommon--uncommon not because it is a
rare trait but uncommon because it is so much a part of
his whole life. He was a public official with integrity,
and we hope he is again when he might consider public
office again. But he is also a person of great integrity
when it comes to the fights he has had to wage on behalf
of people without power, the work he has had to do as a
public official infused with that kind of integrity and,
at the same time, the same kind of integrity we expect
from a family member and a friend. So I would start with
that word.
Certainly the word ``compassion'' comes to mind. Every
one of us can tell a story. I was hearing stories just
yesterday from a colleague about a phone call the Vice
President made over the last couple of years to someone
who was grieving, who was in the depths of the darkness of
grief, and the phone call he made to that person.
I have heard stories over the years about not just
phone calls but visits with people, stopping into a
funeral home for a long lost friend who had lost a loved
one, letters he has written. I know a personal friend who
lost his wife and his sons had lost their mom and what the
Vice President wrote to them just this summer. Over and
over again, he has demonstrated that kind of compassion.
I can remember my own case in a very personal way. It
was only an election loss. I ran for Governor of
Pennsylvania in a primary. As many of my colleagues know,
primaries are particularly difficult. I lost badly. No one
called on Wednesday after Tuesday. One reporter showed up
at my door, and I opened the door and I really couldn't
say much to this reporter, but I was grateful she was
there. I got one phone call on Wednesday--maybe a couple
of family members; I come from a family of eight. I think
my wife was talking to me, but other than that, the only
person who called me was Joe Biden. He made some kind of
grand prediction--I thought he was just being nice--that I
would somehow come back. But he was right. He made me feel
much better that day. He may not remember it, but I will
remember that for the rest of my life.
I think certainly when we think about the Vice
President, we could center on one other word:
``justice''--an abiding and enduring commitment to
justice. His whole public life could be summarized in that
word and the commitment he has had to justice. We could
quote from the Bible: ``Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.'' I am
not sure Joe Biden has ever been satisfied yet with
justice. He is always pursuing it, always trying to bring
justice to a problem or to a situation or to the life of a
fellow citizen.
We think of what Saint Augustine said about justice a
long time ago, but it still bears repeating: ``Without
justice, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers?''
That is what Saint Augustine said hundreds of years ago.
Joe Biden has lived his life as a public official and as a
man, as a citizen, with that same burning desire to bring
justice into the dark corners of our world. He knows that
without that justice, someone is, in fact, robbed of so
much--robbed of their dignity, robbed of their safety,
robbed of a full life.
I think I would say that maybe the best line, with all
due respect to the Scriptures and to Saint Augustine, was
one my father said. He wrote it down years ago, but he
probably gave maybe the best description of what a public
official should be about. I am not sure I have ever
attributed this to anyone else but him. He said the most
important qualities a public official can bring to their
work are two things: a passion for justice--which, of
course, Joe Biden has in abundance--and a sense of outrage
in the face of injustice; that if you have both of those,
on most days, you are going to get it right. His life as a
U.S. Senator for 36 years, as Vice President for 8 years,
and as a citizen for all of those years and more, has been
about that passion for justice and a sense of outrage in
the face of injustice.
We all know his record; we don't have to recite all of
it. From the Violence Against Women Act, which we know is
an acronym--VAWA--but it doesn't do justice to the name of
what that meant. So many today have talked about how he
saved the lives of women and families because of that
legislation. So from VAWA to ARRA, as we call it--the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the act that
helped dig this economy out of the ditch it was in and
rescued this country and improved the lives of so many
people--he not only worked to get it passed, but then he
made sure it was implemented. It might be the most popular
piece of legislation 25 years from now when people really
appreciate what happened with the Recovery Act.
From diplomacy, to law enforcement, to not just
supporting our troops, not just working on legislation and
supporting them not only when his son was a member of our
Armed Forces but long before that, to what he did very
specifically to protect our troops--we know the scourge of
IEDs, which was the No. 1 killer of our troops in Iraq and
in Afghanistan. A lot of those troops' lives were saved
because of Joe Biden up-armoring vehicles and doing all
the work he did to protect our troops.
So whether it was national security or security on our
streets, whether it was protecting women who would be the
subject of abuse or helping children or improving our
economy--on and on--we could talk about that record. But
just as you can't just list achievements in a record and
encapsulate what it means, so the same is true of a 36-
year career in the U.S. Senate and then 8 years as Vice
President.
Lincoln probably said it best. Lincoln said, ``It is
not the years in your life that matters, in the end, it is
the life in those years.'' That is, I think, true of Joe
Biden as well.
Two more points. One of the best qualities of the Vice
President as a man especially but also as a public
official is his sense of gratitude. If you knew him for
half an hour or for your whole life, you know that almost
always he is speaking about people in his life who made
him who he is today, whether it is his mother and father
or whether it is his whole family, including brothers and
sisters and his sons and daughters and, of course, Jill.
It is a reminder of how grateful we should be. In so many
ways, when you hear Joe Biden speak, his speeches tend to
be, on many occasions, a hymn to gratitude, and that comes
through all the time.
We know how much he suffered with all of the losses he
has sustained. I was talking to him recently at an event
in Scranton about his son Beau and his life and what a
patriot Beau Biden was. I think today we can say the
following about the Vice President: This is a man who was
a great Vice President. This is a man who was a committed
and very effective U.S. Senator, but maybe most important,
he has been a faithful son, a loving and proud husband and
father, and a patriot.
Thank you, sir, and God bless you.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, these speeches were just
supposed to go on for 1 hour, and we are already at the 2-
hour mark, but perhaps, since we are honoring you, this is
most appropriate.
I would say to our colleagues and our guests, you say
the name among us of Joe Biden, and a smile automatically
comes to our lips, and that is because the Vice President
is a lover of people. That is true. We know it is true.
That is why today we have this genuine affection being
expressed.
Since the hour is late, my remarks are going to be very
short, but I just want to highlight that it is very true
and it is very characteristic. I can even tell all of the
stories of the Biden family because I have heard them so
much.
It is also very true that if you are talking to Joe and
suddenly your wife comes up or your daughter comes up, all
of a sudden, Joe is not focusing on you, he is giving his
total attention to the ladies present, and that is most
appreciated. That, of course, is why he is such a big fan
of the Nelson household, not only of Grace and Nan Ellen
but also of Bill Junior. He always treats our children
with respect and goes out of his way.
In Florida, fortunately we had the good fortune of
seeing him a lot in his two campaigns as Vice President
and then the campaign for the ticket in this last
campaign. I can remember those days. It was so cold in a
horse pasture west of Ocala. I can remember recently just
absolutely cooking in North Palm Beach on the stage in the
hot sun, and Joe was always there making the case for
whoever it was he was standing up for.
Of course, he always made you feel that you were
welcome. I remember one time we got off an airplane, and
he was going to his limousine and I am going back to the
guest van in the back. He motions, I am to come with him.
I said, ``Mr. Vice President, I never presumed that I
should come here.'' He says, ``I always want you here with
me when we are traveling together.'' That is what makes
him so special.
Finally, I want to comment about Moonshot. Why is the
effort at cancer research called the Moonshot? It is
because we achieved what was almost the impossible when
the President said we are going to the Moon and return
safely within the decade, and America marshaled the will
and in fact did that incredible accomplishment. That is
why we are going to have the Moonshot for cancer.
We have already made so much progress; but now, with
the former Vice President of the United States heading up
all the efforts where we can keep the attention on NIH, so
it doesn't go from a level rocking along about $24
billion, $25 billion a year, and the stimulus shoots it in
the first 2 years of the Vice President's office up to $30
billion a year, then it drops down to $24 billion, $25
billion, and Dr. Francis Collins has to cancel 700 of the
medical research grants that he has already issued.
Because we have the Moonshot headed by Joe Biden, we are
going to find the cure for all those kinds of cancer. That
is the great legacy that the Vice President of the United
States will have.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise in honor of your
service.
I just want to tell my favorite Joe Biden story. This
is a story the Vice President has heard me tell, but I
want it on the Record because everyone should know this
story. It is the story of an interaction between our Vice
President on one of the most important days of his life
and a young man from Richmond, VA, my hometown, on one of
the most important days of his life.
It was election day 2008, and I was Governor of
Virginia. I was responsible for the running of the
elections in my State that day when Senator Joe Biden was
running for Vice President with our President, Barack
Obama.
I received a call in the middle of the morning: There
was going to be a surprise visit to a polling place in
Richmond. After having voted in Wilmington, Senator Biden
was going to make a stop in Richmond and wanted to meet
some voters before he headed to Chicago to await the
election results. We gave him the address of an elementary
school polling place that was very near the Richmond
Airport, and I raced there with my security detail to get
there a few minutes before he arrived for a surprise visit
with voters who were going to love having the chance to
meet the soon-to-be Vice President. I got there a few
minutes before Senator Biden arrived, and I saw a friend
who had come to vote. I asked how he was doing. He said,
``I am doing great. I am really excited about voting
today. It is also a special day because I have a nephew
with sickle cell anemia and he is casting his first vote,
but he is so sick, he can't even get out of the vehicle.''
I watched the election officials at the polling place
take a voting machine from inside the school into the car
so that his 18-year-old nephew could cast the first vote
of his life. I saw this young man, the nephew of my
friend, and he was very ill.
I said to my friend and his nephew, ``Can you wait here
for 5 minutes? Because I think we can do something really
exciting.''
``What?''
``Well, just wait.''
They said they would.
Within 5 minutes, Senator Biden came up to meet voters
and shook the hands of those in line. I said, ``Senator,
there is a young man here, and just as this day is very
important to you, because I think you are about to be
elected Vice President of the United States, for this
young African-American male, who is very ill but extremely
excited even in his illness to get out of his house to
come here and cast his vote to elect the first African-
American President--he is sitting there in that vehicle.
Will you go and visit with him?''
I didn't even have to finish the sentence and put the
question mark at the end before Senator Biden shot across
the parking lot and went up to the vehicle. The press
corps was following him. The young man was sitting in the
back seat. Joe just jumped in the front seat, closed the
door, rolled up the window so nobody could hear the
conversation, and the press corps gathered around all four
sides of the vehicle with their cameras taking pictures of
Senator Biden in an extremely animated and somewhat
lengthy conversation with the 18 year old who had just
cast his vote. To me, that will always be the
quintessential Joe Biden story.
Joe Biden is the Irish poet of American politicians. He
and I share a passion for the Irish poet William Butler
Yeats. Yeats, like our Vice President, was not just a
poet. He was a man of the public. He was a public
official. People asked him to weigh in on political
matters all the time.
Once, in the middle of the First World War, somebody
asked Yeats to write a war poem. He wrote a war poem, and
the poem was titled, ``On Being Asked for a War Poem.''
The poem says this:
I [often] think it better that in times like these
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth ...
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
The meaning of the poem is this: I may be a public
figure. I may have a public job to do. I may be asked to
do a public job and to claim upon matters of public
importance. But sometimes even more than the matter of
public importance is the ability to please a young girl or
an old man--or an ill young man casting a first vote, an
important vote.
The fact that you took your time on that day of
importance to you to shed some light and offer some joy to
someone who was struggling--that is the Joe Biden who has
us here for 2 hours offering these tributes.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I never had the
privilege of serving with you in this Chamber, but, like
many of my colleagues, I have come to know you as a friend
and public servant and a model and a mentor.
What I want to say very simply is that you have
inspired so many of us, beyond this Chamber, beyond the
people whom you have known directly, and beyond the people
with whom you have worked. Countless young people are
involved in this noble profession because of your example.
At a time when public officials and politics are often
held in little repute and often challenged in their
integrity, you have given us a good name, you have given
politics a good name, and you have enabled so many of us
to serve with pride in a profession that is so vital to
the continuance of our democracy. Beyond pieces of
legislation, whether it is the Violence Against Women Act
or the assault weapon ban or criminal justice--the list
goes on--is that model of public service.
I want to close by saying that as long as I have known
Joe Biden, I really came to know him through the eyes of
his son. I had the honor of working and serving with Beau
Biden when he was attorney general of the State of
Delaware and I was attorney general of my State of
Connecticut. My ambition in life is to have my four
children talk about me with the sense of admiration and
love and pride that Beau Biden talked about his dad.
I am very proud and grateful that we had the
opportunity to vote today on a law that bears his name. As
proud as his dad is of him, his pride in his dad is an
example that all of us as parents hope our children have
for us.
I am proud to be in this Chamber and to have been sworn
in to this Chamber by you, Mr. Vice President. I hope our
paths will continue to cross, as I know they will, with so
many of us in this Chamber and in this country. Thank you
for your service.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Missouri.
Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, me too.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, in 1972 I was a young man in
my last year at Boston College Law School, and I decided
to run for State representative. I had a cousin who worked
at NASA, an older cousin, the smart one, the physicist. He
said, ``Well, there is a young man in Delaware who is
running for the Senate.''
``So what is his name?''
``Joe Biden.''
From that moment on, I was following the career of this
Irishman, this latter-day descendent of Hubert Humphrey, a
happy warrior, the man who stands up for the common man
and woman in our country.
In 1972 you had this great campaign team led by John
Marttila--the great John--who captured your spirit, your
soul, what you represented now in this half century of
American politics.
In 1976, when I ran for Congress, just 4 years later--
the same as you, age 29--saying ``I think I can run,'' I
walked into the office of this man, John Marttila, in
Boston, and it looked like a museum to Joe Biden with all
the Joe Biden literature and messages on his wall. So from
that moment on, from John Marttila, through Larry Rasky,
through Ron Klain--through all of these people who worked
for me and worked for you, I have been privileged to be
able to chronicle your journey of work and inspiration for
our country.
I think it is just perfect that you are the commander
in chief of this rocket ship to the Moon to find the cure
for cancer because that is a mission that has the right
man who is going to be leading it. I think that each and
every one of us out here knows that one of the reasons
this bill is receiving such an overwhelming vote today is
because of you, Mr. President. It is because of the
respect we have for you. It is the knowledge that when you
were negotiating this bill, at the end of the day, you
were going to put the American people first, you were
going to make sure that bill reflected the highest
aspiration of every American.
So I want to speak briefly because there is a reception
after this, and many people are still waiting to say hello
to you. I think every Member wanted to come out here, and
you inspired them to speak a lot longer than they may have
intended on speaking, but it is because of the incredible
respect and admiration they have for you. My best to you.
My wife Susan's best to you. There has never been a better
public servant in American history. All my best.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, on behalf of all the
people in our great State--and our dear colleague Senator
Bayh is here because of his love as well--we want to tell
you how grateful we are for your services, for the
extraordinary job you have done as Vice President for
President Obama.
Everybody is telling stories. As you know, I had the
privilege of having you put your arm around me, and when
everybody said there was no chance I could ever win, you
said, ``You and I are a lot alike and you can do this and
you can win.''
I came back, and they said, ``What advice did Vice
President Biden give you?''
I said, ``He told me that I could win.''
They said, ``Well, he is right a lot; I don't know
about that one.''
You turned out to be right.
Then we were blessed that your sons, Hunter and Beau,
often came to Indiana during the summers. You would then
come out as well. I will never forget going to the coffee
shop one Sunday morning. The lady at the coffee shop said
to me, ``This has been an unbelievable day because the
Vice President came in with all his grandchildren; and, by
the way, Joe, he bought ice cream for everybody in the
store, and you have never done that.''
I said how sorry I was that I never did that.
She also said, ``This is one of the greatest days of my
life, to meet somebody who has always looked out for
working families, who has always looked out for us.''
That is how we see you back home. You have always
looked out for us. You have always cared about us. As a
second-generation Irish immigrant, you have always been an
example to all of us that we can accomplish anything we
dream of.
God bless you and Jill and your whole family. We are so
lucky to have been touched by you.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Vice President Biden, earlier Hubert
Humphrey's name was mentioned. You know the great love the
people of Minnesota have for you. Vice President Humphrey
was your mentor when you first got to the Senate, where
you didn't even know if you were going to last a few
months here, and he was there for you. You have extended
that kindness to so many since then.
Vice President Mondale, another Minnesotan, has great
affection and love for you, and I will report back to him
tonight that I was here with you today.
When I first got elected to the Senate and made one of
my first speeches about police funding to a completely
empty Chamber--and I thought even my mom wasn't watching
on C-SPAN--I walked out of this place and I got a phone
call on my cell phone and it was Joe Biden, then a
Senator, saying ``that was a really great speech.''
When you came to my State and one of my best friends
suddenly lost her husband and you heard about it, you did
not know who she was, you just heard the story, and in 2
weeks, on her first day back at work, she was driving home
and she got a call from you. You talked to her for 20
minutes. When you were done and had given her all this
wonderful advice, you said, ``We are not done; I want you
to write down my phone number.''
She said, ``I am driving, Mr. Vice President; I can't
do that.''
You said, ``Pull over.''
She wrote your phone number on her hand. You did that
for her, Mr. Vice President, and you have done that for so
many Americans. On behalf of our entire State of Minnesota
that has loved you forever, thank you.
I yield the floor.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, a few minutes ago, I sent up
a note to you that I handwrote that said: ``Flattery won't
hurt you if you don't inhale, so don't breathe too deeply
up there.''
I also recall walking into a hearing with EPA
Administrator Gina McCarthy not too long ago in the House
of Representatives, a joint House-Senate hearing. A lot of
people had been there asking questions, and she was in the
seat for 4 hours. It finally became my turn to ask a
question, and I said to her, ``Is there any question,
Administrator McCarthy, that you have not been asked
today?'' She said, ``I wish somebody had asked me if I
needed a bathroom break.''
There are 30 more Senators in the Cloakroom who want to
come out and speak. If you need one, let us know and one
of the pages or somebody will take your spot up there.
It has been a joy to sit here and listen to all these
stories. John Carney, our Congressman, Governor-elect, has
been here and come and gone. He has gone back to the House
to go into session. He used to work for you, and you are
one of his great mentors. He wants you to know he was
here, in case you didn't.
I want to say to Chris Coons, who put this all
together, making possible a wonderful tribute, this is the
Senate at its best. It is wonderful to see some of our
still young colleagues who have come back to visit us and
to be with us on this special day.
Over the years, people have asked me why I have had
some success in my life, and I say that my sister and I
picked the right parents. Joe Biden and his brother and
sister picked the right parents. I have had the privilege
of knowing them both. When your dad was sick and in the
hospital, I visited and spent time with him, just the two
of us.
Joe, I want to say for those who maybe didn't know your
parents, they valued education and made sure you got a
good one, along with his brother and sister. Val is up
there somewhere. I want to say hi to Val. They valued
education and people of faith. I am Protestant, and Joe
and his family are Catholic, but he doesn't wear it on his
sleeve. I will tell you this, nobody believes in the
Golden Rule of treating other people the way you want to
be treated any more than Joe Biden.
Nobody adheres to Matthew 25, the ``least of these,''
any more than Joe Biden. Nobody does a better reading of
James 2: ``Show me your faith by your words, and I will
show you my faith by my deeds.'' He doesn't just talk a
good game. He doesn't talk a whole lot about his faith,
but he sure lives it.
From his family--from his mom and dad--he learned the
importance of family and the importance of loyalty to his
family and, frankly, to his friends--his multitude of
friends. He learned there is a difference between right
and wrong and figure out what it is and do right. Do it
all the time.
He learned a little bit about common sense. My dad used
to say to my sister and me when we did some boneheaded
stuff, just use some common sense. I think your dad said
that to you once or twice as well. One of the things your
mom used to say to you was, ``if you are knocked down, get
up''--the idea you just never give up. You know you are
right, never give up. That is Joe Biden.
People say to us in this Chamber I am sure every day
that they wouldn't want our job. I wouldn't want your job.
I know you heard that a lot of times. I think we are
fortunate to have these jobs and responsibilities to
serve. An even tougher job is to be married to one of us.
Several people talked about Jill and your bride--for how
many years? Almost 40 years. Is that possible? I first saw
Jill Biden when I was a graduate student when I was just
out of the Navy. I was a graduate student at the
University of Delaware. I happened to see her on campus. I
thought then, and I would say now, one of the two
loveliest people I think I have ever seen. The other being
Martha Carper. Not only is she lovely--as Joe knows--on
the outside, really lovely on the inside. She is a person
with deep caring, a person with incredible warmth and
compassion. She is a terrific educator. She taught in our
State in public schools. She taught in a hospital for
folks with special needs. She taught at Delaware Technical
Community College when it was selected as the best
technical community college in the Nation during the time
that she was on the faculty there.
She continued as Second Lady to continue to critique,
but she started off in a place called Willow Grove, PA.
There is a naval air station there where I used to fly P-3
aircraft--mission commander--out of there. I retired as a
Navy captain in 1991. She was just down the road, growing
up with her four sisters, Jill Jacobs and the Jacobs
girls. I am sure they broke a lot of hearts.
In the case of Jill Biden, she helped to mend one. As
much as anybody, Val and your family are hugely supportive
and helped you get through a terribly tough time, but I
think Jill perhaps made you whole. She got her undergrad,
I believe, from the University of Delaware. She has two
master's degrees--a Ph.D. focused on how to increase
retention in community colleges around the country. She
got those advanced degrees while working and raising a
family, three kids that any of us would be proud to claim
as our own.
Last week, I happened to be in a classroom in a school
where the Vice President probably has been before, Mount
Pleasant Elementary School, right down the road from the
high school. I was in a classroom of a woman by the name
of Wendy Turner, who is the Delaware Teacher of the Year.
I had a chance to be with her and her grade school kids.
We all gathered around together, and I sat on a stool.
They gathered around me. There were about 20, 25 kids. I
said, ``Why is she such a great teacher?'' Talking about
Wendy Turner, Teacher of the Year.
They said, ``She loves kids. She loves us.'' They said,
``She knows her stuff. She really knows what she is
talking to us about. She knows how to make clear why it is
important, like when we leave school, and why it is
important we learn these things. She believes everybody
can learn.''
I thought about her, and I think about Jill Biden
today. She is that kind of educator as well, continues to
be that kind of educator as well.
A lot has been said today of the Cancer Moonshot that
Joe has been leading with great skill and success here,
especially today. Before there was Cancer Moonshot, there
was Joe Biden's breast health initiative, which helped
thousands of young women to learn about the importance of
early detection for breast cancer.
Beau went into the military, Delaware National Guard,
deployed to Iraq. Some people would send cookies and
packages to their kids and maybe write emails or Skype
with them. Jill decided she was going to take that
experience and create something with Delaware Boots on the
Ground to look out for families. Later on, as Second Lady,
working with Michelle Obama, she created something they
called Joining Forces, which focuses on education for
military families--education, employment opportunities,
access to wellness services.
She even managed to write a book. She wrote a book from
a child's point of view of having a loved one in their
family deployed overseas in the military. As I said
earlier, she helped raise three terrific kids.
Sometimes I like to quote Maya Angelou, who sang at the
second inauguration of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and she
passed away not long ago. Maya Angelou said something that
I think is appropriate for all of us today when she said:
``People may not remember what you said, people may not
remember what you do, but they will remember how you made
them feel.'' One of the threads through everything that
has been said here today really reminds me of what Maya
Angelou said because people may not remember what we said.
They may not remember what we do, but there are not just
thousands, not just tens of thousands, not just hundreds
of thousands, but there are millions of people in this
country who will remember how you and Jill made them
feel--cared for, important, loved.
I know our Vice President likes music, and as a Boomer
he later on liked a British group. I forget what their Fab
Four was called. I think it might have been the Beatles,
and maybe the best rock 'n' roll album ever, ``Abbey
Road,'' ends with these lyrics--the last part of Abbey
Road, side two, was largely written by Paul McCartney. The
last words on ``Abbey Road'' were these words: ``The love
you take is equal to the love you make.''
You are going to take a lot of love with you, and Jill
as well, far from here and for the rest of your lives. God
bless you.
Mr. President--I have always wanted to call you Mr.
President. With that, Mr. President, I suggest the absence
of a quorum.
The VICE PRESIDENT. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The VICE PRESIDENT. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I would like to invite all of
my colleagues to join us in a reception in honor of the
Vice President. I remind any colleagues who wish to speak
who did not have the opportunity to submit their comments
for the Record, and I very much look forward to our
jointly presenting a bound copy to the Vice President.
Thank you for your service, and we look forward to
hearing from you at the reception.
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Mr. REED. Mr. President, I was also very privileged to
serve with the Vice President of the United States, Joe
Biden. The Vice President was here yesterday. I was here
listening to the comments. I must add, if I could, some
words of my own.
Joe Biden is a true statesman. I had the privilege of
serving with him for over a decade. We traveled together
to places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. I am honored to
have gotten to know him and his wonderful family. Even
though he is Vice President of the United States of
America--the second highest office of the land--I know the
titles he is proudest to hold are father, grandfather,
husband, brother, and, after that, Senator.
A tribute to Joe Biden really has to extend to some
others, and one person I want to single out is his sister,
Valerie Biden Owens. Val is not only his closest adviser
but the architect of his first campaign and every one
thereafter. At a time when very few women were running
U.S. Senate campaigns, Val was responsible for electing a
29-year-old newcomer. When tragedy struck, she was the one
who helped bring him back, who enabled him to serve the
people of Delaware and, ultimately, the people of the
United States and of the world. She is a brilliant
strategist who has gone on to advise many officeholders.
We thank her for her lasting contributions, and I wanted
to make sure she got some credit.
Both the Vice President and Val are quick to note the
real credit goes to their parents--Catherine Jean Finnegan
Biden, his mom, and his late, great father, Joe Senior.
The Vice President and I would often joke--and it is not a
joke; it is actually a truth: Always aspire to be half as
good as mom and dad. That is an Irish aspiration. Joe has
made it. I am still working on it, but he is at least half
as good as these extraordinary people.
If you have spent any time with the Vice President, you
know that he is famous for quoting his father and his
mother and the wisdom they imparted to all the children--
Joe, Val, Jimmy, and Frank. I think you have heard Senator
Biden, Chairman Biden, and Vice President Biden say: ``I
give you my word as a Biden.'' You know you can take that
to the bank. He meant it.
Once you heard that, without hesitation, you knew he
was there with you and would not equivocate, would not
deviate, and would be with you.
I had the privilege of not only working with Senator
Biden, but I also had the privilege of working with a
young captain in the U.S. Army, at least briefly, as we
visited him, and that was CPT Beau Biden of the Delaware
National Guard. Beau Biden didn't have to join the
National Guard. He didn't have to volunteer for Iraq, but
he felt it was his duty and his obligation. When we were
together with him in Iraq, you saw someone who personified
the very best of this Nation--a soldier, someone
conscientious, someone who would give his all, give his
life for others and, particularly, give every ounce of
energy and service to this great Nation.
Anyone who met Beau knew he was a Biden. He didn't have
to say it. He looked like his dad but, more important, he
acted like his dad--strong, tough, proud, dedicated,
committed to helping others, particularly those who needed
a chance, who needed a hand up. He had a passion for
social justice, compassion, and that element of kindness.
In the sum of his days--of Beau's days--he certainly
surpassed that test of kindness, decency, and compassion.
The Biden family has known a great deal of tragedy--
more than most families--but they have stuck together, and
they have shared both moments of triumph and moments of
profound sadness. Together, they have shaped history and
made this a better nation and a better world. All of us
who have had the privilege of knowing Joe, Jill, and their
family are better people.
Mr. President, let me thank you. Mr. Vice President,
Senator, Joe, thank you.
With that, I yield the floor.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the
service of a former colleague and our current Vice
President, Joe Biden.
Joe was born in Pennsylvania, but moved with his family
to Delaware when he was 13. He left Delaware for brief
stints at St. Helena School and Syracuse University Law
School, but he has always returned to Delaware, including
the daily trips he made home during his Senate career and
the regular trips he makes home to this day.
Because of his devotion to Delaware, Joe quickly got
his start in politics, first on the New Castle County
Council and then in the U.S. Senate, where he became the
fifth-youngest U.S. Senator in history in 1972. He also
has the distinction of being Delaware's longest serving
Senator.
I worked with Joe on many different issues during his
time in the Senate and served on the Foreign Relations
Committee when he was our chairman. Joe is known as a
foreign affairs expert, and he has many reasons to be
proud of the work he has done in that area. One of those
things that we worked on together was the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
I remember being at the 2003 State of the Union speech
when President Bush said, ``We're going to put $15 billion
into an AIDS effort.'' That shocked all of us who were
there. It was a lot of money. We worked together to
develop a bill that passed the House and Senate
unanimously.
Joe managed the floor when we reauthorized that program
in 2008, and we worked with Senators Coburn, Burr, and
Lugar to develop that reauthorization. At the time, Joe
suggested historians will regard PEPFAR as President
Bush's ``single finest hour,'' and I tend to agree. A few
years ago, I visited the Kasisi Orphanage in Zambia. We
were told that before PEPFAR, they had to bury 18 kids a
month that died of AIDS, but because of PEPFAR, they got
that down to 1 a month. I know Joe shares my pride in the
difference that program is making.
We were all a little sad to see Joe move to the White
House in 2009, when he became our 47th Vice President.
Lucky for us, he has been able to keep his ties to the
Senate in his role as President of this body, and I think
he has been one of our best partners in the
administration.
All of us were glad to be able to honor Joe and his
son, Beau Biden, by naming the cancer section of the 21st
Century Cures Act after Beau. I expect Joe will continue
to be a voice for ending cancer, and I hope to work with
him toward that cause.
Joe, Diana and I send our best to you, Jill, and your
family. You have served the people of Delaware and the
people of the United States with distinction.
I yield the floor.
Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, in a political world getting
more contentious by the day, with even greater divisions
and an increasing lack of civility, Joe Biden has always
stood out.
The reason so many Republicans and Democrats appreciate
him is because he has touched us all in a special way.
When it comes to Joe Biden, his word is his bond. He is a
fierce competitor, but never takes the fight too far. If
he can help you, he always will. He tries, as much as
possible, to ensure every decision is a win-win.
As Vice President, he served President Obama extremely
well with unquestionable loyalty. He has proven to be one
of the most successful negotiators for the President.
I have traveled the world with Joe and the private man
is exactly what you see in public. Joe Biden is
articulate, determined, kind, gracious, funny, and an
eternal optimist. I am confident he will continue to serve
the Nation he loves so much.
Vice President Joe Biden stands out in all the right
ways.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise in support and
recognition of the tireless efforts of my friend and
colleague from West Virginia [Mr. Manchin]. We were sworn
in the same day, moments apart, and we were sworn in by a
man who held this seat and this desk for 36 years. Born in
Scranton, PA, Joe Biden, our Vice President, served
Delaware for 36 years. I know Joe and I know one of the
things he tirelessly fought for, and that was the working
men and women of this country--just like my colleague from
Missouri [Mrs. McCaskill], who speaks from the desk long
held by Harry Truman and in whose honor she spoke about
our keeping our promises that date back to a law passed by
this Congress and signed into law by Harry Truman that
promised pensions and health care to 100,000 coal miners.
...
ORDER FOR PRINTING OF SENATE DOCUMENTS
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of
materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to
retiring Members of the 114th Congress, and an additional
Senate document a compilation of materials from the
Congressional Record in tribute to the President of the
Senate, Joe Biden, and that Members have until Tuesday,
December 20, to submit such tributes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
ORDER FOR PRINTING
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
any tributes submitted by December 20, 2016, as authorized
by the order of December 10, 2016, be printed in the
January 3, 2017, Congressional Record of the 114th
Congress.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
[all]