[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 123 (Thursday, July 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7913-H7914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATIONS TO SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD OF WEST VIRGINIA ON CASTING 
                            HIS 14,000 VOTE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Rahall] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and privilege that I 
rise to announce that U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, senior senator from 
West Virginia, earlier today became the first U.S. Senator in history 
to cast 14,000 votes in the Senate. This 14,000th vote gives Senator 
Byrd a 98.7 percent voting average over his 37 years of service in the 
Senate.
  This voting record covers only Senator Byrd's Senate service, not the 
years he also served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
  Senator Byrd's first vote in the Senate, cast on January 8, 1959, was 
very fitting: It was a vote on Senate procedures. Since then, Senator 
Byrd has become a national celebrity, is recognized as the Senate's 
``historian in residence,'' and he is recognized as the uncontested 
expert in the country on the Senate as an institution, about which he 
has published four volumes, and as a nationally known expert on 
parliamentary procedure in that body.
  During the 37-year period in which the 14,000 votes were cast, 
Senator Byrd has served as: Secretary of the Senate Democratic 
Conference. Senate Majority Whip, Senator Majority Leaders, Senate 
Minority Leader, and President Pro Tempore.
  Senator Byrd is not only a giant among men in the Senate, he is a 
giant among men in the Nation. He has been an integral part of the high 
drama and history of the second half of the 20th century, including the 
cold war, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the collapse of the 
Soviet Union. He has served in the Senate under nine Presidents--
through assassinations and resignations.
  Today, the Senate paused to recognize and honor Senator Byrd for his 
extraordinary leadership and for having attained the milestones in his 
legislative career that brought him to his 14,000th vote.
  Those milestones are: Being only one of three U.S. Senators in 
American history to have been elected to seven 6-year terms; being the 
first sitting Member of either House of Congress to begin and complete 
the study of the law and obtain a law degree while serving in the 
Congress; being the first person to carry every county in the State of 
West Virginia (55 of them) in a contested statewide general election; 
being the only person in the history of West Virginia to ever serve in 
both chambers of his State legislature and both Houses of the U.S. 
Congress; obtaining the greatest number, the greatest percentage, and 
the greatest margin of votes cast in statewide, contested elections in 
his State; being the first U.S. Senator in West Virginia to win a 
Senate seat without opposition in a general election; and serving 
longer in the U.S. Senate than anyone else in West Virginia history.
  Mr. Speaker, all these milestones of achievement are remarkable in 
and of 

[[Page H 7914]]
themselves, and we honor Senator Byrd for them.
  But his greatest feat will always be the dignity he has brought to 
the U.S. Senate every day of his life, throughout his tenure there.
  He is a gentle but firm leader, who has the ability to share, in his 
writing and vocally, his deep and abiding reverence for the Senate as 
an institution. Each week, Senator Byrd offers a history lesson on the 
floor of the Senate, addressing his colleagues on the floor and the 
Nation that may be watching C-SPAN, on the importance of knowing, and 
observing and above all respecting, the traditions of the Senate, its 
rules of engagement and the parliamentary procedures, that govern it as 
an institution.
  Tonight I wish to join my voice with the voices of his Senate 
colleagues, those in his beloved West Virginia and all our Nation in 
paying tribute to West Virginia's senior Senator.
  And so it is with great personal honor, and with the highest esteem, 
that I rise on this occasion to pay tribute to Senator Robert C. Byrd 
of West Virginia for having become the first U.S. Senator in history to 
cast 14,000 votes.


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