[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 65 (Thursday, May 6, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4878-S4881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JOSEPH R. BIDEN ON HIS 10,000th VOTE

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize a very dear 
friend of mine in the Senate and his historic 10,000th vote. His name 
is Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, a friend and colleague whose 
distinguished career has elevated both the quality and stature of the 
Senate. The number 10,000 is an important landmark in a career that has 
many milestones, but I believe Senator Biden will be best remembered 
for the significance of his varied votes. I have seen many of those 
notable votes cast.
  In every one of those votes he was careful, deliberate, and 
respectful of his duty to the people of Delaware. Joe and I have served 
in the Senate for roughly the same amount of time. He has been here a 
couple of years longer than I. We have worked closely together in the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chaired and which I now chair. On 
occasion we have agreed to disagree. In fact, I wish he had cast more 
of those 10,000 votes with me. In all seriousness, however, Joe and I 
have found many areas where we strongly have agreed.
  Joe has long been a leader on the issue of youth violence, an issue 
which has affected countless lives in Delaware, Utah, and the rest of 
the Nation. In 1974, he was the lead sponsor of the Juvenile Justice 
Prevention Act. In 1992, he sponsored the Juvenile Justice Prevention 
Act Amendments, which provided States with Federal grants for a 
complete and comprehensive approach to improve the juvenile justice 
system and controlling juvenile crime.
  He has long advocated a tough stand against illegal drugs. He 
authored the law creating the Nation's drug czar, and in 1986, he was 
the guiding force for the enactment of groundbreaking drug legislation. 
He has probably done as much if not more than anybody in the Senate 
with regard to the antidrug stances that we all should support and that 
we all appreciate today.

  With regard to juvenile justice, next week we bring up a juvenile 
justice bill. Senator Biden has been a mainstay in helping to resolve 
conflicts that we have in that bill and hopefully helping it to become 
a bipartisan bill that all of us can support. What I admire most about 
Joe is the fact that he is the staunchest defender of his party's 
beliefs, yet he does not hesitate to cross party lines to forge a 
consensus position when he believes it is the right thing to do. 
Nowhere is that more evident than with the issue of juvenile crime.
  Joe has a history of standing up for what is right when it comes to 
juvenile crime, and I believe he will continue to do so. We look 
forward to working with him next week.
  While chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he authored the Violent

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Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which was signed into law in 
1994. While I differed with much that was contained and dropped from 
the bill, this legislation contained the Biden-Hatch Violence Against 
Women Act, the first comprehensive law to address gender-based 
offenses. Senator Biden's leadership on this issue changed how many 
Americans view the issue of violence against women. He even changed how 
we refer to domestic abuse in the Senate by continually asking, 
``What's domestic about beating your wife?''
  Joe is widely regarded as a foreign policy expert. Many remember his 
leadership on NATO expansion in 1998. He stood out as a strong advocate 
for the inclusion of several Eastern European nations into the 
alliance. NATO is now engaged in its greatest test, and I am convinced 
that Joe's leadership was integral in strengthening the alliance.
  In 1997, Senator Biden showed these same leadership skills when he 
led the successful effort in the Senate to ratify the Chemical Weapons 
Convention. Joe Biden has truly had a distinguished career in the 
Senate.
  All that said and done, I could go on and on about his distinguished 
career, but it is his personal qualities that have impressed his 
friends, his family, and his colleagues, including, of course, myself 
as a friend and as a colleague.
  Many may not know that Senator Biden overcame two operations for a 
near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988 and returned to the Senate in 1989. I 
remember those days and I remember how catastrophic they were for him, 
his family, and for those of us who prayed for him. He showed great 
courage and persistence in overcoming that adversity. Nobody was more 
thankful than his wife and three children, to whom he is a loving 
husband and father. Indeed, he is renowned for putting his family 
first, as demonstrated by his daily commute to and from Delaware. The 
fact that he takes a 2-hour train ride to get here every day makes the 
accomplishment of reaching 10,000 votes all the more astounding.
  So it is with great honor that I ask my colleagues to join me and 
others in congratulating Senator Joseph R. Biden on his 10,000th vote. 
His many contributions to this body are appreciated and recognized. I 
am sure that I speak for all of my colleagues when I say we will enjoy 
keeping a close eye on the many votes yet to come.
  Just as a gift this evening, this is the last CD that we have done. 
It is, frankly, Santita Jackson, Jesse Jackson's daughter, singing with 
a wonderful young African American from Nashville, who is as good a 
singer as anybody in the world, named Chris Willis. This CD is entitled 
``Put Your Arms Around the World.'' I think it kind of applies to Joe 
Biden. When he listens to the song written by Peter McCann and me--
Peter McCann wrote ``It's the Right Time of the Night'' and ``Want to 
Make Love''--called ``Take Good Care of My Heart,'' that particular 
song, I think, really applies to Senator Biden because, in his own way, 
with his tremendous interest in foreign policy, tremendous interest in 
the law, his tremendous interest in overcoming injustice in our society 
not only here but throughout the world, I think this song will mean 
something to him. It certainly does to me. Santita Jackson and Chris 
Willis are two of the rising young stars in America. I would like to 
give this CD to Senator Biden at this time and say that I look forward 
to serving with him for a long time to come. So hang in there.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues in paying this 
tribute to Joe Biden on the occasion of him casting his 10,000th vote 
in the Senate. The casting of that vote is an occasion to pay tribute 
not for voting but for a real career of service and of great 
distinction. It has been one of the pleasures of my service in this 
body to have served with Joe Biden, and one of my pleasures that we 
represent adjoining States. Therefore, we interact on a number of 
issues that otherwise would not be the case amongst Members of the 
Senate.
  He has had an extraordinary career here. He is now in his fifth term. 
He got elected before he was old enough, actually, under the 
Constitution, before he was old enough under the Constitution to be a 
Member of the Senate. He was elected at the age of 29, and he has just 
had a terrific career of accomplishment. Those who have worked with him 
derive great pleasure from it. We have marveled at his legislative 
skill.
  I want to talk about two or three of the things in which he has been 
very much involved. We have served together on the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee all of these years. And he has exercised 
extraordinary leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee at various 
points during his career. We are making a lot of the fact now in 
America that crime rates are going down all across the country. So 
everyone is sort of looking to see what is the cause of that, or who 
ought to get the praise for it. I have to tell you that Joe Biden ought 
to get a lot of the praise for the fact that crime has gone down across 
this land. He has authored every significant anticrime initiative in 
the Congress over a period of time that he has been here--the Juvenile 
Justice Prevention Act, the Victims of Crime Act, the Violent Crime 
Control and Law Enforcement Act, and on and on and on.
  Senator Biden has been a great champion of law enforcement and of 
those who work in law enforcement. He has been sensitive on the 
important civil liberties and civil rights cases, which a democracy 
ought to be sensitive to. He has understood how you can balance those 
and put it together. There are thousands and thousands of cops on the 
street today giving us safer neighborhoods and more secure cities and 
communities all across America because of Joe Biden's initiatives.
  Senator Biden was the first to include the provisions with respect to 
violence against women and really raise to a very high level the whole 
issue of gender-based crimes. He has consistently focused our attention 
onto that area.
  He has dealt in a very effective way with the gun issue, which is not 
easy to deal with in this body, and certainly not an easy issue to deal 
with effectively. I have to tell you that I think throughout all of 
this period Senator Biden had a clear perception and focus on how to do 
something about the crime issue. He did not demagog it. He did not seek 
to emotionalize it. He worked hard to develop the real programs that 
would make a difference in our communities all across the country. I am 
extremely grateful to him for that.
  On the Foreign Relations Committee, he has consistently been an 
advocate of an international stance by the United States--actually, the 
expansion of NATO was in large part a consequence of his very effective 
advocacy and leadership. He has been sensitive to the importance of 
human rights and democratic values in American foreign policy. I have 
been very privileged to serve with him on the Foreign Relations 
Committee and to see his effective leadership in that arena.

  Finally, let me just say he is a terrific friend. I can't tell you 
how much I value and treasure his friendship, how much it has meant, 
how much I enjoy his sense of humor, and even how much I like to listen 
to his speeches--which occasionally go on for a while. But this 
institution has been honored by having him as a Member. It is 
extraordinary that at what is really, for the Senate, still a very 
young age, he has achieved his 10,000th vote. I wish him many, many, 
many thousands more. I thank him for his extraordinary service to the 
country and for his deep friendship to all of us.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I, too, add my congratulations to the 
Senator for his 10,000th vote. At this point in my Senate career, that 
is really an incredible number. I have known Senator Biden for a long 
time. I was the State Jaycee President when the U.S. Jaycees recognized 
him as one of the 10 outstanding young men of this country in Mobil, 
AL. I can't tell you how incredible it was to get to meet him at that 
point and how even more incredible it was when I got to join this body 
and meet him here after he must have done 9,000 votes. I read about him 
in the newspaper and have gotten to work with him, and I have enjoyed 
that experience.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, if it is appropriate, may I respond 
briefly?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I am truly appreciative of the comments my

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friends have made--my old-new friends, my old-old friends, and my close 
buddies from across the State line.
  I began to wonder about casting my 10,000th vote on the occasion of 
the majority leader indicating there would be no more votes for 4 days 
and the last planes heading west were leaving. I thank my colleagues 
who put in the Record their comments. I will withhold specific comment 
until I read them, because God only knows what they said. But let me 
say that I find it no particular feat to have cast 10,000 votes. If you 
are around here long enough and still standing, that happens.
  I hope I have cast some votes that have made this country a little 
bit better. I am confident there is none that I have cast that have 
enhanced the standing of America, or the condition of the American 
people, that weren't bipartisan. I can't think of any that were done 
that weren't done in a bipartisan manner in the end.
  I look at Orrin Hatch. Orrin Hatch came here, and is still one of the 
leading conservative lights on the American political scene, and yet we 
have worked together for years and years and years. I cannot think that 
we have ever had a cross word to one another in 25 years. We have had 
very different views.
  Paul Sarbanes, who is literally one of the brightest people I have 
served with--just raw, pure, gray matter, raw horsepower--to have him 
say the things that he said about me in reference to our personal 
friendship is meaningful, particularly since my wife, who works as a 
professor in Delaware and seldom is in Washington, is sitting in the 
galleries listening to this, and my No. 2 son, who is now living in 
Washington, heard it as well.
  I am sure they know better. But my mother probably believes 
everything Paul said, because I met Paul's mother as well.
  I think, if I can make one, in a sense, political observation, the 
first vote I cast in January of 1972 was a vote I was told--I didn't 
remember this--on an Assistant Secretary, I believe, the No. 2 person 
at State. I am not positive of that.
  I remember the day, although I was obviously very junior, when I was 
sworn in by the Secretary of the Senate, Mr. Valeo, who actually came 
to me in Wilmington to swear me in, because of unusual circumstances. 
After he gave me the little certificate that we get when we are sworn 
in, he said, ``You have arrived to the Senate, to the best of my 
knowledge, the least senior than any man in history,'' because 
seniority is based on the previous offices that you have held. It keeps 
narrowing down to State, size, population, and age ultimately.
  But when I got here, there were a number of giants in the Senate. We 
often hear it said today that there are no giants left in the Senate. 
In truth there are. There are women and men who serve in this body 
today who are equal to and in some ways surpass the capacity of some of 
the great people I have had the honor of serving with over the past 
almost 27 years.
  So the caliber has not changed. What has changed a little bit--and I 
am referencing this tonight, because of my colleagues who are here on 
the floor--what has changed since then is the impression that we don't 
like each other very much, that we don't get along with one another 
very well, that we are nakedly partisan in all of our undertakings.
  I wish the public could see that there is still a degree of 
camaraderie here, a degree of mutual respect that crosses 
that sometimes ``chasm'' called the ``center aisle,'' what makes this 
body more unique than any other legislative body at least in modern 
history. I will not challenge Senator Byrd about whether it equals or 
surpasses the Roman Senate, but I am confident that it does surpass any 
other legislative body in modern history.

  I would just conclude by saying the lubricant that allows that to 
happen is genuine and personal respect that most of us have for one 
another. I think it is the defining feature of this institution.
  I remember now meeting Senator Enzi back in 1972--or 1973, I guess it 
was--when I received that award. But I have not gotten--because we 
don't serve on committees together--to know him personally as well as I 
know my two colleagues who remain. Notwithstanding the wonderful words 
they have both uttered relating to me, the genuine testimony I take 
from what they have done is that they are here. It is 9 o'clock at 
night. There are no votes. The Senator from Maryland has a long drive 
home, because, he, like me, commutes every day to Baltimore, MD. And he 
drives. My friend from Utah probably missed a plane to go back to Utah 
this weekend.
  I truly, truly appreciate it.
  Let me yield the floor by saying, Mr. President, that I am asked 
sometimes what is the best, the most significant perk that exists being 
a Senator. I always answer that there are two things.
  Before I became a Senator, as a young man campaigning in the midst of 
the Vietnam war, and the civil rights crisis, and the assassination of 
men who I had an incredible regard for in 1968--both Martin Luther King 
and Robert Kennedy--I came here thinking that all that had to happen 
was that we elected women and men who had a greater degree of 
intellectual capacity, had a better education and were smarter. I got 
here and I was truly dumbfounded--truly dumbfounded--by how many people 
who serve in this body who are so incredibly bright, who are so 
significantly schooled in the areas in which they speak. I arrived and 
I found out that Jack Javits could tell you as much about modern art as 
he could about foreign policy. There was Mike Mansfield, who could tell 
you as much about Chinese history as he could about the politics in 
Montana.
  Paul Sarbanes can tell you as much about the international monetary 
system, about the history of the Balkans, about the banking system, as 
he can tell you about his hometown baseball team and the local politics 
of Baltimore.
  Orrin Hatch is a man who used to be a card-carrying union guy from 
Pittsburgh, who goes out as a boxer, goes out to his now home State of 
Utah, and gets elected after having a career as an incredible trial 
lawyer.
  I mean it is amazing--the diversity here.
  I will not mention the judge's name. But I was having lunch with a 
Justice once in my capacity as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The 
issue was about pay raises for judges. This particular Justice said 
publicly--this Justice accidentally said it. He didn't intend to be 
quoted--that he could understand why the public wouldn't want 
Congresspersons and Senators to get a raise but judges were different, 
they were academically qualified. I know the Senator from Utah knows 
who I am talking about.
  To this particular, very competent Justice--I was in his office--I 
said, ``May I close your door, Mr. Justice?'' I said, ``Mr. Justice, I 
have sat in the Judiciary Committee for years. I have had the 
opportunity as either ranking member or chairman for, I think, a 14-
year period to look at the background of every single person who has 
come on the bench.'' At that time it was 10 or 12 years. I said, ``I am 
willing to make you a bet. I will take the intellectual potential of 
the Senate''--in the House I didn't know as well--``and match it 
against the entire judiciary.'' They are bright, they are competent. If 
I am not mistaken in time, we had, like Senator Sarbanes, seven Rhodes 
scholars in the Senate. We had a half a dozen Marshall scholars--not 
me. I don't qualify on that account. We have men and women in here 
whose academic distinction exceeds that of 99 percent of the people--
all the jobs anywhere in America, corporate, labor, business, academia.
  The greatest perk I have had as a Senator was access to people with 
serious, serious minds and a serious sense of purpose, and who cared 
about something. If I dropped dead tomorrow, I would be thankful to the 
people of Delaware, for the individuals they have allowed me to be 
exposed to, to argue with, to fight with, to debate with, to agree with 
Members. I will be thankful to them for the gift they gave me in having 
that access. I don't believe there is any other place in the Nation I 
could have gotten that kind of exposure.
  The second thing I found that has been the greatest gift in those 
10,000 votes during that period is that this is the ultimate graduate 
education. If you take this job serious, as all my colleagues do on 
this floor, you learn one thing: You don't get a driver, you don't get 
a house, you don't get a bodyguard,

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nor should we, but what you do get is the ability to pick up the phone 
and call anybody in the world and they will take your call. You can 
call Nobel laureates, you can call experts in any field, and if you 
want to learn, this is the ultimate seminar if you take it seriously. 
There is no other place I can think of that a person can do that.
  Mr. President, I have a lot more to learn. And of those 10,000 votes, 
I am sure there are many that were not as enlightened as I thought they 
were at the time I cast them. Hopefully, I have learned. Hopefully, I 
will get a chance to learn more than I know now. If you want to do it, 
and if you take it seriously and if you reach out across that chasm, 
you reach out across that aisle, believe it or not, there is somebody 
on the other side willing to talk to you, willing to exchange ideas 
with you. If you work hard enough, you actually may do a little bit--
just a little bit--to change the state of affairs in this great 
country. That is all we can do here.
  I have no illusions about the significance of the Senate in terms of 
determining national policy, but within the context and the role the 
Senate plays, we get to play little parts. The only time it works is 
when we cross that chasm. That is the only time it works.
  I thank my colleagues. They are honorable men. They are men of 
achievement. I think the public gets a pretty good buy for their 
investment in the men that are sitting here on the floor today and the 
women and men who cast all the votes today; they are competent.
  It has been a pleasure working with them. I hope I get to cast a few 
more votes. I hope I get to convince Orrin Hatch and Senator Enzi to 
cast more votes my way. The truth of the matter is, as I said, nothing 
gets done unless you reach across that aisle. I appreciate the fact 
there has always been somebody on this side to talk to me.
  I thank all my colleagues. For those who made other statements, I 
will respond in the Record and not take the time of my colleagues. The 
Baltimore-Washington tunnel is probably clear by now. We can both head 
north.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________