[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 73 (Wednesday, May 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5596-S5597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Byrd, Mr. Reid, Mr. 
        Bayh, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Lautenberg, and Mr. Lieberman):
  S. 1077. A bill to dedicate the new Amtrak station in New York, New 
York, to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan; to the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works.


                    Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill to name 
the new train station at the James A. Farley Post Office Building, 
which sits across the street from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, 
after my esteemed colleague and tireless champion of this project, 
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
  It is an especially fitting tribute to offer this bill today as 
President Bill Clinton, Governor George Pataki, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, 
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, Postmaster General William 
Henderson and Senator Moynihan all gathered this morning at the Farley 
Building to officially unveil the magnificent new station plan, 
designed by the celebrated architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & 
Merrill. I am deeply sorry that I could not attend that event, which I 
understand was a success in every way, but other matters called me here 
to the floor.
  First, let me praise the vision and determination of my dear friend, 
the senior Senator from New York. In 1963, long before he was a Senator 
and, in fact, when I was 12 years old Pat Moynihan was one of a group 
of prescient New Yorkers who protested the tragic razing of our City's 
spectacular Pennsylvania Station--a glorious public building designed 
by the nation's premier architectural firm of the time, McKim, Mead & 
White.
  It was Pat Moynihan who recognized years ago that across the street 
from what is now a sad basement terminal that functions--barely--as New 
York City's train station, sits the James A. Farley Post Office 
Building, built by the same architects in much the same grand design as 
the old Penn Station. Pat Moynihan recognized that since the very same 
railroad tracks that run under the current Penn Station also run 
beneath the Farley Building, we could use the Farley Building to once 
again create a train station worthy of our great city. He then 
tirelessly did the impossible--persuaded New York City, New York State, 
the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Amtrak, 
Congressional Appropriators, and the President himself, to commit to 
making this project succeed. No mean feat, I assure you. In a day, 
particularly in our city, when grand public works often get bugged down 
in fighting and court suits, it is a tribute to Senator Moynihan that 
not only did he have the vision to see the station, but he also had the 
muscle and legislative skill to see it through.
  This past Sunday, Herbert Muschamp, the noted New York Times 
architecture critic praised Childs' design, which brilliantly fuses the 
classical elements of the Farley Building with a dramatic, light-filled 
concourse and a spectacular new ticketing area. Muschamp adds: ``In an 
era better known for the decrepitude of its infrastructure than for 
inspiring new visions of the city's future, the plan comes as proof 
that New York can still undertake major public works. This is the most 
important transportation project undertaken in New York City in several 
generations.'' We have Pat Moynihan to thank.
  That Senator Moynihan would be responsible for the success of this 
project is no surprise. His passion for and dedication to public 
architecture is well known and dates back to his days as a young aide 
to President Kennedy, who, right before his death, tasked Moynihan with 
restoring Pennsylvania Avenue here in Washington.
  Moynihan succeeded brilliantly in his task, with the final piece of 
Pennsylvania Avenue--the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade 
Center--unveiled one year ago and instantly hailed as one of the best 
new buildings to grace the Capital. Moynihan has another renowned 
Federal building to his credit--the Thurgood Marshall Judiciary 
Building, which provides such a beautiful companion to Union Station 
and the Old Post Office.
  In New York City, Moynihan has been an equally tireless architectural 
champion, responsible for the restoration of the spectacular Beaux-Arts 
Custom House at Bowling Green and for the construction of a grand new 
Federal Courthouse at Foley Square. Moynihan is beloved in Buffalo for 
reawakening that city's appreciation for its architectural heritage, 
which includes Frank Lloyd Wright houses and the Prudential Building, 
one of the best-known early American skyscrapers by the architect Louis 
Sullivan--a building which Moynihan helped restore and then chose as 
his Buffalo office. When he first came to Buffalo he told me that 
nowhere else in America had the three greatest American architects of 
the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright, Henry Richardson and Louis 
Sullivan, had buildings standing near one another.

  He has also spurred a popular movement in Buffalo to build a new 
signature Peace Bridge.
  So my colleagues, it is altogether fitting and appropriate that this 
new Penn Station be named in honor of our distinguished senior Senator 
from New York, someone who is my friend and who I wish was staying in 
the Senate for a longer period of time--someone I will dearly miss. It 
is an honor to stand here and offer this tribute to such an uncommon 
man, because Senator Moynihan himself is indeed a national treasure.
  Truly, the epitaph given to Sir Christopher Wren, designer of St. 
Paul's Cathedral in London, is fitting for Senator Moynihan. If my 
colleagues will pardon my pronunciation, for my Latin isn't that good: 
``Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice,'' ``If you would see the man's 
monument, look around.
  I join my fellow New Yorkers in anxiously awaiting the day when we 
arrive at the glorious Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the text of this bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1077

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION OF DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN STATION.

       The Amtrak station to be constructed in the James A. Farley 
     Post Office Building in New York, New York, shall be known 
     and designated as the ``Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the Amtrak station 
     referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to 
     the ``Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station''.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I compliment the distinguished Senator from 
New York. I did not hear a word I disagreed with. I only wish to hear 
it amplified throughout the Nation.
  I ask unanimous consent I be listed as a cosponsor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, would the Senator yield briefly that I might 
compliment him?
  Mr. SCHUMER. I am delighted to yield to my distinguished senior 
colleague from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Would he mind if I asked to be a cosponsor of this 
resolution?
  Mr. SCHUMER. I will be honored and delighted, as I know Senator 
Moynihan will be.
  Mr. BYRD. Because Senator Moynihan is truly a man of eloquence and 
wit and vision and grace. We are going to miss him. He has been a 
powerful influence in this Senate. He has served in the executive 
branch, served with brilliance and with honor. And, like Christopher 
Wren--``if you would see his monument, look about you''--Senator 
Moynihan leaves many monuments. Perhaps the greatest monument of all is 
that mark he has left upon the hearts of his colleagues who will miss

[[Page S5597]]

him and his powerful influence, his wisdom, his vision, when he has 
left this Senate.
  I congratulate the Senator on offering this resolution. I will be 
very grateful if he will allow me to be a cosponsor. It is one of the 
least things I can do to honor my colleague, one whom I love, one whom 
I revere, one whom I respect, and one who has shown himself to be a 
leader in this Senate.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I thank the Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, may I be recognized to join in this 
tribute?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I want to say to our fairly new 
colleague from New York that he could not have picked an issue upon 
which he could get more solid agreement. One does not have to be a 
Democrat or an easterner or have any special connection to respect and 
to so greatly appreciate the contributions made by Senator Daniel 
Patrick Moynihan.
  He had this capacity--I know, since we served together on the 
Environment Committee--not unlike, in many ways, the senior Senator 
from West Virginia, and that was to bring their respective knowledge to 
a discussion or debate or to a hearing, that--I speak for myself--would 
make me sit up and take notice. I felt transported from this white-
haired, wizened old face to a college student again and remembered how 
much I enjoyed some of the classes I attended where we had a professor, 
an instructor who conveyed the message in an interesting form, not just 
the statistics or the parameters of the particular discussion.
  So it is with Pat Moynihan. Any of us who have spent any time with 
Pat have always been amazed at the abundance of knowledge he has, 
whether we were talking about the New York State canal system or 
whether we were talking about the highway system or the developments in 
the Indian Ocean or you name the subject. No matter how impromptu or 
how unexpected the discussion, Pat Moynihan always has the capacity to 
discuss the subject intelligently and deeply.
  Any tribute that we give to this man is not fair compensation for 
that which he has given this country and has given this body. His 
abundance of gifts to us are so profound that many years from now they 
will still be talking about those of greatness who graced this Chamber 
and Pat Moynihan will be one of those without a doubt.
  I am pleased to call him my friend. I hope since we live in such 
close proximity, our representation of New York and New Jersey, that 
there will be tributes and testimonies to his contribution. He is a 
self-effacing fellow. He does not like to hear a bunch of compliments, 
but we are not going to let him get away with that now.
  I commend my colleague, the junior Senator from New York, for his 
wisdom and his thought in bringing this to us.
                                 ______