[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 82 (Thursday, June 10, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6839-S6840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATOR STEVENS' 12,000TH VOTE
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, last afternoon, Senator Stevens cast his
12,000th rollcall vote. Many of my colleagues joined in commending
Senator Stevens on this very worthwhile and considerable
accomplishment. I was not on the floor at that time. Today, I join in
commending Senator Stevens on having cast his 12,000th vote.
Since arriving in the U.S. Senate on December 24, 1968, Senator
Stevens has worked tirelessly on matters relating to defense and
national security. Having served in World War II, as a pilot in the
China-Burma-India theater, Senator Stevens was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross twice, two air medals, and the Yuan Hai
medal awarded by the Republic of China.
He joined the Appropriations Committee on February 23, 1972, and 3
years later he began service on the Defense Appropriations
Subcommittee, where he has served continuously since that time, and
served with great distinction. Since he became chairman of the Defense
Appropriations Subcommittee in 1981, Senator Stevens has served either
as chairman or ranking member of that vitally important subcommittee.
As of January 1997, Senator Stevens assumed additional responsibilities
that come with being named chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.
I have worked by his side on many, many occasions on subcommittees,
particularly on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. I have served
with him on matters that have come before the Committee on
Appropriations, where I now serve as his ranking member. In addition,
for many years, I have been privileged to have the honor of serving
with Senator Stevens on the Arms Control Observer Group, as well as on
the British-American Parliamentary Group.
Senator Stevens works indefatigably to ensure that his State of
Alaska receives appropriate consideration in all matters that come
before the Senate. He does that work and does it well. The people of
Alaska can be preeminently proud of the service that their Senator, the
chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate, performs. He
works for Alaska every day, and he works for the Nation every day.
Not only do I consider him one of the most distinguished and one of
the most capable Senators with whom I have served in more than 41 years
now, I also count him as a dear and trusted friend. I was in the Middle
East when Ted Stevens was in the airplane crash in which he lost his
wife, and I called him from the plane in which I was flying in the
Middle East on that occasion. He was in the hospital. I talked with him
and, of course, I was glad that he had survived the tragic accident.
Ted Stevens is a friend who can be always trusted. A handshake with
Ted Stevens is his bond, and his word is his bond. I have always found
him to be very trustworthy. I have always found him to be very fair,
very considerate. He is a gentleman. I think all of my colleagues on my
side on the Appropriations Committee treasure their friendship with Ted
Stevens. So I congratulate him on his new milestone and what has been
and continues to be a most remarkable career in public service.
There are many things about Ted Stevens that we can admire. I admire
his spunk. I was saying to someone on my staff today that he would be
one whale of a baseball team manager. He would take on all of the
umpires if he thought they didn't call the plays right. He sticks up
for what he believes. He has the courage of his convictions, and I
certainly would not want to be a player on his team in the locker room
if I lost a ball game through some error on my part.
He is a hard driver. He works hard every day. He represents his
people in the Senate, and he reverences the Senate and, perhaps best of
all, he is, as I have already said, a gentleman. He thinks, as I do,
that there are some things more important than political party. The
U.S. Senate happens to be one of them, as far as I am concerned, and, I
believe, as far as he is concerned.
Let me now say that I am extremely proud of Ted Stevens. He is a
wonderful family man. He loves his family; he loves his daughter, Lily,
and his other children.
Let me close by what I think is an appropriate bit of verse written
by William Wordsworth. The title of it is, ``Character of the Happy
Warrior.'' I will not read the entire poem, but extracts from it I
think will be useful in this regard:
Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
* * * * *
'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
He labors good on good to fix, and owes
To virtue every triumph that he knows:
--Who, if he rise to station of command,
Rises by open means; and there will stand
On honorable terms, or else retire,
And in himself possess his own desire;
Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honors, or for worldly state;
* * * * *
And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need:
* * * * *
`Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
Conspicuous object in a Nation's eye,
Or left unthought-of in obscurity--
Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not--
Plays, in the many games of life, that one
Where what be most doth value must be won:
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, preserving to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpassed:
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead unprofitable name--
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause:
This is the happy Warrior; this is He
That every Man in arms should wish to be.
That, Mr. President, in my judgment, is Ted Stevens, ``The Happy
Warrior.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, it is his misfortune, the Senator from
Alaska, to not be here on the floor to listen to those eloquent and
gracious remarks of the Senator from West Virginia. So I think it falls
to me, inadequate as I am, to thank the Senator from West Virginia for
those thoughts and to say that it reminds those of us who have not been
here quite so long of the magnificence of the personal relationships
that are created here by broad-minded Members like the Senator from
West Virginia and the Senator from Alaska
[[Page S6840]]
over the years, even though I suspect that during many of those 12,000
rollcalls--literally thousands of them--they voted on opposite sides,
sometimes with views that were very strongly held.
I think it is only the Senator from West Virginia and perhaps the
President pro tempore who will cast more votes than Senator Stevens,
who I note now is here, and I would rather he speak for himself.
But I say, Mr. President, through you to the Senator from Alaska,
that I was privileged to hear the eloquent remarks about the Senator
from Alaska on this occasion that the Senator from West Virginia made.
They do great credit to him, and they do equal credit to the Senator
who made them.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from
Washington for his very gracious remarks.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am embarrassed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. My daughter just graduated from high school. We had a
little event. They called to tell me that my good friend, the
distinguished Senator from West Virginia, was making remarks about my
having followed him to this floor for 12,000 times. We have been
partners for a long time. I am grateful to the Senator from West
Virginia for his comments. I look forward to reading them. I am sad
that I was not here to listen to them. But knowing the Senator, I know
they were eloquent, and I am proud to be the recipient of his comments.
Thank you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, let me thank and join in with the
comments made by our distinguished leader, Senator Byrd from West
Virginia.
No one knows the history and appreciates the history of the Senate
better than Senator Byrd and the compliment thereof. He reminded me,
when he talked about the fatal crash that Senator Stevens was involved
in, I had just traveled with Senator Stevens and his first wife, Annie.
We were in Cairo, Egypt, out on the Nile to a conference with Anwar
Sadat. We stopped in Madrid. I will never forget it. My wife and Annie
took a quick trip, as we were being briefed. There was the purchase of
a cut-glass bowl, and Annie Stevens had that in her lap, and that plane
went head over heels. It broke Senator Stevens' arm, and it cost her
life, but there was not a crack in the bowl.
I can tell you from the early days when I first got up here in 1966
that I used to hold the hearings for Senator Bob Bartlett up there in
Seattle with Dixie Lee Ray and John Lindberg and all on oceanography
and what have you, and then go up to Alaska to Point Barrow.
There is no closer friend in the Senate to me than Ted Stevens of
Alaska. I am his admirer. I like his fights. Senator Byrd was more
tactful about describing it, but I am telling you right now, when he
gets worked up, get out of the way right now, because he is going to
get it done one way or the other, and he is not yielding. He has that
conviction of conscience that really guides all of us in our service up
here.
Over the many years, we visited, we traveled, we worked together, and
we have been identified both on the Appropriations Committee and on the
Commerce Space Science Transportation Committee. Senator Stevens long
since could have been chairman of that Commerce Space Science
Transportation Committee, but he elected to take over at the
appropriations level. As a result, Alaska is well served. I can tell
you that. It is filled up.
They used to say about my backyard with Mendel Rivers that if he got
one more facility, Charleston, SC, was going to sink below the sea. I
think second in line for that kind of result would be Alaska as a
result of the diligence for the local folks.
I will never forget; we traveled up to Point Barrow. The Natives had
erected a cross and a statue to Annie Stevens who was lost in that
wreck.
I want to emphasize that more than anything else--of course, his
wonderful wife, Catherine, and his daughter, Lily--that he might make
12,000 votes, but he will miss votes, I can tell you, to be there with
Lily. In fact, we had planned during the August break to take another
survey trip, and he said: Oh no. Lily goes to Stanford then. We have to
put it off until later.
You have to admire that about an individual, as busy as we get and as
wound up as we get with the important affairs of state, to never forget
the personal responsibilities, and the love and that Ted has for his
family, and, of course, for each of us in the Senate. He is most
respectful. He works both sides of the aisle. As a result of that, he
is most effective.
I yield the floor.
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