[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 59 (Friday, April 11, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5323-S5324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN

  Mr. AKAKA. Madam President, I rise to join my colleagues in honoring 
the memory of our dear friend and colleague, Senator Daniel Patrick 
Moynihan. Millie and I extend our deepest condolences and prayers to 
his wife Elizabeth and the Moynihan family.
  History will remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan as one of the most 
prescient American voices on public policy and international relations 
issues for the second half of the 20th Century. As a professor, author, 
adviser to four Presidents, Ambassador to India, and Ambassador to the 
United Nations, he had a rich and distinguished career, and a 
tremendous impact on our Nation's public policy and foreign relations, 
prior to his election to the Senate.
  In the Senate, Pat Moynihan's illustrious service to his country and 
to his constituents in New York for four terms in the world's greatest 
deliberative body gave greater truth to that appellation. Many of my 
colleagues have spoken of Senator Moynihan's intellect, the 
encyclopedic width and breadth of his knowledge on an incredible range 
of public policy issues--history, architecture, culture, and 
philosophy, to name a few. He used the power of his intellect, along 
with great wit and dogged persistence, to fashion a record of 
accomplishments in the Senate that stands as a testament to his 
commitment to the preservation of the

[[Page S5324]]

family and the welfare of children and the poor, his staunch and 
principled opposition to communism and totalitarianism, his dedication 
to civil rights, the Constitution, and the rules and traditions of the 
Senate, and his passion for historic preservation and architectural 
distinction.
  As chairman and ranking member of several Senate committees, and 
frequently, as a clarion on the Senate floor, Pat Moynihan helped shape 
transportation policy, international trade, intelligence matters, 
foreign policy, and economic and fiscal affairs that strengthened our 
Nation and our communities. For his myriad achievements, I don't think 
Senator Moynihan has received the credit he deserves for his role in 
shaping and shepherding through the Senate President Clinton's deficit 
reduction and economic plan in 1993. I remember that in the midst of 
all the responsibilities and pressures he faced as chairman of the 
Finance Committee, he responded to my request to discuss a few tax 
issues of particular importance to Hawaii by inviting me to his office 
for a cordial and illuminating discussion on an array of subjects. Pat 
Moynihan was always generous with his time and his wisdom. He served 
his country and the people of New York with elan, style, and grace. He 
will always be remembered as the gentleman from New York.
  We mourn for his passing from this life, but we and future 
generations will continue to find inspiration, guidance, and courage in 
the splendid legacy of public service bequeathed the Nation by this 
brilliant statesman and patriot.
  Ms. SNOWE. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to Senator 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan--whose words, thoughts, and deeds will forever 
reverberate throughout this Chamber and, indeed, throughout our 
country. I also extend my most heartfelt sympathies to his wife Liz and 
Senator Moynihan's entire family. We share in their profound sense of 
loss.
  I was privileged to serve with Senator Moynihan from 1995, when I 
first arrived in the Senate, to his retirement in 2001. He was one of 
those truly legendary figures on the political landscape, but it was a 
reputation built not on procedural savvy or the brokering of power, but 
rather on the crafting and expression of ideas. It was the process of 
transforming intellectual thought into action--and not simply the 
process of politics--that will always remain the hallmark of Senator 
Moynihan's entire, exceptional life.
  His was a life not wanting for opportunities to contribute. The 
curriculum vitae of Daniel Patrick Moynihan reads more as a biography 
of a man driven to synthesize the world of academics with the realm of 
politics in order to make a difference--and he did to wherever he 
served, whether at the Labor Department or at Harvard or as U.S. 
Ambassador to the United Nations or in the Senate. Perhaps most 
impressive of all, no man or woman is requested to serve four different 
Presidents--of both parties, no less--unless they possess and exhibit 
only the most extraordinary qualities that engender the kind of trust a 
President must have in an advisor and confidant.
  It could certainly never be said that Senator Moynihan equivocated on 
an opinion for fear of controversy. If he spoke--or wrote, which he did 
often and well--you always knew it was a viewpoint born of a careful 
study of history and a keen eye on contemporary society. He believed 
that society could be influenced to change itself for the better 
through its leaders--indeed, that those in a position to leave such a 
mark are obliged to do so.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a Democrat, but he was less about party 
and more about policies that would build a better country for all 
Americans--regardless of whatever political stamp such initiatives 
might bear. As Jonathan Alter so pointedly observed in his column in 
tribute to Senator Moynihan, he ``consistently frustrated the foolishly 
consistent.''
  In my own experience, I was privileged to work with him across the 
party aisle on a number of issues important to our region of the 
country, and also to men and women across the Nation. We worked 
together to try to strengthen and improve welfare reform in 1996, to 
enhance treatment under the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early 
Detection Program for uninsured women, to bolster our Nation's 
transportation system, and to encourage private sector investment in 
bringing more advance Internet access to the people of rural America.
  We also joined forces on numerous occasions to ensure that the Low-
Income Home Energy Assistance Program was funded at levels sufficient 
to help those families in the cold and in need. And, together, we 
fought to ensure the Northeast States that were devastated by the 
historic ice storm of 1998 received the Federal assistance they 
required, and deserved.
  Throughout his tenure, regardless of whether one agreed or disagreed 
on an individual issue, it could always be said that Senator Moynihan 
was a thoughtful, gentlemanly force for good. He had an influence on 
countless social policy initiatives over his tenure, offered his views 
for strengthening and protecting Social Security, and fought tirelessly 
on behalf of causes a diverse as public transportation and teaching 
hospitals.
  Above all, he was never superficial, and he had the ability to see--
and foresee--what others could not. Indeed, how fitting that a man of 
ideas would serve a nation founded on ideas. Senator Moynihan stood at 
the intersection of intellect, insight, and integrity, and in so doing 
left a lasting and positive impact on the people of the State of New 
York and the United States of America.
  George Bernard Shaw said that ``Life is no brief candle to me--it is 
like a splendid torch which I have hold of for the moment and I want it 
to burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to the next 
generation.'' That is the credo by which Daniel Patrick Moynihan lived 
his life, and we are the beneficiaries of his extraordinary spirit.

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