[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 102 (Friday, June 22, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SENATOR BYRD'S 18,000TH VOTE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN B. MOLLOHAN

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 22, 2007

  Mr. MOLLOHAN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd 
stood in the Senate chamber to do his duty. It was not to deliver a 
persuasive and enlightening speech featuring laser-focused common sense 
on the issue at hand. It was not to educate his colleagues on tradition 
and precedent as the Senate's most prolific historian. And, it was not 
to politely and eloquently offer an opposing opinion to another 
Senator's statement. It was to perform what he considers one of his 
most sacred duties--to cast his vote as a representative of the people.
  It was not just any vote, Speaker. It was the 18,000th time that 
Senator Byrd responded to his duty and it was a monumental moment in 
the history of the Senate. No other Senator has performed that honored 
duty as often as the gentleman from West Virginia. He has voted nearly 
3,000 more times than the next individual on the list of distinguished 
public servants who have cast votes in the Senate. He is, truly, the 
iron man of the United States Senate.
  West Virginians love Senator Byrd for many reasons. He has been an 
avid and effective defender of and advocate for his state; an 
articulate representative of their views on pressing national issues; 
and a champion facilitator of federal assistance for thousands of 
important projects that make peoples' lives better. But, they also love 
him because of what his never-to-be-matched Senate voting record really 
represents--an unflinching devotion to the responsibility they have 
entrusted him to perform.
  I have had the honor of watching Senator Byrd for most of my life. He 
and my father came to Washington together as freshmen members of the 
House in 1952. Seldom have I ever seen a public servant work so hard to 
honor the responsibility entrusted to him by his people and the 
obligation imposed upon him by the United States Constitution.
  The range of topics covered by those 18,000 votes must be staggering 
from the critical to the mundane. But they all received equal attention 
from Senator Byrd as a sacred duty.
  He once wrote that Senators have an obligation to this great Nation 
to see that the powers of democracy are used effectively to settle 
important issues. Democracy, he has reasoned, requires us to work 
together.
  He wrote: ``Neither presidents nor Congress can act by fiat, but must 
work together, each keeping a firm eye on the other branch, and each 
jealously guarding its own prerogatives. At the same time, we are all 
judged by the American people who elect us. I have frequently said that 
I have full faith in the restorative powers of our democracy. What is 
unchecked will be balanced. What is wrong will be righted in time by 
our open and democratic system of government. So it has been for the 
first 200 years in the history of the United States Senate, and so it 
will be in the future.''
  Madam Speaker, Senator Byrd has expressed his faith in our democracy 
18,000 times. Today I humbly honor Senator Byrd not just for casting 
those 18,000 votes as an avid practitioner of democracy. I honor him 
for his faith in America, in people and in the form of government 
crafted by the framers of our Constitution.

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