[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 129 (Tuesday, September 4, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11038-S11042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     TRIBUTE TO SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY ON CASTING HIS 15,000TH VOTE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, earlier this morning, I made a very brief 
statement indicating that in the rush of business when we went home for 
the summer work period, the last vote cast that day was Senator 
Kennedy's 15,000th vote. There was a lot going on here at that time, 
and no one said anything. But I think it certainly is noteworthy--and 
that is an understatement--to recognize that this good man has passed 
everyone, except Senator Byrd, in the number of votes cast. Senator 
Byrd has cast over 18,000 votes, but there is no close second other 
than Senator Kennedy.
  We all recognize the tremendous work this man has done. As I said 
this morning, what a family. They have done so much for our country. 
Two of his brothers were assassinated. One of his other brothers was 
killed in the line of duty during World War II. Senator Kennedy has 
done so much to leave a legacy in the Kennedy name that is remarkable.
  We all admire the work he has done. As I said this morning, one of my 
pleasures in life is being able to come to the Senate and work with 
this great man. Working with him is such a pleasure because he can get 
on this floor and speak very loudly, and we all listen. But when you 
are working with him on legislation, he has so much humility, never 
wanting to take the limelight, always willing to step back and let 
those who are his junior move forward, and I include myself in that 
lot.
  So congratulations to Senator Kennedy.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, more than half a century ago, a right 
end--this is in the days before a tight end was invented--on the 
Harvard football team caught the eye of the head coach of the Green Bay 
Packers. The coach wrote the young man to ask if he might consider a 
pro career. But Edward Moore Kennedy had other ideas. He responded that 
he was flattered by the attention, but that he had already decided to 
go to law school and then go into another contact sport--politics.
  I rise this afternoon in tribute to a man who is known to most people 
for his famous name but who is famous among his colleagues in the 
Senate for his warmth, good humor, and his simply astonishing ability 
and will to get things done.
  Senator Kennedy, as the majority leader just indicated, cast his 
15,000th vote just before we broke for recess, solidifying his place as 
the third most prolific voter in the history of this body.
  It was just the latest milestone in a storied 45-year career marked 
by countless others. And it surprised no one who has ever witnessed him 
speaking on the floor or off on the issues he cares about. The Senate 
has been his arena for more than four decades, and in the course of 
pushing thousands of pieces of legislation, he has worn out hundreds of 
staffers, committee members, and stenographers. He ignites

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every debate and issue he ever decided to touch. Let no one ever accuse 
this man of simply punching the clock.
  Thousands of visitors to the Capitol have instantly known that this 
is a place of momentous deeds when they have seen Senator Kennedy 
jabbing the air or wheeling around, voice rising, even in an empty 
Chamber, to make a point. He is not a man who ever depended on a 
microphone to get his point across.
  His reputation as an aisle-crosser is also well known. Less well 
known is his graciousness off the floor, as when he accepted an 
invitation of mine to speak to the students at the McConnell Center at 
the University of Louisville last year, or when he insisted that 
Senator McCain accept an award in Boston despite the fact it was his 
son's 11th birthday, assuring him he would make that day special for 
him and for his son, which he did, with a personal Coast Guard tour 
around Boston Harbor and, according to Senator McCain, at least two 
birthday cakes.
  Senator Kennedy is one of the most visible men of our time. He has 
every reason to let people come to him. Yet when we had a reception 
earlier this year for our most recent Republican member, Senator 
Barrasso, it was Senator Kennedy who approached Senator Barrasso and 
sat with him and his family, talking, sharing stories, and welcoming 
them with all the warmth and affection of a grandfather long after the 
other Senators had cleared the room.
  Senator Kennedy, as we all know, is a famous story teller. But one of 
the greatest stories in American politics is his own. We honor him 
today for reaching yet another milestone along the way, and we wish him 
many more.
  One of my own personal political heroes, Ronald Reagan, was for 8 
years a great political nemesis of Senator Kennedy's. Yet Senator 
Kennedy said he always admired our 40th President because, as he once 
put it, ``Ronald Reagan stood for a set of ideas, and he had something 
to communicate.''
  Senator Kennedy's friends on the other side admire the same quality 
in him. We may disagree with his policies, and we do, but we respect 
him for his remarkable commitment and persistence in pursuit of those 
ideas, those principles. And we honor him today for this particularly 
impressive achievement. Congratulations.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, it is my privilege to join in saying a few 
words about my senior colleague, the Senator from Massachusetts. The 
special words that have been spoken about Ted Kennedy are obviously 
more than appropriate. But let me say, if I may, it is interesting that 
when we take a measure of Ted Kennedy's work here, which is an 
unparalleled record of achievement, and we look at the public record, 
that public record is actually full of comparisons to the greatest 
Senators who have ever served in the United States Senate or even some 
of the greatest who have served in Washington.
  The Boston Globe wrote of our senior Senator:

       In actual measurable impact on the lives of tens of 
     millions of working families, the elderly, the needy, Ted 
     belongs in the same sentence with Franklin Roosevelt.

  Time magazine said:

       Ted Kennedy has amassed a titanic record of legislation 
     affecting the lives of virtually every man, woman, and child 
     in the country.

  And in his comprehensive book just a couple of years ago, Adam Clymer 
wrote that Ted Kennedy is a lawmaker of skill, experience, and purpose 
rarely surpassed since 1789. He has been compared to Henry Clay for his 
skill as a legislator and to Lyndon Johnson for his efforts in creating 
a more egalitarian, more inclusive America that leaves no one behind.
  Mr. President, 15,000 votes is a remarkable number. No one knows that 
more than the Senator sitting in front of me, the Senator from West 
Virginia, Mr. Byrd, who is the only other member of that exclusive 
club. He knows, as we all know, that 15,000 is not just a statistic 
representing those votes. It represents and encapsulates countless 
legislative battles in the trenches, in the committee rooms, in 
offices, tough negotiations, thankless committee hearings, inspired 
ideas, setbacks and, to a greater degree than almost any other lawmaker 
alive, laws that improve the lives of everyday Americans.
  From his maiden speech in the Senate demanding an end to the 
filibuster of the original Civil Rights Act, there has not been a 
significant policy accomplishment in Washington over four decades that 
has not borne his fingerprints and benefited from his legislative skill 
and leadership. His is the record of progressive politics in our era.
  In all of the great fights that call us to stand up and be counted, 
from the minimum wage year in and year out, to Robert Bork and Sam 
Alito, Ted Kennedy did not just hear the call, he led the charge. You 
can run down the list. The rights of the disabled who for far too long 
were left in the shadows or left to fend for themselves, Ted Kennedy 
wrote every single landmark piece of legislation that today prohibits 
discrimination against those with a disability.
  AIDS--when a whole lot of politicians were even afraid to say the 
word, Ted Kennedy passed a bill providing emergency relief to the 13 
cities hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.
  Mr. President, 300,000 young people today have jobs every single 
summer because of Ted Kennedy. Guaranteed access to health coverage for 
25 million Americans who move from one job to another or who have a 
preexisting medical condition--they wouldn't have gotten that coverage 
without Ted Kennedy.
  Without Ted Kennedy, there wouldn't have been bilingual education in 
the United States for the 5 million students who today have a brighter 
future because they are learning English in our schools.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't have lowered the voting age to 18 
and ended the hypocrisy that 18-year-olds were old enough to die for 
our country in Vietnam but not old enough to vote for the leadership.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't be the world's leader in cancer 
research and prevention.
  Without Ted Kennedy, we wouldn't have had title IX, which opened the 
doors of competition and opportunity for a generation of women athletes 
all across our country.
  The list goes on, and I am not going to go through the whole list. 
But ever since he entered this body at the age of 30, he has stood up 
again and again to be counted in support of his beliefs. He stood up to 
be counted. He stood up to lead again and again. He has already secured 
his place as one of the great legislators in the history of our 
country.
  And then after casting that 15,000th vote before we went away, he 
celebrated by doing the same thing that made him a legend in the first 
place. He rolled up his sleeves and he went back to work. That is why a 
lot of us look forward to seeing these next years with him and watch as 
he continues to help write the history of the Senate and the history of 
our progressive politics and the history of our country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am happy to join in this chorus of 
praise for the senior Senator from Massachusetts on the occasion of the 
15,000th vote he has cast--a historic milestone in this historic body 
and a milestone reached by only two other Senators, only one of whom 
continues to serve with great distinction, the man from West Virginia, 
Senator Robert C. Byrd. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy has now added his 
name to this roster of distinction.
  He is the ninth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, born on February 
22, 1932--200 years to the day after George Washington. In a family 
such as the Kennedys, I am sure that coincidence did not go unnoticed. 
Years ago, Ted Kennedy made the Senate the focus of his public life. 
Some say that decision has helped him to become one of the best 
Senators ever to serve this body. His dedication to principle and his 
willingness to delve deeply into tough issues really have been the 
hallmarks of his public service.
  In his biography of Senator Ted Kennedy, former New York Times 
reporter Adam Clymer recalls a hearing in the 1960s in the Senate Labor 
and Public Welfare Committee on which both Ted and his brother, Bobby 
Kennedy, then Senator from New York, served. Clymer describes how the 
two Kennedys had to wait 2 hours to question a

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witness because they were both junior members of the Senate at the 
time. Bobby Kennedy seemed almost pained by the tedium of sitting there 
hour after hour waiting his turn. Ted was more patient.
  Exasperated, Bobby Kennedy leaned over and asked his brother: Is this 
the way I become a good Senator, sitting here and waiting my turn?
  Ted Kennedy replied to his brother: Yes.
  Bobby shot back: How many hours do I have to sit here to be a good 
Senator?
  And Teddy said: As long as necessary.
  Well, when it comes to 15,000 votes, I am sure that will be a record 
which will be hard to match. But when it comes down to it, it is not 
about the quantity of Ted Kennedy's votes, it is about the quality of 
his politics. He really cares. He cares about people. He cares about 
the people who can't afford a lobbyist to stand out in the hallway and 
beg for a vote. He cares about the people who get up every morning and 
worry that nobody has noticed their lives, lives of sacrifice and lives 
of difficulty. He cares about those people. They won't be holding big 
fundraisers with political action committees, but they are the people 
who have energized him in his public career.
  He also cares about the people with whom he works. I can't think of 
another colleague with whom I have ever served in the House or Senate 
who really reaches out in so many different ways to each of us on a 
personal level to show that he cares. If you have a child in the 
hospital, an illness in the family, the loss of a loved one, you can 
count on a telephone call from Ted Kennedy. If no one else remembers, 
he will.
  He also works every single day. I think that is the thing which 
surprised me my 10 years in the Senate, was just the energy level of 
Senator Ted Kennedy. He never stops. And now, in his majority position 
as chairman of the HELP Committee, he has an agenda he has been waiting 
on for way too long, an agenda which included increasing the minimum 
wage in America for the first time in 10 years, an agenda which is 
going to lead us into the kind of help for students across America to 
go to college that we haven't seen since the passage of the GI bill 
after World War II. Time and again, this Senator has used his 
commitment and combined it with an energy that has produced dramatic 
results.
  I have had the honor of serving on the Judiciary Committee with him, 
and I know that from time to time he has stood up and taken a lonely 
and sometimes difficult political position for what he believed was 
right. It is that kind of courage and dedication to principle which 
leads me to believe he is one of the finest colleagues with whom I have 
ever had the honor to serve.
  Finally, he knows that life here in the Senate is a privilege. It is 
a privilege for each of us. Although he has been here longer than 
most--perhaps only one other Senator has been here longer--he 
understands that for each of us this is a great privilege, to represent 
great States in a great nation. It is a source of great pride for me to 
have once sat in that gallery as a college student and looked down on 
Senator Ted Kennedy on the floor, wondering if I would ever meet him, 
and to be able to stand here today on the occasion of his 15,000th vote 
and to count him as a friend and an inspiration.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, this is a great pleasure--a great pleasure--
that I congratulate my very highly esteemed colleague and dearest 
friend, Senator Edward Kennedy, upon the casting of his 15,000th vote. 
Senator Kennedy has now become a member, an illustrious member, of one 
of the most exclusive clubs in the whole wide world. Throughout the 
entire history of the Senate, only 2 other Senators have cast 15,000 
votes--I and the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. As a 
charter member of this exclusive club, I welcome Senator Kennedy 
aboard.
  This latest achievement is only one of many for this fine son of 
Massachusetts. He has spent more than half his life in the Senate, and 
he is the third longest serving Senator in U.S. history. As I have said 
before on this floor, history will be kind to Senator Kennedy. I have 
no doubt that history will not only regard Senator Ted Kennedy as one 
of the most effective national legislators of the 20th and now the 21st 
century but also as one of the great Senators ever to have graced this 
illustrious Chamber.
  Although born to a life of privilege, Senator Kennedy has dedicated 
his life to serving others. Senator Kennedy represents the heart and 
the conscience of American liberalism. Senator Kennedy is responsible 
for much, indeed much of the progressive legislation of the last four 
decades. He is always a powerful and eloquent voice for the poor and 
the oppressed, expressing his views in soaring speeches and passionate 
struggles for the rights of labor, for health care reform, and for 
strengthening the social safety net for America's less fortunate.
  In the Senate, he has demonstrated that it is through public 
service--to paraphrase his late brother, President John F. Kennedy--
that Americans can stop asking what their country can do for them and 
actually do something for their country.
  Senator Ted Kennedy gave me unstinting support during the years when 
it was my privilege to serve as the Senate Democratic majority leader 
and minority leader at different times. When times got tough, I knew 
that I could always count on Ted Kennedy's advice and his support. It 
may have been a needed vote; it may not have been. It may have been 
assistance in building approval for legislative proposals. But whatever 
was needed, Ted Kennedy was always there, and I was always grateful.
  Thank you, Ted.
  I shall always value Ted Kennedy's friendship not only to me but to 
the great people of the great State--E Pluribus Unum--of West Virginia. 
And I am quite pleased and I am proud--proud, Ted--to have had the 
pleasure and the honor and the great privilege of serving with this 
extraordinarily great Senator in the Senate.
  Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations, Senator Ted 
Kennedy, on casting your 15,000th vote. But even more importantly, 
congratulations on being such a needed advocate for the powerless in 
our great and powerful country. Americans are a compassionate people, 
and the senior Senator from Massachusetts has no intention of ever, 
ever, letting the Senate forget that. Amen.
  Thank you, sir.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is such an honor for me to be here and 
hear the Senator who has served the longest and cast the greatest 
number of votes heap high praise on the Senator who is No. 3 in that 
category. It is such an honor for every one of us, the other 98 who are 
here, to serve with both of them.
  I will be brief because so much has been said, but Ted Kennedy has 
been a beacon, he has been a mentor, he has been almost a father figure 
to so many of us in the Senate. He is so committed to the things he 
believes in, and you hear it in his speeches and you see it even more 
so in the great craft with which he yields the legislative pen. But 
unlike some who may love mankind in the abstract, Ted Kennedy also has 
a quintessential kindness and decency to the individuals of this body 
and to individuals he just meets. We all see it in him as he walks the 
halls. Ted Kennedy is a special human being. He would be a special 
human being in any craft or vocation because of who he is, what he 
knows, where he comes from. But I think every one of us--from Senator 
Byrd, No. 1 in seniority in the Senate, to Senator Barrasso, No. 100--
count our lucky stars that we are able to serve with and know a great 
man such as Ted Kennedy.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I would not want all the accolades to 
Senator Kennedy to come from that side of the aisle. Forty years ago, 
in 1967, I came to this body as a very young legislative aide to 
Senator Howard Baker, and Ted Kennedy was a very young Senator but 
already in his second term. All the talk for the first few months--and 
I imagine Senator Byrd can remember this--was about how long would it 
take for Senator Baker, a new Republican Senator, to

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break on some important issue with father-in-law, the Republican 
leader, Senator Everett Dirksen and after a few months we knew because 
Senator Baker walked across the aisle and joined with Senator Ted 
Kennedy and they fought against Senator Dirksen, Baker's father-in-law, 
and Sam Ervin, the most respected constitutional lawyer in the Senate, 
on the issue of one man one vote.
  I remember working with Jim Fluge, Senator Kennedy's friend who came 
back to work in the Senate 3 or 4 years ago. The upstarts won that 
debate; Baker and Kennedy beat Dirksen and Ervin on the one man one 
vote issue. That was my first exposure to working with Senator Kennedy.
  Several years passed and President Bush the first asked me to be the 
Education Secretary, and I came to Washington and what did I discover? 
I have to be confirmed by a committee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy. 
That was 1991. That was 16 years ago. I was eventually confirmed and 
then we worked together for nearly 2 years on educational issues.
  Then, 4 years ago I came back and I am in the Senate and today I am 
serving on the committee that once confirmed me, and who is the 
chairman 40 years later? Senator Ted Kennedy. So I have had a very 
special privilege of working with Senator Kennedy and admiring him, 
both as a legislative aide and a Cabinet member and now as a colleague 
in the Senate.
  I can say as a practicing Republican what every Senator in this body 
already knows: Nothing will bring a Republican audience to its feet 
faster than a speech against high taxes, against Federal control, and 
against Ted Kennedy. But those outside the Senate might wonder, then, 
how could the Republican leader and others here hold him in such 
affection? I can give you one example. We have a tradition in the 
Senate still called the maiden speech. We think about what we might say 
when we first come here and make it a special occasion. My first speech 
was about what it means to be an American, how could we put the 
teaching of American history and civics back in its rightful place in 
our classrooms so our children could grow up learning what it means to 
be an American. This is the subject the Senator from West Virginia has 
worked on, spoken about, and legislated on many times.
  But after I made that remark and introduced a piece of legislation, 
who was the first Senator to come over and volunteer to go around among 
his Democratic colleagues and round up enough cosponsors so the 
legislation could pass and eventually funds be appropriated? It was 
Senator Kennedy. Who is the Senator who at least once a year takes his 
entire family to some part of American history and helps them all 
understand that? I remember his coming back and telling me how excited 
he was when the family went to Richmond and were in the church, I 
believe it was, where Patrick Henry was down on his knees and gave his 
speech about American liberty.
  That is a part of Ted Kennedy that those of us in the Senate, on both 
sides of the aisle, know. It is a part we respect and a part we 
appreciate. He cares about what it means to be an American because he 
and his family are such an important part of American history.
  It is a great privilege to serve in this body with Senator Kennedy.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to express appreciation to all my 
colleagues for their generous comments this evening, in particular to 
the two leaders, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, for their 
kindnesses tonight and other times where they have been generous of 
spirit and thought.
  I want the people of Massachusetts to know this is not an ending; 
15,000 votes is not an ending. No one could demonstrate that better 
than my friend and colleague from West Virginia who still speaks with 
such eloquence and such passion and does such an extraordinary job in 
preserving this institution the way our Founding Fathers wanted it to 
be. He has no peer--certainly in my lifetime and I think probably in 
the history of this body.
  The greatest public honor of my life has been representing the people 
of Massachusetts. I love the State. I love the people. I have been 
greatly honored by their confidence and their support over the many 
years--joyous years, sad years. They have been extraordinary in terms 
of their support of a voice in the Senate and a vote to try to 
recognize that America is not just a land, it is a promise. It is a 
never-ending promise about strengthening our families and about 
strengthening our country and about being a fair country and creating 
greater opportunity and leading the world when we basically reflect our 
greatest values.
  I have been greatly honored in working in the Senate with 
extraordinary men and women over the period of years. I include so many 
who are here now, so many of those who have worked with me over the 
period of years, men and women of great integrity and strong commitment 
and caring about this Nation. They have demonstrated extraordinary 
courage, extraordinary leadership, and have helped to make the country 
a much better and fairer land; many on our side, many on the other 
side--many on the other side.
  When we think back on the great battles and challenges we have had 
over the period of years, we made progress when we came together. That 
has been true.
  I am very grateful to my friend, and he is my friend, John Kerry, my 
colleague. I thank him for his friendship and support over many years. 
He has pointed out he has helped me in my first campaign. I tried to 
help him on his last campaign. We are friends and colleagues and have a 
good deal of respect for each other. I have a great deal of affection 
and respect for John.
  I thank the Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd. As we know, he 
is not only the President of the Senate, but he has devoted his life to 
this institution. On so many different occasions and on so many 
different times--I know many in this body can remember it--when this 
institution was teetering on whether we were going to maintain our 
position as the Founding Fathers wanted it and tried to devise it or 
whether we were going to move off track, he has reminded us, 
particularly in the great debate we had on the Iraq war, about that 
role of this institution and its role in American life and its role in 
the world. We are all mindful of that.
  He has been a friend. We have a time where we go back and remind each 
other of the times we differed, but what we also, I think, have valued 
is the fact that our friendship I believe is stronger because of the 
times that we did differ. We have great affection for each other, 
respect for each other. I thank him for his extremely kind and generous 
remarks.
  Mr. BYRD. And I thank you, Ted.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, finally, I could not take this moment 
without thinking back about, personally, the service in this Chamber. 
When I first arrived in this Chamber, I was fortunate to have two 
brothers, one a President and another an Attorney General. I had the 
opportunity to work with them on those responsibilities in that regard. 
Then, to have a brother who served in the Senate was a golden time for 
me during that period of time.
  I have been enormously proud of the work my nephew, Congressman 
Kennedy, serving in the House of Representatives, and now Patrick, my 
son, who serves in the House of Representatives and is a leading voice 
in terms of the mental health issues for our country--I am so proud of 
all his good work.
  We grew up in a family that believed in public service, that elective 
office can make a difference but also understood that other people make 
extraordinary differences in advancing the cause of fairness and 
decency in the Nation. I think of the work of my sisters in that 
undertaking, all of whom have been involved--whether Special Olympics 
or Very Special Arts or other programs in which they have all been 
involved.
  We still believe in the importance of public service and the honor, 
the high honor that one has in elective office. There are many of those 
who dismiss that concept as an old-fashioned viewpoint, but I think any 
of us who have read the history of this Nation and who understood its 
history know there is no higher personal honor than to have that 
opportunity.
  Finally, I welcomed the opportunity to come back to serve as a 
Senator

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from Massachusetts, to try to be a voice of what I call the march for 
progress in this country. Thomas Jefferson used to say every 25 years a 
nation redefines itself. He talked about the continuing expansion of 
the real cause of liberty in this Nation--not in ways that so 
frequently are overused and overstate that word but in its core, 
principal meaning.
  As I mentioned, this Nation is a country that is a continuing 
process. That is why each day that I wake up, I think of a new 
opportunity to try to have some constructive impact. People will agree, 
and some will differ, on the directions. Sure, programs change--and 
that is understandable--but basic, fundamental values about what this 
Nation is all about and what so many of us who have the great honor of 
service in this body understand is that America is a continuing 
discovery and a continuing promise and a continuing opportunity for 
each and every one of us to make some contribution.
  I thank the Senator from Tennessee for his comments. I remember that 
debate very well. It was a rather basic and fundamental issue about one 
person one vote. The question at that time was, is that going to be 
continued or whether there was going to be such flexibility that we 
were going to continue the gerrymandering of different districts. 
Senator Baker, with the very strong assistance of Senator Alexander, 
reminded this body and helped maintain and insist about what the 
Supreme Court had said about that issue. I thank him for his comments 
and also for his continued work in the areas of education and so many 
other areas.
  I have been fortunate to have a number of my colleagues here from 
Massachusetts, a number of members of the delegation.
  There were some former colleagues here as well. Senator Riegle was 
here, and Senator Culver. I was reminded actually over the August 
recess that I had cast the 15,000th vote. I was talking with Senator 
Culver, and we were reminiscing. He was here when I cast my first vote, 
which goes back over a very long, considerable period of time. I am 
grateful for his presence as well as my other colleagues, Bill 
Delahunt, Jim McGovern. We saw many of those who were here earlier from 
our Massachusetts delegation. I thank them very much.
  People ask me how long I will continue to serve in the Senate. I give 
the same response, that is, I am going to stay here until I get the 
hang of it.
  I look forward to that. I would never get the hang of it if I did not 
have the wonderful love, affection, and warmth my wife Vicky, the joy 
of my life, gives to me every single day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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