[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 18, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2800-E2801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CONGRATULATING SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN B. MOLLOHAN

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 18, 2009

  Mr. MOLLOHAN. Madam Speaker, Senator Robert C. Byrd today becomes the 
longest-serving Member of Congress in our nation's history. I join my 
fellow West Virginians and, indeed, citizens from across the country in 
congratulating Senator Byrd for this historic record.
  We mark Senator Byrd's longevity today, but that longevity is not 
what captures his greatness. I have worked with Senator Byrd for more 
than a quarter of a century--barely half of his tenure in the Senate--
and I have known him for most of my life. His greatness is built on 
three pillars.
  First is his personal story and the way that it has always informed 
his career. Robert C.

[[Page E2801]]

Byrd grew up as the adopted son of a miner, graduated as class 
valedictorian in the depths of the Great Depression. Unable to afford 
college, he worked where he could find employment--pumping gas, selling 
produce, cutting meat, welding metal in shipyards. He courted, married, 
and relied for almost 70 years on his beloved wife, Erma. He earned a 
law degree even while serving as a Member of Congress. The qualities of 
discipline, industry, integrity, and commitment underlying that 
personal history would define greatness in any man no matter his 
station in life.
  Second is his profound connection to the people of West Virginia. 
Senator Byrd is of the people and he is for the people. He has given 
West Virginians a lifetime of commitment and faithful service, and the 
people in turn have given him an unbreakable bond of trust, respect, 
and deep affection. I cannot imagine Robert C. Byrd representing any 
state other than West Virginia--and I cannot imagine West Virginia 
without the decades of service Senator Byrd has given it.
  Finally, Senator Byrd's greatness derives from his devotion to the 
Senate and reverence for the Constitution that established it. As that 
other icon of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, put it, ``Bob Byrd personifies 
what our founding fathers were thinking about when they were thinking 
about a United States Senate. He brings the kind of qualities that the 
founding fathers believed were so important for service to the 
nation.''
  Madam Speaker, even as we congratulate Senator Byrd for his years of 
service to his state and his country, we also recognize that it is not 
the number of those years we are celebrating but the content of those 
years. That content demands that for as long as there are people who 
care about the history of this nation, the name Robert C. Byrd will be 
mentioned in the same breath as Daniel Webster, Robert La Follette, 
Henry Clay, Edward Kennedy--the half dozen or so true giants of the 
Senate.

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