[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5641-S5645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is with deep sadness that I rise to 
honor my colleague and friend, Senator Robert C. Byrd. I look at the 
simple eloquence of the roses and the black felt on his desk, and, sort 
of, he rises above that and hovers above us in just about everything we 
do.
  The admiration that all of us in this body have for Senator Byrd is 
genuine and palpable. We miss him dearly, and I know I speak for the 
entire Senate when I say our thoughts and prayers are with Senator 
Byrd's family as they mourn his passing.
  Mr. President, no one loved the Senate more than Robert Byrd. He 
devoted his life to this august institution and, in doing so, became an 
institution himself. He is a legend--a man who embodied the best ideals 
of this body. It is fitting that on this day we remember Senator Byrd 
the Senate is undertaking one of its most important constitutionally 
mandated responsibilities: the confirmation hearings for a Supreme 
Court Associate Justice.
  Senator Byrd would remind us that we are in a process where the first 
branch of government is giving its advice and consent to a selection 
from the second branch of government in choosing someone to sit on the 
highest part of the third branch of government.
  He loved the Constitution, he loved the Senate, he loved America, and 
he came from the bosom of America.
  I am struck by the history of this moment. We read about the great 
Senators who served in this body--the Websters and the Clays, the 
LaFollettes and the Wagners. Well, I cannot help but feel privileged to 
have served, in my brief time--certainly compared to the Senators 
here--with a legend, with a man whose name will go down in history 
beside those men as

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one of the great men in this body and one of the great men in history.
  On Thursday, Mr. President, Senator Byrd will make one final visit to 
this Senate Chamber that he so loved. There could be no more 
appropriate way for us to say good-bye to him and honor him than to 
yield the Senate floor to him for one last time.
  People asked, why not the Rotunda? It was not that he did not deserve 
tribute in the Rotunda, and, for sure, tens of thousands would have 
lined up. But this is the body he loved, and this is the body where his 
final day here should be.
  I would like to share a few brief thoughts and reflect on Senator 
Byrd's service to the people of West Virginia and the Nation.
  The most important thing we should all remember about Robert Byrd is 
his life story, for it embodies America, the best of America. It 
embodies the American dream. Because of his intelligence, his 
indefatigable energy, and up-by-the-bootstraps determination, he rose 
from a childhood marred by abject poverty to being three heartbeats 
away from the Presidency.
  He made mistakes in his earlier career, which he freely admitted 
later. Who has not? But he just grew and grew and grew. That is what 
great men do: they grow larger and stronger and better as they go 
through life. That could certainly be said of Senator Byrd.
  Unlike many of the great men who preceded him, Senator Byrd did not 
grow up as a member of a privileged class. He was an orphan, raised in 
the Appalachian coal towns of West Virginia. He graduated from high 
school at 16 as the valedictorian, but like so many Americans of his 
day, he was too poor and could not afford college.
  So as a young Member of Congress, he worked his way through law 
school, and, at age 46, he earned the diploma--with honors--that had 
eluded him in his youth.
  I remember his love of West Virginia. When I was new in this body, 
just learning it--and part of the way I learned it was by going to 
Senator Byrd's class on the rules of the Senate; legendary to each 
freshman class of his time--but one day I was just seated at my desk, 
and Senator Byrd rose to speak. It was a Friday afternoon. I believe it 
was in the springtime. Business was finished and everyone was rushing 
home. As you know, Mr. President, I usually rush home. I love to be in 
New York. But as I was getting ready to leave, Senator Byrd rose, and 
his speech captivated me.
  For 45 minutes he gave a speech on the beauty of West Virginia in the 
springtime. The theme of the speech was to urge visitors from other 
States to come experience it. It was an amazing speech. It was almost 
like poetry. I am sure Senator Byrd probably did not have to sit and 
spend days preparing it. It just flowed off his lips, his love of West 
Virginia, combined with his eloquence. It is one of the speeches I will 
always remember in the Senate, and I am just lucky and glad I was here 
for that moment.
  Then, speaking of my State of New York, Senator Byrd did not just 
touch West Virginia, he touched every State. Because he was here for so 
long, of course, he had such power but cared about each of the Members 
and their States.
  The most striking moment I had with Senator Byrd occurred in the wake 
of 9/11. It was the day after that Senator Clinton and I went up to New 
York, and we saw the devastation. We could smell death in the air, see 
the anguished looks of people holding signs: Have you seen my husband? 
Have you seen my wife? The towers were gone, but people did not know 
who had survived and who had not. Most did not, of course.
  Then the next call we got, as we came back, was from Senator Byrd. 
Senator Byrd said: Please come to my office. We went to his office on 
the first floor of the Capitol. He came to Senator Clinton and I and 
said: Chuck, Hillary, I want you to consider me the third Senator from 
the great State of New York.
  We knew we needed help, and we needed it fast. Even before we went to 
visit President Bush and asked him for the help that New York needed, 
Senator Byrd, on his own, invited us over and pledged his help. Like 
always, he lived up to his word, not just in the next days or weeks or 
months but years. I would go to him 3, 4 years later and say there is 
still this part of the promise made to New York that hasn't been 
fulfilled. There he was, and he did it. Without a doubt, the dear city 
I love, New York City, would not have been able to recover as quickly 
or as well without that man from the coal fields of West Virginia, 
Senator Robert C. Byrd, helping us. He showed a level of selflessness 
that is rarely seen, and I think I can speak on behalf of Secretary 
Clinton and the people of New York in telling Senator Byrd how grateful 
we are to him.

  We all have so many memories of Senator Byrd, so many things. We only 
served together a little less than 12 years, 11\1/2\ years, but he was 
like a jewel. He had so many different facets that every one of us was 
touched by him in many ways.
  So I relate my last strong memory of Senator Byrd. The Presiding 
Officer remembers as well because it was at a hearing of the Rules 
Committee where we are now having a series of hearings under the 
suggestion of the Presiding Officer and leadership to decide whether we 
should reform the filibuster rule and what we should do about it. 
Senator Byrd, frail at that point, about a month ago, came to our 
hearing room. He sat next to me and then gave one of the best orations 
I have heard in a committee. He was 92. He turned the pages of his 
speech himself. That wasn't so easy for him. It was clearly--knowing 
the way he thought and his way of speaking--written completely by him. 
It was an amazing statement. It was impassioned, erudite, balanced, 
and, as the Presiding Officer remembers, it electrified the room. It 
was an amazing tour de force. The man cared so much about the Senate. 
Despite the fact he was ailing, there he was because he loved the 
Senate. His remarks, if my colleagues read them, were balanced. He 
understood the problems, but he understood the traditions, and he 
tried, as usual, to weave the two together.
  There are few Senators who could do that, in the more than 200-year 
history of this body, the way he could. There are also few Senators in 
this body who fought as hard for their States as Senator Byrd did. I 
certainly admire the people who are here who become national leaders 
but never forget where they came from. There is a tendency among some 
who come to Washington to sort of forget where they came from. Not 
Senator Byrd. All across West Virginia, men and women are able to 
realize the American dream because he fought for them. He was 
unrelenting and unapologetic in his desire to improve the lives of West 
Virginians by making generous investments in infrastructure and 
research. He brought that State into the future and afforded 
generations of West Virginians good-paying jobs, allowing them to 
provide for their families and have the dignity all Americans deserve.
  Some of the more elite parts of the media would make fun of what he 
did, but I thought our colleague, Senator Rockefeller, said it best. I 
am paraphrasing; I read this in the newspaper. He said Senator Byrd 
realized that until you get a road and a water system to these isolated 
towns, you couldn't open the door of the future for them, and he knew 
that. Senator Byrd relentlessly, in town after town after town, did 
that. He fought to increase access to health care and ensure the people 
had the right to vote, and he made sure every child in West Virginia 
had the right to live up to his God-given potential through a quality 
education.
  Every one of us could go on and on about Senator Byrd's 
accomplishments, but I think what is even more important than 
accomplishments is who he was as a person. He was someone who knew 
where he stood but showed a profound willingness to evolve, and that is 
a sign of extraordinary character. It is all too easy for an elected 
official to plug his ears and say: Sorry, that is my position; that is 
the way it has always been, and that is the way it will always be. Not 
Senator Byrd. He was unafraid to take new arguments into consideration 
and expand his world view accordingly.
  What also struck me about him was his fundamental humility, the best 
example of which is probably his relationship with my dear friend and 
mentor, Ted Kennedy, another legend in

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this body who is so sorely missed. Ted somewhat unexpectedly ran 
against Senator Byrd to be the Democratic whip in 1969. Senator Kennedy 
won. Two years later there was a rematch and Senator Byrd became the 
whip. One would think after this kind of animus that the two of them 
would never come together, but in their lives in the Senate they 
established a deep meaningful bond, a tribute to both of them.
  Senator Kennedy would tell me stories about Senator Byrd and some of 
the things he had done, serious and humorous. To me it is so profound 
that within a year we have lost the two giants among whom I was proud 
and lucky to serve.
  I will never forget when Senator Byrd, sick as he was, was outside 
the steps of the Capitol to salute Ted Kennedy after he passed earlier 
this year. It was Senator Byrd who provided the crucial vote to fulfill 
Ted Kennedy's lifelong passion: Comprehensive health care reform. As 
every Senator sat at their desk for the final passage vote, the clerk 
called the roll. When Senator Byrd's name was called, he raised his 
voice as loud as he could and declared: ``Madam President, this is for 
my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye!''
  Those two friends, those two legends today are together again in 
heaven, and I would love to be able to hear the conversations and 
reminiscences between them.
  Robert Byrd will be remembered forever. He will be remembered as a 
man who loved this institution and guarded its history. He will be 
remembered as a man who always stood up for his State. He is a man who 
will be remembered as someone who lived the American dream and fought 
to make that dream a reality for countless others. Perhaps most of all, 
he will be remembered as a loving father, grandfather, and husband.
  Today the Senate mourns, the people of West Virginia mourn, the 
Nation mourns.
  I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak about Senator Byrd, as 
many of my colleagues have, and make a few comments about an 
extraordinary individual. Just the sheer numbers are very impressive. 
He was married for 68 years, elected to 9 terms, had more than 20,000 
days of service in the Senate, approaching 19,000 rollcall votes cast, 
and had a 97-percent attendance record.
  Senator Byrd was the majority leader from 1977 to 1981, and again 
from 1987 to 1989. He was President pro tempore four different times 
when his party was in the majority. The Senator from West Virginia was 
known for his defense of the Constitution and the institutional 
prerogatives of the Senate. He was the author of five books, and he was 
an avid fiddler. The first place I ever saw Senator Byrd was playing 
the fiddle on television. Boy, he could play. It was impressive to see 
somebody of his stature playing an instrument so brilliantly.
  In his biographical statement on his Web site, I found a statement 
that I want to expand and build off of. It says:

       In every corner of West Virginia, the people of the 
     Mountain State know that there is one man on whom they can 
     always depend: U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd. He has always 
     remained true to his faith and his family, while working to 
     build a better future for his state and his country.

  His remaining true to his faith and family was at the core of Senator 
Byrd and his longevity, and at the core of his service.
  While he spoke often and wrote well about the institutional 
prerogatives of the Senate better than anybody in the history of this 
body, it is that his life centered around his core, remaining true to 
his faith and his family. He was married for 68 years to his spouse, 
Erma, who stayed by his side constantly, and of whom he would speak 
often.
  Senator Byrd and I would speak about his faith on the floor 
frequently. He was a man of deep faith and a man of strong convictions, 
and that was his centerpiece. He would often speak on this floor about 
his faith.
  I think what you saw in Senator Byrd in that statement about his 
faith and his family is a cultural requirement for the United States. 
This is a nation of strong faith, a nation that values family. At the 
core of this country is that cultural need and necessity, and the 
leaders of the country need to have at their core a strong bearing 
within them, and that is a part of their service. That was a big part 
of Senator Byrd's service. His comments reflected the way he lived. 
Often people say that the way you live speaks louder than any words you 
say. That is what I found with Senator Byrd. The way he lived was 
speaking louder than any words.
  It was the Senator's commitment within his family and his willingness 
to live that and his faith that spoke louder than any of his words. 
When we would talk about these things, you could see that they were at 
the depth of his soul and being. Whether we agreed or disagreed on a 
number of things--and there were many disagreements I had with him on 
policy issues, no question about that--you could never challenge his 
core convictions. His faith and commitment to his family were things 
that were obvious by the way he lived. You could have this sort of 
gentlemanly debate about topics that would come up, but you could never 
question or challenge the character and heart and soul of that.
  What I found most endearing was Senator Byrd's commitment to faith 
and family. He will be greatly missed in this body. His treatise on the 
Senate that he gave to all new Members--and to me as a new Member 
coming into the Senate--I started it and got through a portion, not all 
of it, but it was excellently written, well presented, and certainly a 
good education as to what we should do in preserving the constitutional 
integrity that the Founders intended for this body to be. He, of 
course, was the greatest defender of it.
  Others have spoken more eloquently about Senator Byrd, but I don't 
think any eloquence could match the eloquence with which he lived his 
life--particularly toward his faith and his family. That is what we 
should recognize the most.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, with the passing of our colleague, Robert 
Byrd, a mighty oak in the forest of Senate history has fallen. There 
are flowers on his desk, but there is a tremendous void in our midst.
  As we all know, Senator Byrd was the longest serving Senator in the 
history of this body. But what was most remarkable about Robert C. Byrd 
was not his longevity but his unique stature and accomplishment in the 
Senate. No individual in our long history has been a more tenacious 
champion of the traditions, prerogatives, and rules of this body.
  Senator Byrd was very fond of noting how many Presidents he had 
served under. He always answered, ``None.'' As he explained it, he had 
never served under any President but he had served with 11 Presidents 
as a proud member of a separate and coequal branch of government.
  Likewise, no individual has had greater reverence for the 
Constitution and for our Founders' vision for an assertive, independent 
legislative branch. As the ``Almanac of American Politics'' says in its 
profile of Senator Byrd:

       He may come closer to the kind of Senator the Founding 
     Fathers had in mind than any other.

  For so many years, if anyone on the Senate floor needed to look up 
something in the Constitution, we knew where to turn. Senator Byrd 
always carried a copy in his left breast pocket, directly over his 
heart.
  It was Senator Byrd's reverence for the Constitution that led to what 
I consider to be arguably his finest hour in the Senate--his outspoken 
opposition to the rush to war in Iraq in 2002

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and his fierce warning to his fellow Senators that we would regret 
surrendering our power on this war to the President. Senator Byrd's 
speeches at that time opposing the invasion became a sensation around 
this country and on the Internet. A white-haired Senator, well into his 
eighties, became an icon and a folk hero to young people in 
universities all across America. Why? Because when President Bush was 
at the peak of his popularity and power, Senator Byrd dared to say that 
the emperor--any President--has no clothes when it comes to declaring 
war. Senator Byrd said the reason given for the invasion--Iraq's 
alleged weapons of mass destruction--was trumped up, and he predicted 
the war would be a colossal mistake.
  I remember those impassioned speeches he gave at that time. If only 
we had taken the advice of the wise Senator from West Virginia, how 
many young American lives--over 3,000--would not have been lost, 
perhaps 10 times that many injured, carrying the wounds and scars of 
that war for the remainder of their lives, not to mention the nearly $1 
trillion spent out of our Treasury for that war in Iraq.
  Later, in his outstanding book, ``Losing America''--I recommend this 
book to every young person. I see our pages sitting here. Pick up that 
book by Robert C. Byrd. It is called ``Losing America.'' He just wrote 
it about 5 or 6 years ago. It became an instant bestseller. It is a 
great book. In that book, ``Losing America,'' Senator Byrd decried the 
Senate's willingness to cave in to the President. He did not care about 
whether the President was a Democrat or Republican. He said cave in to 
any President--it is readiness, as he put it, ``to salute the 
emperor.'' He referred back to his earlier book he had written on the 
Roman Senate, noting that it was ``the progressive decline of the 
already supine [Roman] Senate'' that led to the decline of the Roman 
Republic, and he warned that the same could happen in America.
  I have always had a special affinity for Senator Byrd because we were 
both the sons of coal miners, both raised in humble circumstances. I 
will miss seeing Robert Byrd at his desk or in the well and going up to 
express my best wishes and converse with him. He would always grab my 
hand; he would look at me and say: We have coal miners' blood running 
in our veins. We were the only two sons of coal miners to serve in the 
Senate, at least at this time. He always said that to me. I am going to 
miss that.
  In reading about the Senator's early years--lifting himself out of 
poverty before running for the West Virginia Legislature in 1946--I was 
reminded of Thomas Edison's remark that ``opportunity is missed by most 
people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.'' In his 
early days, Robert Byrd was dressed in overalls, and he worked. But he 
made his opportunities. He made his own opportunities with that 
relentless work, his self-education, and striving always.
  I will always appreciate the way he tutored me in the ways of the 
Senate when I arrived in this body in 1985. I was assigned to the 
Appropriations Committee, one of the few freshman Senators to ever get 
that assignment. I will not go into how all that happened, but I can 
remember going to visit Senator Byrd--who then, of course, was the 
ranking minority member, when I first came to the Senate, on the 
Appropriations Committee--to ask for his guidance and his willingness 
to work with me and to instruct me on how to be a good member of the 
Appropriations Committee. For the next 25 years, he was either the 
chair of the committee or the ranking member. So I was privileged to 
learn at the elbow of a master appropriator and legislator.
  During his more than 58 years in Congress, Senator Byrd witnessed 
astonishing changes, when you think about it. Our population during his 
service grew by more than 125 million. He served for 25 percent of the 
time we have been a republic. There has been an explosion of new 
technologies. America grew more prosperous, more diverse, more 
powerful. But across those nearly six decades of rapid change, there 
was one constant: Senator Byrd's tireless service to his country; his 
passion for bringing new opportunities to the people of West Virginia; 
his dedication to this branch of government, the U.S. Congress, and to 
this House of Congress, the U.S. Senate.
  Robert Byrd was a person of many accomplishments with a rich legacy. 
In my brief time today, I wish to speak of one area of his advocacy 
which I have had ample opportunity to observe in my capacity both as 
the longtime chair or ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee 
for education and as a longtime member and now chair of the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  During all these years, Senator Byrd was passionately committed to 
improving public education in the United States and expanding access to 
higher education, especially for those of modest means.
  As we all know, as I said, he was raised in the hardscrabble 
coalfields of southern West Virginia. His family was poor, but they 
were rich in faith and values. His adoptive parents nurtured in Robert 
Byrd a lifelong passion for education and learning. He was 
valedictorian of his high school class but too poor, too 
underprivileged to go to college right away. Again, keep in mind, those 
were the days before Pell grants and guaranteed loans or even Byrd 
scholarships. He worked as a shipyard welder, later as a butcher in a 
coal company town. It took him 12 years to save up enough money to 
start college. As we all know, he was a U.S. Senator when he earned his 
law degree. No other Member before or since has ever started and 
finished law school while a Member of Congress.
  But degrees do not begin to tell the story of the education of Robert 
C. Byrd. He was the ultimate lifetime learner. As I told him once, it 
was as though he had been enrolled during the last seven decades in the 
Robert C. Byrd school of continuing education. That always brought a 
smile on that one. I guarantee no one could ever get a better, more 
thorough education at any one of our universities.
  Senator Byrd's erudition bore fruit in no less than nine books that 
he wrote and published over the last two decades. We know he wrote the 
book on the Senate, a masterful, four-volume history of this 
institution that has become a classic. What my colleagues may not know 
is he also authored a highly respected history of the Roman Senate.
  There are some who joked--and I am sure he would not mind me saying 
this because we said it to him many times in the past--there are some 
who think Robert C. Byrd served in the Roman Senate. I can tell you, 
that part of the Byrd legacy and legend just is not so. We always said 
that. It always brought a smile, and he always chuckled when we talked 
about that. He was an expert on the Roman Senate. He knew it, and he 
knew who served in the Roman Senate and how it worked to bring down the 
Roman Empire.
  I have talked at length about Senator Byrd's education because this 
explains why he was so passionate about ensuring every American has 
access to a quality public education, both K-12 and higher education. 
Coming from a poor background, Senator Byrd believed that a cardinal 
responsibility of government is to provide a ladder of opportunity so 
that everyone, no matter how humble a background, has a shot at the 
American dream. Obviously, the most important rungs on that ladder of 
opportunity involve education, beginning with quality public schools, 
including access to college and other forms of higher education.
  During my quarter century now in this body, no one has fought harder 
for public education than Senator Robert Byrd. As long-time chairman, 
ranking member and, most recently, the senior member of the 
Appropriations Committee, he was the champion of education at every 
turn--fighting to reduce class sizes, improve teacher training, 
bringing new technologies into the classroom, boosting access to higher 
education.

  In 1985, my first year here in the Senate, he created the only 
national merit-based college scholarship program funded through the 
U.S. Department of Education. Congress later named it in his honor. The 
Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholars Program is a federally funded, State-
administered scholarship program that rewards high school seniors who 
have exhibited exceptional academic excellence. Currently, there are 
more than 25,000 Byrd Scholars across the United States eligible for a 
$6,000 grant during 4 years in college.

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  I can remember speaking with him about this and the funding of it, 
and he reminisced more than once with me about how he was valedictorian 
of his class, and that he so wanted to go on to higher education but, 
because of his economic circumstances and where he lived, it wasn't 
available. So he wanted to make sure that young men and women today who 
exhibit that great excellence in academic performance were not denied 
the opportunity to go to college simply because of the circumstances of 
their birth.
  Senator Byrd has something in common with Winston Churchill. Both 
were prolific writers, and both were major players in the events they 
chronicled in their writings.
  Senator Byrd was also a great student of literature, and he loved to 
recite long poems from memory. I could never understand how he could 
remember all of the poetry he would recite here on the floor, in a 
committee meeting, or sometimes in a meeting when a subject would come 
up and he would remember a poem that perfectly fit the temper of what 
people were talking about.
  I am sure Senator Byrd knew ``The Canterbury Tales,'' a lot of it 
probably by heart. In ``The Canterbury Tales,'' describing the Clerk of 
Oxford, Chaucer might just as well have been describing Robert C. Byrd. 
Chaucer wrote:

       Filled with moral virtue was his speech; And gladly would 
     he learn and gladly teach.

  ``Filled with moral virtue was his speech; And gladly would he learn 
and gladly teach.'' Senator Byrd's speeches were a wonder to behold, 
full of eloquence and erudition and moral virtue. Senator Byrd never 
stopped learning and he never stopped teaching. Americans for 
generations to come will continue to learn from his writings and his 
example.
  Senator Robert C. Byrd was a great Senator, a great American, a 
loving and wonderful family man. He has both written our Nation's 
history and has left his mark on it. The United States of America has 
lost a patriotic son. We have lost a wonderful friend and a mentor. 
Tomorrow, here in the hallowed Chamber of the U.S. Senate, which he so 
loved and served for so many years, Robert C. Byrd will lie in state. 
We would do well to honor his memory by making a renewed commitment to 
making the U.S. Senate work and to work for all of the people of this 
country. May he rest in peace with his beloved Erma, and may the Senate 
always remember and honor his lifetime of service.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that after I 
speak, Senator Feinstein be permitted to speak.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burris). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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