[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 122 (Wednesday, September 12, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S6242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 JAMES BILLINGTON'S 25 YEARS OF SERVICE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, Henry Ward Beecher, the famous 
abolitionist, once said, ``A library is not a luxury, but one of the 
necessities of life.'' I agree. Our Founding Fathers also agreed, and 
that is why we have the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress 
was initially the library of Thomas Jefferson. That is what started the 
Library of Congress. It was established in 1800. It was this country's 
first Federal cultural institution. It is the largest library in the 
world. There are 35 million books and 838 miles of bookshelves. The 
numbers are staggering. Almost 10,000 new items are added every day.
  For 25 years the Librarian of Congress has been Dr. James Billington. 
He has been a faithful and effective leader. I first got to know Dr. 
Billington in 1986 when I came to the Senate. There was a little 
squabble between a couple of the more senior Senators, which was a 
wonderful opportunity for me because one of the very senior Senators 
thought that maybe he deserved more than being the chair of the 
Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. I grabbed that. I was happy to 
do that. I loved that experience. I learned a lot about what goes on 
here and how we pay for things. At that time it was an effort to really 
hurt the Library of Congress, so I had that opportunity to stand for 
the Library of Congress. Every time we had a vote, we won and they were 
not able to damage the Library of Congress.
  I got to know Dr. Billington. I had the good fortune to travel once 
with him to Russia. Dr. Billington, before coming to the Library of 
Congress, was one of the foremost scholars on the former Soviet Union. 
He knew everything about that land. He still writes about the new 
Russia. He is a very stalwart academic. When he took over the Library 
of Congress in 1987, computers were a scarcity, but he had a vision of 
what the future should be, and he thought it would be important to 
digitize the Library's collections and make them available on the 
Internet. There was a little pushback at first, but, of course, now 
that is history. That is what happened.
  I have such admiration for him as a person. He is a good person not 
only from an academic standing but as an administrator. I am glad they 
were unable to slash the Library's budget as they tried, and as a 
result, people came to a better understanding of what the Library of 
Congress was all about. I am glad I was able to play a part in that. He 
has always ensured that the Library of Congress would remain an 
unmatched resource for knowledge and enlightenment. So it is with 
pleasure that I congratulate my friend Dr. Billington on 25 years--a 
quarter of a century--of dedicated service at the Library of Congress.

                          ____________________