[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 76 (Monday, June 3, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H3001-H3003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPRESSING SORROW OF THE HOUSE AT THE DEATH OF THE HONORABLE FRANK R.
LAUTENBERG, A SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged
resolution, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 242
Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of
the death of the Honorable Frank R. Lautenberg, a Senator
from the State of New Jersey.
Resolved, That a committee of such Members of the House as
the Speaker may designate, together with such Members of the
Senate as may be joined, be appointed to attend the funeral.
Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to
the Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the
deceased.
Resolved, That when the House adjourns today, it adjourn as
a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased
Senator.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized
for 1 hour.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, it is
my sad duty to inform you that Senator Frank Lautenberg has passed
away. He died from complications from viral pneumonia this morning at
New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Frank Lautenberg was 89 years old.
I join with my friends and colleagues from our delegation--and, I
know, with
[[Page H3002]]
the entire House--in expressing our profound sorrow to his family--his
wife, Bonnie, his six children, and his 13 grandchildren. Senator
Lautenberg will be deeply missed.
We will have a Special Order to honor this wonderful man, but just
one point: that with his passing he is the last of World War II--of the
Greatest Generation--to serve in the United States Senate, and I want
everyone to know he will be deeply missed. I, personally, worked very
closely with him on a number of issues, in particular on combating
anti-Semitism, so I just want to say that we are all in sorrow for his
passing. We pray for him and for his family.
I would like to yield to my good friend and colleague from New Jersey
(Mr. Pallone) for any comments he might have.
Mr. PALLONE. I want to thank my colleague.
It's really with a great deal of sadness that we come to the well
this evening to announce--or to comment, if you will--on Senator
Lautenberg's passing.
I really can't imagine the Congress without him. I worked on his
campaign from the very first day in 1982, and he was the longest-
serving Member of the U.S. Senate from the State of New Jersey in our
entire history.
The fact of the matter is that Senator Lautenberg was always there
for the little guy. Many of you know that he was a wealthy individual,
but he never forgot his roots, and they were very humble roots. He
always believed that the Congress should be there for people in need
and that the American Dream required that everyone had an equal
opportunity and that Congress could do things. Frank Lautenberg
understood that there were a lot of problems out there, but he felt
that Congress needed to work together on a bipartisan basis to solve
those problems.
There are so many that I can mention, but I won't. Whether it was the
Nation's infrastructure, mass transit, all of the environmental
concerns, whether he wanted to clean up the ocean or clean the air or
clean the water for the next generation, he really believed that things
could get done here, and he worked hard to get things done. We know,
more than anybody else, he was able to accomplish a lot because of the
hard work that he put into it.
So I just want to thank him for all of that and for his legacy, and I
want to express sympathy, obviously, to Bonnie and his family. He will
be missed for what he accomplished and also for what he told us about
what our job is when we're here--to get things done and to worry about
the little guy and to make sure that we are always out there, working
every day to make this a better country.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to my colleague from New Jersey (Mr.
Lance).
Mr. LANCE. Thank you, Congressman Pallone, and thank you, Congressman
Smith, the dean of the delegation.
Senator Lautenberg was a tenacious fighter for the 9 million
residents of the State of New Jersey, and tenacity was at the heart of
his public service. New Jersey is a State that is complex and that is
comprised of many different ethnicities, and Senator Lautenberg
represented all of us extremely well. The only person in history of the
State to serve five terms in the United States Senate, Senator
Lautenberg died with his boots on in the saddle as he would have
wished.
He was extremely proud of his roots in Paterson, a great industrial
city in this Nation, where he was born and raised; and at age 18 he
went off to war, World War II, as one of the Greatest Generation.
Senator Lautenberg was the beneficiary of the GI Bill of Rights, and he
was able to attend Columbia University from which he graduated after
the Second World War, and his brilliant career in the private sector at
ADP is a hallmark to the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people;
but he recognized that he could do more for the people of our State and
of the Nation when he was elected to the United States Senate in 1982,
reelected in 1988 and reelected again in 1994, a hiatus of 2 years,
then elected for a fourth term in 2002, and again for a fifth term in
2008. He was a person of perseverance.
To Mrs. Lautenberg and the Lautenberg children and family, we extend
our profound sympathy. The people of New Jersey and, might I suggest,
the Nation are saddened by his death.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Andrews).
Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friends and colleagues for joining in this
moment of solemn remembrance.
There is not a corner of our State that does not bear the
manifestation of the greatness of Senator Lautenberg's career. Some of
the manifestations are functional and somewhat ordinary--bridges and
exit ramps--but so many of the things are things of beauty and
splendor. This is a person who risked his life for his country in the
Second World War and who gave his life to building a successful
business and building a great State and a great country.
We are profoundly saddened by his loss, but we are heartened by his
example, and I thank all of us on both sides of the aisle for
remembering him. Our prayers go to his family, and our thanks go to him
for a great life well led.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Pascrell).
Mr. PASCRELL. Frank Lautenberg was my friend for 45 years. We drank
the same water in Paterson, New Jersey. He was a person of very small
means when you looked at his mom and dad. They worked in the factories
in Paterson, New Jersey, as so many other people did. His father died
when he was 43 years of age. He got sick from the jobs that he had when
there was no protection for workers, not like it is now.
Now, can you picture this in a garage in Paterson, New Jersey, off of
Carroll Street, four guys together, putting a company together, that if
you didn't invest in it you kicked yourself after that, ADP?
He had a business acumen, a business sense, that went beyond votes on
the floor of the Senate. He was a good guy, and I know that the talking
heads would say he was a liberal's liberal. Frank Lautenberg was a very
basic, conservative guy when it came to our values in this country. He
was not a spectator by any stretch. He was in there. He was in the
battle. He came back to School No. 6 on Mercer Street in Paterson to
take care of those kids, to give them computers and to say make sure
you take care of those computers because this is going to get you,
perhaps, on a path to something better in life for you and your family.
He didn't forget it. A lot of people say he didn't forget his roots.
That's a wave. That's a passing by. He was not that kind of a person.
So, to Bonnie and to his beautiful family, our best, best, deepest
feelings of condolences and sorrow.
We don't know what we've lost--we never do--but we pray that everyone
begins to understand, at least now, that each of us is significant,
that each of us is important and, as Frank would say, that no one is
better than anyone else.
God bless Frank Lautenberg.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Holt).
Mr. HOLT. We mark with sorrow and with admiration the loss of Frank
Lautenberg--a loss to Bonnie and his family, a loss to this Congress, a
loss to New Jersey, a loss to America.
He served in the Army as a youngster. His father died while he was
serving in the Second World War--and ``serve'' is the right word. He
saw service as his duty, as his life--serving other people, never
forgetting the common person and the common good. Whether he was
working for public health or individual health care or education or was
helping prevent bullying in schools or was teaching foreign languages
or was providing for safety in chemical plants, he was thinking about
the ordinary person. He never forgot that, he never stopped fighting,
and the people of New Jersey knew that. They knew they had somebody in
the Senate who was looking out for them.
What I think of most is his work that he did on the Transportation
Subcommittee about the blood alcohol level and drunk driving. He did
more than any other single person in this country to prevent drunk
driving. You could fill many football stadiums with
[[Page H3003]]
people who are alive today because of Frank Lautenberg. The interesting
thing is that not one of them would know who they are.
We have a lot to be grateful for to Frank Lautenberg, and his legacy
is something that we should work hard to continue.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Garrett).
Mr. GARRETT. To the dean of the delegation and to the rest of my
colleagues from New Jersey, Washington, D.C., the Senate, the Chambers
will not be the same without Frank Lautenberg walking about.
He is and he was a man who lived truly an extraordinary life. You've
heard of his humble beginnings that Bill, I guess, knows pretty well,
of his growing up in that neighborhood and going on to fight through
World War II, as Leonard points out; and of that extraordinary
entrepreneurial spirit. In all of those ways, he lived an extraordinary
life that left an extraordinary impact upon the people of his community
and the State and on all of those people who benefited from his
business acumen--to be able to use that service--to the jobs that he
provided and then to take that and bring it here to Washington and the
benefits that he provided even far beyond his own humble beginnings
back in Paterson, New Jersey, but across the country as well.
So we come here today, joined in the thought that our prayers are
with him, his family, his children, and grandchildren. We just hope
that through this difficult time that they must be going that they can
find some solace in the fact that so many people who have come here
today and who are back in New Jersey respect him and appreciate him and
thank him for what he did for the State.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Sires).
Mr. SIRES. I want to thank my colleagues for being here today and for
expressing the sentiment towards a friend.
I knew Frank Lautenberg for a long time. I was a mayor when I first
met him. He never changed. He was a fighter. He was a real product of
New Jersey in his coming from Paterson, serving in the service,
starting a business. He became one of the best Senators we ever had in
New Jersey. He was a man who had a vision, because he was one of the
first ones who saw that riding on a plane and having somebody smoking
next to you was not healthy. Frank fought that fight, and President
Reagan signed it into law.
So, today, New Jersey is sad. It's sad because one of its own is not
going to be with us any more. Right down to the end, Frank fought. I
will remember him fighting Governor Christie. I remember him fighting
for the tunnel. So we are all sad in New Jersey today.
To the whole family, we extend our condolences.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Runyan).
Mr. RUNYAN. I, too, want to reflect on all of the kind and gracious
words that my colleagues have expressed up here.
I, only being in my second term, can't say that I knew Frank that
well, but I want to point out one thing: that it's unfortunate that
sometimes it takes someone's passing to realize all of the great things
he did in his life. I've learned in coming here to Washington sometimes
that people forget they are people who come here to represent the
people back home, and you forget about the good deeds, the hard work.
When you look at what Frank did, working every single day until today,
that is something that, I think, we as Americans do--take that work
ethic into everything we do every single day. That's what makes us the
greatest country in the world.
With Frank's obviously being that type of role model, I think we are
all saddened by his passing. We will miss him. Again, our condolences
go out to his family, and I thank you all for taking time out to
recognize him as an individual because, I think, sometimes that is
lost.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Payne).
Mr. PAYNE. Thank you to my colleagues from New Jersey and in the
House of Representatives.
Once again, I stand here in almost over a year with sorrow in my
heart. The New Jersey delegation has lost another great member.
Senator Lautenberg had been an example to me over the course of his
career. I'd seen him in many instances in Newark and in other settings,
and he always had a common message to young people. It was that there
was nothing special about me that you could not do this yourself. If
you applied yourself in school, worked hard, honored your country, and
did the things that were right, one day you could be in this position
as well.
Frank Lautenberg embodies what a New Jerseyan is. So look at his
career. Look at his life. He is a true New Jerseyan. He will sorely be
missed in this delegation, in this House, in this Congress, and in this
country. My condolences to his family on this sad occasion.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, Frank Lautenberg will be
missed. As you could hear from my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle, it is a great loss for the State of New Jersey. We will have a
Special Order next Tuesday to speak even more to his legacy.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, today, our country mourns the loss of
Senator Frank Lautenberg--a man whose life embodied the American Dream
and who dedicated his career to putting that dream in reach for all
Americans. The longest-serving senator in New Jersey's history and the
last remaining World War II veteran in the Senate, he served us all
with the strength, perseverance, and compassion that exemplifies the
greatest generation.
A proud son of hard-working immigrants, Senator Lautenberg rose from
humble beginnings to meet great success in business and public service.
He was an entrepreneur who turned a small business into one of the
largest computing services companies in the world. He was a soldier who
put his life on the line to protect our country. He was a Senator who
helped ban smoking in airplanes and around children, who worked to
ensure parents could take time off to care for sick family members, who
helped modernize the G.I. bill to ensure today's veterans could benefit
from the same opportunity that he received,
Senator Lautenberg spent each day fighting to protect and improve the
health, security, and well-being of every American. His lifetime of
service leaves a legacy we must follow, and an expectation we must
meet. We only hope it is a comfort to his wife Bonnie, his children and
grandchildren that so many mourn their loss at this sad time.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________