[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 177 (Thursday, October 26, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H5156-H5157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE DIANNE FEINSTEIN

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a dear friend 
and congressional colleague who passed away late last month, Senator 
Dianne Feinstein of California.
  I was deeply saddened at the news of the passing of Dianne, whom I 
worked with closely over many years on energy independence for our 
Nation and to protect the waters of the United States, which are 
amongst our Nation's most precious resources. Her acute mastery of the 
energy and water needs of our Nation had no comparison.
  Throughout her career, Dianne shattered glass ceilings, first on the 
San Francisco Board of Supervisors, serving as the board's first female 
president, then as the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, 
and, finally, as the first female Senator from the State of California.

[[Page H5157]]

  She would go on to become the longest serving woman in the history of 
the U.S. Senate and was a champion for LGBTQ rights and our 
environmental needs throughout her career.
  My thoughts and prayers are with her dear daughter, Katherine, and 
all who knew and loved her, including her staff in the Senate. Rest in 
peace, my dear friend.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an opinion piece celebrating her 
life, which was published this past month.

                [From the Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2023]

  Opinion--Our Nation Is in Dire Need of Leaders Like Dianne Feinstein

                      (By Hillary Rodham Clinton)

       One day, on the floor of the Senate in 1993, Idaho 
     Republican Larry Craig condescended to Dianne Feinstein, the 
     Democratic sponsor of a proposed ban on assault weapons. 
     ``The gentle lady from California needs to become a little 
     bit more familiar with firearms and their deadly 
     characteristics,'' he said. Craig, a board member of the 
     National Rifle Association, had picked the wrong target.
       ``I am quite familiar with firearms,'' Dianne responded, 
     with fire in her eyes. ``I became mayor as a product of 
     assassination. I found my assassinated colleague and put a 
     finger through a bullet hole trying to get a pulse. I was 
     trained in the shooting of a firearm when I had terrorist 
     attacks, with a bomb in my house, when my husband was dying, 
     when I had windows shot out. Senator, I know something about 
     what firearms can do.''
       Craig was left sputtering, and the Senate passed the 
     assault weapons ban thanks to Dianne's tireless advocacy. My 
     husband proudly signed the ban, and it helped keep millions 
     of Americans safer for a decade.
       Feinstein, who passed away on Thursday evening, was a giant 
     of the Senate. She was brave, honorable, honest and unafraid 
     to do what was right for her constituents and her country. We 
     both came to Washington in 1993, I as first lady and Dianne 
     as a senator. When she used her first floor speech to support 
     the Family and Medical Leave Act, I knew I had found a 
     kindred spirit.
       When I joined Dianne in the small sisterhood of Senate 
     women eight years later, I gained an appreciation for her 
     blend of principle and pragmatism. In an institution known 
     for show horses, she was a workhorse. Perhaps because she had 
     been a mayor, she believed in delivering results, not 
     rhetoric--and that's what she did.
       Dianne was tough and sometimes formal, but she had a big 
     heart and enormous compassion. She was an early advocate for 
     LGBTQ rights and people suffering from HIV and AIDS. As a 
     trailblazer for women in politics, she opened space for those 
     of us who followed.
       I learned a tremendous amount from Dianne. We strategized, 
     commiserated, laughed, drank California chardonnay and one 
     time even planned a covert operation: Dianne hosted a secret 
     meeting in the living room of her Northwest D.C. home, where 
     then-Sen. Barack Obama and I made peace after the grueling 
     2008 primary. We chose to meet there because we both trusted 
     Dianne. (She let us in, offered a glass of wine and left us 
     alone.)
       For all of us who loved Dianne, her passing is a deep 
     personal loss. It is also a loss for our country when we are 
     in desperate need of leaders willing to show half the 
     backbone she displayed throughout her storied career.
       Her calm determination in the wake of the 1978 
     assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city 
     Supervisor Harvey Milk by a fellow council member reassured a 
     shaken city. That tragedy didn't just make her mayor; it gave 
     her a mission. She took on the NRA and won. She became a 
     champion for the rule of law and democratic institutions and 
     refused to be intimidated by anyone.
       As the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she 
     exposed torture and other abuses committed by the CIA after 
     9/11, despite efforts to keep her silent. She was a strong 
     supporter of the intelligence community, but she believed 
     those abuses could not be covered up. ``History will judge us 
     by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the 
     willingness to face an ugly truth and say `never again,' '' 
     she said.
       Those are words we should remember as we face the 
     challenges ahead. Dianne has left the national scene at 
     another moment of political violence and threats to the rule 
     of law. So, we must again face ugly truths and do what is 
     right.
       The cries of an insurrectionist mob have barely faded from 
     the halls of the Capitol. Former president Donald Trump, 
     whose incendiary rhetoric has repeatedly incited violence, 
     recently said Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, the just-retired 
     chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had committed ``a 
     treasonous act'' for which ``in times gone by, the punishment 
     would have been DEATH!'' As President Biden noted, while most 
     Republicans may not agree, the silence is deafening.
       Trump and his supporters have also suggested that if he 
     regains the presidency, he will seek to gut checks on 
     executive power, weaponize the Justice Department to pursue 
     political opponents, eviscerate the civil service and attempt 
     to put himself above the law. This is a man who has been 
     indicted on a charge of a conspiracy to overturn an election 
     and called for the ``termination of all rules, regulations, 
     and articles, even those found in the Constitution.''
       We should believe him when he tells us what he'll do next.
       We could have used Dianne's voice in the fights ahead. 
     Democracy needs champions. So do our institutions, creaky and 
     frustrating as they might be. The United States needs leaders 
     willing to respond to attacks on the rule of law with the 
     same fearlessness that Dianne showed when she exposed 
     unlawful ``enhanced interrogation techniques.'' We must 
     summon the passion of Dianne's answer to Sen. Craig back in 
     1993. We all can honor her legacy by finding in ourselves the 
     courage that Dianne showed on that bloody day in 1978.
       Dianne's journey has ended, but the fights of her life are 
     far from over.

                          ____________________