[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Page 31196]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       SENATE FAMILY APPRECIATION

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I also want to thank the members of staffs 
of Senators, and the Members, the Senate family who sit here before us 
every day, who work so assiduously and in such a dedicated fashion. 
They make our lives easier than they would otherwise be, and they make 
it possible, whereas it would be otherwise impossible, for us to do the 
work of serving our constituents. I hope that they will all have a very 
happy Thanksgiving and very pleasant Christmas.
  Let me also thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The 
lovely lady from Maine sits in the majority leader's chair at this 
moment; she does the work of the Senate in such a beautiful manner, and 
who does so with such skill and dignity as rare as the day in June.
  I want to thank everyone. I want to thank my own colleague, Jay 
Rockefeller, for being my colleague, and I want to thank the official 
reporters for doing their difficult work and doing it so well and so 
promptly and always so courteously.
  So I thank, in closing, the two leaders who make it possible for all 
of us to get our work done. They are courteous; they are very helpful. 
I particularly thank the distinguished majority leader for his 
assistance in regard to the amendment I offered yesterday and which was 
cosponsored by my senior colleague and by the senior Senator from 
Kentucky and the junior Senator from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, and Mr. 
Bunning, and all of the other Senators on both sides of the aisle who 
worked with me on behalf of that amendment. I thank my own leader for 
also helping to pave the way for us to have a vote, have the Senate 
vote on that amendment.
  When Thanksgiving Day comes and the turkey is being carved and my 
dear wife of 62, almost 62\1/2\ years, and my lovely daughters, their 
husbands, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren are all around 
me, we will think of the blessings of the good Lord, and one of those 
blessings is that of being in the company of and associated with so 
many wonderful people who are part of the Senate family every day.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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