[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14094-14097]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       PRESIDING OVER THE SENATE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, every class of Senators seems to have 
characteristics or qualities that make it distinguishable from other 
classes. The Senate class of 1946, for example, has been considered the 
``post-New Deal Republican Eightieth Congress.'' The Senate Class of 
1958, my own class, had qualities to which I devoted an entire chapter 
in Volume I of my history of the United States Senate. The class of 
1974 has been referred to as ``Kennedy children'' because of the 
influence that President John F. Kennedy had on so many of them, and as 
the ``Watergate Babies'' because so many of them owed their victories 
to the fallout from the scandals of the Nixon Administration. The 
Senate class of 1980 was certainly an integral part the ``Reagan 
Revolution.''
  I daresay that the Senate class of 2000 may well become known for, 
and distinguished by, a renewed dedication to the Senate as an 
institution. That is what they have brought to the Senate. I have never 
seen a freshmen class of Senators demonstrate more pride in 
understanding the rules, customs, and traditions of the Senate as has 
the class of 2000.
  They first grabbed my attention early in this session when three of 
them--namely, Senators Mark Dayton, Bill Nelson, and Hillary Clinton--
came to me and asked for my advice not only on how the Senate works, 
but also what makes it work, and what they could do to make it work 
better.
  I have seen and witnessed so much in my lifetime that few things ever 
impress me any more, but that did. I was impressed by their eagerness 
and their sincerity, and their interest, not only in their individual 
Senate careers, but their interest in the Senate as an institution, as 
well. These new Senators wanted to know how they could contribute to 
the Senate, how they could be good Senators in the context of being 
useful, of being efficient, of being Senators who develop and retain an 
institutional memory, how they could best serve their States in this 
institution.
  At about that same time, our Majority Leader, Mr. Daschle, asked me 
if I would conduct a session with new Senators to discuss some of the 
elemental rules that would be important to new Members, especially when 
they are called upon to preside.
  I began meeting with these new Senators and discussing Senate rules 
and Senate traditions and how the Senate operates, how it should 
operate, how it has operated in the past. These meetings have been well 
attended.
  Now I have enjoyed watching members of the class of 2000 preside over 
the Senate, and the attentiveness and the pride with which they perform 
this duty.
  I realize that presiding over the Senate is often regarded as a 
chore. The limitations of the position keep it from being seen as an 
exciting or glamorous assignment. For example, Senators are restricted 
in what they can say from the Chair. Even when criticisms are directed 
to the Chair, the Chair is not supposed to respond. The Chair is only 
to respond when called upon by way of a parliamentary inquiry or to 
make a ruling on a point of order, or to restore order in the Senate 
Chamber or in the galleries.
  Perhaps this is why, over the years, I have detected a tendency among 
some Senators not to take the position of Presiding Officer seriously. 
This is why, no doubt, some Senators have shied away from serving in 
the position, and why, when they did preside, they could be seen 
reading a newspaper or magazine, or reading their mail or writing out 
their checks--anything but paying attention to what was happening on 
the floor.
  But I want to take this opportunity to stress that the Presiding 
Officer has a most important, most fundamental responsibility to the 
Senate and to the people of the United States. The Presiding Officer is 
the person who maintains the rules and the precedents of the Senate, 
and from these rules and precedents come the order, civility, and 
decorum in the Senate. In his farewell speech to the Senate, in 1805, 
Aaron Burr, who was Vice President, referred to the Senate Chamber as a 
``sanctuary.'' He said:

       This House is a sanctuary; a citadel of law, of order, and 
     of liberty; and it is here--it is here, in this exalted 
     refuge; here, if anywhere, will resistance be made to the 
     storms of political phrenzy and the silent arts of 
     corruption; and if the Constitution be destined ever to 
     perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue or the 
     usurper, which God avert, its expiring agonies will be 
     witnessed on this floor.

  This is the place where we, the Nation's lawmakers, come together to 
talk to one another, to listen to one another respectfully, to learn, 
and to make our best case to the best of our ability.
  Order and decorum are needed so that Senators may be properly 
recognized, the clerk can hear and record the votes, and the people in 
the galleries--the people who watch silently over our shoulders--can 
hear the debate. As I was sitting in the chair earlier today and 
watching the people in the galleries, I thought: Here are the silent 
auditors. These are the people; sovereign rests in them. They come 
here; they listen; they watch us; they watch over our shoulders.
  And then my imagination carried me from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
and I thought: Here are 284 million people represented in this body by 
100 men and women. What an honor, what a responsibility, what an 
opportunity. Order and decorum are needed if our different political 
parties are to work together in the best interests of our Nation and 
its people.
  So as we conduct our business in front of the galleries and in front 
of the television cameras, we must keep in mind that the American 
people are watching. They are watching us. They are the people who send 
us here. They are the people who pay our salaries. They are watching 
us. They are evaluating what we do and what we say, and they are 
pondering not only what is being said but also the way we act. They are 
looking over our shoulders. They are judging us.
  Calling the U.S. Senate the ``citadel of liberty,'' Senate President 
pro tempore-elect William King of Alabama pointed out that it is ``to 
this body''--this body--``[that] the intelligent and virtuous, 
throughout our widespread country, look with confidence for an 
unwavering and unflinching resistance to the encroachments of power.''
  Think of that. The people look to us--the Senate in particular--to 
guard them, to guard their liberties, to guard their freedoms against 
the encroachments of power from an overweening Executive.
  Senator King then proceeded to explain:

       To insure success . . . in the discharge of our high 
     duties, we must command the confidence and receive the 
     support of the people.

[[Page 14095]]

     Calm deliberations, courtesy toward each other, order and 
     decorum in debate, will go far, very far, to inspire that 
     confidence and command that support.

  Now with the televising of Senate proceedings, we are being observed 
by teachers, by students around the country, by judges, by coal miners, 
by farmers, by members of legislatures, members of city councils, 
observing and studying the legislative process. They are watching us. 
We are being observed by millions of taxpayers in the kitchens, in the 
living rooms. We are also being viewed by people around the world.
  The U.S. Senate is the premier upper Chamber in the world today, and 
we ought to keep it that and be proud of it. There are only 61 nations 
in the world that have bicameral legislative bodies. All the others 
have unicameral legislatures. But the U.S. Senate and the Italian 
Senate are the only bicameral legislative bodies in the world today in 
which the upper chamber is not dominated by the lower chamber.
  Furthermore, developing democracies are watching us for guidelines on 
how a legislature operates in a representative republic, in a 
democratic republic.
  It is imperative, therefore, that the U.S. Senate be seen as a model, 
and that the Presiding Officer be seen as a model Presiding Officer; 
order and decorum are essential to that objective. Order and decorum 
are established in the Senate rules. Of the 20 rules that the Senate 
first observed in 1789, many of them regulated order and decorum. Yet 
Senate rules, like order and decorum, I fear, are taken too much for 
granted.
  I am not the first Senator to express that concern. In 1866, Senator 
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts cautioned his colleagues that they had 
become so ``accustomed'' to the parliamentary rules that ``govern 
legislative proceedings'' that they failed to recognize their 
``importance in the development of liberal institutions.'' These rules, 
he maintained, ``are among the precious contributions which England has 
made to modern civilization. . . . [They] have become a beautiful 
machine by which business is conducted, legislation is molded, and 
debate is secured in all possible freedom.'' These rules, he said in a 
phrase that I have always held dear, are ``the very temple of 
constitutional liberty.''
  Some years later, Vice President Adlai Stevenson reminded his 
colleagues ``that the rules governing this body [the U.S. Senate] are 
founded deep in human experience; that they are the result of centuries 
of tireless effort in [the] legislative hall, to conserve, to render 
stable and secure, the rights and liberties which have been achieved by 
conflict.''
  Our English forebears wrested from tyrannical monarchs the power of 
the purse and vested it in a body made up of the elected 
representatives of the people, the House of Commons.
  The parliamentary rules that ``govern legislative proceedings'' serve 
many purposes. They perform many vital functions not only here in the 
Senate but also in our Government.
  Arthur Onslow, whom Thomas Jefferson considered the ``ablest among 
the Speakers of the [British] House of Commons,'' maintained ``that 
nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of administration . . 
. than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding.''
  We have seen that right here in this Senate.
  ``By its rules the Senate wisely fixes the limits on its own power,'' 
declared Vice President Adlai Stevenson.
  I have said this time, time, and time again, but this is Vice 
President Adlai Stevenson saying it this time: ``The right of amendment 
and of debate.'' The right of amendment and of debate, and how often in 
recent years have we seen Senators denied these fundamental, basic 
rights: the right to debate and the right to amend?
  ``Great evils often result,'' continued Vice President Stevenson, 
``from hasty legislation; rarely from the delay which follows full 
discussion and deliberation. In my humble judgment, the historic 
Senate--preserving the unrestricted right of amendment and of debate, 
maintaining intact, the time-honored parliamentary methods and 
amenities which unfailingly secure action after deliberation--possesses 
in our scheme of government a value which cannot be measured in 
words.''
  I would add, Mr. President, that it is the Senate rules which 
establish the basis for order and decorum in the Senate.
  In his ``Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate 
of the United States,'' Thomas Jefferson laid out strict rules for 
maintaining order and decorum, including a provision that read:

       No one [Senator] is to disturb another in his speech by 
     hissing, coughing, spitting, speaking, or whispering to 
     another, nor to stand up or interrupt him, nor to pass 
     between the Speaker and the speaking member, nor to go across 
     the house, or walk up and down it, or take books or papers 
     from the table, or write there.

  That was Jefferson speaking.
  The Senate has remained ever attentive to the need for order and 
decorum, Mr. President. According to the Senate Historian's Office:

       Persistent concern for the chronically disordered state of 
     floor activity in the early 1850s moved the Senate to 
     authorize construction of a new and larger chamber. The 
     chamber--

  This Chamber into which the Senators moved in 1859--

     included ample galleries and floor space, and--for the first 
     time--cloakrooms to which members could retire for private 
     conversation and writing.

  Ergo, Mr. President, order and decorum are needed because in this 
Chamber we are dealing with important, often controversial, national 
issues. We are dealing with precious issues that mean so much to the 
people we represent and to the Nation's values.
  Pressure is constantly building upon us with so much at stake in 
nearly everything we say and do. As tensions rise and pressures mount, 
it is essential that we maintain order and decorum as well as mutual 
respect for one another. Only with respect for and obedience to the 
rules, especially those governing order and decorum, can the Senate 
function properly and effectively.
  Without observance of these rules, events in the Senate can escalate, 
and have escalated, out of control. During the decade in which the 
country approached the Civil War, for example, antagonisms over the 
difficult issues of the period flared, and so did tempers, and so did 
disorder in the Chamber.
  During a heated argument in 1850, Senator Henry Foote of Mississippi 
in the Old Senate Chamber just down the hall drew a pistol on Senator 
Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. In that same Chamber in 1856 came the 
caning of Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. In 1859, Senator 
William Gain of California challenged Senator Henry Wilson of 
Massachusetts to a duel. In 1863, in this Chamber, William Salisbury of 
Delaware threatened to shoot the Sergeant at Arms. Several decades 
after the Civil War, in a heated debate over a treaty, two South 
Carolina Senators got into a fight. Senator Benjamin Tillman and 
Senator John McLaurin, both of South Carolina, traded punches on the 
Senate floor.
  We no longer draw pistols on each other, engage in fist fights, or 
threaten to shoot the Sergeant at Arms, but for a long while I was 
seriously concerned about the decline of decorum in this body. In 
December 1995, I came to the floor and expressed my deep concern at the 
growing incivility in this Chamber. Senators were using what I call 
``gutter talk'' and ``fighting words'' that once could have led to fist 
fights or even duels.
  Just last year, I complained of the lack of decorum that had 
developed over the past few years. Having served in both Houses of the 
West Virginia State Legislature, I pointed out that the decorum, the 
order within the House of Delegates of West Virginia and the West 
Virginia Senate, were far more to be desired than we would find in the 
United States Senate Chamber.
  I was beginning to regret my role in helping to arrange the 
televising of Senate proceedings. I could not help but believe that the 
decline in order and decorum fell to a large extent upon the Presiding 
Officer, the burden of maintaining order and decorum. It is the Chair's 
responsibility to maintain

[[Page 14096]]

order in the Senate when disorder arises. It is the duty of the Chair, 
without being asked from the floor, without a point of order being made 
from the floor, to maintain order and decorum in the Senate Chamber and 
in the galleries. When the Presiding Officer fails in the mission, he 
fails the Senate.
  I often say to these new Members: Don't be afraid to use that gavel. 
Hit the desk hard. Use that gavel. It is made of ivory. It won't crack. 
Only once has the gavel been broken in more than two centuries of 
debate in the Chamber. Just tapping is all right. It is all right just 
to tap the gavel if the pages are being a little noisy or if there are 
two or three Senators making a noise up here close and if the Chamber 
is not crowded with Senators. But when there are many Senators in the 
Chamber, one needs to use that gavel.
  I have been very proud of the way these new Senators use the gavel. 
The Senate ladies here--I am an old-fashioned Senator; I still refer to 
men as gentlemen and women as ladies--these female Senators use that 
gavel and they make themselves heard. And they are firm when they ask 
for order. When they are presiding and they ask for order, they get it. 
They make that gavel sound. They make the rafters ring with the sound 
of that gavel. When they ask for order, they get it. I daresay that 
much of the indecorous ways of the Senate from time to time come about 
when the Presiding Officer is not paying attention to the floor, is not 
enforcing the rule.
  My how things have changed in the last few months with the Senate 
class of 2000. I no longer see the Presiding Officers reading 
newspapers or signing mail at that desk. They don't do it. They pay 
attention to the Senate. I have said to the Senators, if you are called 
upon to preside and you have letters to sign, beg off presiding for 
that time. We can supply a new Presiding Officer. Don't go to the desk 
and sign your mail. People are watching you. What are they going to 
think of you? What do the people in the galleries think of a Presiding 
Officer who sits up there and reads the newspaper or looks at a 
periodical?
  Our new Senators, when presiding, are not reading the mail. They are 
paying attention to what is happening on the floor, and they are keenly 
aware of what is going on. One quick look at them and you realize that 
they take the responsibility of presiding over the Senate very 
seriously. They perform very professionally.
  To these Senators who are presiding, the class of 2000, it is not 
just a chore that they must undertake as freshmen. It is a way to learn 
even more about the Senate, to watch and study the way it works and to 
learn from it. And perhaps even more importantly, they recognize the 
importance of the position in keeping the Senate operating and 
functioning properly.
  These Senators are determined to keep order. They are not afraid to 
pound the gavel to get order in the Senate. Even though they are 
freshmen Senators, they will pound that gavel against more senior 
Members when it is called for.
  Just the other day I watched as one of the freshmen Senators hammered 
away until he got absolute silence. That is the way it ought to be. I 
know that sometimes a freshman Senator may hesitate to pound the gavel 
or to insist that a Senator of great seniority here takes his seat or 
stops talking. I know just how a freshman Senator feels because I once 
was in that position as a new Senator. The Chair should pound that 
gavel. Make it crack. Make it be heard. Make it be heard until it is 
the only noise in the Chamber.
  Because of the efforts of these Presiding Officers to maintain order 
and decorum, I believe I have detected a Senator or two who would 
respond with a rather shocked expression.
  I have been in that chair and sought order, and I have had a few 
Senators look at me as though they wondered, who does this fellow think 
he is? They will give the Chair an impudent stare, but as long as they 
cease their talking, perhaps the Chair will be done with that. But it 
is evident. We owe that Chair respect. We owe the gavel, the Presiding 
Officer, respect. And the leaders can go a long way in helping to get 
order in this Senate if they, too, listen to the Chair; if they, too, 
when the Chair asks that the well be cleared, if they, too, will clear 
the well, they will set a good example to other Senators.
  This crop of Senators has not budged. They are not intimidated. They 
are determined to do their job. They are making a difference. They are 
restoring a decorum to the Senate that was on the decline for too long. 
I thank them for their efforts.
  Much to the surprise of many Senators, I am sure, there is a 
resolution No. 480 of the standing rules of the Senate. For those who 
do not know this order, it requires Senators to vote from their 
assigned desks. It is there. It is not often enforced, but it can be 
enforced. I constantly vote from my chair. I try always to vote from my 
chair. Only a few vote from their desk. That is what Senators are 
supposed to do, vote from their desk. I constantly observe Senators 
going into the well and milling around. As I have stated before, this 
makes the Senate look more like the floor of the stock exchange than 
the world's greatest deliberative body.
  When I came here, there were giants in the Senate. I did not see the 
giants of the Senate--Senators Everett Dirksen of Illinois, Styles 
Bridges of New Hampshire, Richard Russell of Georgia, Stuart Symington 
of Missouri, Norris Cotton, George Aiken--get into the well and mill 
around. They may have walked through the well or they may have walked 
up to the desk and asked something about a vote, but they did not 
gather in the well and carry on long conversations. They sat in their 
seats or they moved to the back of the Chamber or moved outside the 
Chamber. There are plenty of places where Senators can go to converse.
  I know how it is. You come to the floor, we have been in committees. 
It has been a while since you last saw a Senate colleague and we greet 
other Senators and we sometimes begin talking about the business of the 
Senate and we become oblivious to the fact there is being business 
transacted. We become oblivious to the fact we are making a noise. I 
have been the culprit in many instances. But once that Chair sounds the 
gavel and asks for order, I try to obey that Chair.
  Mr. President, I ask for 3 more minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, there are plenty of places where Senators 
can converse. Think how different it is on those occasions when 
Senators do vote from their seats. There is less noise and less chaos 
and voting goes so much faster. Think how impressive it is when the 
United States acts and votes in accordance with the standing rules and 
orders of the Senate.
  I want the American people to revere the Senate. If they respect this 
body, they will have more respect for the laws that we enact. I am not 
suggesting that it is the fault of the Presiding Officer when Senators 
fail to vote from their seats, but I must say that when I first came to 
the Senate I watched the Senate. And even in escorting the Chaplain to 
the podium at the opening of the Senate, daily, the way those 
Senators--the way the President pro tempore did that in those days was 
very impressive. I watched Senator Richard Russell of Georgia escort 
the Chaplain to the dais. Senator Russell did not walk up on that 
platform with the Chaplain. Senator Russell paused on the step just 
below the platform, allowing the Chaplain to stand alone on the 
platform.
  I was really moved by this act. Senator Russell did not stand behind 
the Chaplain. He did not stand beside the Chaplain, thus crowding the 
space. He was not hovering over the Chaplain like an old hen watching 
over her chicks. Senator Russell remained out of the picture until the 
Chaplain had finished. I kept thinking how proper that was. He was 
giving the Chaplain the platform. This was God's moment, God's moment 
before the Senate, and the Presiding Officer was honoring and 
respecting God's moment. That was class. By Senator Russell's actions, 
he, too, was according proper homage to

[[Page 14097]]

the Supreme Being. And people liked that. People liked that.
  Nothing we do here in the Senate is more important than seeking the 
Lord's blessing and paying our respects to the Creator. When the 
Chaplain is before us--he may be a guest Chaplain of whatever faith--it 
is God's time. We should respect it. We should cherish it. We should 
honor it as did the Presiding Officers in that day. The memory of how 
that impressed me has been with me through the years so that always 
when I open the Senate I do it the way those Senators did it in those 
days, now so long ago.
  Back in 1990 I pointed out that:

       [I]f something seems wrong with the Senate from time to 
     time, we, the members, might try looking into the mirror; 
     there, in all probability, we will see where the problem 
     lies. Those who weaken the Senate are members who, in one way 
     or another, bring discredit on the institution.

  Those Members, I said, are the ones:

       . . . who never quite understand the Senate [and lack] an 
     appreciation of its customs, its traditions, its rules and 
     precedents, and a pride in having been chosen to serve in it.

  Only 1,864 men and women have served in this body. Today, more than a 
decade later, I want to rephrase that point. Let me say that it is the 
Members who try to understand the Senate, who try to gain an 
appreciation of its customs and traditions, its rules and precedents, 
and who take a pride in having been chosen to serve in the Senate--they 
are the ones who bring credit to the Senate. They are the Senators who 
will keep the U.S. Senate as a model to the people of America and the 
world.
  In the few months that they have been here, the class of 2000 is 
doing that. And, again, I salute them for it.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, will the Senator suspend? Could I ask 
what the order of business is?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Nelson of Nebraska). The order is to 
resume consideration of H.R. 2299.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Seeing no one else on the floor, I ask unanimous 
consent I be allowed to proceed for 5 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________