[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20280-20281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   CONTINUING THE WORK OF THE SENATE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in the early days of the Great Depression, I 
lived in the coal mining camps of southern West Virginia. I remember 
those days when we only had an old Philco radio up on the wall of the 
house. But the voice of President Franklin Roosevelt was a golden 
voice. When his voice came over the airways, the coal miners and their 
families gathered around and listened intently and always with hope.
  Roosevelt, in his first inaugural address, stated quite clearly:

       [T]he only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, 
     unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed 
     efforts to convert retreat into advance.

  Mr. President, the U.S. Senate must not be paralyzed. At a time when 
the Senate must lead by example, we must show the Nation that work can 
continue and that our Government will not close down.
  Congress is supposed to approve 13 appropriations bills--these are 
the regular appropriations bills--by the start of the fiscal year on 
October 1. But that fiscal year started several days ago. Yet we have 
only sent the Interior and the military construction appropriations 
conference reports to the President for his signature. At the same 
time, we have now approved a third continuing resolution--this one to 
last until October 31. That is Halloween. The Appropriations Committees 
in the House and Senate have been doing their work. The legislation is 
being written and reported to the Senate for consideration. But instead 
of debating and voting on these bills, instead of expeditiously doing 
the work of the people, the Senate is moving all too slowly--moving at 
a snail's pace, as a matter of fact--on these essential funding bills.
  The American people are looking for leadership in their elected 
representatives, and they have a right to demand it. We need to act; we 
need to show them, we need to show the world that the Senate is 
undaunted, that we can accomplish our goals notwithstanding those who 
would seek to have the American people cower in fear.
  One of the bills, for example, delayed on the floor is the fiscal 
year 2002 foreign operations appropriations bill includes $450 million 
to combat HIV-AIDS, the worst global health crisis in half a 
millennium. The bill includes money for medicines to treat malaria and 
tuberculosis. Hundreds of millions of dollars for efforts to reduce 
poverty, improve basic health care, and build basic housing and 
sanitation systems are also being delayed. Even funds to combat 
terrorism and to reduce threats from biological, chemical, and nuclear 
weapons are currently in that bill, the bill being held up by one side 
of the aisle on this Senate floor.
  I appreciate the efforts of the majority leader to bring these 
appropriations bills to the floor. Unfortunately, his efforts to date 
have been blocked to a considerable extent.
  Now is the time for the Members of the Senate to exercise the 
leadership

[[Page 20281]]

which the American people have entrusted to us. Now is the time to 
abandon petty political partisanship and to link arms against terror. 
Now is not the time to ignore our responsibilities. Now is not the time 
to abandon our posts and scurry out of town. Let us demonstrate a 
steady hand. Our message must be that calmness is going to prevail. It 
does prevail; it will continue to prevail. We must avoid the appearance 
of disorder, panic, and especially petty partisanship.
  To those who say let us slam all of our legislation into one package 
and pack our bags and get out of town, I say lift your sights. We 
cannot fulfill our duties with one eye on the door. We have a 
Constitution to guide us. We have a Constitution to uphold and an oath 
to which we swore our solemn allegiance.
  We cannot let Osama bin Laden take over the Senate. We cannot succumb 
to terror, nor can we succumb to partisan games. Many of our 
appropriations bills are waiting and ready for Senate floor debate. 
These are bills that fund important programs, important programs for 
you out there in the Great Plains, in the great hills and valleys 
throughout this country--important for the well being of our people. 
These bills fund endeavors which are critical to our homeland defense, 
critical to our national defense, critical to our citizens' health, 
critical to our Nation's economic health. We must go forward. We must 
embrace the cooling comfort of reasoned, rational order and debate.
  We have to protect our staff and the public who come to this complex. 
That is being done. I have every confidence that it is being done well 
and with great professionalism. But nobody ever said that representing 
the people would be easy. Now is the time for us to earn our paychecks!
  We cannot simply fund these appropriations bills at last year's level 
in a giant continuing resolution and go home. And that is what will 
happen if we don't pass these appropriations bills. They will end up in 
a giant omnibus bill--a giant continuing resolution. That means they 
would be funded at the same level as last year. We must do the people's 
business.
  We have seen great courage and grand dedication in the eyes of our 
citizens. One has only to recall the firemen, the rescue workers, the 
policemen, the volunteers who served so valiantly in New York City and 
who still dig and labor patiently through the rubble that inters 
thousands of the bodies of our fellow citizens. Are Senators any less 
dedicated to our jobs than these people have been to theirs? One has 
only to observe Old Glory flying from the windows of passenger cars and 
clutched in the hands of children to appreciate anew the spirit of our 
people and the power of American ideals.
  We must not fail the millions of Americans by sending the message to 
misguided men that we can be so easily spooked.
  This Nation has always produced men and women who had the spirit and 
the fortitude to carry on, to do the difficult job of protecting 
freedom and securing the constitutional pillars of this, the greatest 
Nation on Earth.
  This Senate is the grandest of those constitutional pillars. Let us 
secure the people's House and promote the people's welfare by the 
simple and straightforward act of continuing to do our business and to 
do it in an orderly and rational way.
  Horace said:

       Do your duty and leave the rest to heaven.

  Now is the time for all of us to embrace the sublime wisdom of those 
words.
  We might repeat the words of Longfellow in doing so:

     Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
     Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
     Humanity with all its fears,
     With all the hopes of future years,
     Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
     We know what Master laid thy keel,
     What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
     Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
     What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
     In what a forge and what a heat
     Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
     Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
     'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
     'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
     And not a rent made by the gale!
     In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
     In spite of false lights on the shore,
     Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
     Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
     Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
     Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
     Are all with thee--are all with thee!

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