[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 27915]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 27915]]

                  THE PRESIDING OFFICER OF THE SENATE

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, first I thank our Presiding Officer, the 
Senator from New Jersey. He always has a clean desk. What does that 
mean? That means he is paying attention to what is going on in the 
Senate. He is not at the desk reading a magazine or a piece of paper, a 
newspaper. He is alert. I watched him. This is the way he always 
presides. That is the way Presiding Officers ought to conduct 
themselves when gracing that desk in this, the greatest legislative, 
parliamentary, deliberative body in the world.
  He does it with a great dignity and style. I thank him. He sits there 
many evenings at this hour when most Senators have gone on their 
separate ways. I thank him.
  I thank the other Members of the new class--I say it in that 
fashion--who have worked at that desk. There are some of them--I will 
not call their names at the moment--who make me proud of the Senate. 
The fact is, the way they preside is a model for legislative bodies 
everywhere to watch. Too often as we sit in that chair, we forget that 
millions of people are watching the Senate. They are watching the 
Chair.
  I have been a member of the State legislature in West Virginia and 
the West Virginia House of Delegates. Those people in the State 
legislatures watch the Presiding Officer of this body.
  This is the premier upper house in the world. They should see the 
premier act of presiding on the part of the Senator who sits at that 
desk. Teachers, college professors, students, political column writers, 
and editorialists watch. We ought to remember that when we are sitting 
in that chair.
  I congratulate the Presiding Officer. I congratulate Senator Corzine. 
I thank him.

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