[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10410]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THINKING OF SENATOR KENNEDY

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, let me say first I commend the remarks of 
the Senator from North Dakota who again reminds us of the importance of 
this legislation that we have been working on for many months now, and 
now having the votes, an overwhelming number of votes in the Senate to 
override the President's veto.
  It is a bill that will help our farm families. But it is also a bill 
that we know from the percentage breakdown is about nutrition and 
conservation and so much else. So we are grateful for all of the work 
that went into this.
  I am thinking today about not only this legislation. I want to spend 
a few moments talking about our veterans. But also we had an 
opportunity today at lunch to listen to three individuals whose 
stories, among others, are portrayed in a book about the Freedom Riders 
in the early 1960s and the impact they had on civil rights, and the 
courageous witness they provided is an understatement. People literally 
risked their lives for freedom in the South.
  When I think about our veterans today, the GI bill that Senator Webb 
brought to this body, and so many of us cosponsored, when I think about 
the GI bill, the work today on agriculture and nutrition, and also the 
witness provided by these speakers today at lunch who were Freedom 
Riders, I am, of course, thinking about Senator Kennedy who is not with 
us today. He is outside of Washington and we are anxiously awaiting his 
return.
  But I was thinking, as we all are today, about him and about his 
health but also his presence here. Everything we did today virtually he 
has had an impact on for more than a generation, whether it was 
nutrition or whether it was helping our veterans or whether it was 
having the courage to stand up for civil rights. So we are thinking of 
him today.

                          ____________________