[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 891-899]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FAREWELL TO THE SENATE

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking the leaders for 
their kind comments. It is true that I have been here a long time, I 
say to my friend from Kentucky. As a matter of fact, I say to my friend 
from Hawaii, I remember the first time I stood on the floor as a 
Senator of the United States. It was the desk directly to your left, 
Senator, the top row, second in. It was temporarily my desk. I remember 
standing and being told that the desk on my right was the desk of Henry 
Clay and on my left Daniel Webster because the senior Senators from the 
respective States got those desks. I say to my friend from California, 
it was the only time I can remember being speechless when I stood 
there, as a 30-year-old kid, thinking: Oh, my God.
  Well, I never thought I would be standing here today. I never 
believed serving in this Chamber was my destiny, but it always was a 
big part of my dreams.
  I remember vividly the first time I walked in this Chamber, I walked 
through those doors, but I walked through those doors as a 21-year-old 
tourist. I had been down visiting some of my friends at Georgetown 
University. I went to the University of Delaware. I had a blind date 
with a young lady from a school they used to call Visi Visitation--
which is now part of Georgetown. My good friend, a guy named Dave 
Walsh, was there. After the evening, staying at his apartment, I got up 
and--I shouldn't say this probably, but I will--I don't drink. Not for 
moral reasons, I just never had a drink. There is nothing worse than 
being a sober guy with a bunch of college guys who have a hangover the 
next morning.
  So I got up and decided to get in the car--this is a true story, 
Senator Carper--and I drove up to the Capitol. I had always been 
fascinated with it. In those days, you could literally drive right up 
to the front steps. I was 21 years old. This was 1963. I say to my 
friend from Iowa, I drove up to the steps and there had been a rare 
Saturday session. It had just ended. So I walked up the steps, found 
myself in front of what we call the elevators, and I walked to the 
right to the Reception Room. There was no one there. The glass doors, 
those French doors that lead behind the Chamber, were open. There were 
no signs then. I just walked in. Literally, I walked in, and I walked 
in down here, and I came through those doors. I walked into the Chamber 
and the lights were still on and I was awestruck, literally awestruck. 
I don't know what in God's name made me do it, but I walked up, I say 
to my friend from Arkansas, and I sat in the Presiding Officer's chair. 
I was mesmerized.
  The next thing I know, I feel this hand on my shoulder and the 
Capitol Policeman picks me up and says: What are you doing? After a few 
moments he realized I was just a dumbstruck kid. He didn't arrest me or 
anything. That was the first time I walked onto the Senate floor. It is 
literally a true story.
  By the way, just 9, 10 years later, I walked through those same doors 
as a Senator. A Capitol Hill policeman stopped me walking in and he 
said: Do you remember me? I said: No, sir. He said: I welcome you back 
to the Senate. He was retiring. He used to be a Capitol Hill policeman. 
He was retiring 2 weeks later. He said: Welcome to the floor, legally.
  Well, it is sort of fitting to the way I started my career here. I 
may not be

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a young man anymore, but I am still awestruck. I am still awestruck by 
this Chamber. I think it brings my career full cycle, to know that 
while I was once detained for sitting in the Presiding Officer's chair, 
I will now occasionally be detained in the Presiding Officer's chair as 
Vice President of the United States of America.
  The Senate has been my life, and that is not hyperbole; it literally 
has been my life. I have been a Senator considerably longer than I was 
alive before I was a Senator. I may be resigning from the Senate today, 
but I will always be a Senate man. Except for the title ``father,'' 
there is no title, including Vice President, that I am more proud to 
wear than that of a Senator of the United States.
  When I arrived here, giants--giants--loomed over the landscape of the 
Senate, people with names such as Danny Inouye, Hubert Humphrey, Ed 
Muskie, William Fulbright, Jacob Javits, Mike Mansfield, Stuart 
Symington, Scoop Jackson, Sam Ervin, John McClellan, Warren Magnuson, 
Claiborne Pell, and a few others who are still here: Bob Byrd, and the 
lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. In those days, chairmen dominated. 
Literally, as Senator Inouye will remember, if a chairman said he 
wanted a vote, almost without exception, every other chairman voted 
with that chairman on a vote on the floor of the Senate in 1973. But 
the old ways of doing business and the old ways of thinking were, at 
that very moment in the Senate's history, beginning to change.
  As my colleagues know, there is a longstanding tradition in the 
Senate--I think honored in the breach now more than the rule--but when 
I got here in 1973, it was mandatory that a new Senator would pay 
respects to the ``old bulls of the Senate.'' I never dreamed I would be 
an old bull of the Senate.
  I remember the first appointment I made. It was to go see Senator 
John Stennis, chairman then of the Armed Services Committee. I now have 
Senator Stennis's office. I remember I walked in--and Senator Stennis 
had a great and large mahogany conference table that was a gift from 
the President of the Philippines to Vice President Barkley for the 
liberation of the Philippines. He used it as his desk. He had a blotter 
at one end of it. It seated--I don't know how many people it seats--15 
people. It was a desk with a group of leather chairs around it.
  I walked in--and those who remember John Stennis, he talked at you 
like this when he talked; he always put his hand up like this--he 
looked at me and he said: Young man, sit down, sit down. And he patted 
the leather chair next to him, so I dutifully sat down. He said: 
Congratulations. He said: May I ask you a question? I said: Yes, sir, 
Mr. Chairman. He said, What made you run for the Senate? Being tactful, 
as I always am, I answered honestly without thinking. I said: Civil 
rights, sir. As soon as I did, I could feel the beads of perspiration 
pop out on my head, and I thought: Oh, my God. He looked at me and he 
said--absolutely true story--he said: Good, good, good. That was the 
end of the conversation. Well, that was 1973.
  In 1988, time had transpired; he had become my good friend. We shared 
a hospital room, a hospital suite at Walter Reed for a number of 
months. He had lost his leg to cancer. It was during that period when 
President Bush was coming into office. As the tradition is, as all my 
colleagues know, you get to choose your offices based on seniority as 
they come up, as offices come open. I have always thought--we all think 
our offices are the finest--I always thought of his office, which had 
been the office of a man whom he never referred to by his first name 
that I can remember, and the man after whom the Russell Building is 
named, Chairman Russell. It had been his office.
  I walked down to look at his office. It was that period in December 
when no one was around. The elections were over. I walked in, and I 
think his secretary of 30 some years--I think her name was Mildred. My 
memory is not certain on that, but I think her name was Mildred. I 
walked into the anteroom to his office, and all these boxes were piled 
up. He was packing up 40-some years of service.
  She said: Senator, welcome. Welcome. You all are going to take our 
office?
  I said--I think her name was Mildred: I don't know, Mildred, I am 
going to check. I said: Is the chairman in?
  She said: No, you go right in the office.
  I went in the office. Without her knowing it, Senator Stennis had 
come in through the other door of the hallway and was sitting there in 
his wheelchair in the same exact spot, with one leg, staring out the 
window of that office that looks out onto the Supreme Court.
  I said: Oh, Mr. Chairman, I apologize. I apologize for interrupting.
  He said: No, Joe, come in, sit down, sit down.
  I sat down in that chair, and what astounded me, I say to Senator 
Boxer, is he looked at me and said: Joe, do you remember the first time 
you came to see me? I hadn't. I told this story about Senator Stennis 
to my friend from Mississippi before, as he walks on the floor.
  He asked me: Do you remember?
  I said: No, I don't.
  He said: I asked you why you ran for the Senate.
  I said: Oh, I remember. I was a smart, young fellow, wasn't I.
  He looked at me and said: You all are going to take my office, aren't 
you, Joe? He caressed that table, the table he loved so much. He 
caressed it like it was an animate object.
  He said: You are going to take my office?
  I said: Yes, sir, I am.
  He said: I wanted to tell you then in 1973, and I am going to tell 
you all, this table here was the flagship of the Confederacy.
  If you read ``Masters of the Senate'' about Johnson's term, you will 
see in the middle of the book a picture of the table in my office with 
the famous old southern segregationist Senators sitting around that 
table chaired by Senator Russell.
  He said: This was the flagship of the Confederacy. Every Tuesday, we 
gathered here under Senator Russell's direction to plan the demise of 
the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968. It is time this table 
passes from a man who was against civil rights into the hands of a man 
who is for civil rights.
  I found it genuinely, without exaggeration, moving. We talked a few 
more minutes. I got up and when I got to the door, he turned to me in 
the wheelchair and said: One more thing, Joe. The civil rights movement 
did more--more--to free the White man than the Black man.
  I looked at him and said: Mr. Chairman, how is that? Probably Thad 
will only remember as well as I do.
  He went like this: It freed my soul; it freed my soul.
  Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I can tell you that by his own 
account, John Stennis was personally enlarged by his service in the 
Senate. That is the power of this institution. Men and women who come 
to Washington, who come in contact with folks in different parts of the 
country that we represent, with slightly different cultural 
backgrounds, different religions, different attitudes about what makes 
this country great, all races, all religions, and it opens a door for 
change. I think it opens a door for personal growth, and in that comes 
the political progress this Nation has made.
  I learned that lesson as a very young Senator. I got here in 1973, 
and one of the people, along with Danny and others on this floor who 
kept me here, was Mike Mansfield, the majority leader. He used to once 
a week have us report to his office, which is where the leader's office 
is on the other side. He really was doing it, in retrospect, to take my 
pulse, to see how I was doing.
  I walked in one day through those doors on the Republican side, and a 
man who became my friend, Jesse Helms, and his wife Dot--who is still 
my close friend and I keep in contact with her--I walked through those 
doors, and Jesse Helms, who came in 1972 with me, was standing in the 
back excoriating Bob Dole for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  I walked through the floor on my way to my meeting with Senator 
Mansfield. I walked in and sat down on the

[[Page 893]]

other side of his desk. Some of you remember he smoked a pipe a lot of 
times when he was in his office. He had the pipe in his mouth and 
looked at me and said: Joe, looks like something is bothering you.
  I said: Mr. Leader, I can't believe what I just heard on the floor of 
the Senate. I can't believe that anyone could be so heartless and care 
so little about people with disabilities. I tell you, it makes me 
angry, Mr. Leader.
  He said: Joe, what would you say if I told you that 4 years ago, 
maybe 5, Dot Helms and Jesse Helms were reading, I think the Charlotte 
Observer, the local newspaper, and they saw a piece in the paper about 
a young man in braces who was handicapped at an orphanage. He was in 
his early teens. All the caption said was the young man wanted nothing 
more for Christmas than to be part of a family.
  He said: What would you say if I told you Dot Helms and Jesse Helms 
adopted that young man as their own child?
  I said: I would feel like a fool, an absolute fool.
  He said: Well, they did.
  He said: Joe, every man and woman sent here is sent here because 
their State recognizes something decent about them. It is easy to find 
the part you don't like. I think your job, Joe, is to find out that 
part that caused him to be sent here.
  He said: Joe, never question another man's motive. Question his 
judgment but never his motive.
  I think I can say without fear of contradiction, I have never 
questioned any one of your motives. I learned that lesson very early at 
the hands of iron Mike Mansfield who had more character in his little 
finger than the vast majority of people we know have in their whole 
bodies.
  That advice has guided me, and hopefully well, and I hope it guides 
this Congress because those who are willing to look for the good in the 
other guy, the other woman, I think become better people and become 
better and more able legislators.
  This approach allowed me to develop friendships I would never have 
expected would have occurred. I knew I would be friends with Danny 
Inouye who came to campaign for me. I knew I could be friends with Ted 
Kennedy. And I knew I could be friends with Fulbright and Humphrey and 
Javits, men with whom I shared a common view and a common philosophy. 
But I never thought--I never thought--I would develop deep personal 
relationships with men whose positions played an extremely large part 
in my desire to come to the Senate in the first place to change what 
they believed in--Eastland, Stennis, Thurmond. All these men became my 
friends.
  As Senator Hatch will remember, I used to go over after every 
executive session of the Senate Judiciary Committee and go into Jim 
Eastland's office, which was catercorner, and sit down and he allowed 
me to ask him a lot of dumb questions as a young kid would want to ask: 
Who is the most powerful man you ever met, Senator? What is the most 
significant thing that has ever occurred since you have been here?
  On that score, he looked at me and said: Air conditioning.
  I said: I beg your pardon?
  He said: The most significant thing that happened since I got here 
was air conditioning.
  I thought: Wow, that is kind of strange.
  He said: You know, Joe, before we had air conditioning, all that 
recessed lighting all used to be great big pieces of glass like in 
showers. He said: Come around May, that Sun--he used to use a little 
bit of profanity which I will not use for appropriate reasons--that 
darn Sun would beat down on that dome, hit that glass, act like a 
magnifying glass and heat up the Chamber, and we would all go home in 
May and June for the year. Then we put in air conditioning, stayed year 
round and ruined America.
  (Laughter.)
  Senator Stennis was my genuine friend. But one of the most unlikely 
friendships was Strom Thurmond. Some of you knew my relationship with 
Strom. Did I ever think when I got here I would become friends with 
Strom Thurmond? He stood for everything--I got started because of civil 
rights. Yet on his 100th birthday, certainly thereafter, on his death 
bed I got a phone call from his wife Nancy. She said: I am standing 
here at the nurse's station, Joe, with the doctor. I just left Strom. 
He asked me to call you. He wants a favor.
  I said: Of course, Nancy, whatever he wants.
  She said: He would like you to do his eulogy.
  Well, I never thought in my wildest dreams that this place, these 
walls, the honor that resides, would put me in a position where a man 
whose career was one of the most interesting in modern American history 
asked me to do his eulogy. I never worked so hard on a eulogy in my 
whole life. I think I was completely truthful--truthful to the best of 
my knowledge.
  As I said, he was a man who reflected the ages. He lived in three 
different ages, three different parts of American history. I remind 
people, which some will not remember, by the time he resigned, he had 
the highest percentage of African Americans working in his office as 
any Senator. He voted for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. 
He had, in my view, I believe, changed.
  This is an incredible place, I say to my colleagues, an incredible 
place. It has left me with the conviction that personal relationship is 
the one thing that unlocks the true potential of this place. Every good 
thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken in the 36-plus 
years I have been here, came not from the application of pressure by 
interest groups but through the maturation of personal relationships.
  Pressure groups can and are strong and important advocates, but they 
are not often vehicles for compromise. A personal relationship is what 
allows you to go after someone hammer and tongs on one issue and still 
find common ground on the next. It is the grease that lubricates this 
incredible system we have. It is what allows you to see the world from 
another person's perspective and allows them to take the time to see it 
from yours.
  I am sure this has not been my experience alone. In a sense, I am 
probably preaching to the choir of the very men and women sitting in 
this Chamber who have experienced similar things.
  One of the most moving things I ever saw in my life was on the floor 
of the Senate. The year was 1977. We were about to adjourn for the 
year. There was a vote cast, and as we all do, we assembled in the well 
to vote.
  One of my personal heroes, Hubert Humphrey, was literally riddled 
with cancer. He died very shortly thereafter. He showed up, like Dewey 
Bartlett of Oklahoma, he showed up every single day knowing he 
literally had days to live. He walked down this aisle--because I was 
standing back here. I have been on this back row for years, with my 
good friend Fritz Hollings for 34 years.
  He walked down the aisle, and as he did, Barry Goldwater came through 
the doors and was coming down the aisle to vote. Barry Goldwater and 
Hubert Humphrey shared virtually nothing in common philosophically. 
They had a pretty tough campaign in 1964. It got pretty rough. Barry 
Goldwater saw Hubert and walked up and gave him a big bear hug. He 
kissed him and Hubert Humphrey kissed him back. And they stood there in 
a tight embrace for minutes, both crying. It brought the entire Senate 
to tears. But to me--to me--it was the mark of a storied history of 
this place. Hubert loved it here. He once said:

       The Senate is a place filled with good will and good 
     intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then 
     this is a pretty good detour.

  Friendship and death are great equalizers. Death will seek all of us 
at some point, but we must choose to seek friendship. I believe our 
ability to work together with people with whom we have real and deep 
and abiding disagreements, especially in these consequential times, is 
going to determine whether we succeed in restoring America. I think it 
is literally that fundamental and basic.
  Things have changed a great deal since I first arrived here. There 
were no

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women in the Senate. Margaret Chase Smith had just retired and it would 
be 6 years until the next woman was elected in her own right, and that 
was Nancy Kassebaum. Today, there are 16 women in the Senate, and we 
need many more, but that is progress.
  Our proceedings in those days were not televised. They didn't have 
fax machines, let alone e-mail. I remember the fights we used to have 
in conference about whether we would actually spend money for 
computers. Remember those fights? Some of the older guys thought: 
Computers? Why are we going to waste the taxpayers' money and put 
computers in our offices? I am almost embarrassed to acknowledge that. 
That makes me a ``pretty old dude,'' as the kids would say.
  I often hear Senators lament today that the 24-hour news cycle and 
the need to go back home every weekend--or in my case every night--
makes it harder than it used to be to get to know one another, to share 
a meal. Not long after I first was elected, there was an accident in my 
family, and I didn't want to stay. Senators Humphrey and Kennedy and 
Mansfield and Hollings, among others, said: Just stay 6 months. It was 
not unusual in those days for there to be groups of Senators who, with 
their spouses, would take turns once a month having dinner for the rest 
of the Senators. Senator Eagleton of Missouri, who recently passed away 
and was a good friend; Senator Gaylord Nelson and his wife, who was 
incredible and who has also recently passed away; Senator Hollings; and 
my friend--and he is my friend--Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska had one 
of those groups, along with a guy named Saxby from Ohio, who became 
Attorney General. While I never, ever stayed in Washington, 
particularly in those days, they insisted I come, and I would go to 
those dinners. I was a kid, I was single, but they included me. The 
truth of the matter is, they went a long way toward saving my life, 
changing my life.
  You know, for the first time in 36 years, I am going to have a home 
in Washington--public housing--and I hope Jill and I can use it to help 
bring us all together. I hope it can be used to foster deepening 
relationships. We all are so busy in our own careers it is awfully hard 
to do it anymore.
  I have seen Senators who have come to this institution to attack it--
because that is how they got here, they attacked it. They called it 
useless and venal. Attitudes such as that, which have been observed in 
the past, can sometimes become self-fulfilling prophesies. But if you 
come here with a dedication to hard work, an open mind, some good 
faith, and to make progress, that, too, can become a self-fulfilling 
prophecy.
  In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Phi Beta Kappa address to 
Harvard, said:

       Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their 
     duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which 
     Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon 
     were only young men in libraries when they wrote those books.

  I am told today by the Senate Historian that there have been over 
1,900 Senators who have served. I have served with more than 320 of 
them, and I have learned something from every one of them. As a matter 
of fact, I was also given a piece of discouraging information as well; 
that only 19 Senators in the history of the United States of America 
have ever served as long as I have, one of whom is in this Chamber. As 
I said, I have learned a lot from them, and I can tell you from 
experience that most of them are only seen as giants in the hindsight 
of history. At the time, they were legislators trying to do their best.
  I look in my desk and I see the names carved in the drawer. Maybe the 
public doesn't know how much like kids we are. We get here, and we come 
over here after the Senate is closed and we sit there, somewhat 
embarrassed, and we actually carve our names in the drawers of the 
desk, in the bottom. It is a tradition. Maybe there is someone who 
didn't do it, but I don't know of anyone, even the most sophisticated 
among us. I look in the desk drawer I have and I see names of famous 
Delawareans, such as the longest serving family in the history of the 
State of Delaware--the Bayards. Six have been Senators. But I also see 
the names of Scoop Jackson and John F. Kennedy and others in my drawer. 
Look in your desk and you will see names you recognize as well, and you 
all know them. Forty years from now, when someone opens your desk and 
looks at your name, will they think of you the way I think of these 
men? To me, that is a test we each are going to have to meet.
  With the gravity of the challenges we face today comes--as every 
similar moment in our history--the most significant opportunity for 
change, the most significant opportunity for progress. I firmly believe 
this, too, can be an era of legends, of giants. But this much I know: 
Our Nation desperately needs it to be.
  During my first term in the Senate, when I spoke out in favor of 
campaign finance reform at a Democratic caucus--and Senator Inouye may 
remember this; he was then Secretary of the Senate--the President pro 
tempore, Jim Eastland, listened intently in what is now called the 
Mansfield Room. When I got finished with my impassioned speech about 
the need for public financing, he stood--and he hardly ever spoke at 
the caucus, as Senator Inouye will remember--and he always wore a glen 
plaid suit and always had a cigar in his mouth about as big as a rubber 
hose--and he leaned up at the table in the front--and he never stood 
completely straight--and he sought recognition and he leaned up, put 
himself halfway up, took the cigar out of his mouth, and he said:

       Joe, they tell me ya'll are the youngest man to ever get 
     elected to this August body--

  I wasn't. There was one younger than me popularly elected, but I 
didn't dare correct him. He said:

       Let me tell you something, Joe: Ya'll make many more 
     speeches like you did here today, you're going to be the 
     youngest one-term Senator in the history of the United States 
     of America.

  I walked out of that conference, as I have said to Leader Reid, and 
walked in here--and we didn't used to have those booths by the phone--
and Warren Magnuson, who also smoked a cigar, pulled out his cigar and 
said: Biden, come here. Can you imagine calling to a Senator and 
saying: Come here. He said: Stop this stuff. I didn't work this darned 
hard--a little different language used--I didn't work this darned hard 
the past 30 years to have some sniveling little competitor get the same 
amount of money as me. Stop it. Stop it.
  I walked away as politely and as quickly as I could. I never 
dreamed--I never dreamed--that nearly four decades later I would be 
elected to a seventh term to the Senate of the United States. Never, 
ever dreamed it. Thirty-six years ago, the people of Delaware gave me, 
as they have given you in your States, a rare and sacred opportunity to 
serve them. As I said, after the accident, I was prepared in 1973 to 
walk away from that opportunity. But men such as Ted Kennedy and Mike 
Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey and Fritz Hollings and Dan Inouye 
convinced me to stay--to stay 6 months, Joe. Remember that? Just stay 6 
months. And one of the true giants of the Senate, who thank God is 
still with us, Robert C. Byrd, without any fanfare, in late December, 
in a cold, driving rain, drove to Wilmington, DE, stood outside a 
memorial service at a Catholic Church for my deceased wife and 
daughter, soaking wet in that cold rain, and never once came to see me, 
just to show his respect, and then got back in the automobile and drove 
back to Washington, DC.
  This is a remarkable place, gentlemen and ladies. And as I healed, 
this place became my second family, more than I suspect it is for most. 
I needed it, and for that I will be forever grateful--forever grateful. 
So to the people of Delaware, who have given me the honor of serving 
them, there is no way I can ever express to them how much this meant to 
me. To my staff, past and present, and all those on the floor, past and 
present, dedicated to making this institution run, including the young 
pages, wide-eyed and hopefully going home and wanting to come back 
someday in our spots, thank you for

[[Page 895]]

everything you have done for me. I suspect you have done for me more 
than you have done for most.
  To my children, Hunter and Ashley and Beau, if I was nothing else, I 
would be content to be the father of such wonderful people. To my 
grandchildren, who constantly remind me why the decisions we make in 
this August body are so important, and to my Jill, you once saved my 
life, and you are my life today, I thank all of you. I thank all my 
colleagues for making my Senate service possible and this next chapter 
in my career in life so hopeful.
  I came here to fight for civil rights. In my office now sits that 
grand conference table that once was used to fight against civil 
rights, and I leave here today to begin my service to our Nation's 
first African-American President. The arc of the universe is long, but 
it does indeed bend toward justice, and the Senate of the United States 
has been an incredible instrument in assuring that justice.
  So although you have not seen the last of me, I say for the last 
time, and with confidence in all of you, optimism in our future, and a 
heart with more gratitude than I can express, I yield the floor.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware is 
recognized.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I was elected State treasurer at the age 
of 29, 4 years after Joe Biden was elected to the Senate. For the last 
30 years or so, I have had the honor and in some cases the misfortune 
of following him as a speaker, throughout the State of Delaware and in 
some cases around the country. It is a tough act to follow and I 
wouldn't pretend to be able to do that.
  Over the last 200 years that we have had a Senator, we have seen any 
number of great orators come here and speak in this Chamber, in some 
cases to mesmerize us, in other cases to inspire us and to change our 
minds. Joe has done all of those things again today and he does it 
perhaps as well as anybody.
  People speak here today, as in the years in the past, and they quote 
Churchill; we quote John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King. I am surprised 
he didn't quote one of his favorite Irish poets, Seamus Heaney, I 
think. He quotes him a lot. But the person I think I have heard Joe 
quote the most in his life has been none of those folks, none of those 
Irish poets, but it has been his mom and his dad. I wish I could ask 
for a show of hands, how many times have you had Joe Biden say to you: 
I give you my word as a Biden. If we could count them all up today in 
this room and if we could get a dollar a week--maybe we couldn't pay 
for the stimulus package but make a pretty good downpayment. Many times 
I have heard him say--he quotes his dad--I will paraphrase it: It is a 
lucky man who gets up in the morning, puts his feet on the ground, and 
knows the work he is about to do has consequence, substance, is 
meaningful.
  A guy doesn't turn out like this by chance--to become the youngest, 
not only one of the two youngest Senators elected in the history of our 
country, he is also the youngest seven-term Senator in the history of 
our country.
  His mom is still living. She lives in a property close to Joe and 
Jill's home. His dad is deceased. But I know we owe them a huge debt of 
gratitude because of the values they instilled in him, the need to 
serve other people, and the Golden Rule. This is a man of deep faith. 
You wouldn't always know it, he doesn't talk a lot about it, but this 
is a person whose life and values were shaped as much by his family and 
his faith as anybody I know. I know his parents taught him to treat 
other people the way he would like to be treated. That led to his great 
involvement and support of the Civil Rights Act and underlies 
everything he does today.
  All of us have families. All of us love our families. I do not think 
I know anybody in public life or outside of public life who is more 
committed to and who loves his family any more than Joe: Jill, his 
first wife Neilia, whom I never had the pleasure of knowing--I tell you 
he has a wonderful wife Jill. It is clear he loves her with all his 
heart. The three kids are not kids anymore; they are in their thirties 
and twenties. Beau is over in Iraq today serving in the National Guard. 
But there is an extraordinary bond between a father and a child.
  It has been said the greatest gift that a father can give to his 
children is to love their mother. He doesn't just love their mother, he 
loves the kids, he loves the grandchildren. This is a loving guy with a 
family that is as strong as any I have ever seen. You heard the old 
saying I would rather see a sermon than hear a sermon. When it comes to 
family values, you see the sermon. You don't just hear it, you see it. 
We see the sermon.
  In politics, I like to say our friends come and go but our enemies 
accumulate. When you think about the people Joe has talked about here 
today, from Eastland to Jesse Helms to Senator Thurmond--he didn't 
mention Phil Gramm--you would never imagine a guy who has his 
convictions, his philosophy, his commitment to civil rights and other 
causes--you would never imagine he would become their friend, 
confidant--and not so much for them to change him, but for him to 
change them and in fact this country.
  Joe, you have been part of the glue that holds this place together. 
As we have said goodbye to a lot of good men in the last several weeks, 
it is a real sort of sense, not of bitterness, not of sweetness, but 
maybe bittersweet that we say goodbye to you today. The 8 years I have 
been here, I know there have been a lot of times when we sought to try 
to make sure the Vice President didn't come and cast a tie-breaking 
vote. My guess is in the time you serve for Vice President--4 years or 
8 years, however long it is going to be; I hope it is 8--my guess is 
there will be times we orchestrate the votes so you will have to be 
here. I don't know if we can do it in a way that will allow you to come 
to the floor and give another speech like you have just given. Maybe we 
can figure it out.
  But as a friend, as we say goodbye and move on to this next 
assignment in life: God bless our President-elect. He has made a 
terrific choice not just from Delaware, which is hugely happy and 
excited, but I think for our country and I think for the world. But I 
want to say, for the last 8 years, thank you for being my friend, my 
confidant. Thank you for being my adviser. Thank you for asking for my 
advice from time to time and listening to my advice. To your staff that 
is gathered here today, and your family up in the balcony, thank you 
for sharing with us a wonderful human being, for nurturing and bringing 
him along. The staff has provided such terrific support, almost like an 
extension of my own staff. We love your family and we love your staff 
and we are going to miss you. Thank you for always having my back, and 
for looking out for me and for making possible the extraordinary 
experience as a junior Senator for the last 8 years.
  I understand your resignation becomes effective, is it 5 p.m. today? 
As I look at this clock here, I know for the next 5 hours, 49 minutes, 
I get to be a junior Senator and then after that I move up in the 
pecking order. But I will always be your junior Senator and your 
colleague and I hope your friend. God bless you in all your life ahead 
and thank you for all you have done for us and for me especially. God 
bless you.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. BIDEN. Thank you very much. You have been one of my closest 
friends and confidants and you will continue to be, and I appreciate 
your sentiment.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered. The Senator from Utah is recognized.
  Mr. HATCH. I am only going to take a few minutes, but I want to say a 
few

[[Page 896]]

things about my friend Joe Biden, certainly from this side of the 
aisle.
   Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Senator Joe Biden as 
his service in the Senate representing the great state of Delaware ends 
and his service as our Nation's next Vice President is about to begin.
  Like everybody else, when I think of Joe Biden, I first think of his 
family. As important as the Senate has been in defining his illustrious 
career, the man we know has been defined by his wife Jill and his 
children. Senator Biden, were he never elected to the Senate or the 
Vice-Presidency, has succeeded and accomplished much in this life when 
you see the tremendous job he and Jill did in raising Beau, Hunter, and 
Ashley.
  Today, however, our remarks will focus on Senator Biden's legislative 
and other professional accomplishments. I can tell you firsthand that 
anyone would be hard pressed to find a more distinguished and effective 
legislator. In an age of endless cynicism toward our elected officials, 
let there be no doubt that the word ``distinguished'' is a truly 
fitting description of this extraordinary public servant. He is a 
friend of mine. I have been privileged to serve 32 years side by side 
with Joe Biden on the Judiciary Committee and I have nothing but 
respect for him.
  Most of our work together was on the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
where Senator Biden served as chairman from 1985 until 1995. I served 
as ranking member for many of those years, and when I first served as 
chairman from 1995 to 1997, I had the good fortune of having Joe Biden 
as my partner on the committee, serving as ranking member. It was on 
the committee that I saw Senator Biden at work and learned a great 
deal.
  I can think of no chairman of the Judiciary Committee who had a 
better sense of what he wanted to accomplish--a vision for the 
committee--than Senator Joe Biden. No one was more interested in the 
details of legislating than he was. The Violence Against Women Act, The 
Violent Crime Control Act of 1994, the drug czar's office and the COPS 
program all would not exist today were it not for his talents and 
leadership.
  In one of my proudest moments as a U.S. Senator, I was joined by 
Senator Biden here on the Senate floor to hail the passage of the Adam 
Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which President Bush signed into 
law a week later, June of 2006. Senator Biden and I had introduced the 
bill only a year earlier, and we worked hard to see its passage in a 
relatively short amount of time. The bill was very significant and the 
law has changed the landscape with regard to sentencing, monitoring, 
adjudicating, registering and tracking sexual predators.
  As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Biden mastered the 
Senate's dying art of legislating because he valued legislating. Joe 
Biden is not just a speech giver--though he is good at giving a long 
speech--he is an exceptional legislator. Majority Leader George 
Mitchell said he was the best Senate floor strategist he had ever 
worked with, and coming from George Mitchell, that's saying something, 
because George Mitchell was one of the best Majority Leaders we have 
had in the Senate. There are few like Senator Biden left in the Senate 
who have the skill and patience to carefully and thoughtfully develop 
an idea for policy reform; craft what he believes to be the ideal bill; 
patiently--and with the long view--establish a record through hearings, 
reports, and media engagement; build institutional support by 
corralling colleagues and crafting compromise; and skillfully managing 
the bill's passage on the floor.
  Political pundits and the media have for decades tried to get a 
handle on what makes Joe Biden tick. Too often, they settled for the 
easy answer--Joe's ``a wild stallion that never felt the bridle'' or he 
is an ``unguided missile.'' That's nonsense. Senator Biden has proven 
himself to be an accomplished statesman with enormous personal vision.
  I am proud he is going to be our next Vice President of the United 
States serving with, as he said, the first African-American President. 
We are all proud of that and we should be, and we should do everything 
in our power to help.
  No one better captured the Joe Biden we know than the author Richard 
Ben Cramer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his political reporting of 
the 1988 Presidential race in the classic book ``What It Takes.''
  As a kid growing up in Scranton, ``there was (to be perfectly blunt, 
as Joe would say) a breathtaking element of balls.'' That was Richard 
Ben Cramer, not me. ``Joe Biden had balls. Lot of times more balls than 
sense. . . . What he was, was tough from the neck up. He knew what he 
wanted to do and he did it.'' Later in life as a lawyer, he applied 
that mental toughness and, another quote, ``cocky self-possession'' to 
his chosen career--politics. There, Joe Biden would envision what he 
wanted to achieve and how he wanted to achieve it. While the experts, 
staffers, and consultants we Senators come to rely on would buzz around 
him with advice and direction, Joe Biden would listen but know in his 
gut what to do. ``Joe could see the thing whole thing in his head, and 
what's more, he could talk it.''
  In the end, what Joe Biden chose to take on and how he succeeded all 
rested on Joe's certainty. As Cramer wrote, ``Once he'd seen it . . . 
he knew what was supposed to happen . . . Hell, it was a done deal . . 
. and then it wasn't imagination, or even balls. Not to Joe Biden. It 
was destiny.''
  That is from ``What It Takes,'' Richard Ben Cramer's book from 1993.
  The record of Joe Biden's life is clear. Mr. Vice President-elect, 
you have had ``what it takes'' to be an accomplished Senator, and you 
have ``what it takes'' to be our Nation's Vice President.
  Your tenure here has been marked with hard work, and much success, 
much pain, and much grief, much difficulty. Yet you remain humble and 
hardworking. The skills and abilities our Lord bestowed on you have 
been used mightily by you. Your integrity, truthfulness, and passion 
will continue to serve you and this great country of ours.
  I thank you for your service, and thank you for your friendship, 
thank you for your continued sacrifice on behalf of this great Nation, 
and I tell you personally that I love you. I appreciate you very much. 
I care for you. I care for your family. We are going to be helpful to 
you as Vice President of the United States. And we hope you will not 
screw it up too badly there. We are going to be right there with you, 
if we can.
  Joe, we are proud of you and we ask God to bless you.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. BIDEN. I would like, if I may, Mr. President, to thank my friend 
from Utah for his kind comments. We have been buddies for a long time. 
I hope that continues in my new job.
  Mr. KERRY. It is hard to imagine, at least for me it is hard to 
imagine, the Senate without Joe Biden--at least as a Senator on the 
floor, in the thick of the fray. That is not just because he came here 
as a kid, so to speak, not just because he chaired some of this 
institution's most important committees, but it is because of this 
particular moment that we find ourselves in, in the country.
  This is the kind of moment Joe Biden loves to be in the middle of, 
legislating. Obviously, we take a very special pride in knowing that 
one of our own is about to become Vice President. While this makes him 
President of the Senate, for once I actually wish Dick Cheney was right 
and that Joe was still a part of the legislative branch. But, make no 
mistake, the Senate's loss is President Obama's and the country's gain. 
Joe will bring a terrific strategic thinking and legislative experience 
to the challenges we face.
  This is a special moment in so many ways, and it is an emotional 
moment. I have known Joe since we were both kids, in terms of this 
journey, since we first ran for office in 1972. We learned about each 
other then, reading the press clips of each other's races, hearing 
stories from mutual friends and joint campaign workers. The 
conventional wisdom of that year is that Joe

[[Page 897]]

couldn't win his race against an incumbent, Hale Boggs, who had been in 
office and winning elections in Delaware for 6 years. I, on the other 
hand, was favored to win mine. True to conventional wisdom, it turned 
out exactly the opposite way.
  To this day, I like to kid our longtime friend, our New Jersey 
friend, John Marttila, who was deeply involved in both of our races 
back then, that if he had just spent a little more time in Lowell, MA, 
and a little less time in Wilmington, things might have turned out 
differently. But for Joe and me, both in politics and in life, things 
have actually turned out pretty well, and I have loved sharing this 
journey with him.
  In a lot of ways, Joe Biden is an old-fashioned kind of guy. He lives 
life and politics by what a lot of people think are the old rules, 
regrettably: Unfailingly loyal, your word is your bond, you tell the 
truth, you act on principle not ideology, and you keep faith with 
family and home, you never forget where your roots are or who you are, 
and you are consistent and honest in all your endeavors.
  Joe Biden is all of that and a lot more in many personal ways. He is 
a patriarch to the core, in the best time-honored understanding of the 
meaning of that word. He never smiles more broadly or picks up more 
personal energy than when he is talking about his family. Frankly, to 
know Joe Biden is also to know a lot of Bidens.
  Dozens of our colleagues, hundreds over the years, know that if you 
call Joe Biden with a late-night question, the odds are pretty high you 
are going to find him on that train, riding Amtrak home to be there 
with Jill, Beau, Hunter, Ashley, and the grandchildren. There is 
something pretty great about a Senator who makes sure to stop by his 
mom's house for ice cream or a kiss good night on his way home. That is 
exactly what Joe Biden would do with his 92-year-old spitfire mother, 
Jean Finnegan Biden. It is the lessons of that big, Irish, warm, 
protective family that Joe brought to the Senate. He is the big brother 
whose sister Val remembers him as her protector on the playground, the 
dad whom Beau and Hunter remember urging them to get up when they got 
knocked down on the soccer field, the boss who calls a staff member 
when they have a sick parent or who threatens to fire you if you miss 
your kid's birthday because you are working late for him.
  This is someone in the Senate who had a reputation for not just 
talking about family values but living them. As Joe Biden said so 
movingly this morning: He saw the Senate as an extended family and here 
he applied the lessons his dad taught him in Scranton, that everything 
comes down to dignity and respect. He has always respected the 
institution, and he always respected the dignity and individuality of 
every single one of his colleagues.
  One of the great stories that Joe told today, which has always spoken 
to me personally, is one that tells a lot about ushering in a new era 
of bipartisanship. When Joe first arrived in the Senate, he complained 
to the majority leader, Mike Mansfield, about a speech that another new 
Senator named Jesse Helms had made. Mansfield told him: Joe, understand 
one thing. Everyone is sent here for a reason; because there is 
something in them that their folks like. Don't question their motive.
  Every one of us who has worked with Joe Biden knows how much he took 
this lesson to heart and how much we gain by applying it today. His 
example is clear. If you treat people decently, look for the best in 
them, you can sit down and work through divisive issues; not just score 
more political points but actually get something done.
  Joe likes to talk about his first impression of Jesse Helms, but he 
is often too modest to talk about what happened later. Some people 
might have been surprised that Joe Biden, Jesse Helms, and I teamed up 
in the fight against global HIV/AIDS. Some never would have believed 
that together we could bring about what is today the largest public 
health expenditure or effort by any single country in world history. 
That is what happens when Joe Biden takes to heart the message of a 
wise warhorse such as Mike Mansfield, looks past the stereotypes, past 
the party labels, and throws out all the ideological language to find 
the common ground.
  Nowhere did I see that more than on the issue of crime. Coming from 
the vantage point of being a prosecutor in the 1970s, who then became a 
Senator in the 1980s, I can tell you there was no more divisive, ugly 
wedge and emotionally charged issue than crime until Joe Biden and the 
1994 crime bill. Joe put an end to the ``Willie Hortonizing'' of this 
issue. We worked closely together and put more cops on the streets of 
America. I remember Joe's passion and tenacity on that bill.
  It was a huge, landmark piece of legislation, complicated, divisive--
but not so because of Joe's enormous skill that shepherded it through 
the ideological minefields that otherwise might have been impossible. 
Joe was simply not going to accept defeat. He made dozens of trips to 
the White House, had dozens of meetings with congressional leadership, 
all to find a way to create common ground and ultimately pass a bill 
that resulted in the lowest crime rates in a generation. Every step of 
the way he sought out friends, he crossed the aisle, he worked the 
process and built allies and invited them to share not just in the work 
but also to share in the credit, which is, in the end, the best way to 
get things done here. That is leadership in the Senate and that is 
exactly how we make progress.
  He also brought great skill to his stewardship in the Foreign 
Relations Committee. I served on that committee for the full 25 years I 
have been here, all of it with Joe Biden and some of it with Joe Biden 
as our chair. Let me give an example.
  When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, respecting Georgia's 
sovereignty became a sound bite for a lot of people, but for Joe Biden 
it was a moment to pick up a phone, call up an old friend, someone he 
had met as a young Parliamentarian, who was then in his twenties. So 
Joe Biden got on a plane, took that flight all night, and sat on a 
hilltop in Georgia with his old friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, and 
together they talked to not just about the security of Georgia but the 
security of a man who was then in very real danger, a man Joe Biden 
believed was willing to die for democracy.
  This is just one small example of the emotional intelligence and 
personal touch that had been the calling cards of Joe's career in 
public life for decades.
  As we all know, Joe is blessed with a big, all-encompassing Irish 
sense of humor, an ability to have fun amidst all the rest of the 
tensions and stress and chaos. We still joke about the trip we took 
with Chuck Hagel to a forward operating base in Kunar Province in 
Afghanistan in the middle of winter and our helicopter wound up getting 
caught in a blizzard. We had just received a briefing that, where the 
modern road system ends, the Taliban begins. Lo and behold, the next 
thing we knew, we had a forced landing high on a mountaintop on a dirt 
road with nothing around us. We sat around swapping stories for a while 
and came up with a few contingency plans in case the Taliban attacked. 
First, we thought--use the hot air of three talkative Senators and the 
helicopter will rise. Then we figured failing that we will talk the 
Taliban to death. Ultimately, we figured we would let Joe Biden lead a 
snowball charge and that would be the end of the deal. But our superb 
military protectors, efficient as always, soon had us out of there, 
safe and rescued, and we have had a good time laughing about it ever 
since.
  Later, when I told him my plan to have him lead the brigade, Joe, 
reliving his Blue Hen college football glory days, flexed his right arm 
and said in that inimitable Biden way: The Taliban? They are not worth 
my rocket arm.
  As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Joe applied a no-
holds-barred, unvarnished truth-telling to many politically sensitive 
issues. In the middle of his own Presidential campaign, he didn't 
hesitate to ask whether our counterterrorism policy had turned a deadly 
serious but manageable threat, a small number of radical groups that 
hate America, into a

[[Page 898]]

10-foot-tall existential monster that dictates nearly every move we 
make. It was not a poll-tested or popular question, but it was a sign 
of leadership and a mark of vision that will serve America well when he 
takes the oath as Vice President of the United States.
  Let me share one last story involving my senior Senator, Ted Kennedy, 
who has been an incredible mentor, both to me and to Joe, since we both 
got into this business.
  Years ago, when Ted Kennedy joined the Armed Services Committee, 
Senate rules dictated that Ted had to step down from the Judiciary 
Committee. That would have made Joe the chairman. So Joe had all the 
interest in the world for that to happen. But, instead--and I suppose I 
should say what Senator in their early forties, presented with the 
choice, wouldn't have loved to have had the responsibility of the 
Judiciary Committee. But Joe Biden went to the caucus and he gave them 
an ultimatum. He said point blank: This is ridiculous. I wouldn't serve 
as a chairman unless I have Teddy Kennedy on my side on this committee.
  Make no mistake, Ted Kennedy moved to Armed Services, but he stayed 
on the Judiciary Committee. Together, they fought some of the greatest 
confirmation battles in the history of the Supreme Court. No one can 
imagine the Judiciary Committee without Ted Kennedy's decades of focus 
and fire. But the Senate should know it would not have been possible if 
it had not been for Joe Biden's youthful challenge to the leadership to 
get him to be able to stay there.
  Joe is one of the people in the Senate whom I have had the privilege 
of enjoying now for a quarter of a century and one of the people, 
obviously, I have enjoyed serving with the most. We have been through a 
lot. We have shared a lot, good and bad, ups and downs. What is 
exciting is, frankly, we still have a lot more to come. While Joe is 
making that short ride up to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I 
know there is one thing that is not going to change. We are always 
going to be able to count on him to be the same Joe Biden, and I know 
we can take that to the bank. When Joe works with us in these next 
months--and he will work with us intensely--and when he says to you: I 
give you my word as a Biden that this is going to happen, we can take 
that to the bank and know it will happen.
  We are very proud of our colleague, Senator Biden. We wish him well 
and Godspeed. We look forward to seeing him as the presiding official 
of this body, but, more importantly, we look forward to working with 
him on the enormous challenges this country faces.
  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise to honor my good friend and our 
distinguished colleague, Joe Biden, who will be ending his remarkable 
Senate career to assume the office of the Vice President of the United 
States. It has been my great privilege to serve with Joe Biden in the 
Senate for 32 years. He and I have served together on the Foreign 
Relations Committee for all of the 30 years that I have been a member 
of that panel. He entered the Senate as the sixth youngest person ever 
elected to this body, having been elected at age 29 and seated soon 
after he reached the constitutionally required 30 years of age. He 
leaves as the longest serving Senator in the history of his State and 
the 14th longest serving Senator in U.S. history. He has cast more 
Senate votes than all but nine other Senators in history.
  Joe Biden comes from a modest Irish-Catholic background. He started 
out in Scranton, PA, where his father was a used car salesman and his 
mother was a homemaker. The oldest of four children, Joe and his family 
moved to Claymont, DE, where his father had found a better job. It may 
be hard for many to believe today, but as a teenager, Joe had trouble 
speaking because he had a stutter. But showing the grit and 
determination we all have come to know, he undertook to give a speech 
to his entire school as a way to force himself to overcome his 
impediment. At the University of Delaware, he majored in history and 
political science, and he received a law degree from Syracuse 
University.
  He started practicing law and worked as a public defender, but 
perhaps because his grandfather had been a State senator in 
Pennsylvania, he was soon attracted to politics. At the young age of 
27, he was elected to the County Council of New Castle County in 
Delaware. Two years later he surprised all the political experts in his 
State, as well as his opponent, by defeating an incumbent Senator in a 
presumably ``safe'' seat. The margin of victory was just over 3,000 
votes, but Joe went on to increase his vote totals in subsequent 
reelection races.
  Although Joe was elected at an especially young age, it would be 
wrong to say that he led a charmed life. In fact, just the opposite is 
the case. Just weeks after his election, his wife Neilia and his 
youngest child Naomi were killed in a car crash while Christmas 
shopping. His two other children, Beau and Hunter, were critically 
injured. Naturally, the tragedy was devastating to Joe, and he 
considered dropping the Senate seat to tend to his stricken family. The 
distinguished majority leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, persuaded 
Joe to reconsider, and he took the oath of office at his sons' hospital 
bedside.
  It was the start of a long career of dedicated service in the Senate. 
It also was the start of a tradition for which Joe has become famous--
his regular commute on Amtrak from Wilmington down to Washington when 
the Senate was in session.
  When I arrived in the Senate 4 years later, Joe had already 
established a reputation as a dynamic presence on Capitol Hill. In 
1979, I joined him on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he had 
become a member in 1975. We have served together ever since, and I have 
benefitted greatly from Joe's friendship during that time. I have 
always believed that foreign policy is most effective when it is done 
in a bipartisan manner, and in Joe I found an able partner willing to 
work across the aisle to achieve important victories on behalf of the 
country and the American people. Some of the battles have not been 
easy. I recall, for instance, the difficult job we had in achieving 
passage of the Chemical Weapons Convention during President Clinton's 
administration. We celebrated another major victory last year with the 
passage of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global 
Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act. Recently, 
our collaboration led to the joint sponsoring and introduction of the 
Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act. We have worked closely on 
legislation related to Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change, tropical 
forest conservation, international violence against women, the control 
of global pathogens, and numerous arms control measures.
  Each of us has twice been chairman of the Foreign Relations 
Committee, and we and our staffs have worked with special purpose 
during those times. We share the belief that the Foreign Relations 
Committee occupies a special place in history and is an essential 
component of a successful U.S. foreign policy. It is because of Joe's 
wide experience, keen mind, steady hand and strong advocacy that he was 
chosen by our Committee colleague, Senator Obama, to be his vice 
presidential running mate.
  While I will deeply miss working with Joe on the committee, I look 
forward to joining with him to achieve further accomplishments while he 
is vice president. Besides a new commuting routine, he will face many 
challenges, and I know he will gain strength from the support and 
affection of his family: his lovely wife Jill, their daughter Ashley, 
and his two sons, Beau and Hunter, as well as their five grandchildren. 
I wish them all the best as they begin this exciting new chapter in 
their lives.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on this cold January morning, I am being 
kept warm by four glorious words that keep running through my mind--
those four words are: ``Vice President Joe Biden.'' I love the sound of 
that. It is music to my ears.
  I have known Joe Biden for nearly four decades, since he was first 
elected

[[Page 899]]

to the Senate in 1972. I have been enriched by his friendship. I have 
appreciated his commitment to public service. I have watched his work 
as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate 
Committee on the Judiciary. I have admired the enthusiasm and 
dedication he has brought to his work every single day he has been a 
U.S. Senator.
  His years of service in this institution will be one of his greatest 
assets in the years ahead. During his tenure in the Senate, Joe has 
gained a priceless working understanding of the importance of our 
constitutional systems of checks and balances and separation of powers. 
He has stood on this floor and argued long and hard--with fire in his 
belly--against executives of both political parties when he felt it was 
in the best interests of this Nation. We have all watched him, time and 
again, pacing this floor, speaking in that rhythmic Joe Biden way--
drawing us in with a shout and then punctuating his point in whispered 
tones. I can see him now, putting the White House on notice, and 
defending the advice and consent authority of Senators. Joe has seen 
how this part of the government--the people's branch--lives. He will 
assume his new job fresh from membership in the world's greatest 
deliberative body. Those Senate years will, I believe, serve him, the 
country, and the people, well.
  Senator Biden is moving on, and while I regret losing him as a 
colleague here, I am heartened by the experience and wisdom he takes to 
his new duties. I believe that he will be a great Vice President. My 
good friend and former colleague, President-elect Obama showed 
outstanding judgment when he selected Senator Joe Biden to be his 
running mate.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the regular order is that Hillary Clinton 
was to be recognized at 11 o'clock. There are a lot of people who want 
to say some things about Senator Biden and Hillary Clinton. We have 
votes scheduled at noon. So I would ask the Chair, under the order, to 
recognize the Senator from New York, Mrs. Clinton.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York is 
recognized.

                          ____________________