[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Pages 27903-27904]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATING SENATOR ROBERT BYRD

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, when baseball legend Lou Gehrig retired 
after playing 2,130 consecutive games, every expert drew the same 
conclusion: This record will never be broken. Of course, they were 
wrong.
  Throughout history, forecasters have sentenced themselves to ridicule 
for prematurely assuming a skyscraper's height would never be topped, 
for promising an invention's ingenuity would never be outdone, or for 
contending an athletic feat would never be surpassed.
  Even so, I am willing to risk predicting that many of Senator Robert 
Byrd's records will never be matched. Since coming to the Senate in 
1959, Senator Byrd has cast more than 18,500 votes. No one else, past 
or present, even comes close. He is the only Senator who has ever been 
elected to nine full terms in this body. He has presided over both the 
shortest session in Senate history--not even one second long--and 
presided for the longest continuous period--more than 21 hours. No one 
has ever served on a Senate Committee longer than Senator Byrd. Just 
days after being sworn in, he joined the Appropriation Committee he 
would later chair. He has held the most leadership positions in Senate 
history, and continues to serve as our President Pro Tempore.
  And just moments ago, when this body was gaveled into session, 
Senator Byrd realized one more unparalleled accomplishment: he has just 
become the longest-serving Member of Congress in U.S. history.
  Every day since January 3, 1953--that is 56 years, 10 months and 16 
days--West Virginians have been proud to be presented in Washington, by 
Robert Byrd.
  He began his service in the House the same day Alaska became our 49th 
State, and was months into his Senate service when Hawaii became our 
50th.
  Senator Byrd has served in this Nation's Congress for more than a 
quarter of the time it has existed. And he has served in Congress 
longer than more than a quarter of today's sitting Senators--and the 
President of the United States--have been alive. That doesn't even 
count one Senator who was born just days after his first election to 
represent West Virginia's Sixth Congressional District, and a second 
who was born just weeks after that.
  A dozen men have called the Oval Office his own while Senator Byrd 
has called the Capitol building his office.
  He twice won every single one of West Virginia's 55 counties. And 
throughout one of the longest political careers in history, no one ever 
has defeated Robert Byrd in a single election.
  But though each one of those campaigns--after each of the 12 times he

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has taken an oath to represent the people of West Virginia--on every 
single one of the 20,774 days he has served--he has never taken the 
privilege for granted.
  As a former leader of both the majority and the minority caucuses in 
the Senate, he knows better than most that legislation is the art of 
compromise. It is telling that the man who has served here longer than 
any other American has come to the conclusion that we must work 
together as partners, not partisans, for the good of our country--and, 
of course, the State of West Virginia.
  He has seen partisanship and bipartisanship; war and peace; recession 
and recovery; and his perspective is invaluable to the way we carry 
ourselves as U.S. Senators.
  Senator Byrd's legislative accomplishments are many, and he continues 
to accumulate them. And while those accomplishments fortify his 
incomparable legacy, he is perhaps best known in this Chamber as the 
foremost guardian of the Senate's complex rules, procedures and 
customs.
  He has not concerned himself with such precision as a pastime or a 
mere hobby. He has done so because of the unyielding respect he has for 
the Senate. And on this momentous occasion, I say to my friend that the 
Senate returns that unyielding respect to him.
  By virtue of his longevity, Robert Byrd has known and worked with 
many of the greats of the United States Senate. By virtue of his 
integrity, he has long since established himself among the greats.
  There will never be another Senator like Senator Byrd, and today's 
milestone is another record that will never be broken.
  Congratulations, Robert C. Byrd, an orphan who changed history.

                          ____________________