[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12361-12367]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the Senate has lost its most talented, 
dedicated, and best-informed Member about the precedents, rules, and 
customs of the Senate, when the distinguished President pro tempore, 
Robert Byrd, passed away to join his beloved wife Erma in the heaven he 
was confident existed for those who were true believers.
  I had the good fortune to work closely with Robert Byrd as a fellow 
member of the Appropriations Committee for 30 years. I served as the 
ranking minority member when he was chairman and as chairman when he 
was the ranking minority member. I preferred being chairman. But I 
thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities to conduct the hearings, schedule 
the committee markups, and negotiate with our House colleagues to 
formulate and pass the bills that funded the departments of the 
executive branch, the judiciary, and the Congress.
  One of the highlights of my experience with Robert Byrd was a trip we 
took to several European capitals. He was comfortable discussing our 
mutual interests and differences with the leaders of other nations. His 
mastery of European history and politics was as impressive as his well-
informed understanding of American history and politics.
  On one leg of our trip, Senator Byrd asked my wife Rose to come sit 
by him. He wanted to dictate something to her. He started a recitation 
with names that were not familiar to me, but eventually Rose realized 
that he was reciting from memory the names of the monarchs of Great 
Britain, the United Kingdom as we know it, and in the order in which 
each had served throughout the entire history of that great country. It 
was an unbelievable performance, reflecting an awesome ability of 
recall, and a reverential appreciation of a nation which has been our 
closest ally in recent history.
  Robert Byrd was not only my friend but a mentor, an example of 
dedicated, disciplined, and determined leadership. I will miss him, but 
I will always remember his legacy of seriousness of purpose, and his 
love for the Senate, its role in the legislative process, its powers of 
advise and consent, and its continuity that has helped make our 
government the most respected in the world.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I want to take a few moments today about 
one of the best teachers I have ever known: Senator Robert C. Byrd.
  The man we lost this week is known for many things: as the longest 
serving member of Congress in the Nation's history; as an accomplished 
legislator; as an author and historian; as a self-made man who reached 
exalted heights, yet never forgot the coal miners and the families of 
the mountain home community from which he came. I think of him as a 
teacher, one who began teaching me from the moment I came to the U.S. 
Senate, and one whose lessons I sought right up to the time he was 
taken from us this week.
  Serving as a new Senator in the majority means, among other things, 
hours spent in this Chamber, presiding over the Senate. I was fortunate 
that for many of my early years here, I spent much of that time in the 
Presiding Officer's chair listening to Senator Byrd speak on the 
history of this body, its traditions and practices, and its historic 
debt to another great body that played a major role in mankind's march 
toward democratic government, the Roman senate.
  I was learning from him two decades later, when Senator Byrd led a 
small group of us who filed a lawsuit and later a legal brief 
challenging a law we believed to be unconstitutional: the law granting 
the President the so-called line-item veto. He, like I and many others, 
saw this law as bending the Constitution in ways that usurped 
Congress's constitutional authority and responsibility. In 1998, the 
U.S. Supreme Court agreed. The majority in that case, citing its 
``profound importance,'' concluded that the line-item veto ``may or may 
not be desirable,'' but that it was surely not consistent with ``the 
procedures designed by the Framers of article I, section 7 of the 
Constitution'' the so-called presentment clause.
  I remember standing next to Senator Byrd at a press conference 
celebrating that victory for the Constitution, as he pulled out of his 
pocket the copy of that great founding document he always carried with 
him. A copy of the Constitution that sits today on my desk, in front of 
me at all times, was inscribed to me by Senator Robert C. Byrd.
  I had hoped to visit with him this week to again listen and learn. In 
February, Senator Byrd sent all of us, his Senate colleagues, a letter 
setting out his position on preserving the ability to engage in 
extended debate in the Senate. It was yet another powerful defense of 
both the enduring traditions of the Senate, and the need for 
thoughtfulness in invoking those traditions. Senator Byrd's letter 
sparked some thoughts of my own, and last week, I discussed with his 
staff scheduling a meeting with him this week to get his take. Once 
again, I was in need of the insight and wisdom of Senator Robert Byrd.
  How I wish he were here today, to continue teaching us. While that 
was not to be, the lessons of Senator Byrd's life and long service will 
endure.

[[Page 12362]]

  His career is a testament to hard work and determination. This is a 
man who spent 10 years in night school classes to earn his law degree, 
who when he focused on an issue he did so with uncommon intensity. We 
can all learn from his commitment and grit.
  Like any good teacher, Senator Byrd never stopped trying to learn. He 
was a man of strong convictions who knew the value of admitting when he 
was in error. He acknowledged that earlier in his life, he had taken 
positions and held opinions on the subject of civil rights that he 
later regretted. When he shared those regrets, he created a powerful 
teachable moment. We can all learn from his willingness to learn and 
grow to the very end of his life.
  He was tireless in his defense of the role the Constitution assigns 
to the Congress, and specifically the Senate, in our democracy. In his 
letter to us in February, he wrote: ``The Senate is the only place in 
government where the rights of a numerical minority are so protected.'' 
He called those protections ``essential to the protection of the 
liberties of a free people.''
  Whether it was Congress's constitutional obligations to render 
judgments on matters of war and peace or to exercise the power of the 
purse, Senator Byrd was a relentless fighter for the role the Founding 
Fathers carefully set out for us. He was not defending Senate authority 
for its own sake. His passion was not for Senate prerogatives for their 
own sake, but for the brilliantly conceived constitutional balance of 
powers essential to our freedoms. He passionately believed that we must 
not yield one ounce of the authority that the Constitution entrusts to 
the peoples' elected representatives. We can all learn from the 
conviction, the dedication and the intellectual power he brought to 
that cause, to the end of making it our cause. Let the mission he so 
eloquently espoused be our mission, though our power to persuade be far 
less than Senator Byrd's.
  Robert Byrd had many loves--his late, beloved wife Erma, West 
Virginia and its people, his God, and the Constitution of the nation he 
cherished. But the Senate is his special legacy. For more than two 
centuries we have kept our traditions intact: our unique respect for 
extended debate and minority rights, and for the legislative authority 
that the Constitution places in our hands to exercise and defend. These 
traditions are maintained because of Senators like Robert Byrd, 
Senators who live them and fight for them. I learned more about these 
weighty issues from this great teacher than from anyone or anything in 
my years in the Senate.
  Robert Byrd is no longer with us, teaching us, leading us. But the 
lessons of Robert Byrd's life and career will endure, guiding all of us 
now occupying these desks, and Senators who will occupy these desks for 
ages to come.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, the Senate, in its 223-year history, has 
never had a greater champion than Robert Byrd. West Virginia, in its 
147-year history, has never had a more powerful advocate or public 
servant than Robert Byrd.
  Like so many Senators elected before and after me, I learned very 
quickly how passionate Robert Byrd was about this institution, its 
roots in the Constitution. As all of us remember, he had that dog-eared 
copy of the Constitution he carried in the front pocket of his suit, 
and sometimes in the caucus or other times on the floor, he would pull 
it out to help reinforce a point he was making, even though we all knew 
he could recite the Constitution by memory. But he consulted it often 
without hesitation. In its words, he reminded us that he always found 
wisdom, truth, and excitement--the same excitement he felt as a young 
boy in Wolf Creek Hollow, reading by kerosene lamp about the heroes of 
the American Revolution and the birth of our Nation. Those words 
literally guided him through the 58 years he spent in Washington as a 
Member of the Congress and as a Senator.
  It is fair to say that no one knew the Senate--its history, its 
traditions, and its precedents--better than Robert Byrd. It is all 
there in the four-volume collection of his speeches on the Senate, 
which we were all privileged to receive from him.
  Every freshman Senator got a personal crash course on the Senate's 
history from Robert Byrd himself. I was one of five Democratic freshmen 
elected in 1984. The class of 1984 was privileged to share some lofty 
hopes and goals. Four of the five of us eventually ran for President: 
Al Gore, Paul Simon, Tom Harkin, and myself. All of us can tell you 
that we arrived in the Senate with a thirst for action and an 
impatience for delay. Then-minority leader Robert Byrd didn't 
discourage any of that. In fact, he encouraged it, and he helped all of 
us with our committee assignments so we could push the list of our 
policy ideas that we exuberantly believed we could and would pass into 
law. But in meetings with us individually, he also helped each of us to 
see the bigger picture, to impress upon us the fact that one of our 
most important responsibilities as Senators was to be caretakers of 
this institution--an institution he regarded as both the morning star 
and the evening star of the American constitutional constellation.
  To Robert Byrd, the Senate was, as he said, ``the last bastion of 
minority rights, where a minority can be heard, where a minority can 
stand on its feet, one individual if necessary, and speak until he 
falls into the dust.'' Indeed, earlier this year, when many of us felt 
frustration over the Senate's rules governing filibusters--
specifically, the requirement of 60 votes to cut off debate--Robert 
Byrd cautioned against amending the rules to facilitate expeditious 
action by a simple majority. In a letter sent to all of us, he observed 
that:

       The occasional abuse of the rules has been, at times, a 
     painful side effect of what is otherwise the Senate's 
     greatest purpose--the right to extended, or even unlimited, 
     debate.
       The Senate is the only place in government where the rights 
     of a numerical minority are still protected.

  He added:

       Majorities change with elections. A minority can be right, 
     and minority views can certainly improve legislation. . . . 
     Extended deliberations and debate--when employed 
     judiciously--protect every Senator, and the interests of 
     their constituency, and are essential to the protection of 
     the liberties of a free people.

  Robert Byrd also impressed upon us the fact that we did not serve 
``under'' any President; that as a separate but equal branch of 
government, we served ``with'' Presidents, acted as a check on the 
executive's power. Robert Byrd was the longest serving Member of 
Congress in all of our Nation's history, and as such he served with 11 
Presidents.
  At no time in his career was Robert Byrd's defense of legislative 
prerogatives more pronounced and more eloquent than in arguing against 
granting the Bush administration's broad power to wage preemptive war 
against Iraq. He chided the Senate for standing ``passively mute . . . 
paralyzed by our own uncertainty,'' ceding its war powers to President 
Bush.
  Robert Byrd was, as we all know, a lot more than the guardian of the 
Senate. He was a major figure in the great panorama of American history 
over more than half a century. He was a thinker--thinking and 
reevaluating more in his eighties and nineties than many Senators do in 
a lifetime. He was an ardent supporter of the Vietnam war but surprised 
many with his fierce opposition to President Bush's invasion of Iraq. 
He was a protector of West Virginia's coal industry but came to accept 
the mounting scientific data of global warming and took part in finding 
a solution. To do otherwise, he said, would be ``to stick our heads in 
the sand.''
  Robert Byrd cast more than 18,500 votes in the Senate--a record that 
will never be equalled. His last vote was June 17 against a Republican 
proposal to prevent the extension of unemployment benefits. Earlier 
this year, even with his health failing, he cast one of the most 
historic votes of his career in support of legislation to expand health 
care to all Americans--the life work of his old and departed friend Ted 
Kennedy.
  Whether he voted with you or against you, it was never hard ideology 
with Robert Byrd. He had no use for narrow partisanship that trades on 
attack and

[[Page 12363]]

values only victory. I learned that as a candidate for President in 
2004 when Senator Byrd came to my defense after opponents aimed 
religious smears at me. I was forever grateful to him for doing that.
  It all began one Sunday when Senator Byrd was home in West Virginia 
and found that a brochure had been inserted in a church bulletin saying 
that if elected President, I would ban the Bible. Senator Byrd 
exploded. ``No one side has the market on Christianity or belief in 
God,'' said this born-again Baptist. Later at a rally in Beckley, he 
accused my opponents of having ``improperly hijacked the issue of 
faith'' and said that the suggestion that I intended to ban the Bible 
was ``trash and a lie.''
  But Senator Byrd was not done. He also went to the Senate floor to 
denounce this kind of politics:

       Paid henchmen who talk about Democratic politicians who are 
     eager to ban the Bible obviously think that West Virginians 
     are gullible, ignorant fools. They must think that West 
     Virginians just bounced off the turnip truck. But the people 
     of West Virginia are smarter than that. We are not country 
     bumpkins who will swallow whatever garbage some high-priced 
     political consultant makes up.

  That was Robert Byrd telling it the way he thought.
  Anytime Senator Byrd spoke, any of us who had the privilege of 
serving with him remember his speeches were filled with as many Bible 
references as historical references. When the Senator spoke, the Senate 
kind of came to a halt. Senators would lean forward and listen, as they 
did not necessarily do otherwise, and learn.
  It is fitting that this teacher in the Senate, this guardian of the 
Senate, will lie in state in this Chamber on the floor of the 
institution he revered and which also had so much respect for him. He 
is as much a part of this Chamber in many ways as the historic desks or 
galleries or the busts of Senate presidents.
  He ran for public office 15 times, and he never lost. He was first 
elected to the West Virginia legislature in 1946 and served three terms 
in the House of Representatives before his election to the Senate. It 
is no wonder that he was such a keen observer of politics.
  I remember when I decided to run in 2004, I went to talk with Senator 
Byrd. His advice, in fact, was among the first I sought. He advised me 
to ``go to West Virginia,'' ``get a little coal dust'' on my hands and 
face and ``live in spirit with the working people.'' In keeping with 
his advice, I did just that. What a great experience it was.
  He was deeply proud of West Virginia and its people. He proudly 
defended his work to invest Federal dollars in his State, the kind of 
spending that some people deride as pork. Robert Byrd knew it was 
something else. It was opportunity for his people. He took pride in the 
way that Federal funding helped to lift the economy of West Virginia, 
one of the ``rock bottomest of States,'' as he put it. He breathed new 
life into so many communities across that State with funding for 
highways, hospitals, universities, research institutes, scholarships, 
and housing--all the time giving people the opportunities that he knew 
so many West Virginians of his generation never had. ``You take those 
things away, imagine, it would be blank,'' he once said.
  Robert Byrd's journey was, in many ways, America's journey. He came 
of age in an America segregated by race. But like America, he changed, 
even repenting, and he made amends. Not only did he come to regret his 
segregationist past, but he became an ardent advocate of all kinds of 
civil rights legislation, including a national holiday honoring Dr. 
Martin Luther King. And in the end, Robert Byrd endorsed Barack Obama 
for President. ``I have lived with the weight of my own youthful 
mistakes my whole life, like a millstone around my neck,'' he wrote in 
2008. ``And I accept that those mistakes will forever be mentioned when 
people talk about me. I believe I have learned from those mistakes. I 
know I've tried very hard to do so.''
  That is the expression of a man with a big heart and a big mind.
  The moments that define most men's lives are few. Not so with Robert 
Byrd. He devoted his life to Erma and his family and to public service, 
compiling an extraordinary record of accomplishment and service in more 
than half a century in Congress. His mastery of Senate rules and 
parliamentary procedure was legendary. His devotion to his colleagues 
and to this institution was unequaled. And his contributions to his 
State and to the Nation were monumental.
  Robert Byrd spent most of his life making sure the Senate remained 
what the Founding Fathers intended it to be: a citadel of law, of 
order, of liberty, the anchor of the Republic. And in doing so, he 
takes his place among the giants of the Senate, such as Daniel Webster, 
John C. Calhoun and, of course, his and our dear friend Ted Kennedy.
  May Robert Byrd rest in peace.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise to celebrate the life and career of 
Senator Robert C. Byrd. I have been in the body now since 2002, and 
Senator Byrd will go down in history as not only the longest serving 
Senator to date--maybe forever--but also as one of the most effective 
Members of the Senate.
  He was tough. During his prime, they tell me, there was no tougher 
opponent and no better ally than to have Senator Byrd on your side. And 
when he was on the other side, you had a long day ahead of you.
  He talked about his early life. He is a human being, like the rest of 
us. I think what he was able to do for his people in West Virginia, and 
the country as a whole, will stand the test of time, and he will be 
viewed for many things, not just one. That is the way it should be for 
all of us.
  I had the pleasure of getting to know him when I first came to the 
Senate and I walked into one hell of a fight over judges. The Senate 
was in full battle over the filibustering of judges. The Senate had 
gone down a road it had never gone down before--an open resistance to 
the judicial nominations of President Bush across the board. The body 
was about to explode. There were 55 Republicans at the time, and we all 
believed that what our Democratic colleagues were doing was 
unprecedented, unnecessary, and, quite frankly, dangerous to the 
judiciary. I am sure they had their view, too, and everybody has a 
reason for what they do around here.
  The Gang of 14--affectionately known by some, and discussed by 
others--was formed during that major historical moment in the Senate. I 
remember talking to some observers of the Senate who were telling me 
that if the rules were changed to allow a simple majority vote for the 
confirmation of judges, that would take the Senate down a road it had 
never gone down before, and where it would stop, nobody knew. At the 
same time, there was another constitutional concept that meant a lot to 
me and to others, and that is that people deserve a vote when they are 
nominated by the President.
  Well, Senator Byrd and 13 other Senators--and he was a big leader in 
this--came up with the compromise called ``extraordinary 
circumstances.'' We agreed that we would not filibuster judges unless 
there was an extraordinary circumstance. We understood that elections 
had consequences. What we had in mind was that we would reserve our 
right to filibuster only if the person did not meet the qualification 
test. I believe the advise and consent role of the Senate has to be 
recognized, and I respect elections but not a blank check. So there is 
always the ability of any Senator here, or a group of Senators, to 
stand up and to object--one party versus the other--if you believe the 
person is not qualified.
  The second issue we dealt with was that we all reserved unto 
ourselves the ability to object if we thought the person was an 
activist judge--a political person who was going to be put on the bench 
and the robe used to carry out the political agenda rather than to 
interpret the law.
  The law meant a lot to Senator Byrd--the Constitution did. One of my 
cherished possessions is a signed copy of the Constitution, given to 
all the members of the Gang of 14. That is just one example of where 
very late in life he made a huge impact on the Senate. As history 
records that moment, I daresay it is probably one of his finest

[[Page 12364]]

hours. Because the consequences of not resolving that dispute the way 
we did could have changed the Senate rules forever, and I think the 
judiciary for the worse. So we have a lot to celebrate.
  His family, I know, mourns the loss of their loved one; the people of 
West Virginia, their best champion has passed. But we all pass. It is 
what we leave behind that counts, and I think he has left a lot behind 
and something both Republicans and Democrats can be proud of. Even 
though you disagreed with him, as I did on many occasions, I had 
nothing but respect for the man. He was a true guardian of the Senate 
and what it stands for.
  I don't think we will ever find anybody who loved the institution 
more than Senator Byrd. He will be missed. But the best way we can 
honor his memory is to try to follow in his footsteps when it comes to 
making sure the constitutional role of the Senate is adhered to, and 
that we understand the Senate is not the House, the Senate is not the 
executive branch, the Senate is something special, and let us keep it 
that way.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to an extraordinary 
Senator--Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Chairman Byrd was the longest 
serving Senator in the history of this country. He served with 
extraordinary distinction not only on behalf of the people of West 
Virginia but on behalf of all of us.
  The great lesson of his life is that through constant self-
improvement, through constant education, not only can one rise to great 
heights but one can also contribute to one's country and community.
  Senator Byrd was born in very humble circumstances. At his birth, I 
do not think anyone would have predicted he would become the longest 
serving Senator in the history of the United States. In fact, 
tragically, within a year of his birth, his mother passed away, and he 
went to live with his father's sister. But in those difficult 
circumstances in West Virginia, he rose above it through tenacious 
effort, through hard work.
  Through his life's path, he had an extraordinary companion, the love 
of his life--Erma. Together they not only had a family but they built a 
life of service to others. I know how dear his dear Erma was to Senator 
Byrd.
  Their children, Mona, Marjorie, their sons-in-law, their 
grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren all at this moment are 
reflecting on the wonderful person Robert Byrd was, how much he meant 
to them, and also I hope recognizing how much he meant to all of us. In 
this very difficult moment, I am sure his memory and his example will 
sustain them as it sustains all of us.
  Senator Byrd, from these humble circumstances through hard work in 
shipyards, in the coal fields of West Virginia, rose up. He rose up 
because of his incredible talent, not only intellectual talent, but I 
had the great good fortune once to hear him play the fiddle. Anyone who 
can play a fiddle like that has great hope of employment, at least in 
the musical world. But he went beyond that.
  Again the lesson Senator Byrd teaches us all is constant striving. He 
was someone who received his law degree while a member of the Congress, 
the first and perhaps only person to go to law school while he was also 
serving the people of West Virginia and the Congress.
  He wrote what is regarded as the foremost history of the Senate, not 
only this Senate but also the Roman Senate. He did that because he was 
committed to finding out about history, about life, about human 
challenges, about great human endeavors, and using that knowledge to 
help others.
  He was someone whom we all revered. When I arrived in the Senate, he 
was gracious and kind and helpful. I can always remember he would greet 
me as ``my captain.'' He had a deep affection for those who served, 
even someone as myself who did not serve at the same level of 
distinction as Dan Inouye, John Kerry, John McCain, and others. He is 
someone who helped and supported me, and I appreciated very much his 
kindness.
  I also appreciate the passion he brought in defense of the 
Constitution of the United States and the passion he brought to ensure 
the Senate and the Congress played its rightful role in the 
deliberations of this government.
  He would say quite often that he had not served under numerous 
Presidents; he had served with them as a Senator, in the legislature, a 
coequal branch of government. He fought not simply for personal 
prerogatives, he fought for principle, that this government would be 
based on, as our Founding Fathers' designed it, the interplay between 
the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. His passion for the 
Constitution was evident and obvious.
  He also was passionate in the last few years about the foreign policy 
of the United States. He spoke with eloquence and with passion against 
our engagement in Iraq. He saw it, as now it is becoming clearer and 
clearer, as a strategic distraction from the true challenge, which was 
to defeat our opponents, al-Qaida and their affiliated terrorist 
groups, and to do that to protect this country.
  He was a remarkable man, born of humble origin, self-educated, 
unceasingly educating himself and always seeking to better and improve 
himself. I would suspect in his last few days he was still striving to 
learn more.
  I simply close by thanking him for his service, thanking his family 
for supporting him in his service, and thanking the people of West 
Virginia for their wisdom in sending Robert Byrd to the U.S. Congress 
and the U.S. Senate.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to 
speak on a couple of different subjects. Briefly I wish to say a few 
words about our extraordinary and great colleague who has left the 
Senate and left this world, but his spirit will be here for many years 
to come and his presence will be felt here for decades, if literally 
not centuries, and the extraordinary contribution that Senator Robert 
Byrd of West Virginia has made to the Congress, to the Senate, to our 
country, and to the world.
  My colleague, the Senator from Rhode Island, gave a beautiful tribute 
a few minutes ago. I was in the Chamber and listened to what he said. I 
wish to add that not only did Robert Byrd rise up through educating 
himself--in these days that is almost a foreign concept to so many 
people. You go to school, you get a degree--but he did all of that and 
more. He read so much. He was so curious about so many aspects of life, 
not just politics, not just government, but industry, art, and music 
that literally he was one of the most inspirational human beings I have 
ever had the pleasure to know or ever read about in that sense.
  Senator Reed said he lifted himself from literally an orphan status 
in one of the poorest communities in the world, West Virginia. Parts of 
it are much like a few parts of our country that are extraordinarily 
poor, even by world standards.
  He came from a very humble, orphaned beginning with virtually no 
chance at anything much, and ended up, we know, sitting at that desk, 
which is one of the great desks of honor in this Chamber. As people who 
work here know, the longer one is here, the closer one gets to the 
center aisle. Since he held up the center aisle literally with his 
presence every day, one cannot get any more senior than that desk. We 
look at it now these days and are reminded of him.
  He lifted himself, he lifted his family, but I would say in that 
earnest curious way, he lifted an entire State and an entire Nation. 
There are not many individuals who can say that their life actually did 
that. But Robert Byrd is one of them. West Virginia today is lifted so 
much higher. The children of West Virginia, the families of West 
Virginia, the communities of West Virginia literally were lifted by the 
strength--the spiritual and intellectual strength--and courage and 
tenacity of a man for whom there is no peer in this room relative to 
that, and our Nation across decades, through many of the great trials 
of this Nation. He lifted this Nation to a better place and was such a 
strong man and such a great

[[Page 12365]]

man that he would even admit when he made some very bad mistakes, which 
raises him even higher in my eyes.
  He said toward the end of his life many times that his stand on civil 
rights was not right. He apologized profusely for being on the wrong 
side of history on that issue. He did not make many mistakes such as 
that. But he was such a great man that he admitted when he did.
  Senator Reed recalled that he always called him ``captain,'' but 
Senator Byrd had a way of referring to each of us in a special way. He 
would always say to me: How are you today, Senator, and how is that 
fine father of yours, Moon Landrieu? It would always make me feel so 
wonderful that he would say he was such a great mayor. How is Moon 
today and how is Verna? Can you imagine a gentleman with so much on his 
mind that he would always remember to me the parents I have and that we 
both admire so much? It was a special way about him.
  Finally, when Katrina happened and all of us on the gulf coast were 
devastated--frankly, I could not find a great deal of comfort at the 
level of the administration that was in power. I never thought they 
quite understood the depths of the destruction that occurred. It 
worried me then and it still troubles me to this day. But the first 
meeting I had with Senator Byrd, when I was trying to explain to him 
how devastating this situation was--because it wasn't a hurricane, it 
was a flood and the Federal levees had collapsed--he just sort of put 
his hand out and said: Senator, have a seat. He said: I do understand, 
and I am going to work with you. I am going to help you. I am going to 
be here for the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast as we try to get 
this right.
  Mr. President, we were shortchanged by other Members of Congress and 
by the White House. They never quite understood. When the first 
allocation of funding was given out, it was just an arbitrary number 
thrown out that we were going to take $10 billion and help the gulf 
coast, but no State could get more than $5.4 billion. Well, when you 
looked at the facts at the time, the numbers were so disproportionate 
to the injury that Louisiana and our people had suffered, had you done 
it on just a disaster basis--which we should have done in calculating 
it--we should have gotten $15 billion relative to that distribution.
  When I brought those numbers to Senator Byrd, he said: We are going 
to work on it. And you know what, Mr. President, he did. Unbelievable 
as it might be to the people in this Chamber, because he was a very 
powerful chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he could actually do 
it, and he did.
  I didn't have to explain that much or beg that much. I just had to 
present the data to him that showed this is how many houses were 
destroyed, this is how many homes were lost, this is what the President 
gave to X, Y and Z; what do you think, Senator Byrd? Is it fair for us? 
And he said: Absolutely. So he gave us literally billions of dollars.
  Today, St. Bernard Parish, the city of New Orleans, and parishes all 
in the southern part of the State are recovering because of one person, 
Senator Byrd, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, who said: We 
are not going to leave you at your hour of greatest need.
  I will never forget, and my State will never forget, the generosity 
and the courage it took for him to stand with us through that difficult 
time. So I wanted to, in a small way, add my voice to the many tributes 
that Senator Byrd has received, and those are the most important ones 
that I wanted to share today.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, this is not my regular seat in the 
Senate, but I came here to stand near the place that Senator Robert C. 
Byrd occupied. His absence is noted by the flowers and the black cloth 
that covers his desk.
  There is so much to say about Robert C. Byrd that to have a serious 
discussion about who and what he was would take far more time than we 
have available. He was an unusual man, brilliant, genius, credited with 
encyclopedic knowledge.
  When I came to the Senate in 1983, I was not a young man. I am now an 
older man. When I came, I wanted to meet Senator Byrd. I came from the 
business world. I was chairman and CEO of a significant corporation 
that carried substantial esteem and respect for the record compiled by 
the three of us boys from poor working-class families in Paterson, NJ, 
an industrial city that had its origins as an industrial place at the 
time of Alexander Hamilton.
  I was privileged to meet a lot of people who could be described as 
lofty and holding positions of importance. When I went in to Senator 
Byrd's office to introduce myself--I had met him a couple of times 
before I was elected to the Senate seat from New Jersey--it was with 
great awe and respect that I sat in front of this individual who had 
given so much to our country, who taxed our wits and made us think more 
deeply about our responsibilities than sometimes we have. He was a 
tower of knowledge and strength.
  I introduced myself to him, and we had a nice chat for a while. He 
asked me about my background. I talked about my life and my 
experiences, which are not anything like the depth of Senator Robert 
Byrd's background. I came from a poor family. I served in the Army. I 
received my education at Columbia University because I was able to use 
the scholarship that was given to soldiers who had served in the 
military.
  As I listened to Robert Byrd, what he had accomplished in his 
lifetime dwarfed anything I had ever seen. He was a man born into 
poverty, orphaned at an early stage in life, and turned over to 
relatives to be brought up. He taught himself how to play the violin 
and attended law school part time at night for years, finally getting 
his law degree from the university. He was an incredible figure in our 
time.
  We feel his absence already. In his latest years, he was not 
fortunate enough to have the kind of health he had as a younger man, 
but he always had the respect of everybody who knew him.
  When we look at his history, if one has time to go to the computer 
and get a biography that is held in Wikipedia and see the more than 30 
pages' worth of his accomplishments and history, it was a privilege and 
an honor for those of us who knew him when we look at the positions he 
held. He had elegance. He had grace. He had resilience. He was tough. 
He had a meticulous grasp of history.
  I came out of the computer business. I used to tease Robert C. Byrd. 
I called him ``my human computer.'' He had so much knowledge that, 
frankly, I think it competed very ably with the computers in the early 
eighties when I came to the Senate.
  When I visited him in his office, he asked me if I knew the history 
of the monarchs of the British Empire. I said I did not know much about 
them. I knew the recent one, the sitting monarch at the time. He 
proceeded for more than one hour to give me the history of the monarchs 
of the British Empire, starting with William the Conqueror, 1066, and 
recalling everybody who was King or Queen of England, of the British 
Empire. He talked about how long they served, the precise dates they 
served, whether they died by the hand of an assassin, whether they died 
from a disease, whether they died from an accident. He knew all of that 
detail. I was sitting in total bewilderment as to how one could capture 
and remember so much of that information.
  When I asked to be excused because I had some other business, he was 
ready to give me the history of the Roman Senate. He did this not like 
most of us, with notes. He had it in his brain while he recalled 
everything he learned and did, the number of votes, where he cast them, 
and on what issue. It was remarkable.
  He served at a period of time when we had some of the most remarkable 
people this body has seen. Not to suggest we do not have talent equal 
to the stature of some of those who served then. It is worthy of 
mention that he was the majority leader in the Senate from January 1977 
to January 1981 and again from 1989 to 1989, a relatively

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short period. He preceded and served with people such as Howard Baker 
on the Republican side, Bob Dole, Mike Mansfield, and George Mitchell. 
He was an equal with those powerhouses and stood as one of them. He 
stood out.
  He revered this Senate and the process with which we then operated. 
We are far less committed to process. Bob Byrd insisted we have the 
time, respect, courtesy, and proper addressing of individuals, giving 
it a certain loftiness that we otherwise would not have had.
  Nobody knew more about this body than Robert C. Byrd. He was this 
Chamber's protector. He protected the Senate's rules, the Senate's 
integrity, and he protected the Senate's civility. He taught each and 
every one of us how the Senate works--the ins, the outs. It is hard to 
imagine serving a single day without him. He had such respect for the 
management of this country of ours.
  We should be inspired by Robert C. Byrd's legacy to become more 
cooperative and more civil in the days ahead. We ought to reflect on 
those values tomorrow as we view Senator Byrd's casket lying in repose 
in this Chamber that he loved so dearly. He loved it so much that he 
reminded all of us from time to time--he would pick up on a phrase. 
Someone talked about serving under President this or that President. He 
said: Sir, never, never under. We serve with the President of the 
United States. We never serve under them. We are a body of equal 
importance. And he knew that from every possible position of 
responsibility he held.
  What we should do as a Senate is accept the best that Robert C. Byrd 
brought to us, to share the image he brought to all of us and to the 
stature of this body.
  Robert C. Byrd's journey in life was simply remarkable. He was born 
into deep poverty, growing up without the comforts that many of us take 
for granted, such as running water, and setting an example for all 
Americans of what you might be if you make the effort and you have the 
dedication to a higher purpose.
  Although he was high school valedictorian at the age of 16, he had to 
skip college because he did not have the means to pay for it. He 
overcame that obstacle by becoming a self-taught man and a student of 
history. How did he learn to play the violin all by himself, and learn 
what he did about education and law?
  He served half a century--51 years--in the Senate, holding every 
critical position, including, as I mentioned, majority leader and 
minority leader and President pro tempore. In that position he was 
third in line for the Presidency of the United States.
  Still, he never forgot where he came from and his duty to help 
everyday people. He pleaded their case, particularly his beloved West 
Virginia, as well as across the country.
  I had the privilege to serve with Senator Byrd when he was chairman 
of the Appropriations Committee. Some like to make light of his 
position to fund projects in West Virginia, but there was nothing 
cynical about his life's cause to stamp out poverty in his home State 
and in this country. Senator Byrd called bringing Federal dollars back 
to his State one of his greatest achievements. He understood that a new 
school meant a child would have a better chance for a future. A new 
sewage system meant that families might have clean water--unaccustomed 
as they were in lots of places in his home State. A new highway meant 
that farmers and companies could bring their product and their produce 
to market in hours.
  I will use the expression that he ``elegantized'' the beauty of the 
deeds of working people and brought meaning to the purpose of their 
lives and their work.
  He was a forward-looking man. He, working with all of us, recognized 
the importance of an appropriate infrastructure--the importance of 
Amtrak, of the railroad that serves so many millions of Americans every 
year. He was a voice for stronger rail service, knowing that could get 
people more reliable travel so they would not be stuck in massive 
traffic jams when they had to get someplace. It was an important part 
of an agenda that he had that was so broad.
  Years ago, when Amtrak--a favorite part of my view of what has to 
happen with our infrastructure--was under siege, we worked side by side 
to protect America's premier rail network from being defunded. In 2007, 
when the Amtrak law I authored was on this floor, we faced a difficult 
vote to defeat a killer amendment. I remember standing here as they 
were counting the yeas and nays, and Senator Byrd had occasion to let 
his simple yes or no ring out across this place. He put a stamp on 
that, and that meant that he didn't like it or he did like it.
  He wanted everybody in this place to remember that he was chairman of 
the Appropriations Committee. He remembered when people voted with him 
and when they didn't. He couldn't stand the hypocrisy of people who 
would say: Oh, these earmarks are terrible, and then they would put in 
their list. But he would remember it. It was not a good thing, to meet 
with Robert C. Byrd's disapproval, when you wanted something; 
especially after so hypocritically voting against something and then 
wanting that very thing for your own State.
  We have an obligation to honor the legacy of this giant of an 
individual, this giant of a Senator, this giant of a public servant, 
and that means never losing sight of the millions of Americans out 
there who don't know whether they will have a home now or have a job, 
or whether they will be able to afford electricity or food or a roof to 
sleep under, or a way to take care of their children. But he reminded 
us on a constant basis what our commitment was.
  It also means, I think in reflection, that we should be renewing our 
commitment, as hard as it is--and it is easy to kind of pontificate 
here--to working together. But let us look at what is happening. Let us 
look at what has been happening now. I don't think this is an 
appropriate time to voice lots of criticism, but when we see how 
difficult it is to move positive things through this institution, it is 
hard to understand, because the fundamentals that Robert C. Byrd 
brought to his work were that we were here to serve the public. That 
was the mission.
  Rather than standing in the way of permitting things to be 
considered--things of value--perhaps we ought to have a Byrd lecture to 
the Senate-at-large every now and then and let someone who knew him or 
studied him talk about what he brought to the Senate, in addition to 
extraordinary leadership; someone who could talk about the degree of 
collegiality that is necessary for us to consider things--serious 
things--and to get them done.
  Senator Byrd recently said--and he said this on a regular basis:

       The world has changed. But our responsibilities, our duties 
     as Senators have not changed. We have a responsibility, a 
     duty to the people to make our country a better place.

  It would be fitting if in the shadow of his passing that we could 
take a sledgehammer to partisan gridlock, put the unnecessary rancor 
aside and start functioning in a deliberative fashion once again.
  I thank you, Senator Robert C. Byrd, for what you gave to us and gave 
to this country. All of it will not be recognized in these moments. But 
as history is reviewed, people will remember--I hope they do--that even 
when he made a mistake, a serious mistake in his early days--when he 
was not eager to support desegregation; that he should not have abided 
with segregationists; that this country belonged to all the people and 
no one should be discriminated against--that one can be forgiven with 
good deeds after some bad ones. And he redeemed himself so nobly, so 
wonderfully.
  So we say, as we have been for these days, thank you, Robert C Byrd. 
We loved being with you, and we will miss you.
  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I have not yet had the opportunity on the 
floor to express my regret for the passing of Senator Robert Byrd and 
my incredible respect for the service he gave our country.
  I was only able to serve with Senator Byrd at the twilight of his 
career. I

[[Page 12367]]

knew him in my capacities as Assistant Secretary and then Secretary of 
the Navy years ago, and I admired him for many years as an individual 
of fierce intellect. He was a strong proponent of the balance of power, 
particularly protective of the powers of the U.S. Congress as they 
relate to the executive branch, which is an area I have also focused on 
over the years.
  Senator Byrd had great love for the people of Appalachia. He was 
their greatest champion. He was a self-made man in every sense of the 
word--self-made economically, born an orphan, and self-made in terms of 
his own education.
  I recall that when I was Secretary of the Navy, I had the authority 
to name various combatants, and I named a submarine the ``USS West 
Virginia.'' When I made the statement about why I named it that, I 
pointed out that West Virginia, in every war in the 20th century, 
ranked either first or second in terms of its casualty rate. He was 
someone who never forgot the contributions of the people of that much-
maligned State to the well-being and greatness of our country. He left 
his mark on all of us, and I would be remiss if I didn't express my 
regret in his passing.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to our 
departed Senate Dean, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Senator Byrd 
served in this Chamber longer than any Senator in history, 50\1/2\ 
years. Combined with 6 prior years in the House of Representatives, 
Senator Byrd's service spanned nearly a quarter of the history of the 
Republic, from the Truman administration to the Obama one, longer than 
the span of my life.
  To serve with Senator Byrd, as was my privilege for too short a time, 
was to serve with a giant of the Senate, an apotheosis of a long-ago 
age when oratory was an art. How fortunate I was to sit on the Budget 
Committee several chairs away from the man who wrote the Budget Act. I 
will never forget a Budget Committee hearing last year at which, with 
35 years of hindsight, Senator Byrd reviewed the very budget process 
that he had designed. On that February morning, Senator Byrd delighted 
in describing his crafting of the budget process and its implementation 
and evolution over three and a half decades.
  Tomorrow, for the first time since 1959 when Robert C. Byrd was a 40-
year-old first-year Senator, a departed Member of this body will lie in 
repose in its Chamber. The tribute will surely be fitting, as the 
Senate's most senior Member occupies the floor one final time.
  The man will be missed, but his legacy will continue to guide this 
institution for generations to come, and the institution to whose 
principles and welfare he dedicated his life, the U.S. Senate, will 
endure with his lasting imprint upon it.

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