[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7758-7760]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING FRANK R. LAUTENBERG

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I just flew in from Chicago. Early this 
morning, I was given the news that I had lost a great friend and one of 
my dearest colleagues; Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey passed 
away.
  Most of us saw Frank a few weeks ago. He was here on the floor of the 
Senate. He had to come down; it was one of those moments where his vote 
was crucial. We knew he was struggling, but we also knew he would be

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here. He said he would, and he was. He sat right over here in a 
wheelchair, with that trademark Frank Lautenberg smile. I don't think I 
have ever run into a person in my life as happy as Frank Lautenberg. He 
was a great joke-teller. The best thing about Frank's joke--even if he 
was telling it for the 254th time--is he would start laughing before 
the end of the joke and pretty soon the whole room was laughing.
  You always wanted to be out for dinner with Frank and Bonnie because 
you knew there was going to be a good time. You would hear a lot of 
jokes you had heard before, but you encouraged him to tell them. He had 
so many stories to tell.
  Here he was, a member of the ``greatest generation,'' having served 
in World War II, and served here in the Senate. Two different 
approaches. He retired once and came back, and served here to the age 
of 89.
  He astonished us all when he came here on the floor of the Senate, 
that he was wheeled in in a wheelchair to vote on some important 
amendments related to gun safety and gun control. Frank, if he were 
alive, would not have missed those votes; it meant so much to him. It 
was an issue that he led on, he was respected for. When it came to 
closing the loopholes where convicted felons and people who had no 
business owning guns were buying them anyway, Frank Lautenberg led the 
effort to stop the proliferation of guns and the distribution of them 
to people who would misuse them. It was a cause he felt passionately 
about, and one he cast many tough votes on as he served in the Senate.
  His return that day for those votes was an act of courage in a long 
life that was filled with courage, starting with his service in the 
U.S. Army in World War II, and continuing throughout his life--physical 
courage, political courage, and moral courage.
  When Frank Lautenberg spoke to some law students at Rutgers 
University about 10 years ago, he said he had considered briefly 
studying law himself after he had served in the Army in World War II 
but decided he was too old to start law school. He told the law 
students: It was too late; I missed my opportunity.
  Frank Lautenberg may not have earned a law degree, but make no 
mistake, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey left an important mark on the 
laws of America.
  Here is how I first came to know him. In 1986, I was a Congressman 
from Springfield, IL, and had been here 4 years. I had never met Frank 
Lautenberg of New Jersey, who was a Senator at the time. I got this 
crazy notion to introduce a bill to ban smoking on airplanes. I didn't 
have a chance, not a chance. The entire leadership of the House of 
Representatives opposed me--all the Democratic leaders of my party and 
all the Republican leaders too. Yet I put the amendment on a 
transportation appropriations bill, and through some good luck and 
breaks it made it through the Rules Committee. That wasn't supposed to 
happen.
  It turned out that when the chairman of the Rules Committee--Claude 
Pepper of Florida--was a Senator years before, he had been instrumental 
in starting the National Cancer Institute. As a southerner, he didn't 
talk much about tobacco--nobody did from the South in those days--but 
in his heart he knew tobacco smoking was killing people. He let me get 
that amendment to the floor, which shocked everybody. I remember the 
day--and this goes back 27 years--I was in the House of 
Representatives, brand new, calling this amendment to ban smoking on 
flights of 2 hours or less. That is how we started. I looked up in the 
gallery, and the gallery was filled with flight attendants in their 
uniforms from all different airlines. They were victims too of 
secondhand smoke.
  We called that measure for a vote, and it passed. It shocked 
everybody. It turned out the House of Representatives was the biggest 
frequent flier club in America. They were sick and tired of sitting on 
airplanes and breathing in somebody else's secondhand smoke.
  Well, there were a few moments of jubilation and celebration. Then 
somebody said, Well, what are you going to do in the Senate? I thought, 
Oh, my goodness; that is an important part of this. So I decided to 
call the chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee--a 
fellow named Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. I didn't know him, but I 
said to him, Frank, I would like to ask you a favor. Would you consider 
offering this bill as an amendment to the Senate transportation 
appropriations bill. He said, I will get back to you. And he did--in a 
hurry. He said, I am on board. Let's do it together.
  It was the best phone call I ever made. And for the people of this 
country and those who fly on airplanes, that team of Lautenberg and 
Durbin managed to pass a bill, signed into law, which did much more 
than we ever dreamed of. We thought this little idea of taking smoking 
off airplanes would make flight a little more comfortable and safer 
from a health point of view. What neither Frank nor I realized at the 
time was it was a tipping point. Americans looked around and said, If 
we are going to take smoking off airplanes, why stop there? Trains, 
buses, offices, hospitals, restaurants--look across the board at what 
has happened in America. Neither Frank nor I saw this coming, but it 
worked. It has changed this country. It has changed the Senate, the 
House--it has changed this country. I wouldn't be standing here today 
telling you the story were it not for Frank Lautenberg. He was the very 
best partner I ever could have had. The day came when I was elected to 
the Senate. He and I used to go around and tell the story from time to 
time, reminiscing about that battle back in 1986.
  Frank told us he was once a two-pack-a-day cigarette smoker himself, 
but when it came to this bill, he knew the right thing to do. I was 
lucky to have him by my side. I couldn't have done it without him.
  He was the driving force behind a lot of other laws that were 
important to America: setting the national drinking age at 21; setting 
the national blood level definition of 0.08 for drunk driving. These 
laws on smoking and drunk driving have saved millions of lives thanks 
to the leadership of Frank Lautenberg.
  He was the last remaining World War II veteran in the Senate. A few 
weeks ago we lost Danny Inouye, who used to sit right here. He, of 
course, served in World War II as well.
  Frank passed away early this morning in New York. He is survived by 
his wife Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg. What an extraordinarily good 
person she is. I left a message for her on her voicemail and said, 
Standing by Frank's side made a big difference in his life, in the 
years they were together. They were a great partnership. In addition, 
he is survived by 6 children and 13 grandchildren.
  He was a leader on environmental protection, transportation, and 
protecting public health. He authored the law that prevented domestic 
abusers from possessing guns. It wasn't easy to do. It looks pretty 
obvious, doesn't it? It turned out police organizations were opposing 
him, because some policemen had been accused of domestic abuse and they 
couldn't carry a gun under the Lautenberg amendment. Frank stood his 
ground.
  He cowrote the new GI bill for the 21st century. A man who was a 
beneficiary of the original GI bill in World War II teamed up with Jim 
Webb of the State of Virginia, and the two of them put together a GI 
bill that our men and women who serve richly deserve.
  He authored the toxic right to know law. It was another great law he 
and I cosponsored. It came down to the question of the chemicals that 
are put in fabric in our furniture--which, sadly, leach out and get 
into the environment of our homes, many times affecting small children. 
Frank was quick to be the leader on that issue. Even though his State 
of New Jersey is one with a lot of chemical manufacturers and 
producers, he led in this effort to protect families and children.
  He wrote the law to create the Paterson Great Falls National Historic 
Park. After he cast his 9,000th vote in December of 2011, Senator Harry 
Reid proclaimed on the Senate floor,

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``Frank Lautenberg has been one of the most productive Senators in the 
history of this country.''
  It was February 15 that Frank announced he wasn't going to seek 
another term in the Senate. At the time of his announcement in his 
hometown of Paterson, he set out an agenda for the remaining 2 years of 
what he wanted to get done before he left the Senate: reforming the 
U.S. chemical safety laws, improving gun safety, and providing Federal 
resources for New Jersey to rebuild from Superstorm Sandy.
  We owe it to Frank and his memory to make sure those things are done. 
I know that Bob Menendez, his friend and close colleague from New 
Jersey, will pick up that gauntlet and proceed to carry on in Frank's 
name.
  He used to say with some pride that he was a success in business--and 
he was--and that he understood the mind of businessmen. But he never 
ever lost touch with the common man and the people who counted on him 
in New Jersey and around the United States.
  The Senate is going to miss Frank Lautenberg. I am going to miss a 
great pal. I am going to miss one of the best dinner companions you 
could ever dream of here in Washington, DC. We are going to join 
together on Wednesday up in New York for a memorial service. I am sure 
it is going to be widely attended, because Frank did a lot of good for 
a lot of people over the course of his years in public service. I am 
going to miss him.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. 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.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I was going to speak on a different 
subject, but I will speak further about our dear colleague Senator 
Lautenberg. I look at the flowers on his desk--it seems in the years I 
have been here I have seen too many colleagues' flowers there. Of 
course, every day Frank Lautenberg was here, I had the privilege of 
serving with him, a dear friend. I missed him when he left the Senate 
and was overjoyed when he came back to the Senate. He was a man who 
cared about his country, cared about the Senate, cared about the 
people.
  He was a man who came from humble beginnings and became extremely 
wealthy. He spent a lot of time giving that wealth away. He was the 
last combat veteran--in fact, the last veteran from World War II 
serving in this body. Those of us who got to know him and spent time 
hearing of those horrendous times in Europe during World War II are 
better for it. We realized a person who had served the country during 
that time did more than any of the rest of us.
  I will speak further about my friend Frank Lautenberg. I know 
Marcelle and I extend our love to Bonnie and his children, his family.
  I ask consent to speak as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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