[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14532-14533]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am not sure everyone remembers where they 
were 13 years ago today, but most of us remember. The vast majority of 
us remember. Just a few feet from here in S-219 Senator Daschle had his 
usual Tuesday morning leadership meeting. I was assistant leader at the 
time. I was first to come into the room shortly before 9. About 9--
maybe a minute or two after--Senator John Breaux from Louisiana walked 
in and said: Flip on the TV. Something is going on in New York. And we 
flipped on the television. Something had happened in one of the towers, 
like an airplane had hit one of those towers.
  We said: What happened there? And we kind of looked at each other.
  People started coming into the room. The TV was turned off and the 
meeting was started. Just a short time thereafter--5, 6 minutes at the 
most, as I recall--someone came into the room and grabbed Senator 
Daschle, who was at the head of the table, took him out and came back 
in just a very brief minute and said: The building is being evacuated. 
We all have to leave. There is an airplane headed for the Capitol.
  As we left that room, we could look out and see already the smoke 
billowing from the Pentagon. The airplane had struck the Pentagon.
  Now that day was a day I will never forget--never forget. I was taken 
with Senator Daschle, Don Nickles, who was the Republican assistant 
leader, and Trent Lott, and we were flown to a classified location. We 
spent the day there with a number of people, including the Vice 
President of the United States.
  Late in the evening we came back to the Capitol after having been 
cleared to come back. The Senators gathered on the Senate steps in the 
Capitol, Democrats and Republicans. We were gathering just to show we 
were supportive of this great country. Barbara Mikulski, small in 
stature but powerful in soul, in every way, said so everyone could hear 
it: Let's sing ``God Bless America.''
  I don't sing very often, but I sang that night. We all did. ``God 
bless America.'' We did it because we knew it was a day we would never 
forget. It was a day we wanted to show we were together as Members of 
Congress.
  So as I have said already two or three times this morning, I don't 
want to ever forget that moment, that day, and I want to make sure we 
honor the heroes who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. The 
greatest memorial we have to offer the brave men and women who perished 
on 9/11, thousands of them, is to simply never forget.

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