Senate the Senate Met at 2:00 P.M
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 111 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 156 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010 No. 98 Senate The Senate met at 2:00 p.m. and was RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY REMEMBERING SENATOR ROBERT called to order by Nancy Erickson, Sec- LEADER C. BYRD retary of the Senate. The SECRETARY OF THE SENATE. Mr. REID. Mr. President, our Senate The majority leader is recognized. family grieves today with the Byrd PRAYER f family over the loss of one of the most The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- dedicated Americans ever to serve this fered the following prayer: MOMENT OF SILENCE country; one of the most devoted men Let us pray. Mr. REID. I ask that the Senate ob- ever to serve his State; one of the most Immortal, invisible God only wise, serve a moment of silence for Senator distinguished Senators ever to serve in the fountain of every blessing, we BYRD. the Senate. thank You for the life and legacy of (Moment of silence.) ROBERT BYRD’s mind was among the Senator ROBERT C. BYRD, our friend f greatest the world has ever seen. As a and colleague whose death we grieve boy, he was called upon, when he was today. We praise You for his more than ELECTING SENATOR DANIEL K. in elementary school, to stand before five decades of exemplary service to INOUYE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE the class and recite not paragraphs our Nation and the citizens of West Mr. REID. I have a resolution at the from the assignment of the night be- Virginia, for the way he carried out his desk and ask for its consideration. fore but pages of the night before. He duties with integrity and faithfulness. The SECRETARY OF THE SENATE. did this from memory. We are grateful that he knew when to The clerk will report the resolution by From his graduation as valedictorian be the gadfly, to ask the tough ques- title. of his high school class at the age of 16 tions, and to challenge the status quo. The assistant legislative clerk read to his death this morning as the Sen- Lord, You gave him courage to make as follows: ate’s President pro tempore at age 92, course corrections both privately and A resolution (S. Res. 567) to elect DANIEL he mastered everything he touched publicly and empowered him to oppose K. INOUYE, a Senator from the State of Ha- with great thoughtfulness and skill. without bitterness, to compromise waii, to be President pro tempore of the Sen- This good man could drive from his with wisdom, and to yield without ate of the United States. home here in Washington to West Vir- being defeated. I thank You that he The resolution (S. Res. 567) was ginia and back—it took 8 hours—recit- was my friend. agreed to, as follows: ing classic poetry the entire time, and Lord, we pray for his loved ones, our S. RES. 567 not recite the same poem twice. Senate family, and all who mourn his Resolved, That Daniel K. Inouye, a Senator I was asked by Senator BYRD to trav- passing. May his many contributions from the State of Hawaii, be, and he is here- el to West Virginia to do an exchange to our Nation not be forgotten by this by, elected President of the Senate pro tem- with the British Parliament. There and succeeding generations. May all of pore. were a number of us there, eight or us who had the privilege of knowing f nine Senators, and a like number of our Nation’s longest serving legislator British Parliamentarians. I can re- ADMINISTRATION OF OATH OF member that night so well. We had the emulate his passion, patience, and per- OFFICE severance. Give him a crown of right- music up there he liked the best—blue- eousness and permit him to hear You The SECRETARY OF THE SENATE. grass music—and they played. It was a say, ‘‘Well done, good and faithful serv- Without objection, Senator INOUYE will festive evening. ant.’’ be escorted to the desk. Then it came time for the program. We pray in Your merciful Name. The President pro tempore-elect, es- In the program, Senator BYRD said: I Amen. corted by Mr. REID and Mr. AKAKA re- am going to say a few things. And he spectively, advanced to the desk of the passed out little notebooks. He had f Vice President; the oath prescribed by notebooks passed out to everyone there law was administered to him by the with a little pencil. He wanted to make PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Secretary of the Senate; and he sub- sure everything was just right; that The Secretary of the Senate led the scribed to the oath in the Official Oath people, if they had something to write, Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: Book. had something to write on and write I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the Mr. INOUYE thereupon assumed the with. And he proceeded, standing there United States of America, and to the Repub- chair as President pro tempore. without a note, to pronounce the reign lic for which it stands, one nation under God, The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The of the British monarchs, from the be- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. majority leader. ginning to the end. He would give the ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S5465 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:31 Oct 09, 2010 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD10\RECFILES\S28JN0.REC S28JN0 mmaher on DSK69SOYB1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE S5466 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE June 28, 2010 dates they served. On some of the more Congress. What he accomplished is In his tenure he saw partisanship and difficult spellings, he would spell the really very long. His thirst for knowl- bipartisanship, war and peace, reces- name. And he would, as I indicated, if edge was simply without equal. sion and recovery. His perspective and it was something he really wanted to Senator BYRD once observed that the legacy are invaluable to the way we talk about that they had accomplished longer he lived, the better he under- carry ourselves as United States Sen- that he thought was noteworthy, he stood how precious the gift of our time ators. It is instructive that the man would tell us about that. That took on Earth was. who served the longest and saw the about an hour and a half to do that. I quote Senator BYRD: most concluded we must work together The British Parliamentarians were As you get older, you see time running out. as partners, not partisans, for the good stunned. They had never heard anyone It is irretrievable and irreversible. But one of our States and our country. who could do anything like that, an should never retire from learning and In 1996, ROBERT BYRD spoke to a American talking about the reign of growth. meeting of incoming Senators and re- the British monarchs. Those of us who ROBERT BYRD never retired from any- minded them that the Senate is still were Senators, nothing surprised us thing. He served in the Senate for more the anchor of the Republic. Senator that he could do from memory. than half a century and the House of BYRD was the anchor of the Senate. I can remember when he decided he Representatives for 6 more years, and There will never be another like him. was no longer going to be the Demo- he dedicated every one of those days to He was a Member of this Nation’s cratic leader, Senator Dole did an strengthening the State and the Nation Congress for more than a quarter of the event for him in the Russell Building, he loved so dearly. He never once time it has existed, and longer than a and all Senators were there, Demo- stopped fighting for the good people of quarter of today’s sitting Senators and cratic and Republican Senators. He West Virginia and for the principles in the President of the United States have told us a number of things he did not our founding documents. He was for- been alive. His political career spanned do, and he told us a number of things ever faithful to his constituents, his countless American advances and he did do. For example, he read the En- Constitution, and his country. He achievements. A dozen men called the cyclopedia Britannica from cover to fought for what he thought was right, Oval Office his own while Senator BYRD cover twice. He studied the dictionary. and when he was wrong, he was wise called the Capitol Building his office— He read that from cover to cover dur- enough to admit it, and he did admit it and he would be the first to remind us ing one of our breaks. a few times. that those two branches are equal in the eyes of the Constitution. I have I have told this story on an occasion Senator BYRD’s ambition was leg- or two, but to give the depth of this endary. He took his oath in this Cham- heard him say so many times that we man’s memory—I had been to Nevada, ber on January 3, 1959, the same day work with the President, not under the President. and when I came back, he asked me: Alaska became our 49th State.