McConnell Honors Senator Robert Byrd

Statement

McConnell Honors Senator Robert Byrd

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks Wednesday in honor of U.S. Senator Robert Byrd on becoming the longest serving member of Congress in United States history:

"It's been nearly 30 years now since Senator Byrd started delivering a series of lectures that ultimately became the book that all of us are familiar with and which all of us admire. And the story of how those lectures came about says a lot about the man who has now served in Congress longer than any other man or woman in the history of our country.

"The story goes that it was a quiet Friday morning here in the Senate and Senator Byrd, as the Majority Leader, went down to the floor without planning to say much of anything at all, except that there wouldn't be any votes that day. But then he looked up to the gallery, and he saw one of his granddaughters up there with some of her classmates, and he thought it might be a good idea if they had something to talk about when they got back to school.

"So, quite extemporaneously and quite by happenstance, he delivered a speech to an empty chamber on the history of the Senate. A week went by, and the same thing happened again. Senator Byrd came to the floor to make some brief statement about the floor business. He looked up to the gallery, and he saw another one of his granddaughters. And of course he couldn't give a history lesson to one and not to another. So he gave another history lesson.

"Well, seven years and about two million words later, he stopped giving those history lessons. And now we'll always have them. And we're grateful for that, and for this man. Robert Byrd once said that what is sometimes considered to be the result of genius is more the result of persistence, perseverance, and hard work. To be a good senator, he said, one has to work at it. And now, longer than anyone else in our history, he's lived by those words.

"Today, Robert Carlyle Byrd sets a record that has been more than 56 years in the making. The records just keep adding up. Three years ago, he became the longest serving Senator in our Nation's history. A few months after that, he became the only person ever elected to nine full terms in the Senate. He has now served in the U.S. Congress for 20,774 days.

"He's cast 18,500 votes in the well of this Chamber. He's the longest serving member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He has presided over the Senate's shortest session and its longest continuous session. He is the only sitting Member of Congress to receive a law degree, a degree that was presented to him by President John F. Kennedy, just one of twelve Presidents that Senator Byrd has served alongside during his distinguished career.

"Senator Byrd will tell you that he's been anchored over the years by the values he learned at the feet of his foster parents, by the support and love of his beloved Erma, whom we were all sad to lose, by the U.S. Constitution, and by his faith in God. In a long life, he has known his share of hardships and triumphs. But he has run the race as if to win. He's still at it. And we're grateful for his astonishing record of service to the people of West Virginia, to the United States Senate, and to the nation he loves.

"In achieving this latest milestone, Senator Byrd surpasses a former colleague of his -- Carl Hayden, another legendary figure who served the people of Arizona in the Senate for 42 years. Carl Hayden was known to many as the ‘Silent Senator.' That probably isn't a phrase many would use to describe Senator Byrd. But what they both share is an undying love of this great country of ours and of the United States Congress. So I would like to join my colleagues, my fellow Americans, the people of West Virginia, and the Byrd family in celebrating this historic occasion. Senator, Congratulations."

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