Remembering Senator Robert C. Byrd

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, it is with deep sadness that I rise to honor my colleague and friend, Senator ROBERT C. BYRD. I look at the simple eloquence of the roses and the black felt on his desk, and, sort of, he rises above that and hovers above us in just about everything we do.

The admiration that all of us in this body have for Senator Byrd is genuine and palpable. We miss him dearly, and I know I speak for the entire Senate when I say our thoughts and prayers are with Senator Byrd's family as they mourn his passing.

Mr. President, no one loved the Senate more than ROBERT BYRD. He devoted his life to this august institution and, in doing so, became an institution himself. He is a legend--a man who embodied the best ideals of this body. It is fitting that on this day we remember Senator Byrd the Senate is undertaking one of its most important constitutionally mandated responsibilities: the confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court Associate Justice.

Senator Byrd would remind us that we are in a process where the first branch of government is giving its advice and consent to a selection from the second branch of government in choosing someone to sit on the highest part of the third branch of government.

He loved the Constitution, he loved the Senate, he loved America, and he came from the bosom of America.

I am struck by the history of this moment. We read about the great Senators who served in this body--the Websters and the Clays, the LaFollettes and the Wagners. Well, I cannot help but feel privileged to have served, in my brief time--certainly compared to the Senators here--with a legend, with a man whose name will go down in history beside those men as
one of the great men in this body and one of the great men in history.

On Thursday, Mr. President, Senator Byrd will make one final visit to this Senate Chamber that he so loved. There could be no more appropriate way for us to say good-bye to him and honor him than to yield the Senate floor to him for one last time.

People asked, why not the Rotunda? It was not that he did not deserve tribute in the Rotunda, and, for sure, tens of thousands would have lined up. But this is the body he loved, and this is the body where his final day here should be.

I would like to share a few brief thoughts and reflect on Senator Byrd's service to the people of West Virginia and the Nation.

The most important thing we should all remember about ROBERT BYRD is his life story, for it embodies America, the best of America. It embodies the American dream. Because of his intelligence, his indefatigable energy, and up-by-the-bootstraps determination, he rose from a childhood marred by abject poverty to being three heartbeats away from the Presidency.

He made mistakes in his earlier career, which he freely admitted later. Who has not? But he just grew and grew and grew. That is what great men do: they grow larger and stronger and better as they go through life. That could certainly be said of Senator Byrd.

Unlike many of the great men who preceded him, Senator Byrd did not grow up as a member of a privileged class. He was an orphan, raised in the Appalachian coal towns of West Virginia. He graduated from high school at 16 as the valedictorian, but like so many Americans of his day, he was too poor and could not afford college.

So as a young Member of Congress, he worked his way through law school, and, at age 46, he earned the diploma--with honors--that had eluded him in his youth.

I remember his love of West Virginia. When I was new in this body, just learning it--and part of the way I learned it was by going to Senator Byrd's class on the rules of the Senate; legendary to each freshman class of his time--but one day I was just seated at my desk, and Senator Byrd rose to speak. It was a Friday afternoon. I believe it was in the springtime. Business was finished and everyone was rushing home. As you know, Mr. President, I usually rush home. I love to be in New York. But as I was getting ready to leave, Senator Byrd rose, and his speech captivated me.

For 45 minutes he gave a speech on the beauty of West Virginia in the springtime. The theme of the speech was to urge visitors from other States to come experience it. It was an amazing speech. It was almost like poetry. I am sure Senator Byrd probably did not have to sit and spend days preparing it. It just flowed off his lips, his love of West Virginia, combined with his eloquence. It is one of the speeches I will always remember in the Senate, and I am just lucky and glad I was here for that moment.

Then, speaking of my State of New York, Senator Byrd did not just touch West Virginia, he touched every State. Because he was here for so long, of course, he had such power but cared about each of the Members and their States.

The most striking moment I had with Senator Byrd occurred in the wake of 9/11. It was the day after that Senator Clinton and I went up to New York, and we saw the devastation. We could smell death in the air, see the anguished looks of people holding signs: Have you seen my husband? Have you seen my wife? The towers were gone, but people did not know who had survived and who had not. Most did not, of course.

Then the next call we got, as we came back, was from Senator Byrd. Senator Byrd said: Please come to my office. We went to his office on the first floor of the Capitol. He came to Senator Clinton and I and said: Chuck, Hillary, I want you to consider me the third Senator from the great State of New York.

We knew we needed help, and we needed it fast. Even before we went to visit President Bush and asked him for the help that New York needed, Senator Byrd, on his own, invited us over and pledged his help. Like always, he lived up to his word, not just in the next days or weeks or months but years.

I would go to him 3, 4 years later and say there is still this part of the promise made to New York that hasn't been fulfilled. There he was, and he did it. Without a doubt, the dear city I love, New York City, would not have been able to recover as quickly or as well without that man from the coal fields of West Virginia, Senator ROBERT C. BYRD, helping us. He showed a level of selflessness that is rarely seen, and I think I can speak on behalf of Secretary Clinton and the people of New York in telling Senator Byrd how grateful we are to him.

We all have so many memories of Senator Byrd, so many things. We only served together a little less than 12 years, 11 1/2 years, but he was like a jewel. He had so many different facets that every one of us was touched by him in many ways.

So I relate my last strong memory of Senator Byrd. The Presiding Officer remembers as well because it was at a hearing of the Rules Committee where we are now having a series of hearings under the suggestion of the Presiding Officer and leadership to decide whether we should reform the filibuster rule and what we should do about it. Senator Byrd, frail at that point, about a month ago, came to our hearing room. He sat next to me and then gave one of the best orations I have heard in a committee. He was 92. He turned the pages of his speech himself. That wasn't so easy for him. It was clearly--knowing the way he thought and his way of speaking--written completely by him. It was an amazing statement. It was impassioned, erudite, balanced, and, as the Presiding Officer remembers, it electrified the room. It was an amazing tour de force. The man cared so much about the Senate. Despite the fact he was ailing, there he was because he loved the Senate. His remarks, if my colleagues read them, were balanced. He understood the problems, but he understood the traditions, and he tried, as usual, to weave the two together.

There are few Senators who could do that, in the more than 200-year history of this body, the way he could. There are also few Senators in this body who fought as hard for their States as Senator Byrd did. I certainly admire the people who are here who become national leaders but never forget where they came from. There is a tendency among some who come to Washington to sort of forget where they came from. Not Senator Byrd. All across West Virginia, men and women are able to realize the American dream because he fought for them. He was unrelenting and unapologetic in his desire to improve the lives of West Virginians by making generous investments in infrastructure and research. He brought that State into the future and afforded generations of West Virginians good-paying jobs, allowing them to provide for their families and have the dignity all Americans deserve.

Some of the more elite parts of the media would make fun of what he did, but I thought our colleague, Senator Rockefeller, said it best. I am paraphrasing; I read this in the newspaper. He said Senator Byrd realized that until you get a road and a water system to these isolated towns, you couldn't open the door of the future for them, and he knew that. Senator Byrd relentlessly, in town after town after town, did that. He fought to increase access to health care and ensure the people had the right to vote, and he made sure every child in West Virginia had the right to live up to his God-given potential through a quality education.

Every one of us could go on and on about Senator Byrd's accomplishments, but I think what is even more important than accomplishments is who he was as a person. He was someone who knew where he stood but showed a profound willingness to evolve, and that is a sign of extraordinary character. It is all too easy for an elected official to plug his ears and say: Sorry, that is my position; that is the way it has always been, and that is the way it will always be. Not Senator Byrd. He was unafraid to take new arguments into consideration and expand his world view accordingly.

What also struck me about him was his fundamental humility, the best example of which is probably his relationship with my dear friend and mentor, Ted Kennedy, another legend in this body who is so sorely missed. Ted somewhat unexpectedly ran against Senator Byrd to be the Democratic whip in 1969. Senator Kennedy won. Two years later there was a rematch and Senator Byrd became the whip. One would think after this kind of animus that the two of them would never come together, but in their lives in the Senate they established a deep meaningful bond, a tribute to both of them.

Senator Kennedy would tell me stories about Senator Byrd and some of the things he had done, serious and humorous. To me it is so profound that within a year we have lost the two giants among whom I was proud and lucky to serve.

I will never forget when Senator Byrd, sick as he was, was outside the steps of the Capitol to salute Ted Kennedy after he passed earlier this year. It was Senator Byrd who provided the crucial vote to fulfill Ted Kennedy's lifelong passion: Comprehensive health care reform. As every Senator sat at their desk for the final passage vote, the clerk called the roll. When Senator Byrd's name was called, he raised his voice as loud as he could and declared: ``Madam President, this is for my friend Ted Kennedy. Aye!''

Those two friends, those two legends today are together again in heaven, and I would love to be able to hear the conversations and reminiscences between them.

ROBERT BYRD will be remembered forever. He will be remembered as a man who loved this institution and guarded its history. He will be remembered as a man who always stood up for his State. He is a man who will be remembered as someone who lived the American dream and fought to make that dream a reality for countless others. Perhaps most of all, he will be remembered as a loving father, grandfather, and husband.

Today the Senate mourns, the people of West Virginia mourn, the Nation mourns.

I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.

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