Floor Statements

Mr. President, I have been told that H.R. 5623 has been received from the House and is now at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Mr. President, I ask for its second reading but object to my own request.

Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on June 29, 2010, by the President of the United States: Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with Bermuda, Treaty Document No. 111-6. I further ask unanimous consent that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Wednesday, June 30, after any leader time, there be a 2-hour period for the transaction of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, and that during this period of time, Senators may offer tributes to the late Senator Robert C. Byrd.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that tributes to Robert C. Byrd, late a Senator from West Virginia, be printed as a Senate document, and that Members have until 12 noon, Friday, August 6, 2010, to submit said tributes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 30; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; that following any leader remarks, the Senate proceed to a period of morning business for 2 hours with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each; that following morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session, as provided for under the previous order.

Mr. President, tomorrow, following 2 hours of morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of David Petraeus. There will be up to 20 minutes of debate on the nomination. Senators should expect a vote around 12 noon tomorrow on the confirmation of General Petraeus.

Following the nomination, we will expect to resume consideration of the small business jobs bill. Additional rollcall votes are expected to occur throughout the afternoon in relation to amendments to the small business jobs bill and the unemployment insurance extension, if we are able to reach an agreement.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

I ask that the Senate observe a moment of silence for Senator Byrd.

(Moment of silence.)

I have a resolution at the desk and ask for its consideration.

The SECRETARY OF THE SENATE. The clerk will report the resolution by title.

Mr. President, our Senate family grieves today with the Byrd family over the loss of one of the most dedicated Americans ever to serve this country; one of the most devoted men ever to serve his State; one of the most distinguished Senators ever to serve in the Senate.

Robert Byrd's mind was among the greatest the world has ever seen. As a boy, he was called upon, when he was in elementary school, to stand before the class and recite not paragraphs from the assignment of the night before but pages of the night before. He did this from memory.

From his graduation as valedictorian of his high school class at the age of 16 to his death this morning as the Senate's President pro tempore at age 92, he mastered everything he touched with great thoughtfulness and skill. This good man could drive from his home here in Washington to West Virginia and back--it took 8 hours--reciting classic poetry the entire time, and not recite the same poem twice.

I was asked by Senator Byrd to travel to West Virginia to do an exchange with the British Parliament. There were a number of us there, eight or nine Senators, and a like number of British Parliamentarians. I can remember that night so well. We had the music up there he liked the best--bluegrass music--and they played. It was a festive evening.

Then it came time for the program. In the program, Senator Byrd said: I am going to say a few things. And he passed out little notebooks. He had notebooks passed out to everyone there with a little pencil. He wanted to make sure everything was just right; that people, if they had something to write, had something to write on and write with. And he proceeded, standing there without a note, to pronounce the reign of the British monarchs, from the beginning to the end. He would give the

dates they served. On some of the more difficult spellings, he would spell the name. And he would, as I indicated, if it was something he really wanted to talk about that they had accomplished that he thought was noteworthy, he would tell us about that. That took about an hour and a half to do that. The British Parliamentarians were stunned. They had never heard anyone who could do anything like that, an American talking about the reign of the British monarchs. Those of us who were Senators, nothing surprised us that he could do from memory.

I can remember when he decided he was no longer going to be the Democratic leader, Senator Dole did an event for him in the Russell Building, and all Senators were there, Democratic and Republican Senators. He told us a number of things he did not do, and he told us a number of things he did do. For example, he read the Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover twice. He studied the dictionary. He read that from cover to cover during one of our breaks.

I have told this story on an occasion or two, but to give the depth of this man's memory--I had been to Nevada, and when I came back, he asked me: What did you do?

I said: Senator Byrd, I pulled a book out of my library on the way back. I didn't have anything to read. It was a paperback. I read ``The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.''

And as those of us who can remember him, he looked at me and he held his head back a little bit and his eyes rolled back and he said: Robinson Crusoe. He proceeded to tell me--I had just read the book--how long he had been on that island: 28 years, 3 months, a week, and 2 days, or whatever it was. I was stunned. I did not know. I went back and pulled the book out to see if he was right, and he was right. He probably had not read that book in 35 or 40 years, but he knew that. What a mind. It was really stunning, the man's memory.

The head of the political science department at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Andy Tuttle, taught a graduate course, based on Senator Byrd's lectures on the Roman Empire.

He gave 10 lectures here on the Senate floor on the fall of the Roman Empire. He gave a lecture because he was concerned because of the line- item veto, and he felt the line-item veto would be the beginning of the end of the Senate. He proceeded to give 10 lectures on that on the Senate floor, every one of them from memory--every one of them from memory. Timed just perfectly. They ended in 1 hour. That is how much time he had been given. The original Roman Emperors served for 1 year. He could do it from memory. He knew who they were, how long they served, knew how to spell their names--truly an unbelievably brilliant man.

He is the only person who earned his law degree while he was a Member of Congress. What he accomplished is really very long. His thirst for knowledge was simply without equal.

Senator Byrd once observed that the longer he lived, the better he understood how precious the gift of our time on Earth was.

I quote Senator Byrd:

As you get older, you see time running out. It is

irretrievable and irreversible. But one should never retire

from learning and growth.

Robert Byrd never retired from anything. He served in the Senate for more than half a century and the House of Representatives for 6 more years, and he dedicated every one of those days to strengthening the State and the Nation he loved so dearly. He never once stopped fighting for the good people of West Virginia and for the principles in our founding documents. He was forever faithful to his constituents, his Constitution, and his country. He fought for what he thought was right, and when he was wrong, he was wise enough to admit it, and he did admit it a few times.

Senator Byrd's ambition was legendary. He took his oath in this Chamber on January 3, 1959, the same day Alaska became our 49th State. He told the Charleston Gazette newspaper in that freshman year:

If I live long enough, I'd like to be Chairman of the

Senate Appropriations Committee.

Thirty years later, he was, and then he lived and served for 21 more years. His legislative accomplishments are many, and those achievements fortify his incomparable legacy. But he is perhaps best known in this Chamber as the foremost guardian of the Senate's complex rules, procedures, and customs. He did not concern himself with such precision as a pastime or mere hobby; he did so because of the unyielding respect he had for the Senate--a reverence the Senate always returned to him and now to his memory.

With Robert Byrd's passing, America has lost its strongest defender of its most precious traditions. It now falls to each of us to keep that flame burning.

Throughout one of the longest political careers in history, no one in West Virginia ever defeated Robert Byrd in a single election. In Washington, his fellow Democrats twice elected him to lead us when we were in the majority and once more when we were in the minority. Having seen both sides, he knew better than most that legislating is the art of compromise. Many years ago, in this Chamber where he served longer than any other Senator, Senator Byrd taught a heartfelt history lesson to guide our future. It was a lesson about both the Constitution and this institution. He said:

This very charter of government under which we live was

created in a spirit of compromise and mutual concession. And

it is only in that spirit that continuance of this charter of

government can be prolonged and sustained.

In his tenure he saw partisanship and bipartisanship, war and peace, recession and recovery. His perspective and legacy are invaluable to the way we carry ourselves as United States Senators. It is instructive that the man who served the longest and saw the most concluded we must work together as partners, not partisans, for the good of our States and our country.

In 1996, Robert Byrd spoke to a meeting of incoming Senators and reminded them that the Senate is still the anchor of the Republic. Senator Byrd was the anchor of the Senate. There will never be another like him.

He was a Member of this Nation's Congress for more than a quarter of the time it has existed, and longer than a quarter of today's sitting Senators and the President of the United States have been alive. His political career spanned countless American advances and achievements. A dozen men called the Oval Office his own while Senator Byrd called the Capitol Building his office--and he would be the first to remind us that those two branches are equal in the eyes of the Constitution. I have heard him say so many times that we work with the President, not under the President.

The nine times the people of his State sent him to the Senate and the more than 18,500 votes he cast here will never be matched.

As the President pro tempore and I, and each of us fortunate enough to be here, have the privilege of knowing firsthand, it was an incomparable privilege to serve with him and learn from this giant. By virtue of his endurance, Robert Byrd knew and worked with many of the greats of the Senate. Because of his enduring virtue, he will be forever remembered as one of them.

Mr. President, following leader remarks, the Senate will turn to a period of morning business until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Following leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 5297, the small business jobs bill. At 5 p.m., the Senate will proceed to executive session and debate the nomination of Gary Feinerman to be a Federal judge--that will be until 5:30--with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Leahy and Sessions or their designees. There will be a series of two rollcall votes at 5:30. The first vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the small business jobs bill. The second vote will be on the confirmation of the Feinerman nomination.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 5297 be delayed to occur at 2:15 tomorrow, Tuesday, June 29; further that if cloture is invoked on the motion to proceed, then all postcloture time be considered yielded back, and the Senate then proceed to consideration of H.R. 5297; further, that as if in executive session, I ask unanimous consent the previous order with respect to the vote on confirmation of the nomination occur upon the use of time specified in the order governing consideration of the nomination with any other provision of the previous order remaining in effect, which would mean the vote would be at 5:30 tonight.

Mr. President, I have a resolution at the desk and ask for its consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

I have a resolution at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.