I was 12 years old when Senator Robert Byrd was elected to the House of Representatives. I was a senior in Maryville, TN, when he was elected to the Senate. When I came here as a Senate aide 42 years ago, he had just been elected to his…

in 1981, after a surprising election, the Republican leader, Howard Baker, became the majority leader of the Senate, and the Democratic leader, Robert C. Byrd, became the minority leader. According to Senator Baker, he walked to Senator…

Senator Byrd served long enough to know that, as he put it: As long as the Senate retains the power to amend and the power of unlimited debate, the liberties of the people will remain secure. He believed that when he was lecturing…

Not everyone agrees, as evidenced by lawn signs in this northwestern Massachusetts town reading ``Biomass? No Thanks.'' In fact, power generated by burning wood, plants and other organic material, which makes up 50 percent of all renewable…

What we are arguing about, what the debate is about is we want to extend unemployment insurance. We want to make sure the State and local tax deductions continue. We want to make sure tuition deduction and the various disaster relief…

Denmark, which is often cited for its wind power, has pushed its windmills up to 20 percent of its electrical capacity. That sounds good. Many people regard 20 percent as about the theoretical limit that wind power can supply to a total…

I am deeply disappointed. What I have done is ask to extend the Flood Insurance Program so that Tennesseans who are recovering from the worst natural disaster since President Obama took office could qualify for flood insurance so they…

The above-referenced article is entitled ``Net Benefits of Biomass Power Under Scrutiny.'' It is about how the people of Massachusetts are starting to debate the idea that they are accomplishing anything by displacing coal with biomass to…

When we think about the funding, we need to remember the best things for us to do. They are to stop imposing health care mandates on States, which make it impossible for them to pay their bills; and to properly support public education…

I thought the President was right to focus on what the government is doing to clean up the oil spill, and what we are doing to help those who are hurt. I think he missed an opportunity, though, in terms of looking to the energy future. He…

What I hope the President does not do tonight, No. 1, is use the oil spill as an excuse to pass a national energy tax, collecting hundreds of billions of dollars from Americans and driving jobs overseas looking for cheap energy. The…

on behalf of Senator Corker and myself, I rise to introduce the Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2010. The legislation will implement an important next step in conservation for some of the wildest, most beautiful and pristine areas in east…

I thank the Senator from Arizona for his leadership and for his thoughtful comments on the health care law. We fought those battles last year. We won the argument but lost the vote. That is not so good for the country, as our country is…

I received the other day a nice envelope from the Department of Health and Human Services addressed to Andrew L. Alexander, Jr., in my Nashville residence, with a nice brochure here: Medicare and the New Health Care Law; What It Means to…

I congratulate the Senator from Arizona. There is no one more thoughtful on finance matters and job creation than he. He has made a very important point. It was a well-intentioned effort by the administration to say: We have an economic…

I rise to speak on what I call an oilspill response for grownups. The tragic gulf oilspill has produced overreaction, demagoguery, and bad policy. I would cite ``Obama's Katrina, end offshore drilling, produce 20 percent of our electricity…

the worst natural disaster since the President took office was the recent flooding in Tennessee. There are 13,000 painters, plumbers, carpenters in Nashville alone, who have 11,000 structures to work on. They will get fined up to $37,500 a…

In 2007, the Corps of Engineers told me that two big flood control dams on the Cumberland River system were near failure. I asked for and Congress approved $120 million to begin repairing Center Hill and Wolf Creek Dams. During the recent…

I thank the chairman and the vice chairman for their comments and their work on this bill, particularly the assistance they have worked to provide to my state. As my colleagues know, the amount of property damage in Tennessee may be more…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. All along the gulf coast, there are many communities hundreds of miles from the edge of the water, communities that are filled with families that, for generation after generation, have produced the…

I wanted to congratulate her for her leadership and persistence on seeing the impracticality of what the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to do. The lead paint rule is a good idea. The idea is that for structures that were built…

I would be remiss if I did not thank him and the chairman of the committee for including within the supplemental appropriations bill several provisions that will make it easier for the people of Tennessee, the important one being $5.1…

about a year ago, the United Arab Emirates decided to secure its energy future. The Emirates is a small Persian Gulf state that is awash in oil and annually rakes in about $80 billion in oil revenues. For its own domestic energy needs…

as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield once said, ``the U.S.-Japan relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, bar none.'' About a month ago, China Daily ran an article in which they compared the United…

there is no bigger, no more heart- wrenching, no more inspiring story today than what happened in Nashville in the 48 hours on May 1 and 2, over that weekend, when 2 to 4 inches of rain were expected and up to 17 inches came. As a result…