On the recordAugust 5, 2010
today I would like to add to the heartfelt sentiments we have heard expressed by many colleagues and many more around the country over these past several weeks in paying tribute to our departed colleague, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. As an American, pondering what Senator Byrd has done, the history he has been a part of, and the path he took from the small towns of southern West Virginia's coalfields, is inspiring. From the perspective of a new Senator, I must say that the life and career of Senator Byrd is more than a little daunting. I have served just shy of 20 months, and I have voted in this Chamber slightly more than 600 times. Those numbers seem like rounding errors compared to the numbers we have heard over the last several days in reference to the service of Senator Byrd: Elected to nine full terms, more than 51 years in the Senate--more than 4 years longer than the next longest serving Senator; he cast nearly 19,000 votes, 18,689, including 4,705 consecutive votes; he was twice majority leader; served also as Whip, conference secretary, minority leader, and President pro tempore; and he served on the Appropriations Committee continuously since being placed there in 1959 by then-majority leader Lyndon Johnson as a freshman in this body--more than 3 years before I was born and only about 2 weeks after Alaska became a State.
