Cord Byrd: “I am the recipient of the Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Freedom from Fear. I will receive that award…”

“I am the recipient of the Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Freedom from Fear. I will receive that award on Saturday. I am not in a position to drive up on Saturday morning and receive that award. My wife is invited also with me. She cannot go. So I have to go on Friday, and the train leaves at 1 o'clock. As far as I am personally concerned, I would be happy to come in and finish those 2 hours and get the--I believe there are four votes that are going to be scheduled on clotures that morning. Well, I have cast more rollcall votes than any living Senator, any deceased Senator, any Senator in the history of this Republic, any other Senator. I have 16,627 or 8 or 9--somewhere along there. I say all that to say this: I do not want to miss any rollcall votes on Saturday. I take great pride in my rollcall record extending over 45 years in the Senate. It is 98.7 percent. So I missed less than 2 percent of the votes. Could we agree then--I do not want to put myself in the position of my own leaders, as I did not want to put myself in the position of the distinguished majority leader on the other side. I would like to be able to make the four votes on Friday, catch my train at 1 o'clock, and go up and receive this very prestigious award. Could we work something out to that effect?”