Angie Craig: “like all my colleagues, I rise today to honor the Senior Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Thurmond, who is also…”

“like all my colleagues, I rise today to honor the Senior Senator from South Carolina, Mr. Thurmond, who is also America's Senior Senator. Some of my earliest memories of working in the Senate with Senator Thurmond were our efforts on balancing the budget and on the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He was the real father of this Amendment, dating back to his early years in the Senate. And he fought so hard on this issue because he cared so deeply about us leaving our children a legacy of opportunity and economic security. Senator Thurmond told me he liked being around young people because they challenged him with new ideas and kept him young. As the ranking member of the Senate Aging Committee, every day I grow to appreciate a little more what Senator Thurmond has spent a lifetime teaching us: the importance of being young at heart. That positive attitude was evident when, a few years ago, Senator Thurmond told Reuters he was ready to be a back-up space shuttle crew member for Senator John Glenn, saying: "I always believed that if NASA really wanted to study the effects of space travel on an older American, they should have called me." Senator Thurmond has spent almost a century, not only as a witness to history, but as a shaper of history. Today may be Strom Thurmond Day, but if the 20th century was the American Century, then it was also the Strom Thurmond Century.”