Political Quotes

“Henry Ward Beecher, the famous abolitionist, once said, ``A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.'' I agree. Our Founding Fathers also agreed, and that is why we have the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress was initially the library of Thomas Jefferson. That is what started the Library of Congress. It was established in 1800. It was this country's first Federal cultural institution. It is the largest library in the world. There are 35 million books and 838 miles of bookshelves. The numbers are staggering. Almost 10,000 new items are added every day. For 25 years the Librarian of Congress has been Dr. James Billington. He has been a faithful and effective leader. I first got to know Dr. Billington in 1986 when I came to the Senate. There was a little squabble between a couple of the more senior Senators, which was a wonderful opportunity for me because one of the very senior Senators thought that maybe he deserved more than being the chair of the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. I grabbed that. I was happy to do that. I loved that experience. I learned a lot about what goes on here and how we pay for things. At that time it was an effort to really hurt the Library of Congress, so I had that opportunity to stand for the Library of Congress. Every time we had a vote, we won and they were not able to damage the Library of Congress. I got to know Dr. Billington. I had the good fortune to travel once with him to Russia. Dr.…”