Robert C. Byrd

What kind of message does an administration policy of inaction and indifference send to the American workers-the steelworkers, the farmers, the coal miners, the glassworkers, the chemical workers, the shoe workers, the leather goods…

The American people are looking to us to act responsibly, swiftly, and surely to address the drug abuse epidemic. We must not shirk this responsibility.

Every Senator here knows that every Senator is also busy, but every Senator is also expected to pay his taxes, and we cannot get by with saying we are too busy. Are we going to send a signal that there is to be a double standard-one for…

Mr. President, I am a firm believer in the principle of the separation of church and state. Around the world, we witness the catastrophes wrought by sectarian bitterness, particularly when one sect subverts the power of the state to its…

But though I believe in the separation of church and state, I do not believe in the exclusion of God from our national life, or the divorce of religious and eternal principle from the legislative process.

We must make a permanent sacrifice of tens of billions of dollars a year just to service our new foreign debts. Instead of strengthening our capacity to pay those debts, we have cut back our investments in people and equipment. We shall…

We will send a message to the people of South Africa, and to the government of South Africa: Stop the violence; stop the killing; and stop apartheid before it tears your great nation asunder.

How on earth is this Nation going to become competitive in the world economy if we consume our seed corn and do not provide for the education of our children?

The Daniloff and U.N. spy questions are dominating the overall United States-Soviet relationship now to a dangerous degree. These matters must be handled with a view toward the overall relationship.

So, Mr. President, maximum effort needs to be made to sober up, cut through the macho, end the news splashes, and act like superpowers with a sense of responsibility.

Mr. President, normally I would say, all things being equal, let us give the President his choice. And in the case of Cabinet officers, the responsibility upon us is heavy, but not as heavy as it is with respect to nominees to the courts…

If an individual seeks to enrich himself by destroying a life, and in this instance the lives of many, and in all too many instances the lives of young people who have otherwise promising futures ahead of them, in such instances it seems…

I know also that I speak for all of our colleagues in saying that we shall not rest content until, like Father Jenco, all of our other fellow Americans being held prisoner by barbarians in Beirut once again stand free on the soil of the…

Ultimately, international terrorism affects all nations, so we must do all we can to mobilize as many nations as possible in the campaign to eradicate it.

If the Soviets are genuine in their opposition to international terrorism, they will cooperate with the United States and its friends and allies against it.

We are talking about peace and war. If it is going to be war, let us first try diplomacy.

Let us try to avoid, in the final analysis, sending American fighting men and women into the jungles of Nicaragua. If they are to go, let them go with their eyes open.

Mr. President, this administration-I assume-wants democracy and democratic principles in Nicaragua. Freedom of the press is one of those democratic principles.

Further, Mr. President, we must never forget the people entrapped, not only behind Germany's Berlin Wall, but also behind Europe's Iron Curtain.

The people's representatives here have a right to know. The people have a right to know.

Let us vote to uphold the right of the people of this country to know because, after all, it is their sons, it is their daughters, and it is their tax dollars earned in the sweat of their brow.

Mr. President, I am in favor of a bipartisan policy toward Nicaragua and Central America. I think this Nation needs to rethink where it is going and I hope the Senate will encourage such a rethinking and register disapproval of this…

I do not endorse the behavior of the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas are putting together a Marxist-Leninist state incorporating Stalinistic internal tactics.

We cannot have airplane engines, we cannot have medical stainless steel instruments, we cannot have jet engines, we cannot have missiles, we cannot have tanks and guns and submarines if we don't have the ferroalloys.

If we do not have these ferroalloys, we cannot have jet engines, we cannot make the cannons, the tanks, the ships, and the guns.