Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 

U.S. SENATOR FROM DELAWARE 

TRIBUTES

IN THE CONGRESS OF 

THE UNITED STATES 

UNUM

E PLURIBUS

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Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 

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U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 2012

S. DOC. 111–23 

Tributes

Delivered in Congress 

Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 

United States Senator 

1973–2009

÷ 

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Compiled under the direction 

of the 

Joint Committee on Printing 

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[ iii ] 

CONTENTS

Page

Biography .................................................................................................. v 

Letter of Resignation ................................................................................ vi 

Farewell to the Senate ............................................................................. vii 

Proceedings in the Senate: 

Tributes by Senators: 

Biden, Joseph R., Jr., of Delaware ........................................... 9, 12 

Byrd, Robert C., of West Virginia ............................................. 19 

Carper, Thomas R., of Delaware ............................................... 7, 20 

Clinton, Hillary Rodham, of New York .................................... 20 

Durbin, Richard, of Illinois ........................................................ 23 

Feingold, Russell D., of Wisconsin ............................................ 22 

Hatch, Orrin G., of Utah ........................................................... 9 

Kerry, John F., of Massachusetts ............................................. 12 

Lugar, Richard G., of Indiana ................................................... 17 

McConnell, Mitch, of Kentucky ................................................. 4 

Reed, Jack, of Rhode Island ...................................................... 21 

Reid, Harry, of Nevada ........................................................... 3, 20, 23 

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BIOGRAPHY

JOSEPH ROBINETTE BIDEN, JR., was born November 20, 

1942, in Scranton, PA, the first of four siblings. In 1953, the 

Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, DE. He 

graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse 

Law School and served on the New Castle county council. 

Then, at age 29, he became one of the youngest people ever 

elected to the U.S. Senate. 

Just weeks after the election, tragedy struck the Biden 

family, when Senator BIDEN’s wife, Neilia, and their 1-yearold daughter, Naomi, were killed and their two young sons 

critically injured in an auto accident. JOSEPH BIDEN was

sworn in to the U.S. Senate at his sons’ hospital bedside and 

began commuting to Washington every day by train, a practice he maintained throughout his career in the Senate. 

In 1977, Senator BIDEN married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, 

who holds a Ph.D. in education, has been an educator for 

over two decades. JOSEPH BIDEN has three children: Beau, 

Hunter, and Ashley. Beau serves as Delaware’s attorney general and recently returned home from Iraq where he served 

as a captain in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard. Ashley is a social worker, and Hunter is an attorney. Senator BIDEN has five grandchildren: Naomi, 

Finnegan, Roberta Mabel (‘‘Maisy’’), Natalie, and Robert 

Hunter.

As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Senator BIDEN

established himself as a leader on some of our Nation’s most 

important domestic and international challenges. As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee 

for 17 years, Senator BIDEN was widely recognized for his 

work on criminal justice issues including the landmark 1994 

crime bill and the Violence Against Women Act. As chairman 

or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1997, Senator BIDEN played a pivotal role in 

shaping U.S. foreign policy. He has been at the forefront of 

issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass 

destruction, post-cold war Europe, the Middle East, and 

Southwest Asia. 

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[ vi ] 

Letter of Resignation 

Friday, January 9, 2009 

Hon. RICHARD CHENEY,

President of the United States Senate, U.S. Capitol, 

Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. VICE PRESIDENT: I am resigning my seat in the United States 

Senate as the senior Senator from the State of Delaware to assume my duties as Vice President of the United States of America. My resignation is 

effective January 15, 2009, at 5 p.m. 

Sincerely,

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR.,

U.S. Senator. 

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Farewell to the Senate 

Thursday, January 15, 2009 

Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, let me begin by thanking the 

leaders for their kind comments. It is true that I have been 

here a long time, I say to my friend from Kentucky (Senator 

McConnell). As a matter of fact, I say to my friend from Hawaii (Senator Inouye), I remember the first time I stood on 

the floor as a Senator of the United States. It was the desk 

directly to your left, Senator, the top row, second in. It was 

temporarily my desk. I remember standing and being told 

that the desk on my right was the desk of Henry Clay and 

on my left Daniel Webster because the senior Senators from 

the respective States got those desks. I say to my friend from 

California (Senator Boxer), it was the only time I can remember being speechless when I stood there, as a 30-yearold kid, thinking: Oh, my God. 

Well, I never thought I would be standing here today. I 

never believed serving in this Chamber was my destiny, but 

it always was a big part of my dreams. 

I remember vividly the first time I walked in this Chamber, I walked through those doors as a 21-year-old tourist. I 

had been down visiting some of my friends at Georgetown 

University. I went to the University of Delaware. I had a 

blind date with a young lady from a school they used to call 

Visi Visitation—which is now part of Georgetown. My good 

friend, a guy named Dave Walsh, was there. After the 

evening, I stayed at his apartment. I shouldn’t say this probably, but I will—I don’t drink. Not for moral reasons, I just 

never had a drink. There is nothing worse than being a sober 

guy with a bunch of college guys who have a hangover the 

next morning. 

So I got up and decided to get in the car—this is a true 

story, Senator Carper—and I drove up to the Capitol. I had 

always been fascinated with it. In those days, you could literally drive right up to the front steps. I was 21 years old. 

This was 1963. I say to my friend from Iowa, I drove up to 

the steps and there had been a rare Saturday session. It had 

just ended. So I walked up the steps, found myself in front 

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of the elevators, and I walked to the right to the Reception 

Room. There was no one there. The glass doors, those French 

doors that lead behind the Chamber, were open. There were 

no signs then. I walked into the Chamber and the lights 

were still on and I was awestruck, literally awestruck. I 

don’t know what in God’s name made me do it, but I walked 

up, I say to my friend from Arkansas (Senator Pryor), and 

I sat in the Presiding Officer’s chair. I was mesmerized. 

The next thing I know, I feel this hand on my shoulder 

and the Capitol policeman picks me up and says: ‘‘What are 

you doing?’’ After a few moments he realized I was just a 

dumbstruck kid. He didn’t arrest me or anything. That was 

the first time I walked onto the Senate floor. It is literally 

a true story. 

By the way, just 9 or 10 years later, I walked through 

those same doors as a Senator. A Capitol Hill policeman 

stopped me walking in and he said, ‘‘Do you remember me?’’ 

I said, ‘‘No, sir.’’ He said, ‘‘I welcome you back to the Senate.’’ 

He was a Capitol Hill policeman. He was retiring 2 weeks 

later. He said, ‘‘Welcome to the floor, legally.’’ 

Well, it is sort of fitting to the way I started my career 

here. I may not be a young man anymore, but I am still awestruck by this Chamber. I think it brings my career full 

cycle, to know that while I was once detained for sitting in 

the Presiding Officer’s chair, I will now occasionally be detained in the Presiding Officer’s chair as Vice President of 

the United States of America. 

The Senate has been my life, and that is not hyperbole; it 

literally has been my life. I have been a Senator considerably 

longer than I was alive before I was a Senator. I may be resigning from the Senate today, but I will always be a Senate 

man. Except for the title ‘‘father,’’ there is no title, including 

Vice President, that I am more proud to wear than that of 

a Senator of the United States. 

When I arrived here, giants loomed over the landscape of 

the Senate, people with names such as Danny Inouye, Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie, William Fulbright, Jacob Javits, 

Mike Mansfield, Stuart Symington, Scoop Jackson, Sam 

Ervin, John McClellan, Warren Magnuson, Claiborne Pell, 

and a few others who are still here: Bob Byrd, and the lion 

of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. In those days, chairmen dominated. Literally, as Senator Inouye will remember, if a chairman said he wanted a vote, almost without exception, every 

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ness and the old ways of thinking were, at that very moment 

in the Senate’s history, beginning to change. 

As my colleagues know, there is a long-standing tradition 

in the Senate—I think honored in the breach now more than 

the rule—but when I got here in 1973, it was mandatory 

that a new Senator would pay respects to the ‘‘old bulls of 

the Senate.’’ I never dreamed I would be an old bull of the 

Senate.

I remember the first appointment I made. It was to go see 

Senator John Stennis, then-chairman of the Armed Services 

Committee. I now have Senator Stennis’ office. I remember 

I walked in—and Senator Stennis had a great and large mahogany conference table that was a gift from the President 

of the Philippines to Vice President Barkley for the liberation of the Philippines. He used it as his desk. He had a blotter at one end of it. It seated—I don’t know how many people 

it seats—15 people. It was a desk with a group of leather 

chairs around it. 

I walked in—and those who remember John Stennis know 

he talked at you like this when he talked; he always put his 

hand up like this—he looked at me and he said, ‘‘Young 

man, sit down, sit down.’’ And he patted the leather chair 

next to him, so I dutifully sat down. He said, ‘‘Congratulations.’’ He said, ‘‘May I ask you a question?’’ I said, ‘‘Yes, sir, 

Mr. Chairman.’’ He said, ‘‘What made you run for the Senate?’’ Being tactful, as I always am, I answered honestly 

without thinking. I said, ‘‘Civil rights, sir.’’ As soon as I did, 

I could feel the beads of perspiration pop out on my head, 

and I thought: Oh, my God. He looked at me and he said— 

absolutely true story—he said, ‘‘Good, good, good.’’ That was 

the end of the conversation. Well, that was 1973. 

In 1988, time had transpired; he had become my good 

friend. We shared a hospital room, a hospital suite at Walter 

Reed for a number of months. He had lost his leg to cancer. 

It was during that period when President Bush was coming 

into office. As the tradition is, as all my colleagues know, you 

get to choose your offices based on seniority, as offices come 

open. I have always thought—we all think our offices are the 

finest—of his office, which had been the office of a man 

whom he never referred to by his first name that I can remember, and the man after whom the Russell Building is 

named, Chairman Russell. It had been his office. 

I walked down to look at his office. It was that period in 

December when no one was around. The elections were over. 

I walked in, and his secretary of 30 some years—I think her 

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name was Mildred—was there. My memory is not certain on 

that. I walked into the anteroom to his office, and all these 

boxes were piled up. He was packing up 40-some years of 

service.

She said, ‘‘Senator, welcome. Welcome. You all are going 

to take our office?’’ 

I said, ‘‘I don’t know, Mildred, I am going to check.’’ I said, 

‘‘Is the chairman in?’’ 

She said, ‘‘No, you go right in the office.’’ 

I went in the office. Without her knowing it, Senator Stennis had come in through the other door of the hallway and 

was sitting there in his wheelchair in the same exact spot, 

with one leg, staring out the window of that office that looks 

out onto the Supreme Court. 

I said, ‘‘Oh, Mr. Chairman, I apologize. I apologize for interrupting.’’

He said, ‘‘No, JOE, come in, sit down, sit down.’’ 

I sat down in that chair, and what astounded me, I say to 

Senator Boxer, is he looked at me and said, ‘‘JOE, do you remember the first time you came to see me?’’ I hadn’t. I told 

this story about Senator Stennis to my friend from Mississippi before, as he walks on the floor. 

He asked me, ‘‘Do you remember?’’ 

I said, ‘‘No, I don’t.’’ 

He said, ‘‘I asked you why you ran for the Senate.’’ 

I said, ‘‘Oh, I remember. I was a smart, young fellow, 

wasn’t I.’’ 

He looked at me and said, ‘‘You all are going to take my 

office, aren’t you, JOE?’’ He caressed that table, the table he 

loved so much. He caressed it like it was an animate object. 

He said, ‘‘You are going to take my office?’’ 

I said, ‘‘Yes, sir, I am.’’ 

He said, ‘‘I wanted to tell you then in 1973, and I am going 

to tell you all, this table here was the flagship of the Confederacy.’’

If you read ‘‘Masters of the Senate’’ about Johnson’s term, 

you will see in the middle of the book a picture of the table 

in my office with the famous old Southern segregationist 

Senators sitting around that table chaired by Senator Russell.

He said, ‘‘This was the flagship of the Confederacy. Every 

Tuesday, we gathered here under Senator Russell’s direction 

to plan the demise of the civil rights movement from 1954 

to 1968. It is time this table passes from a man who was 

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against civil rights into the hands of a man who is for civil 

rights.’’

I found it genuinely, without exaggeration, moving. We 

talked a few more minutes. I got up and when I got to the 

door, he turned to me in the wheelchair and said, ‘‘One more 

thing, JOE. The civil rights movement did more—more—to 

free the White man than the Black man.’’ 

I looked at him and said, ‘‘Mr. Chairman, how is that?’’ 

Probably Thad will only remember as well as I do. 

He said, ‘‘It freed my soul; it freed my soul.’’ 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, I can tell you that by 

his own account, John Stennis was personally enlarged by 

his service in the Senate. That is the power of this institution. Men and women who come to Washington, who come in 

contact with folks in different parts of the country that we 

represent, with slightly different cultural backgrounds, different religions, different attitudes about what makes this 

country great, all races, all religions, and it opens a door for 

change. I think it opens a door for personal growth, and in 

that comes the political progress this Nation has made. 

I learned that lesson as a very young Senator. I got here 

in 1973, and one of the people, along with Danny and others 

on this floor who kept me here, was Mike Mansfield, the majority leader. Once a week he had us report to his office, 

which is where the leader’s office is on the other side. In retrospect, he was taking my pulse, to see how I was doing. 

I walked in one day through those doors on the Republican 

side, and a man who became my friend, Jesse Helms—who 

came in 1972 with me, and his wife Dot, who is still my close 

friend and I keep in contact with her—were standing in the 

back excoriating Bob Dole for the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

I walked through the floor on my way to my meeting with 

Senator Mansfield. I sat down on the other side of his desk. 

Some of you remember he smoked a pipe a lot of times when 

he was in his office. He had the pipe in his mouth and looked 

at me and said, ‘‘JOE, looks like something is bothering you.’’ 

I said, ‘‘Mr. Leader, I can’t believe what I just heard on the 

floor of the Senate. I can’t believe that anyone could be so 

heartless and care so little about people with disabilities. I 

tell you, it makes me angry, Mr. Leader.’’ 

He said, ‘‘JOE, what would you say if I told you that 4 

years ago, maybe 5, Dot and Jesse Helms were reading, I 

think the Charlotte Observer, the local newspaper, and they 

saw a piece in the paper about a young man in braces who 

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was handicapped at an orphanage. He was in his early teens. 

All the caption said was the young man wanted nothing 

more for Christmas than to be part of a family.’’ 

He said, ‘‘What would you say if I told you Dot and Jesse 

Helms adopted that young man as their own child?’’ 

I said, ‘‘I would feel like a fool, an absolute fool.’’ 

He said, ‘‘Well, they did.’’ 

He said, ‘‘JOE, every man and woman sent here is sent 

here because their State recognizes something decent about 

them. It is easy to find the part you don’t like. I think your 

job, JOE, is to find out that part that caused him to be sent 

here.’’

He said, ‘‘JOE, never question another man’s motive. Question his judgment but never his motive.’’ 

I think I can say without fear of contradiction, I have 

never questioned any one of your motives. I learned that lesson very early at the hands of Iron Mike Mansfield who had 

more character in his little finger than the vast majority of 

people we know have in their whole bodies. 

That advice has guided me, and hopefully well, and I hope 

it guides this Congress because those who are willing to look 

for the good in the other guy, the other woman, I think become better people and become better and more able legislators.

This approach allowed me to develop friendships I would 

never have expected would have occurred. I knew I would be 

friends with Danny Inouye who came to campaign for me. I 

knew I could be friends with Ted Kennedy. And I knew I 

could be friends with Fulbright and Humphrey and Javits, 

men with whom I shared a common view and a common philosophy. But I never thought I would develop deep personal 

relationships with men whose positions played an extremely 

large part in my desire to come to the Senate in the first 

place to change what they believed in—Eastland, Stennis, 

Thurmond. All these men became my friends. 

As Senator Hatch will remember, after every executive 

session of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I used to go into 

Jim Eastland’s office, which was catercorner, and sit down. 

He allowed me to ask him a lot of dumb questions that a 

young kid would want to ask: ‘‘What is the most significant 

thing that has ever occurred since you have been here?’’ 

On that score, he looked at me and said, ‘‘Air conditioning.’’

I said, ‘‘I beg your pardon?’’ 

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He said, ‘‘The most significant thing that happened since 

I got here was air conditioning.’’ 

I thought: Wow, that is kind of strange. 

He said, ‘‘You know, JOE, before we had air conditioning, 

all that recessed lighting all used to be great big pieces of 

glass like in showers.’’ He said, ‘‘Come around May, that 

Sun—he used to use a little bit of profanity which I will not 

use for appropriate reasons—that darn Sun would beat down 

on that dome, hit that glass, act like a magnifying glass and 

heat up the Chamber, and we would all go home in May and 

June for the year. Then we put in air conditioning, stayed 

year round and ruined America.’’ 

(Laughter.)

Senator Stennis was my genuine friend. But one of the 

most unlikely friendships was Strom Thurmond. Some of you 

knew my relationship with Strom. Did I ever think when I 

got here I would become friends with Strom Thurmond? He 

stood for everything—I got started because of civil rights. 

Yet on his 100th birthday, certainly thereafter, on his deathbed I got a phone call from his wife Nancy. She said, ‘‘I am 

standing here at the nurse’s station, JOE, with the doctor. I 

just left Strom. He asked me to call you. He wants a favor.’’ 

I said, ‘‘Of course, Nancy, whatever he wants.’’ 

She said, ‘‘He would like you to do his eulogy.’’ 

Well, I never thought in my wildest dreams that this 

place, these walls, the honor that resides here, would put me 

in a position where a man whose career was one of the most 

interesting in modern American history asked me to do his 

eulogy. I never worked so hard on a eulogy in my whole life. 

I think I was completely truthful—truthful to the best of my 

knowledge.

As I said, he was a man who reflected the ages. He lived 

in three different ages, three different parts of American history. I remind people, which some will not remember, by the 

time he resigned, he had the highest percentage of AfricanAmericans working in his office as any Senator. He voted for 

the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. He had, in my 

view, I believe, changed. 

This is an incredible place, I say to my colleagues, an incredible place. It has left me with the conviction that personal relationships are the one thing that unlocks the true 

potential of this place. Every good thing I have seen happen 

here, every bold step taken in the 36-plus years I have been 

here, came not from the application of pressure by interest 

groups but through the maturation of personal relationships. 

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Pressure groups can and are strong and important advocates, but they are not often vehicles for compromise. A personal relationship is what allows you to go after someone 

hammer and tongs on one issue and still find common 

ground on the next. It is the grease that lubricates this incredible system we have. It is what allows you to see the 

world from another person’s perspective and allows them to 

take the time to see it from yours. 

I am sure this has not been my experience alone. In a 

sense, I am probably preaching to the choir of the very men 

and women sitting in this Chamber who have experienced 

similar things. 

One of the most moving things I ever saw in my life was 

on the floor of the Senate. The year was 1977. We were 

about to adjourn for the year. There was a vote cast, and as 

we all do, we assembled in the well to vote. 

One of my personal heroes, Hubert Humphrey, was literally riddled with cancer. He died very shortly thereafter. 

He showed up, like Dewey Bartlett of Oklahoma, every single day knowing he literally had days to live. He walked 

down this aisle—because I was standing back here. I have 

been on this back row for 34 years, with my good friend Fritz 

Hollings.

So he walked down the aisle, and Barry Goldwater came 

through the doors and was coming down the aisle to vote. 

Barry Goldwater and Hubert Humphrey shared virtually 

nothing in common philosophically. They had a pretty tough 

campaign in 1964. Barry Goldwater saw Hubert and walked 

up and gave him a big bear hug. He kissed him and Hubert 

Humphrey kissed him back. And they stood there in a tight 

embrace for minutes, both crying. It brought the entire Senate to tears. But to me it was the mark of a storied history 

of this place. Hubert loved it here. He once said, ‘‘The Senate 

is a place filled with good will and good intentions, and if the 

road to hell is paved with them, then this is a pretty good 

detour.’’

Friendship and death are great equalizers. Death will seek 

all of us at some point, but we must choose to seek friendship. I believe our ability to work together with people with 

whom we have real and deep and abiding disagreements, especially in these consequential times, is going to determine 

whether we succeed in restoring America. I think it is literally that fundamental and basic. 

Things have changed a great deal since I first arrived 

here. There were no women in the Senate. Margaret Chase 

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Smith had just retired and it would be 6 years until the next 

woman was elected in her own right, and that was Nancy 

Kassebaum. Today, there are 16 women in the Senate, and 

we need many more, but that is progress. 

Our proceedings in those days were not televised. They 

didn’t have fax machines, let alone e-mail. I remember the 

fights we used to have in conference about whether we would 

actually spend money for computers. Remember those fights? 

Some of the older guys thought: Computers? Why are we 

going to waste the taxpayers’ money and put computers in 

our offices? I am almost embarrassed to acknowledge that. 

That makes me a ‘‘pretty old dude,’’ as the kids would say. 

I often hear Senators lament today that the 24-hour news 

cycle and the need to go back home every weekend—or in my 

case every night—makes it harder than it used to be to get 

to know one another, to share a meal. Not long after I first 

was elected, there was an accident in my family, and I didn’t 

want to stay. Senators Humphrey, Kennedy, Mansfield, and 

Hollings, among others, said, ‘‘Just stay 6 months.’’ It was 

not unusual in those days for there to be groups of Senators 

who, with their spouses, would take turns once a month having dinner for the rest of the Senators. Senator Eagleton of 

Missouri, who recently passed away and was a good friend; 

Senator Gaylord Nelson and his wife, who was incredible 

and who has also recently passed away; Senator Hollings; 

and my friend Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska had one of 

those groups, along with a guy named Saxby from Ohio, who 

became Attorney General. While I never, ever, stayed in 

Washington, particularly in those days, they insisted I come, 

and I would go to those dinners. I was a kid, I was single, 

but they included me. The truth of the matter is, they went 

a long way toward saving my life, changing my life. 

You know, for the first time in 36 years, I am going to 

have a home in Washington—‘‘public housing’’—and I hope 

Jill and I can use it to help bring us all together. I hope it 

can be used to foster deepening relationships. We all are so 

busy in our own careers it is awfully hard to do it anymore. 

I have seen Senators who have come to this institution to 

attack it—because that is how they got here, they attacked 

it. They called it useless and venal. Attitudes such as that, 

which have been observed in the past, can sometimes become 

self-fulfilling prophesies. But if you come here with a dedication to hard work, an open mind, some good faith, and to 

make progress, that, too, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his Phi Beta Kappa address to Harvard, said: 

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the 

views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that 

Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote 

those books. 

I am told today by the Senate Historian that there have 

been over 1,900 Senators who have served. I have served 

with more than 320 of them, and I have learned something 

from every one. As a matter of fact, I was also given a piece 

of discouraging information as well; that only 19 Senators in 

the history of the United States of America have ever served 

as long as I have, one of whom is in this Chamber. As I said, 

I have learned a lot from them, and I can tell you from experience that most of them are only seen as giants in the hindsight of history. At the time, they were legislators trying to 

do their best. 

I look in my desk and I see the names carved in the drawer. Maybe the public doesn’t know how much like kids we 

are. We come over here after the Senate is closed and we sit 

there, somewhat embarrassed, and we actually carve our 

names in the drawers of the desk, in the bottom. It is a tradition. Maybe there is someone who didn’t do it, but I don’t 

know of anyone, even the most sophisticated among us. I 

look in the desk drawer I have and I see names of famous 

Delawareans, such as the longest serving family in the history of the State of Delaware—the Bayards. Six have been 

Senators. But I also see the names of Scoop Jackson and 

John F. Kennedy and others in my drawer. Look in your 

desk and you will see names you recognize as well, and you 

all know them. Forty years from now, when someone opens 

your desk and looks at your name, will they think of you the 

way I think of these men? To me, that is a test we each are 

going to have to meet. 

With the gravity of the challenges we face today comes— 

as every similar moment in our history—the most significant 

opportunity for change, the most significant opportunity for 

progress. I firmly believe this, too, can be an era of legends, 

of giants. But this much I know: Our Nation desperately 

needs it to be. 

During my first term in the Senate, when I spoke out in 

favor of campaign finance reform at a Democratic caucus— 

and Senator Inouye may remember this; he was then Secretary of the Senate—the President pro tempore, Jim Eastland, listened intently in what is now called the Mansfield 

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[ xvii ] 

Room. When I got finished with my impassioned speech 

about the need for public financing, he stood—and he hardly 

ever spoke at the caucus, as Senator Inouye will remember— 

and he always wore a glen plaid suit and always had a cigar 

in his mouth about as big as a rubber hose. He leaned up 

at the table in the front—and he never stood completely 

straight—he sought recognition and he leaned up, put himself halfway up, took the cigar out of his mouth, and he said, 

‘‘JOE, they tell me ya’ll are the youngest man to ever get 

elected to this august body.’’ I wasn’t. There was one younger 

than me popularly elected, but I didn’t dare correct him. He 

said:

Let me tell you something, JOE: Ya’ll make many more speeches like you 

did here today, you’re going to be the youngest one-term Senator in the history of the United States of America. 

I walked out of that conference, as I have said to Leader 

Reid, and walked in here—and we didn’t use to have those 

booths by the phone—and Warren Magnuson, who also 

smoked a cigar, pulled out his cigar and said, ‘‘BIDEN, come 

here.’’ Can you imagine calling to a Senator and saying, 

‘‘Come here.’’ He said: 

Stop this stuff. I didn’t work this darned hard—a little different language 

used—I didn’t work this darned hard the past 30 years to have some sniveling little competitor get the same amount of money as me. Stop it. Stop 

it.

I walked away as politely and as quickly as I could. I 

never dreamed that nearly four decades later I would be 

elected to a seventh term to the Senate of the United States. 

Never, ever dreamed it. Thirty-six years ago, the people of 

Delaware gave me, as they have given you in your States, a 

rare and sacred opportunity to serve them. As I said, after 

the accident, I was prepared in 1973 to walk away from that 

opportunity. But men such as Ted Kennedy and Mike Mansfield and Hubert Humphrey and Fritz Hollings and Dan 

Inouye convinced me to stay—to ‘‘stay 6 months, JOE.’’ Remember that? Just stay 6 months. And one of the true giants 

of the Senate, who thank God is still with us, Robert C. 

Byrd, without any fanfare, in late December, in a cold, driving rain, drove to Wilmington, DE, stood outside a memorial 

service at a Catholic church for my deceased wife and daughter, soaking wet in that cold rain, and never once came to 

see me, just to show his respects, and then got back in the 

automobile and drove back to Washington, DC. 

This is a remarkable place, gentlemen and ladies. And as 

I healed, this place became my second family, more than I 

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[ xviii ] 

suspect it is for most. I needed it, and for that I will be forever grateful. So to the people of Delaware, who have given 

me the honor of serving them, there is no way I can ever express to them how much this meant to me. To my staff, past 

and present, and all those on the floor, past and present, 

dedicated to making this institution run, including the young 

pages, wide-eyed and hopefully going home and wanting to 

come back someday in our spots, thank you for everything 

you have done for me. I suspect you have done for me more 

than you have done for most. 

To my children, Hunter and Ashley and Beau, if I was 

nothing else, I would be content to be the father of such wonderful people. To my grandchildren, who constantly remind 

me why the decisions we make in this august body are so 

important, and to my Jill, you once saved my life, and you 

are my life today, I thank all of you. I thank all my colleagues for making my Senate service possible and this next 

chapter in my career in life so hopeful. 

I came here to fight for civil rights. In my office now sits 

that grand conference table that once was used to fight 

against civil rights, and I leave here today to begin my service to our Nation’s first African-American President. The arc 

of the universe is long, but it does indeed bend toward justice, and the Senate of the United States has been an incredible instrument in assuring that justice. 

So although you have not seen the last of me, I say for the 

last time, and with confidence in all of you, optimism in our 

future, and a heart with more gratitude than I can express, 

I yield the floor. 

(Applause, Senators rising.) 

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TRIBUTES

TO

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR. 

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Proceedings in the Senate 

FRIDAY, January 9, 2009 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, what a sad but happy day it is 

to have that letter (of resignation) read before the world. JOE

BIDEN, from the day I came to the Senate, was the most gracious, helpful person one could imagine. Having chosen him 

speaks volumes about Barack Obama. We will miss Senator 

BIDEN, with his many years in the Senate, but we look forward to his working arm in arm with Barack Obama for the 

next 8 years. 

THURSDAY, January 15, 2009 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, Senator BIDEN is here to give 

his farewell address to the U.S. Senate. Over the many decades he has served in the Senate, he has given many speeches on the floor. We all look forward to his final remarks, recognizing the loss of his service in the Senate is significant. 

However, being Vice President, he will still be President of 

the Senate. 

I will always remember Senator BIDEN telling me, after 

the time he had been selected to be Vice President: ‘‘I am a 

Senate guy. I will always be a Senate guy.’’ 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, let me say about Vice Presidentelect JOE BIDEN, Senator JOE BIDEN, JOE BIDEN: Everyone 

knows about his courage, his wonderful family, his remarkable career in the U.S. Senate. We know he overcame a tremendously difficult personal tragedy during the first few 

days after his election. I am not sure many could have had 

the strength he had to conquer this tragedy. Then, of course, 

he got sick many years later and fought back. It was when 

Tim Johnson was in the hospital in a coma that JOE BIDEN

visited him and his family and talked to him about the fact 

that there will be times when, as he is recovering, he may 

be embarrassed by his inability to speak very well. JOE

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BIDEN is one of the great orators in the history of the country. No one would have ever known he had a problem very 

similar to what happened to Tim Johnson. He was such a 

role model to build Tim’s confidence to be able to come back 

to the Senate. 

We here in the Senate know his wonderful family, and 

now, because of his exposure to America, our country has 

been introduced to this great family. We know he is now in 

his seventh term in the Senate, in which time he has served 

as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, chairman 

of the Judiciary Committee, and that he is a champion of 

rights for women, the environment, a strong military, and 

the rule of law. 

I have known JOE BIDEN since I came to Congress in 1982. 

I came to the Senate a few years later. But in all of this 

time, the picture in my mind is during the heat of the Presidential campaign. I am driving down through the capital of 

the State of Nevada, Carson City, and I look out on a corner 

there, and there is JOE BIDEN in Carson City, NV, campaigning. He had a number of people around him. I stopped 

the car, got out, and gave JOE a handshake and a big hug. 

It was so JOE BIDEN to be there. He was there pressing the 

flesh and talking to voters. 

The people of Nevada have come to know and love JOE

BIDEN for that very reason. He is kind of a regular guy; 

whether it is at one of the sandwich shops which came from 

Delaware to Nevada, Capriotti’s—now they are all over Nevada—they all have a picture of JOE BIDEN in them because 

it was a Delaware-based sandwich shop. He is a regular kind 

of guy who shows up on a street corner just to talk to people. 

I will always remember with gratitude the kindness he 

showed when I first arrived in the Senate in 1986. I will be 

forever grateful that he was one of the very first colleagues 

to support my candidacy for Democratic whip. I can remember; I was in his office. He called in his secretary, and I do 

not remember her name, but he said, ‘‘I take no more calls 

on this. Reid’s my man.’’ 

Well, I have always been his. I am a Senate guy, just like 

JOE BIDEN. We cannot get that out of our blood. I wish him 

well. He is going to be a great representative of our country, 

and I am very proud to be able to say to JOE BIDEN: ‘‘You 

are my friend.’’ 

MR. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I turn now to the issue 

of the moment, which is the celebration of the career of our 

good friend from Delaware and wishing him well in the fuay 15 2012 Jkt 064802 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6688 Sfmt 6688 H:\DOCS\BYEBYE\BYEBYE10\64802 TXT KAYNE
[ 5 ] 

ture. I remember being sworn in, in January 1985, thinking 

I had gotten to the Senate at a pretty early age. I was 42 

years old. At the same time I was sworn in for my first term, 

the Senator from Delaware was being sworn in for his third 

time. He was barely old enough to vote when he got here. We 

were born in the same year, but you got a 12-year head start 

on me, I would say to my friend from Delaware, he has had 

an extraordinarily distinguished career. 

When we think about Senator BIDEN, certainly we think 

about his marvelous personality, his demeanor, his friendliness. He can have a good riproaring debate without being 

disagreeable, as we all say. He has been a pleasure to work 

with. I say that as somebody who has rarely voted on the 

same side as he has. We say goodbye today to an outstanding individual who has been a fixture in the Senate for 

36 years and a friend to everyone in the Chamber. He now, 

of course, is going to enjoy an even greater achievement as 

he becomes the Vice President of the United States. 

I remember right from the beginning in 1985, as I was discussing a few minutes ago, that Senator BIDEN made everybody feel comfortable. Although we were born in the same 

year, as I indicated, he certainly got here at an early age, 

and it has allowed him to spend most of his adult life in the 

Senate.

America got to know JOE pretty well over the course of the 

last year. They got a chance to witness his humor, his compassion, and, yes, his extraordinary decency. They learned 

first hand his not entirely undeserved reputation for loquaciousness. They met his wonderful family. Barack Obama decided he liked what he saw in JOE BIDEN as well and invited 

him to be his running mate in what turned out to be a spirited Presidential campaign. 

So next week, after the peaceful transition of power from 

one political party to another that has distinguished our democracy since 1801, JOE BIDEN will become the 47th Vice 

President of the United States. This inauguration marks the 

first time in almost 50 years that two Senators moved directly into the offices of President and Vice President. So no 

matter what outcome some of us may have hoped for in the 

election, I think my colleagues and I can feel a little institutional pride at that accomplishment—the fact that two Senators will be sworn in as President and Vice President. 

Everyone knows by now JOE’s famous loyalty to his beloved Amtrak and his regular commute by rail 80 minutes 

each day from his home in Wilmington to the Capitol. We 

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[ 6 ] 

know of his commitment to being home with his family every 

night.

I am sure every single one of my friends in this Chamber 

has a story to tell of working with JOE. For my part, one of 

several efforts JOE and I worked together on is the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act passed in 2006. After the election 

of the Hamas-dominated government in Gaza, JOE recognized, as I and others did, the threat that situation posed— 

and continues to pose as we have seen up close over the last 

weeks—the threat it poses to peace in the region. Thanks to 

his efforts, we were able to pass and have signed into law 

this important bill which restricts U.S. and foreign assistance to the Hamas-led government unless and until it takes 

serious steps to renounce terror and publicly recognizes 

Israel’s right to exist. That bill was the right thing to do to 

confront terrorism. I am proud of my work with JOE BIDEN

on it, and I know he is too. 

I have also worked with JOE on tightening sanctions on 

the dictatorial, illegitimate regime currently ruling in 

Burma. Among other efforts, the Tom Lantos Block Burmese 

JADE Act, which we collaborated on, restricts the importation of Burmese Jade into America through other countries. 

That takes a large bite out of every lucrative source of profit 

for the Burmese regime. 

JOE is well versed in these issues and many others, thanks 

to his years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 

with much of that time as either chairman or ranking member. I know he is particularly proud of his role in pushing 

for NATO expansion in Central and Eastern Europe in 1998 

and in 2003. 

We will all certainly miss JOE’s presence as 1 of 100. It 

will take some getting used to, to have a Senate without 

him, but the good news is he is not going very far. Obviously, 

Senator BIDEN’s election as Vice President is a great honor 

and a fitting tribute to his 36 years of public service. I look 

forward to working with him as a key player in the incoming 

administration, as Congress and the new President work together to tackle the many difficult issues this Nation faces. 

Let me say, on a personal basis: JOE, it has been a pleasure knowing you and working with you over the years. 

Elaine and I wish you and Jill the very best in the coming 

years.

I yield the floor. 

[Senator BIDEN’s farewell address may be found on page 

vii.]

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[ 7 ] 

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I was elected State treasurer 

at the age of 29, 4 years after JOE BIDEN was elected to the 

Senate. For the last 30 years or so, I have had the honor and 

in some cases the misfortune of following him as a speaker, 

throughout the State of Delaware and in some cases around 

the country. It is a tough act to follow and I wouldn’t pretend 

to be able to do that. 

Over the last 200 years that we have had a Senator, we 

have seen any number of great orators come here and speak 

in this Chamber, in some cases to mesmerize us, in other 

cases to inspire us and to change our minds. JOE has done 

all of those things again today and he does it perhaps as well 

as anybody. 

People speak here today, as in the years in the past, and 

they quote Churchill; we quote John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King. I am surprised he didn’t quote one of his favorite 

Irish poets, Seamus Heaney, I think. He quotes him a lot. 

But the person I think I have heard JOE quote the most in 

his life has been none of those folks, none of those Irish 

poets, but it has been his mom and his dad. I wish I could 

ask for a show of hands, how many times have you had JOE

BIDEN say to you: ‘‘I give you my word as a Biden.’’ If we 

could count them all up today in this room and if we could 

get a dollar a week—maybe we couldn’t pay for the stimulus 

package but we could make a pretty good down payment. 

Many times I have heard him say—he quotes his dad—I will 

paraphrase it: ‘‘It is a lucky man who gets up in the morning, puts his feet on the ground, and knows the work he is 

about to do has consequence, substance, is meaningful.’’ 

A guy doesn’t turn out like this by chance—to become the 

youngest, not only one of the two youngest Senators elected 

in the history of our country, he is also the youngest seventerm Senator in the history of our country. 

His mom is still living. She lives in a property close to JOE

and Jill’s home. His dad is deceased. But I know we owe 

them a huge debt of gratitude because the values they instilled in him, the need to serve other people, and the Golden 

Rule. This is a man of deep faith. You wouldn’t always know 

it, he doesn’t talk a lot about it, but this is a person whose 

life and values were shaped as much by his family and his 

faith as anybody I know. I know his parents taught him to 

treat other people the way he would like to be treated. That 

led to his great involvement and support of the Civil Rights 

Act and underlies everything he does today. 

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All of us have families. All of us love our families. I do not 

think I know anybody in public life or outside of public life 

who is more committed to and who loves his family any more 

than JOE: Jill, his first wife Neilia, whom I never had the 

pleasure of knowing—I tell you he has a wonderful wife in 

Jill. It is clear he loves her with all his heart. The three kids 

are not kids anymore; they are in their thirties and twenties. 

Beau is over in Iraq today serving in the National Guard. 

But there is an extraordinary bond between a father and a 

child.

It has been said the greatest gift that a father can give to 

his children is to love their mother. He doesn’t just love their 

mother, he loves the kids, he loves the grandchildren. This 

is a loving guy with a family that is as strong as any I have 

ever seen. You heard the old saying I would rather see a sermon than hear a sermon. When it comes to family values, 

you see the sermon. You don’t just hear it, you see it. We see 

the sermon. 

In politics, I like to say our friends come and go but our 

enemies accumulate. When you think about the people JOE

has talked about here today, from Eastland to Jesse Helms 

to Senator Thurmond—he didn’t mention Phil Gramm—you 

would never imagine a guy who has his convictions, his philosophy, his commitment to civil rights and other causes— 

you would never imagine he would become their friend, confidant—and not so much for them to change him, but for him 

to change them and in fact this country. 

JOE, you have been part of the glue that holds this place 

together. As we have said goodbye to a lot of good men in 

the last several weeks, it is a real sort of sense, not of bitterness, not of sweetness, but maybe bittersweet that we say 

goodbye to you today. The 8 years I have been here, I know 

there have been a lot of times when we sought to try to 

make sure the Vice President didn’t come and cast a tiebreaking vote. My guess is in the time you serve for Vice 

President—4 years or 8 years, however long it is going to be; 

I hope it is 8—my guess is there will be times we orchestrate 

the votes so you will have to be here. I don’t know if we can 

do it in a way that will allow you to come to the floor and 

give another speech like you have just given. Maybe we can 

figure it out. 

But as a friend, as we say goodbye and move on to this 

next assignment in life: God bless our President-elect. He 

has made a terrific choice not just for Delaware, which is 

hugely happy and excited, but I think for our country and I 

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[ 9 ] 

think for the world. I want to say, for the last 8 years, thank 

you for being my friend, my confidant. Thank you for being 

my adviser. Thank you for asking for my advice from time 

to time and listening to my advice. To your staff that is gathered here today, and your family up in the balcony, thank 

you for sharing with us a wonderful human being, for nurturing and bringing him along. The staff has provided such 

terrific support, almost like an extension of my own staff. We 

love your family and we love your staff and we are going to 

miss you. Thank you for always having my back, and for 

looking out for me and for making possible the extraordinary 

experience as a junior Senator for the last 8 years. 

I understand your resignation becomes effective, is it 5 

p.m. today? As I look at this clock here, I know for the next 

5 hours, 49 minutes, I get to be a junior Senator and then 

after that I move up in the pecking order. But I will always 

be your junior Senator and your colleague and I hope your 

friend. God bless you in all your life ahead and thank you 

for all you have done for us and for me especially. God bless 

you.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

Delaware.

Mr. BIDEN. Thank you very much. You have been one of 

my closest friends and confidants and you will continue to 

be, and I appreciate your sentiment. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

Utah is recognized. 

Mr. HATCH. I am only going to take a few minutes, but 

I want to say a few things about my friend JOE BIDEN, certainly from this side of the aisle. 

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Senator JOE

BIDEN as his service in the Senate representing the great 

State of Delaware ends and his service as our Nation’s next 

Vice President is about to begin. 

Like everybody else, when I think of JOE BIDEN, I first 

think of his family. As important as the Senate has been in 

defining his illustrious career, the man we know has been 

defined by his wife Jill and his children. Senator BIDEN,

were he never elected to the Senate or the Vice Presidency, 

has succeeded and accomplished much in this life when you 

see the tremendous job he and Jill did in raising Beau, 

Hunter, and Ashley. 

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Today, however, our remarks will focus on Senator BIDEN’s

legislative and other professional accomplishments. I can tell 

you first hand that anyone would be hard pressed to find a 

more distinguished and effective legislator. In an age of endless cynicism toward our elected officials, let there be no 

doubt that the word ‘‘distinguished’’ is a truly fitting description of this extraordinary public servant. He is a friend of 

mine. I have been privileged to serve 32 years side by side 

with JOE BIDEN on the Judiciary Committee and I have 

nothing but respect for him. 

Most of our work together was on the Senate Judiciary 

Committee, where Senator BIDEN served as chairman from 

1985 until 1995. I served as ranking member for many of 

those years, and when I first served as chairman from 1995 

to 1997, I had the good fortune of having JOE BIDEN as my 

partner on the committee, serving as ranking member. It 

was on the committee that I saw Senator BIDEN at work and 

learned a great deal. 

I can think of no chairman of the Judiciary Committee 

who had a better sense of what he wanted to accomplish— 

a vision for the committee—than Senator JOE BIDEN. No one 

was more interested in the details of legislating than he was. 

The Violence Against Women Act, the Violent Crime Control 

Act of 1994, the Drug Czar’s Office and the COPS Program 

all would not exist today were it not for his talents and leadership.

In one of my proudest moments as a U.S. Senator, I was 

joined by Senator BIDEN here on the Senate floor to hail the 

passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, 

which President Bush signed into law a week later, June 

2006. Senator BIDEN and I had introduced the bill only a 

year earlier, and we worked hard to see its passage in a relatively short amount of time. The bill was very significant 

and the law has changed the landscape with regard to sentencing, monitoring, adjudicating, registering, and tracking 

sexual predators. 

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator BIDEN

mastered the Senate’s dying art of legislating because he valued legislating. JOE BIDEN is not just a speech giver—though 

he is good at giving a long speech—he is an exceptional legislator. Majority Leader George Mitchell said he was the best 

Senate floor strategist he had ever worked with, and coming 

from George Mitchell, that’s saying something, because 

George Mitchell was one of the best majority leaders we have 

had in the Senate. There are few like Senator BIDEN left in 

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[ 11 ] 

the Senate who have the skill and patience to carefully and 

thoughtfully develop an idea for policy reform; craft what he 

believes to be the ideal bill; patiently—and with the long 

view—establish a record through hearings, reports, and 

media engagement; build institutional support by corralling 

colleagues and crafting compromise; and skillfully managing 

the bill’s passage on the floor. 

Political pundits and the media have for decades tried to 

get a handle on what makes JOE BIDEN tick. Too often, they 

settled for the easy answer—JOE’s a ‘‘wild stallion that never 

felt the bridle’’ or he is an ‘‘unguided missile.’’ That’s nonsense. Senator BIDEN has proven himself to be an accomplished statesman with enormous personal vision. 

I am proud he is going to be our next Vice President of the 

United States serving with, as he said, the first AfricanAmerican President. We are all proud of that and we should 

be, and we should do everything in our power to help. 

No one better captured the JOE BIDEN we know than the 

author Richard Ben Cramer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for 

his political reporting of the 1988 Presidential race in the 

classic book ‘‘What It Takes.’’ 

As a kid growing up in Scranton, ‘‘there was (to be perfectly blunt, as JOE would say) a breathtaking element of 

balls.’’ That was Richard Ben Cramer, not me. ‘‘JOE BIDEN

had balls. Lot of times more balls than sense . . . . What he 

was, was tough from the neck up. He knew what he wanted 

to do and he did it.’’ Later in life as a lawyer, he applied that 

mental toughness and, another quote, ‘‘cocky self-possession’’ 

to his chosen career—politics. There, JOE BIDEN would envision what he wanted to achieve and how he wanted to 

achieve it. While the experts, staffers, and consultants we 

Senators come to rely on would buzz around him with advice 

and direction, JOE BIDEN would listen but know in his gut 

what to do. ‘‘JOE could see the whole thing in his head, and 

what’s more, he could talk it.’’ 

In the end, what JOE BIDEN chose to take on and how he 

succeeded all rested on JOE’s certainty. As Richard Ben 

Cramer wrote: 

Once he’d seen it . . . he knew what was supposed to happen . . . Hell, it 

was a done deal . . . and then it wasn’t imagination, or even balls. Not to 

JOE BIDEN. It was destiny. 

That is from ‘‘What It Takes,’’ Richard Ben Cramer’s book 

from 1993. 

The record of JOE BIDEN’s life is clear. Mr. Vice Presidentelect, you have had ‘‘what it takes’’ to be an accomplished 

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Senator, and you have ‘‘what it takes’’ to be our Nation’s 

Vice President. 

Your tenure here has been marked with hard work, and 

much success, much pain, and much grief, much difficulty. 

Yet you remain humble and hard working. The skills and 

abilities our Lord bestowed on you have been used mightily 

by you. Your integrity, truthfulness, and passion will continue to serve you and this great country of ours. 

I thank you for your service, and thank you for your 

friendship, thank you for your continued sacrifice on behalf 

of this great Nation, and I tell you personally that I love you. 

I appreciate you very much. I care for you. I care for your 

family. We are going to be helpful to you as Vice President 

of the United States. And we hope you will not screw it up 

too badly there. We are going to be right there with you, if 

we can. 

JOE, we are proud of you and we ask God to bless you. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from 

Delaware.

Mr. BIDEN. I would like, if I may, Mr. President, to thank 

my friend from Utah for his kind comments. We have been 

buddies for a long time. I hope that continues in my new job. 

Mr. KERRY. It is hard to imagine, at least for me it is 

hard to imagine, the Senate without JOE BIDEN—at least as 

a Senator on the floor, in the thick of the fray. That is not 

just because he came here as a kid, so to speak, not just because he chaired some of this institution’s most important 

committees, but it is because of this particular moment that 

we find ourselves in, in the country. 

This is the kind of moment JOE BIDEN loves to be in the 

middle of, legislating. Obviously, we take a very special pride 

in knowing that one of our own is about to become Vice 

President. While this makes him President of the Senate, for 

once I actually wish Dick Cheney was right and that JOE

was still a part of the legislative branch. But, make no mistake, the Senate’s loss is President Obama’s and the country’s gain. JOE will bring a terrific strategic thinking and legislative experience to the challenges we face. 

This is a special moment in so many ways, and it is an 

emotional moment. I have known JOE since we were both 

kids, in terms of this journey, since we first ran for office in 

1972. We learned about each other then, reading the press 

clips of each other’s races, hearing stories from mutual 

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dom of that year is that JOE couldn’t win his race against an 

incumbent, Hale Boggs, who had been in office and winning 

elections in Delaware for 6 years. I, on the other hand, was 

favored to win mine. True to conventional wisdom, it turned 

out exactly the opposite way. 

To this day, I like to kid our longtime friend, our New Jersey friend, John Marttila, who was deeply involved in both 

of our races back then, that if he had just spent a little more 

time in Lowell, MA, and a little less time in Wilmington, 

things might have turned out differently. But for JOE and

me, both in politics and in life, things have actually turned 

out pretty well, and I have loved sharing this journey with 

him.

In a lot of ways, JOE BIDEN is an old-fashioned kind of 

guy. He lives life and politics by what a lot of people think 

are the old rules, regrettably: Unfailingly loyal, your word is 

your bond, you tell the truth, you act on principle not ideology, and you keep faith with family and home, you never 

forget where your roots are or who you are, and you are consistent and honest in all your endeavors. 

JOE BIDEN is all of that and a lot more in many personal 

ways. He is a patriarch to the core, in the best time-honored 

understanding of the meaning of that word. He never smiles 

more broadly or picks up more personal energy than when 

he is talking about his family. Frankly, to know JOE BIDEN

is also to know a lot of Bidens. 

Dozens of our colleagues, hundreds over the years, know 

that if you call JOE BIDEN with a late-night question, the 

odds are pretty high you are going to find him on that train, 

riding Amtrak home to be there with Jill, Beau, Hunter, 

Ashley, and the grandchildren. There is something pretty 

great about a Senator who makes sure to stop by his mom’s 

house for ice cream or a kiss good night on his way home. 

That is exactly what JOE BIDEN would do with his 92-yearold spitfire mother, Jean Finnegan Biden. It is the lessons of 

that big, Irish, warm, protective family that JOE brought to 

the Senate. He is the big brother whose sister Val remembers him as her protector on the playground, the dad whom 

Beau and Hunter remember urging them to get up when 

they got knocked down on the soccer field, the boss who calls 

a staff member when they have a sick parent or who threatens to fire you if you miss your kid’s birthday because you 

are working late for him. 

This is someone in the Senate who had a reputation for 

not just talking about family values but living them. As JOE

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BIDEN said so movingly this morning: He saw the Senate as 

an extended family and here he applied the lessons his dad 

taught him in Scranton, that everything comes down to dignity and respect. He has always respected the institution, 

and he always respected the dignity and individuality of 

every single one of his colleagues. 

One of the great stories that JOE told today, which has always spoken to me personally, is one that tells a lot about 

ushering in a new era of bipartisanship. When JOE first arrived in the Senate, he complained to the majority leader, 

Mike Mansfield, about a speech that another new Senator 

named Jesse Helms had made. Mike Mansfield told him, 

‘‘JOE, understand one thing. Everyone is sent here for a reason; because there is something in them that their folks like. 

Don’t question their motive.’’ 

Every one of us who has worked with JOE BIDEN knows

how much he took this lesson to heart and how much we 

gain by applying it today. His example is clear. If you treat 

people decently, look for the best in them, you can sit down 

and work through divisive issues; not just score more political points but actually get something done. 

JOE likes to talk about his first impression of Jesse Helms, 

but he is often too modest to talk about what happened later. 

Some people might have been surprised that JOE BIDEN,

Jesse Helms, and I teamed up in the fight against global 

HIV/AIDS. Some never would have believed that together we 

could bring about what is today the largest public health expenditure or effort by any single country in world history. 

That is what happens when JOE BIDEN takes to heart the 

message of a wise warhorse such as Mike Mansfield, looks 

past the stereotypes, past the party labels, and throws out 

all the ideological language to find the common ground. 

Nowhere did I see that more than on the issue of crime. 

Coming from the vantage point of being a prosecutor in the 

1970s, who then became a Senator in the 1980s, I can tell 

you there was no more divisive, ugly wedge and emotionally 

charged issue than crime until JOE BIDEN and the 1994 

crime bill. JOE put an end to the ‘‘Willie Hortonizing’’ of this 

issue. We worked closely together and put more cops on the 

streets of America. I remember JOE’s passion and tenacity on 

that bill. 

It was a huge, landmark piece of legislation, complicated, 

divisive—but not so because of JOE’s enormous skill that 

shepherded it through the ideological minefields that otherwise might have been impossible. JOE was simply not going 

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to accept defeat. He made dozens of trips to the White 

House, had dozens of meetings with congressional leadership, all to find a way to create common ground and ultimately pass a bill that resulted in the lowest crime rates in 

a generation. Every step of the way he sought out friends, 

he crossed the aisle, he worked the process and built allies 

and invited them to share not just in the work but also to 

share in the credit, which is, in the end, the best way to get 

things done here. That is leadership in the Senate and that 

is exactly how we make progress. 

He also brought great skill to his stewardship in the Foreign Relations Committee. I served on that committee for the 

full 25 years I have been here, all of it with JOE BIDEN and

some of it with JOE BIDEN as our chair. Let me give an example.

When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, respecting Georgia’s sovereignty became a sound bite for a lot of people, but 

for JOE BIDEN it was a moment to pick up a phone, call up 

an old friend, someone he had met as a young Parliamentarian, who was then in his twenties. So JOE BIDEN got on 

a plane, took that flight all night, and sat on a hilltop in 

Georgia with his old friend, Mikheil Saakashvili, and together they talked not just about the security of Georgia but 

the security of a man who was then in very real danger, a 

man JOE BIDEN believed was willing to die for democracy. 

This is just one small example of the emotional intelligence and personal touch that had been the calling cards 

of JOE’s career in public life for decades. 

As we all know, JOE is blessed with a big, all-encompassing Irish sense of humor, an ability to have fun amidst 

all the rest of the tensions and stress and chaos. We still 

joke about the trip we took with Chuck Hagel to a forward 

operating base in Kunar Province in Afghanistan in the middle of winter and our helicopter wound up getting caught in 

a blizzard. We had just received a briefing that, where the 

modern road system ends, the Taliban begins. Lo and behold, the next thing we knew, we had a forced landing high 

on a mountaintop on a dirt road with nothing around us. We 

sat around swapping stories for a while and came up with 

a few contingency plans in case the Taliban attacked. First, 

we thought—use the hot air of three talkative Senators and 

the helicopter will rise. Then we figured failing that we will 

talk the Taliban to death. Ultimately, we figured we would 

let JOE BIDEN lead a snowball charge and that would be the 

end of the deal. But our superb military protectors, efficient 

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as always, soon had us out of there, safe and rescued, and 

we have had a good time laughing about it ever since. Later, 

when I told him my plan to have him lead the brigade, JOE,

reliving his Blue Hen college football glory days, flexed his 

right arm and said in that inimitable BIDEN way, ‘‘The 

Taliban? They are not worth my rocket arm.’’ 

As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, JOE applied a no-holds-barred, unvarnished truth telling to many 

politically sensitive issues. In the middle of his own Presidential campaign, he didn’t hesitate to ask whether our 

counterterrorism policy had turned a deadly serious but 

manageable threat, a small number of radical groups that 

hate America, into a 10-foot-tall existential monster that dictates nearly every move we make. It was not a poll-tested or 

popular question, but it was a sign of leadership and a mark 

of vision that will serve America well when he takes the oath 

as Vice President of the United States. 

Let me share one last story involving my senior Senator, 

Ted Kennedy, who has been an incredible mentor, both to me 

and to JOE, since we both got into this business. 

Years ago, when Ted Kennedy joined the Armed Services 

Committee, Senate rules dictated that TED had to step down 

from the Judiciary Committee. That would have made JOE

the chairman. So JOE had all the interest in the world for 

that to happen. But, instead—and I suppose I should say 

what Senator in their early forties, presented with the 

choice, wouldn’t have loved to have had the responsibility of 

the Judiciary Committee? But JOE BIDEN went to the caucus 

and he gave them an ultimatum. He said point blank: ‘‘This 

is ridiculous. I wouldn’t serve as a chairman unless I have 

Teddy Kennedy on my side on this committee.’’ 

Make no mistake, Ted Kennedy moved to Armed Services, 

but he stayed on the Judiciary Committee. Together, they 

fought some of the greatest confirmation battles in the history of the Supreme Court. No one can imagine the Judiciary 

Committee without Ted Kennedy’s decades of focus and fire. 

But the Senate should know it would not have been possible 

if it had not been for JOE BIDEN’s youthful challenge to the 

leadership to get him to be able to stay there. 

JOE is one of the people in the Senate whom I have had 

the privilege of enjoying now for a quarter of a century and 

one of the people, obviously, I have enjoyed serving with the 

most. We have been through a lot. We have shared a lot, 

good and bad, ups and downs. What is exciting is, frankly, 

we still have a lot more to come. While JOE is making that 

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short ride up to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I 

know there is one thing that is not going to change. We are 

always going to be able to count on him to be the same JOE

BIDEN, and I know we can take that to the bank. When JOE

works with us in these next months—and he will work with 

us intensely—and when he says to you, ‘‘I give you my word 

as a Biden that this is going to happen,’’ we can take that 

to the bank and know it will happen. 

We are very proud of our colleague, Senator BIDEN. We 

wish him well and Godspeed. We look forward to seeing him 

as the presiding official of this body, but, more important, we 

look forward to working with him on the enormous challenges this country faces. 

Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I rise to honor my good friend 

and our distinguished colleague, JOE BIDEN, who will be ending his remarkable Senate career to assume the office of the 

Vice President of the United States. It has been my great 

privilege to serve with JOE BIDEN in the Senate for 32 years. 

He and I have served together on the Foreign Relations 

Committee for all of the 30 years that I have been a member 

of that panel. He entered the Senate as the sixth youngest 

person ever elected to this body, having been elected at age 

29 and seated soon after he reached the constitutionally required 30 years of age. He leaves as the longest serving Senator in the history of his State and the 14th longest serving 

Senator in U.S. history. He has cast more Senate votes than 

all but nine other Senators in history. 

JOE BIDEN comes from a modest Irish-Catholic background. He started out in Scranton, PA, where his father 

was a used car salesman and his mother was a homemaker. 

The oldest of four children, JOE and his family moved to 

Claymont, DE, where his father had found a better job. It 

may be hard for many to believe today, but as a teenager, 

JOE had trouble speaking because he had a stutter. But 

showing the grit and determination we all have come to 

know, he undertook to give a speech to his entire school as 

a way to force himself to overcome his impediment. At the 

University of Delaware, he majored in history and political 

science, and he received a law degree from Syracuse University.

He started practicing law and worked as a public defender, 

but perhaps because his grandfather had been a State senator in Pennsylvania, he was soon attracted to politics. At 

the young age of 27, he was elected to the county council of 

New Castle County in Delaware. Two years later he sur5 2012 Jkt 064802 PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 6688 Sfmt 6688 H:\DOCS\BYEBYE\BYEBYE10\64802 TXT KAYNE
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prised all the political experts in his State, as well as his opponent, by defeating an incumbent Senator in a presumably 

‘‘safe’’ seat. The margin of victory was just over 3,000 votes, 

but JOE went on to increase his vote totals in subsequent reelection races. 

Although JOE was elected at an especially young age, it 

would be wrong to say that he led a charmed life. In fact, 

just the opposite is the case. Just weeks after his election, 

his wife Neilia and his youngest child Naomi were killed in 

a car crash while Christmas shopping. His two other children, Beau and Hunter, were critically injured. Naturally, 

the tragedy was devastating to JOE, and he considered dropping the Senate seat to tend to his stricken family. The distinguished majority leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, persuaded JOE to reconsider, and he took the oath of office at 

his sons’ hospital bedsides. 

It was the start of a long career of dedicated service in the 

Senate. It also was the start of a tradition for which JOE has

become famous—his regular commute on Amtrak from Wilmington down to Washington when the Senate was in session.

When I arrived in the Senate 4 years later, JOE had already established a reputation as a dynamic presence on 

Capitol Hill. In 1979, I joined him on the Foreign Relations 

Committee, where he had become a member in 1975. We 

have served together ever since, and I have benefited greatly 

from JOE’s friendship during that time. I have always believed that foreign policy is most effective when it is done in 

a bipartisan manner, and in JOE I found an able partner 

willing to work across the aisle to achieve important victories 

on behalf of the country and the American people. Some of 

the battles have not been easy. I recall, for instance, the difficult job we had in achieving passage of the Chemical Weapons Convention during President Clinton’s administration. 

We celebrated another major victory last year with the passage of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States 

Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act. Recently, our collaboration led to the joint sponsoring and introduction of the Enhanced Partnership with 

Pakistan Act. We have worked closely on legislation related 

to Iraq, Afghanistan, climate change, tropical forest conservation, international violence against women, the control 

of global pathogens, and numerous arms control measures. 

Each of us has twice been chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and we and our staffs have worked with 

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special purpose during those times. We share the belief that 

the Foreign Relations Committee occupies a special place in 

history and is an essential component of a successful U.S. 

foreign policy. It is because of JOE’s wide experience, keen 

mind, steady hand, and strong advocacy that he was chosen 

by our committee colleague, Senator Obama, to be his Vice 

Presidential running mate. 

While I will deeply miss working with JOE on the committee, I look forward to joining with him to achieve further 

accomplishments while he is Vice President. Besides a new 

commuting routine, he will face many challenges, and I 

know he will gain strength from the support and affection of 

his family: his lovely wife Jill, their daughter Ashley, and his 

two sons, Beau and Hunter, as well as their five grandchildren. I wish them all the best as they begin this exciting 

new chapter in their lives. 

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, on this cold January morning, 

I am being kept warm by four glorious words that keep running through my mind—those four words are: ‘‘Vice President JOE BIDEN.’’ I love the sound of that. It is music to my 

ears.

I have known JOE BIDEN for nearly four decades, since he 

was first elected to the Senate in 1972. I have been enriched 

by his friendship. I have appreciated his commitment to public service. I have watched his work as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Committee 

on the Judiciary. I have admired the enthusiasm and dedication he has brought to his work every single day he has been 

a U.S. Senator. 

His years of service in this institution will be one of his 

greatest assets in the years ahead. During his tenure in the 

Senate, JOE has gained a priceless working understanding of 

the importance of our constitutional systems of checks and 

balances and separation of powers. He has stood on this floor 

and argued long and hard—with fire in his belly—against 

executives of both political parties when he felt it was in the 

best interests of this Nation. We have all watched him, time 

and again, pacing this floor, speaking in that rhythmic JOE

BIDEN way—drawing us in with a shout and then punctuating his point in whispered tones. I can see him now, putting the White House on notice, and defending the advice 

and consent authority of Senators. JOE has seen how this 

part of the government—the people’s branch—lives. He will 

assume his new job fresh from membership in the world’s 

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greatest deliberative body. Those Senate years will, I believe, 

serve him, the country, and the people, well. 

Senator BIDEN is moving on, and while I regret losing him 

as a colleague here, I am heartened by the experience and 

wisdom he takes to his new duties. I believe that he will be 

a great Vice President. My good friend and former colleague, 

President-elect Obama showed outstanding judgment when 

he selected Senator JOE BIDEN to be his running mate. 

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I am so honored to be here 

at the same time with my friend and colleague whom I admire so much and have such great affection for, the Vice 

President-elect, JOE BIDEN.

I listened with enthusiasm and a lot of sentiment to the 

speech he delivered a few minutes ago. And the way he 

evoked the Senate and the relationships that are developed 

here and the work that is done on behalf of our country was 

as good as I have ever heard it. 

FRIDAY, January 16, 2009 

Mr. REID. . . . There is only one JOE BIDEN. Senator Kaufman will replace him, but no one will ever fill the shoes of 

JOE BIDEN. As was said on this floor yesterday at great 

length, JOE BIDEN is a unique individual. . . . 

We who work in the Senate know of the strength of JOE

BIDEN, but one of the reasons he has had the strength he 

has had over these years was because his back was always 

protected by Ted Kaufman. . . . 

Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, actually it is not the first 

time I have been recognized as senior Senator. For about 2 

months now, since JOE BIDEN was nominated and elected as 

Vice President, people have been referring to me as the senior Senator. I always have to correct them and I say no, it 

is 4 days, 3 hours, 12 minutes away. Today we counted 

down, today we counted down to zero. 

Yesterday, when Senator BIDEN resigned at 5 o’clock, I 

think for 17 hours I was both the junior and senior Senator. 

Dick Durbin was that for almost 2 months, from Illinois. 

I asked one of my colleagues, Do you think I will get paid 

more for that? He said no, probably not. You shouldn’t be. 

We lament the loss of JOE BIDEN from the Senate. I am 

thrilled he is going to have the opportunity to become the 

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first Delawarean ever to be the Vice President of the United 

States. As wonderful as he is as a Senator, he will do more 

good for his country in his new role than he could have done 

in this service, so it is a good thing for the administration 

and for the country and ultimately for Delaware. . . . 

I was talking about JOE BIDEN when he stepped down yesterday and gave a beautiful speech. I said JOE is the real 

deal in terms of family values—a loving father, grandfather, 

and Ted is very much out of that same mold. 

While we lament the departure of JOE and are thrilled 

about his opportunity to be our Vice President, we very 

warmly welcome Ted to this family. I think in the history of 

this country there are maybe 1700 or so people who have 

been privileged to serve as Senator. Add a few extra ones 

this week out of the regular order. But this is a good thing 

for our State, for the Senate. As a point of personal privilege, 

it is a special joy for me. 

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I welcome and commend Senator Kaufman as he succeeds Senator JOE BIDEN.

I particularly want to say a few words about JOE BIDEN.

He has had an extraordinary career in the Senate, and he 

is going to be an extraordinary asset for President-elect 

Barack Obama. 

Senator Obama, the President-elect, said very clearly why 

he chose JOE BIDEN. He said that when the tough decisions 

come, and they will come quickly and often, JOE BIDEN is the 

guy he wants in the room with him. And I think that choice 

was extraordinarily inspired because no one can bring the 

breadth of knowledge and experience, not only with respect 

to the Senate but with respect to domestic policy and indeed 

international policy, as JOE BIDEN.

The other assets JOE brings to this great challenge of the 

country is his profound decency and sense of fairness and his 

commitment to make sure America is still a place of opportunity for all citizens. Those values were shaped in Scranton, 

PA, where he grew up. They were shaped by his mother and 

father. His mother, Jean Finnegan Biden, is still an inspiration to him today, and I am sure one of the reasons he is the 

guy who should be in the room with the President is because 

if he needs advice, his mother is still there, and I think that 

is something he cherishes. 

JOE has served in this body for many years. He was the 

author of the Violence Against Women Act to ensure that our 

criminal justice system, our system of law, recognized the 

particular dangers posed to women. He was the chief archi5 2012 Jkt 064802 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6688 Sfmt 6688 H:\DOCS\BYEBYE\BYEBYE10\64802 TXT KAYNE
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tect of the COPS bill, which put hundreds of thousands of 

police officers on the street, recognizing that the basic responsibility of government is to provide safety and security 

to its citizens. There are a lot of people who talked about 

that, but JOE recognized that if there are more police on the 

streets, that would happen, and indeed it has. We have seen 

that statistic over the last few years. 

As the preeminent expert on foreign relations, he has traveled the world and brought his wisdom to foreign leaders but 

also sought their candid advice with respect to our leadership in the world, and he will continue to do that. He has 

just concluded a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. I had hoped 

to be with him, but duties here prevented me. But that is 

typical of JOE—hands-on, go to the source of the issue, examine the problem, and move forward. 

He has had an illustrious career. Beyond his success as a 

Senator, his success as a master of foreign relations, a leader 

in terms of domestic policy, has been his extraordinary family: his wife Jill, an extraordinarily gifted professional in her 

own right; Ashley, Hunter, and Beau; and I know the five 

grandchildren are particular joys to JOE. We are particularly 

respectful that today his son Beau serves in the uniform of 

the United States overseas and is someone JOE thinks of 

constantly. Once again, in those tough decisions in the White 

House, I think JOE will have a special equity because his son 

serves along with the sons and daughters of other Americans, and he will recognize that when they make difficult decisions regarding the deployment of our forces. 

It has been an honor to serve with him. It is an honor to 

call him a colleague and a friend. 

WEDNESDAY, January 21, 2009 

Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, it has been a pleasure to 

serve with Senator JOE BIDEN for the last 16 years. He is an 

outstanding colleague and a good friend, and I know that he 

will make a terrific Vice President. I have been pleased to 

work with him on so many issues over the years. For instance, I was proud to support him in his tremendous work 

on the COPS Program. In turn, I appreciate his steadfast 

support of campaign finance reform issues over the years. 

Most of all, I want to say how much I have enjoyed serving 

with Senator BIDEN on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary 

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plicated issues he faced in both committees. It is a huge 

challenge to take on the chairmanship of a Senate committee, and to do it well, but to serve with such distinction 

as chair of two of the Senate’s most important committees is 

very rare, and it speaks volumes about JOE BIDEN’s service 

in this body. 

I have always found Senator BIDEN to be someone who I 

could talk with seriously about issues of mutual concern, or 

when we disagree. He is open-minded and he really listens. 

That quality will surely serve him well in his new position. 

He also can be uniquely persuasive. He is one of the few 

Senators who I have actually seen change people’s minds 

during a committee debate. In a policy fight involving complex issues, JOE BIDEN is someone who you want to have on 

your side. 

Now Senator BIDEN becomes Vice President, and I know 

he will serve the Nation with the same outstanding commitment and skill with which he served the people of Delaware. 

I thank him for his many years of distinguished service in 

the Senate, and look forward to continuing to work with him, 

and President Obama, in the years to come. 

WEDNESDAY, December 8, 2010 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 

there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to retiring 

Members of the 111th Congress, and that Members have 

until Thursday, December 16, to submit such tributes. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

WEDNESDAY, December 15, 2010 

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 

that the order for the printing of tributes be modified to provide that Members have until sine die of the 111th Congress, 

2d session, to submit tributes and that the order for printing 

remain in effect. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Æ 

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