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“TRIBUTE TO DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S4426-S4429 on March 26, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN
Mrs. CLINTON. Madam President, I come to the floor on very sad business, both for this body, for my State, and my country. We have just received word that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has passed away. For those of us who were privileged to know him, to work with him, to admire and respect him, this is a loss beyond my capacity to express.
Senator Moynihan for decades represented the highest ideals and values of the United States of America. A son of Hell's Kitchen in New York City, he rose to be a confidante and adviser to Presidents. He is responsible for many of the most important ideas and legislative programs that have improved the lives of people in New York, people here in Washington, DC, and our country and around the world.
I am very honored to hold the seat that Senator Moynihan held for so long and so well. Along with his wonderful wife Liz Moynihan, they have been great counselors and advisers to me personally. I will miss him greatly.
Sometimes when I sit here on the floor of the Senate, I wish that Senator Moynihan could be here in spirit as well as body, that his wise counsel could influence our decisionmaking, that he would remind us that what we do, what we say, what we vote for is not just for today, it is for all time. It goes down into the history books. It represents the judgments that we make. It truly displays the values that we claim to hold.
He understood that being a U.S. Senator was a precious trust. Anyone who ever heard him speak knows the experience of learning more than you ever thought possible in a short period of time. He could explain and expound on such a range of subjects that it took my breath away. I remember riding with him through western New York on a bus during the 1992 campaign and hearing the most exquisite disposition about the history of the Indian nations, the Revolutionary War, the geological formations. The love he had for New York and America was overwhelming and so obvious to anyone who spent more than a minute in his company.
He also held high standards about what we should expect from this great country of ours. He wanted us to keep looking beyond the short term, looking beyond the horizon, thinking about the next generation, understanding the big problems that confront us, having the courage to tackle what is not immediately popular, even not immediately understandable, because that is what we are charged to do in this deliberative body.
Senator Moynihan's scholarly undertakings also will stand the test of time. He sometimes was ahead of his time. In each of his writings or his speeches, whether you agreed with him or not, you were forced to think and think hard. He certainly opened my eyes to a lot of difficult issues.
I could not have had a stronger, more helpful adviser during my campaign than Senator Moynihan. I started my listening tour of my exploration of whether or not to run for this office at Pinders Corner, his farm in upstate New York, a place that he loved beyond words.
I met him in a little schoolhouse, a 19th century schoolhouse that was on the property where he wrote. He would walk down the road from his house to that little schoolhouse every day where he would think deeply and write about the issues that he knew would be important, not just for tomorrow's headline but for years and years to come.
There is not any way that anyone will ever fill his place in this Senate, not just in the order of succession definition but in the intellectual power, the passion, the love of this extraordinary body and our country. He will be so missed.
On behalf of myself and my family and the people I represent, I extend my condolence and sympathy not only to his wonderful family and not only to New Yorkers who elected him time and time again, increasing majorities from one end of the State to the next, but to our country. We have lost a great American, an extraordinary Senator, an intellectual, and a man of passion and understanding about what really makes this country great.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise in abject sadness on the horrible news that Senator Moynihan has passed from our midst. When it was announced in our caucus that this terrible event had occurred, you could just see the energy come out of the room and the sadness come on everybody's face. Senator Moynihan was a unique individual. He wasn't just another Senator. He wasn't just another human being. He was very special.
Rarely has one man changed society so with his ideas, the idea that one man can change society for the better. Senator Moynihan's life was testament to that fact. His life was testament to the fact that one man who just thinks can make an enormous difference. He was truly a giant--
a giant as a thinker, as a Senator, and as a human being. He was a kind and compassionate person, a loving husband. Liz, our thoughts go out to you and to all of the Moynihan children and family. I have known him for a very long time.
When I was a student at Harvard College, I audited his course. I got to know him a little bit then. As I went through my congressional career, we used to have lunch every so often. He was a complete joy to just sit down and have lunch with and exchange ideas.
He looked out for people. He cared about people. He had real courage. When he disagreed with the conventional wisdom, nothing would stop Pat Moynihan from making his view heard and making it heard in such an interesting and intellectually and thoughtful way.
Again, he changed our world for the better. There are hundreds of millions of human beings in this country who do not know it, but he made their lives better. There are billions of people in the world, and through his work he made their lives better.
Senator Moynihan was loved in my home State of New York from one end of the State to the other. We are a big, broad, diverse State. It is very hard to find consensus with 19 million New Yorkers, but just about everybody loved Pat Moynihan. He did it through a big heart and a great mind.
He is now with his Maker. I know I will be looking up to the heavens for inspiration, as I looked to Senator Moynihan's office when he was still with us.
I very much regret his passing. I pray for the Moynihan family and for the children. I hope God gives us a few more Pat Moynihans in this Senate and in this country. I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I commend the distinguished Senator from New York for his eloquence and his empathy for the family especially of our departed colleague, Pat Moynihan.
The Senator from New York used the term ``giant,'' and, indeed, in this case, I can think of no better word to describe the man, the magnitude, the depth, the history, the persona of Pat Moynihan.
``The Almanac of American Politics'' called Pat Moynihan the Nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson. Scholar, educator, statesman, adviser to four Presidents--Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford--Pat Moynihan was the only person in American history to serve in a Cabinet or sub-Cabinet position in four successive administrations.
As my colleagues have noted, he represented the State of New York for 24 years in the Senate with unique vision, imagination, intelligence, and integrity. In many respects, Pat Moynihan was larger than life, whether on the streets of New York or in the corridors of this Capitol. He was a beloved father, grandfather, friend, and colleague to so many of us.
I, too, extend my condolences on behalf of the entire Senate to his wife Liz, to his children, Tim, Maura, and John, his grandchildren, Zora and Michael Patrick. New York and the Nation have lost a giant.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. LOTT. Madam President, I was very sorry to learn of the passing of our good friend and great Senator from New York, Senator Moynihan. I wanted to come and extend condolences on behalf of myself and a lot of other Senators to the family, the children, the grandchildren, and the people of New York, and to America because we have lost truly a great man in Senator Pat Moynihan.
Sometimes people do not realize the types of relationships we do build in this Chamber across the broad philosophical and partisan divide. But Pat Moynihan was not that kind of man. He was always willing to work with Senators, no matter where they were from or what their views were, to try to do the right thing.
Since I have been watching the Senate over the last 30 years up close and personal, as a House Member and a Senator, I have not known a more brilliant and more erudite Senator than the distinguished Senator Pat Moynihan of New York. He served his country in so many different critical roles.
He studied, wrote papers, and made us realize problems we would just as soon not talk about--problems with the children in America, the problems of poverty, the importance of the world community.
He did so many exceptional things for Democratic administrations and, yes, Republican administrations, and in the majority and in the minority in the Senate. I grew to admire him and appreciate him, to seek his advice, and even try to get his vote on occasion, and on occasion he gave it because I was able to convince him that maybe it was the right thing to do.
He also had a sense of humor I learned to appreciate. But more than anything, I will remember my encounters with Senator Moynihan in the little dining room downstairs. About once a week--sometimes not that often, maybe once a month--I would go down to get a bite to eat and he would be there. He always ate strange orders of food, I might say, but I just loved his knowledge. It became an opportunity for me to learn about the world. I would pick a country: Tell me about India. An hour later he was still talking.
I remember one time, I said: I do not quite understand what is going on in East Timor, and he corrected my pronunciation and told me what was going on in that part of the world, what had happened historically--such a wealth of knowledge--all the players involved, the religious considerations, what the solutions could have been, what the solutions might be, what the future would hold. More than once--I would say at least three times--before I got back to my office, before the afternoon was out, a book would arrive that he had written or that I should read to understand what was going on in the world. What a special touch.
Senator Pat Moynihan tried to help educate this Senator, one who needed a lot of help, but he gave me a greater appreciation of our relationship with countries and people all over the world.
This was a giant of a man, a giant of a Senator, a humble man, in many respects. I have missed him since he left the Senate, and we will all miss him now that he has gone on to his great reward.
I had to come to the floor and express my personal feelings about the great Senator from New York and how much he meant to me personally, to the Senate, and to the country.
I yield the floor, Madam President.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Alexander). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I have just heard the saddening news that our former colleague, Senator Moynihan of New York, has passed away. This is a great loss for the State of New York, but it is also a great loss for the people of the United States. He was one of the truly outstanding public servants of his time and one of the intellectual towers of this body.
I first met Pat Moynihan when I served in the Nixon administration working at the Department of Transportation. I can say with some accuracy that the name Pat Moynihan filled us all with dread and fear because he was the President's counselor on domestic issues. We were afraid he would come to the Department of Transportation and expose all of our weaknesses; that with his intellect he could discover very quickly where we were doing things wrong.
I met him at the White House as we would go over and discuss various transportation issues. On one occasion, Secretary Volpe invited Mr. Moynihan to come to the Department and address all of the Department's senior management. We had a program of management dinners where all of the senior officials of the Department would gather together and we would have a speaker come in and talk with us. Mr. Moynihan was the first of those speakers, along with Bryce Harlow, who came at my invitation, a little later. That was my moment in the sun with Secretary Volpe, that I was able to call Bryce Harlow and get him to come over and give the address. I still remember very clearly what Pat Moynihan said to us on that occasion and the lesson he gave us.
Being the student of history that he was, he went back to relatively recent history in describing pivotal events in America. He made this point: Political scientists assume that President Kennedy and President Johnson were activist Presidents, whereas President Eisenhower is always described as a passive President, or a pacifist kind of President. He said that particular characterization is given by their opponents, as well as their defenders, people defending Eisenhower's passive attitude toward Government, as well as those attacking it, and so on with Kennedy and Johnson.
However, he said, history will show that President Eisenhower affected life in the United States more than all of the things done by Kennedy and Johnson put together. Why? Because President Eisenhower was responsible for the creation of the interstate highway system.
Recognize again, he was addressing a group of officials at the Department of Transportation. He had done his homework and focused on a transportation issue. He outlined for us the changes in American life that came from the interstate highway system, how cities that were left off the system more or less withered and died and other cities that found themselves on the system had tremendous growth; how the system created efficiency for the transportation of goods and people all over the United States.
I remember one statistic, when I worked at the Department of Transportation, that said 95 percent of intercity trips took place on the interstate highway system. We focused on travel as being a competition in those days between air travel and rail travel, and indeed in the industrial age, going back to Abraham Lincoln's time and after the Civil War, almost all intercity trips were by rail. Then the airlines came in and we talked about the airlines cutting into the rail industry.
He pointed out it was not the airline industry that destroyed railroad passenger traffic; It was the interstate highway system and the convenience that came with the opportunity to take one's own automobile and go from one city to the other and then have local transportation while there. They did not have to catch a cab when they came out of the train station. They brought it with them.
It was this ability to see beyond the specifics of conventional wisdom, step back and see the overall picture that defined Pat Moynihan. He did it for us in that particular speech, but he did it throughout his entire career.
I remember as we became acquainted that he talked with me about the work he did with my father when my father was in the Senate and he was in the Nixon administration. They were talking about programs that the Nixon administration tried to put into place which, for one reason or another, the Congress did not accept. He said to me, if we had prevailed in that program that Wallace Bennett was for, we wouldn't have many of the urban problems that we have today.
I won't try to imitate his accent because it was distinctly his and was part of his charm.
One of the things that I had not understood but that I came to know while Pat Moynihan was in the Senate was the role he played in the rejuvenation of Washington, DC. The story is told and accepted as conventional wisdom that when John F. Kennedy went in his inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House, he noticed how rundown Pennsylvania Avenue was--and it was. Those of us who remember Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1960s remember it as a place of rundown seedy shops and disreputable buildings that were badly in need of replacement. The conventional wisdom is that John F. Kennedy noticed that as he went by in his limousine and said, We have to do something about that. And the rejuvenation of Pennsylvania Avenue began in the Kennedy administration.
In fact, that is not true. It was not John F. Kennedy who noticed it; it was Pat Moynihan who noticed it and called it to the attention of John F. Kennedy, who, then, in the spirit of all of us in politics, took his staffer's advice and put it forward as his own.
Pat Moynihan, as chairman of what we used to call the Public Works Committee--now it is the Environment and Public Works Committee--Pat Moynihan, of what we used to call the Public Works Committee, presided over the public works that saw to it that Pennsylvania Avenue was turned into the kind of memorial avenue that the world's greatest power deserves; that it changed from what it had been to become the architectural delight that it is today.
I had not realized that until I read Pat Moynihan's memos. He shared them with me, in another circumstance, and going through the memos I realized he was personally the driving force behind that kind of an effort. That demonstrates how much of a renaissance man he was. He was interested in architecture. He was interested in art. He was one of those who helped create the National Endowment for the Arts.
Yes, as a legislator he was interested in public issues and public policy, but as a renaissance man he remained interested in just about everything else.
I can't think of any career covering a wider number of opportunities than his: Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador to India, serving Presidents regardless of party, regardless of ideology, with wisdom, clarity, and again the ability to see the big picture, the overall historical circumstance, and not just the issue directly in front of him.
I remember when he was chairman of the Finance Committee and we were locked in this Chamber in a bitter battle over health care. He did his duty. He was the good soldier. He did his best to carry the water for the administration. But in private conversations with him he would candidly share some of the same concerns that the rest of us had. While he was the good soldier all the way to the end, I know he gave the administration Dutch uncle advice as to what they should be doing.
I remember sitting in the Cabinet Room of the White House when President Clinton had a group of us down to talk about what we needed to do to get trade authority, to get fast track. All of us were being appropriately respectful of the President, as you are in that kind of circumstance. All of us were trying to put forward our opinions in as tender and gingerly expressed a way as we could because we were with the President. Pat Moynihan sat at the President's left and the President said; ``What do we need to do to get trade authority passed?''
He said; ``Sir, you need to get more Democrats.''
That warmed my heart. The Republicans were in favor of fast track. We didn't want to say it. And Pat Moynihan summarized it: ``Sir, you need to get more Democrats.''
The President looked at him and said; ``Pat, you are absolutely right. How do we do that?''
Then they had a very candid discussion.
He was not overly awed by anyone, regardless--with respect to their position. But he was always awed by any human being who had something to tell him. His attitude was that he could learn from anyone.
His health was not the best. His passing is not unexpected. But this is a time for us to rejoice in the opportunity of having known him, having worked with him in this body and having been blessed by his intellect, his humor, his humility, and his great understanding. We shall miss him, and we express our great condolence to his wife Liz and to all of the members of his family.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coleman). The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I am glad I had the opportunity to hear the Senator from Utah talk about our friend Pat Moynihan because in 1969 the Senator from Utah and I had different jobs. I was working for Bryce Harlow in the White House and he was working for Secretary Volpe, both of us in the Nixon administration.
One of the things I think many people will look at, about the Nixon administration, is what an extraordinarily diverse group of individuals the President was able to attract. The Senator from Utah and I were young persons. I am not talking about us at that time. But I am talking about Henry Kissinger and Arthur Burns and Bryce Harlow and foremost among them was Pat Moynihan.
Particularly when we look at a Washington, DC, where so many issues are so divisive and so partisan--and there was a lot of partisanship back then. Look back at 1969. Here was Pat Moynihan, a Harvard professor, Kennedy Democrat, who became the Republican President's domestic policy adviser. He was an extraordinary person. He was, as the Senator from Utah pointed out, a man who could see a long distance.
In the 1960s he coined the phrase ``benign neglect,'' when he talked about the breakdown of the American family and the effect it might have on African-American families. He was courageous enough to talk about that. He predicted at that time that if the rate of breakdown of families that was then occurring among African-American families were to occur among all families, it would be a catastrophe for America. That percentage has long since passed. Pat Moynihan was willing to talk about it.
He was a great teacher. He attracted into the White House at that time a cadre of young Moynihan devotees who are still around today--for example, Checker Finn, a young Harvard graduate who is a leading education expert; and Chris DeMuth, who has had a distinguished career here. All of those young people were attracted by his intellect and his sense of public service.
He had an ability even then to be a person who crossed party lines. He was one of the old Democratic liberals such as Al Shanker--some of them are now called neoconservatives today--who saw our country in a very accurate and clear way.
He believed in America. He was an immigrant, a great immigrant, an Irish immigrant, with all the characteristics that we think of when we think of great Irish immigrants, but he was an American first. He was proud of where he came from but he was prouder of the country to which he came.
He loved politics. His favorite character was George Washington Plunkett, the boss of Tammany Hall. He wrote a forward for a book on Plunkett. Plunkett's favorite comment was:
I seen my opportunities and I took them.
He went to the United Nations where he pounded the desk. He went to India as Ambassador. He ran for the Senate. Think of this. He ran in 1976, a Republican from the then-disgraced Nixon administration. I know what that was like. I was in that administration. I had been a candidate myself in 1974--lost; and here was Pat Moynihan in New York State, a Democratic State, running for the Senate as a Democrat, able to be elected because of the respect people had for him.
I watched him during his whole career. When I was Education Secretary he came down and lectured me from this body because he wanted me to be more aggressive on standards. But he was always such a gentle person.
As I have gone along in life, I have especially appreciated people who are well known and famous who take time for people who are not so well known and famous. I can remember when my wife and I, in our early 30s--I was, she was younger--went to Harvard, to the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where Pat had gone in the early 1970s. He was a famous man, a great professor, a former adviser to Presidents. Everyone knew him. No one knew us. But he saw us and he spent 45 minutes or an hour with us. He was a teacher and we were his students.
I am glad to be on the floor today to hear my friend from Utah speak of such a distinguished American. We need more Senators, more public leaders, with the breadth and the intellect and the understanding of American history that Pat Moynihan had. We need more who have the capacity to work across party lines, to solve tough problems such as Social Security, which he helped to solve, and to enjoy politics, to love George Washington Plunkett, and the rough and tumble of Tammany Hall politics, but at the same time, when the Nation's issues are foremost, to put them first.
So I rise today to salute a great American, a real patriot, and perhaps a person who most of us--Senators or students--will remember as a great teacher.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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