Remember it, but ill remember that for the rest of my life. I think certainly when we think about the Vice President , we could center on another one worn abiding, an enduring commitment to justice. His whole public life could be could be summarized in that word, in the commitment that hes had to justice. We could quote from the bible, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. Im not sure joe biden has ever been satisfied yet with justice. Hes always pursuing it, always trying to bring justice to a problem or to a situation or to the life of a fellow citizen. We think of what st. Augustin said about justice a long time ago, but it still bears repeating. Without justice, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers . Thats what st. Augustin said hundreds of years ago. Joe biden has lived his life as a public official and as a man, as a citizen with that same burning desire to bring justice into the dark corners of our world, and he knows that without that justice, someone is, in fact, robbed of so much, robbed of their dignity, robbed of their safety, robbed of a full life. But joe, i think i say maybe the best line, with all due respect to the scriptures and to st. Augustin was one my father said. He wrote it down years ago, but he probably gave maybe the best description of what a public official should be about. And im not sure i have ever attributed this to anyone else but him. He said the most important quality a public official can bring to their work are two things. Number one, a passion for justice, which, of course, joe biden has in abundance, and a sense of outrage in the face of injustice. That if you have both of those, on most days youre going to get it right, and his life as a United States senator for 36 years, as Vice President for eight years and as a citizen for all those years and more has been about that passion for justice and a sense of outrage in the face of injustice. We all know his record. We dont have to recite all of it. From the violence against women act, which we know is an acronym vawa. Of course, an acronym doesnt do justice to the meaning of what that meant. And so many today have talked about how he saved the lives of women and families because of that legislation. So from vawa to a. R. A. , the american recovery and reinvestment act. The act that helped dig this country out of the ditch it was and rescued and improved the lives of so many people. He not only worked to get it passed, but then he made sure it was implemented. It might be the most popular piece of legislation 25 years from now when people really appreciate what happened with the recovery act. From diplomacy to law enforcement, to not just supporting our troops, not just working on legislation and supporting them, not only when his son was a member of our armed forces, but long before that. But what he did very specifically to protect our troops. We know the scourge of i. E. D. s, which was the numberone killer of our troops in iraq, in afghanistan. A lot of those troops lives were saved because of joe biden. Armoring vehicles and doing all the work he did to protect our troops. So whether it was National Security or security in our streets, whether it was protecting women who would be the subject of abuse or helping children or improving our economy. On and on, we can talk about that record, but just as you cant just list achievements in a record and encapsulate what it means, so the same is true of a 36year career in the United States senate and then eight years as Vice President. Lincoln probably said it best. Lincoln said its not the years in your life that matters. In the end, its the life in those years, and thats, i think, true of joe biden as well. Two more points. One of the best qualities of the Vice President , as a man especially, but also as a public official, is his sense of gratitude. If you knew him for a half an hour or for your whole life, you know that almost always hes speaking about people in his life that made him who he was, made him who he is today. Whether its his mother and father or whether its his family, his whole family, his brothers and sisters and his sons and daughters and of course jill. Its a its a reminder of how grateful we should be. In so many ways when you hear joe biden speak, his speeches tend to be on many occasions a hymn to gratitude, and that comes through all the time. We know how much he suffered with all the losses he sustained. I was talking to him recently at an event in scranton about about his son beau and his life and what a patriot beau biden was. I think today we can say the following about the Vice President. This is a man who was a great, great Vice President. This is a man who was a committed and very effective United States senator. But may be most important hes been a faithful son, a loving and proud husband and father and a patriot. Thank you, sir, and god bless you. Mr. Nelson mr. President , these speeches were just supposed to go on for one hour, and we are already at the twohour mark, but perhaps since we are honoring you, mr. President , this is most appropriate. Mr. President , i would say to our colleagues and our guests you say the name among us of joe biden and a smile automatically comes to our lips. And thats because the Vice President is a lover of people. Thats true, we know its true. We and thats why we have this genuine affection today being expressed, and since the hour is late, my remarks are going to be very short, but i just want to highlight that its very characteristic, i can even tell all of the stories of the biden family because ive heard them so much. Its also very true that if you are talking to joe and suddenly your wife comes up or your daughter comes up, all of a sudden joe is not focusing on you, he is giving his total attention to the ladies present, and that is most appreciated, and that, of course, is why he is such a big fan he is such a big fan of the nelson household, not only of grace and nanellen, but also of bill jr. He always treats our children with respect and goes out of his way. Or i can remember recently just absolutely cooking in North Palm Beach on the stage in the hot sun, and joe was always there making the case for whoever it was that he was standing up for. And, of course, he always made you feel that you were welcome. So i remember one time we got off an airplane and hes going to his limousine and many a going back to and im going back to the gast van in the to the guest van in the back. He motioned that im goin to coe with him. I said, mr. Veterans administration i never presume that i should come here. He says, i always want you here when we were traveling together. Thats what makes him so special. Finally, i want to comment about the moonshot. Why is the effort at Cancer Research called the moonshot . Its because we achieved what was almost the impossible. When the president said, were going to the moon and returned safely within the decade, and america marshaled the will and in fact did that incredible accomplishment. Thats why were going to have the moonshot for cancer. Weve already made so much progress, but now with the former Vice President of the United States heading up all the efforts where we can keep the attention on n. I. H. , so it doesnt go from a level rocking along about 24 billion, 25 billion and the stimulus shoots it up to in the first two years of the Vice President s office, up to 30 billion a year, and then it drops down to 24 billion, 25 billion, and dr. Francis collins has to cancel 700 of the medical Research Grants that he has already issued. Because we have the moonshot headed by joe biden, we are going to find the cure for all those kinds of cancers. That is the great legacy that the Vice President of the United States will have. Mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The Vice President the senator from virginia. Mr. Kaine mr. President , i rise in honor of your service, and i just want to tell my favorite joe biden story. This is a story that the Vice President has heard me tell, but i want it on record because everyone should know this story. And its a story of an interaction between our Vice President on one of the most important days in his life and a young man from richmond, virginia, my hometown, on one of the most important davis his lievment it was election day 2008 and i was governor of virginia and i was responsible for the running of the elections in my state on that day when senator joe biden was running for Vice President with our president barack obama. I received a call in the middle of the morning there was going 0 to be a surprise visit to a polling place in richmond after having voted in wilmington, senator biden was going to make a stop in witch n richmond and wanted to meet some voters to await the election results. We gave him the address an Elementary School polling flaifs very near the richmond airport. And i raced there with my security dough tail to gleet a few minutes before he arrived for a surprise visit with voters who were going to love having the chance to meet the soontobe Vice President. Ace got there a few minutes before senator biden ariervetiond i saw a friend who had come to vote. I asked how he was doing and he said, im doing great. Many im really excited about voting today. Tndz it is also a and it is also a special day because i have a nephew with sickle cell anemia and he is casting his first vote. He is so sick, he cant even get out of the vehicle, he said. I watched the Election Officials at the polling place take a voting machine from inside the school into the car so that his 18yearold nephew could cast the first vote in his life. And i saw this young man the nephew of my friend that he was very, very ill. I said to my friend and his nephew, can you wait here for five minutes because i think we could do something really exciting. Well, just wait. They said they would. And within five minutes, senator biden came up to meet voters and shook the hand of those in line. And i said, senator, there is a young man here and just as this day is very important to you, because i think youre about to be elected Vice President of the United States, for this young africanamerican male who is very, very ill but extreme. Ly excited but extremely excited to get out of his house and cast a vote to elect the first africanamerican president , he is sitting there in that vehicle, will you go and visit with him . And i didnt even have to finish the sentence and put the question mark at the end before senator biden shot across the parking lot and went up to the vehicle and the press corps was following him. The young man was sitting in the back seat. Joe just jumped in the front seat, closed the door, rolled up the windows so nobody could hear the conversation. And the press corps gathered around all four sides of the vehicle with their cameras taking pictures of senator biden in an extremely animated and somewhat lengthy conversation with the 18yearold who had just cast his vote. To me, that will always be the quintessential joe biden story. Joe biden is the irish poet of american politicians. He and i share a passion for the irish poet, will William Butler yates. Yates like our Vice President was not just a poet. He was a man of the public. He was a public official. People asked him to weigh in on political matters all the time. And once in the middle of the first world war, somebody asked yates to write a war poem. And he wrote a war poem and the poem was being titled this on being asked to write a war poem, and the poem says this, i often think it better that in times like these a poets mouth be silent, for in truth he has had enough of meddling who can please a young girl in the indolence of her youth or an old man upon a winter night. The meaning of the poem is i may be a public figure. I may have a public job to do. I may be asked to do a public job and to complaim claim upon matters of public importance but sometimes even more upon the matters of public is the act to please a young is the ability to please a young girl or an old man, or an ill young man casting a first vote, an important vote. The fact that you took your time on that day of importance to you to shed some light and offer some joy to someone who was struggling, thats the joe biden that has us here for two hours offering these tributes. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The Vice President the senator from connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal thank you, mr. President. I never had the privilege of serving with you, mr. President , in this chamber, but like many of my colleagues, i have come to know you as a friend and a Public Servant and a model and a mentor. And i have barely enough time to say a few words of tribute here, but i will add more to my remarks on the record. What i want to say very simply is that you have inspired so many of us beyond this chamber, beyond the people whom youve known directly and beyond the people with whom youve worked. Countless young people that are involved in this noble profession because of your example. At a time when Public Officials and politics are often held in little repute and little repute and often integrity,in their you have given us a good name. And you have enabled so many of us to serve with pride in a profession that is so vital to the continuance of our democracy. Beyond the pieces of legislation, whether its the violence against women act or the assault weapon ban or criminal justice, the list goes on, is that model of Public Servant. And i want to close by saying that as long as ive known joe biden, i really came to know him through the eyes of his son. I had the honor of working and serving with beau biden when he was attorney general at the state of delaware and i was attorney general of my state of connecticut. My ambition in life is to have my four children talk about me with the sense of admiration and love and pride that joe biden talked about his dad. Im very proud and grateful that we had the opportunity to vote today on a law that bears his name. As proud as his dad is of him, his pride in his dad is an example of all of us as parents parents, hope for our children to have for us. Im proud to be in this chamber and to have been sworn in to this chamber by you, mr. Vice president. And i hope that our paths will continue to cross, as i know they will with so many of us in this chamber and in this country. Thank you for your service. A senator mr. President . The Vice President the senator from missouri. Mrs. Mccaskill me too. The Vice President the senator from massachusetts. A senator in 1972 i was a young man in my last year of law school. I decided to run for state representative. Mr. Markey i had a cousin who worked at nasa. The older cousin, the smart one, the physicist at nasa. He said there is a young man in delaware, hes running for the senate. Whats his name . Joe biden. And so from that moment on i was following the career of this irishman, this latter day descendant of hubert humphrey, the happy warrior, the man who stands up for the common man and woman in our country. And in 1972, you had this Great Campaign team led by john matilla who captured your spirit, your soul, what you represented now in this halfcentury of american politics. And in 1976 when i ran for congress, just four years later, saying i think i can run i walked into the office of this man john mattilla up in boston that looked like a museum to joe biden with all the joe biden messages on his wall. From that moment on through john matilla, larry rasky, ron clane, all the people who worked for me and worked for you, i have been privileged to be able to chronicle your journey of work and inspiration for our country. And i think it is really just perfect here that you are the commander in creef of commander in chief of this rocket ship to the moon to find the cure for cancer, because that is a mission that has the right man who is going to be leading it. And i think that each and every one of us out here knows that one of the reasons this bill is receiving such an overwhelming vote today is because of you, mr. President. Its because of the respect that we have for you. Its the knowledge that when you were negotiating this bill, and at the end of the day you were going to put the American People first. You were going to make sure that that bill reflected the highest aspiration for every american. And so i want to speak briefly because theres a reception after this that many people are still waiting to say hello to you. I think every member wanted to come out here, and you inspired them to speak a lot longer than they may have intended on speaking, mr. President. But its because of the incredible respect and admiration they have for you. My best to you. My wife susans best to you. There has never been a better Public Servant in American History. All my best. A senator mr. President . The Vice President the senator from indiana. A senator on behalf of all the people of my great state, we want to tell you how grateful we are to you for your service. For the extraordinary job you did as Vice President to president obama. Mr. Donnelly as you know, everybody is telling stories. I had the privilege of having you come up and put your arm around me. When everybody said there was no chance i could ever win, and you said you and i are a lot alike. And you can do this and you can win. I came back and