Remembering Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Floor Speech

REMEMBERING SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY -- (Senate - September 10, 2009)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, when I was young, Ted Kennedy was larger than life. I was just 12 years old when he was first elected to the Senate as the youngest son of a political dynasty that seemed to dominate the television each night in my house and the newspapers every day.

At first, he served in the shadow of his older brothers. But as I grew up, the youngest brother of the Kennedy family did, too--in front of the entire Nation.

For me and so many others, Ted Kennedy became a symbol of perseverance over tragedy--from his walk down Pennsylvania Avenue at the side of Jacqueline Kennedy, to the heart-breaking speech he delivered at his brother Bobby's funeral, to his pledge to carry on the causes of those who had championed his bid for the Presidency.

Ted Kennedy routinely appeared before the American people with great courage at the most trying times. And all the while, he was also standing in this Chamber each day with that same grit and determination to fight for the people of Massachusetts and the Nation.

On issues from protecting the environment, civil rights, increasing the minimum wage, and health care, he was a passionate and unmatched advocate and leader.

So it was with a lifetime of watching Senator Kennedy with admiration from afar that I arrived here as a freshman Senator in 1993. By the time I was elected, Ted was already on his way to becoming one of the most powerful and influential Senators of all time. So I couldn't believe it when I first walked out onto this floor and he walked over to personally welcome me. For me, that would have been enough--the lion of the Senate reaching out to a rookie--but to Ted Kennedy it wasn't.

Through calls to my office, discussions on the floor, and by taking me under his wing on the HELP Committee, he became a friend, a mentor, and sooner than I could have ever imagined a courageous partner on legislation that I cared deeply about.

As a State senator in Washington, I had worked very hard before I got here to successfully change the State laws in Washington on family and medical leave. It was an issue that was extremely personal to me. My father had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was very young. Since that time, my mother had always been his primary caregiver. But a few years before I ran and became a Senator, my mother had a heart attack and had to undergo bypass surgery.

Suddenly, my six brothers and sisters and I were faced with the question of who was going to take time off to care for the people we loved the most, the people who cared for us for so long.

A family leave policy would have allowed any of us just a few weeks necessary to see them through their medical crisis. But at the time, none was available.

So after running and winning and coming to the Senate, the Family and Medical Leave Act was a bill I wanted to stand and fight for. As it turned out, it was the first bill we considered.

Senator Kennedy was here managing that bill on the Senate floor, and I found out that he, too, had a personal connection to that bill.

I well remember one day when Senator Kennedy pulled me aside to tell me about how he had spent a lot of time with his own son in the hospital fighting cancer and how he met so many people at that time who could not afford to take time off to care for their loved ones and how some were forced to quit their jobs to take care of somebody they loved because they were sick. He told me that, together, we were going to work hard and get this bill passed. Then he showed this rookie how to do it.

Week after week, he fought against bad amendments to get the votes we needed to pass it.

He blended the right mix of patience and passion. He spoke out loudly in speeches when he needed to, and he whispered into the ears of colleagues when that was called for. A few days after Senator Kennedy pledged to me we would get it done, we did.

Through that effort, and many more battles on this floor, I learned so much from him and so have all of us because, more than almost anyone, Senator Kennedy knew the Senate. He knew how to make personal friends, even with those he didn't agree with politically. He knew how to reach out and find ways to work with people to get them to compromise for the greater good. He knew when not to give up. He knew when to change the pace or turn the page to get things done. He knew when to go sit down next to you or pick up the phone and call you. He knew how to legislate. Because of that, he built an incredible legacy.

It is a legacy that will not only live on in the Senate Chamber, where he was so well loved and respected; it is a legacy that will live on in the classrooms across America, where kids from Head Start to college have benefited from his commitment to opportunities in education; on manufacturing floors, where he fought for landmark worker safety protection; in our hospitals, where medical research that he championed is saving lives every day; in courtrooms, where the legacy of discrimination was dealt a blow by his years of service on the Judiciary Committee; in voting booths, where he fought for our most basic rights in a democracy to be protected and expanded for decades; and in so many other places that were touched by his service, his passion and his giant heart.

Senator Kennedy fought for and won so many great battles. But for many of us who worked with him every day, it may be the small moments that will be remembered the most--the personal touch he brought, not only to legislating but to life.

As I mentioned a moment ago, my mom had to take care of my dad for most of his life. His multiple sclerosis confined him to a wheelchair and she could not ever leave his side. One of the few and maybe the only time she did leave my dad is when I was elected to the Senate and she flew all the way from Washington State to Washington, DC, to see me be sworn in.

To my mom, Ted Kennedy and his family were amazing individuals whom she followed closely throughout their lives, through their triumphs and, of course, through tragedy. After I was sworn in, and my mother was up in the gallery watching, we walked back through the Halls of Congress to my office. Shortly after that, we had a visitor. Senator Kennedy unexpectedly came over to my office and gave my mom a huge hug. I will never forget the look on her face, the tears in her eyes, the clear disbelief that she had met Ted Kennedy, and it was overpowering. It was a moment with my mom I will never forget, and it is certainly a moment I will never forget with my friend Ted Kennedy.

I am going to miss him. I know our country is going to miss him. But as he reminded us in his courageous speech that he delivered last summer in Denver, the torch has been passed to a new generation, and the work begins anew.

So today, as we honor all of his contributions to the Senate and the Nation, we must also remember to heed that brave final call and continue his fight for all of those who cannot fight for themselves.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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