Administration Of Oath Of Office

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I first thank the majority leader for his kind statements. He is, indeed, more than just a colleague. For 26 years, we have worked on Capitol Hill together, and never more closely than the last 6 when I have had the honor to serve as his assistant as the Democratic whip. He is truly a great public servant, not only for the State of Nevada but for the entire Nation.

This was a test for us because we were all absolutely stricken by the news that the Governor of the State of Illinois was being arrested and under the circumstances which all America knows.

The response by the Senate was to say to this Governor: No Senate seat is ever for sale, and we are going to uphold the integrity of this institution, even though some may try to sully that integrity.

Senator Reid is right, throughout the stormy weeks that followed, I do not recall a single negative word spoken by anyone in the Senate or any of Roland Burris's former colleagues about him. You can search the record. Everything said about Roland Burris was positive. The circumstances that led to his appointment were the issue, the source of the controversy.

The controversy came to an end on Monday. The Secretary of State Jesse White filed a new document after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled. The Secretary of the Senate ruled that this new document complied with the rules of the U.S. Senate, and Senator Burris had appeared in Springfield, as we asked him, to answer all questions about his appointment.

At that point, we were ready to move forward. I can recall phone conversations with him over the weekend telling him that things were moving in the right direction, and if he could be patient because they were coming to a good end; the ruling of the Secretary of the Senate could make all the difference.

Now we have this glorious day when so many of his friends from Illinois are here to witness his being sworn in by Vice President Cheney, and now he has left the floor for a few moments for the ceremonial oath that is going to be given in the Old Senate Chamber.

While he is away, I want to say a word about my old friend, Roland Burris. He literally has been my friend for over 30 years.

In 1978, when we were both brand new to this business, I ran for lieutenant governor for Illinois and he ran for comptroller. Nobody had ever heard of either of us or the offices we were running for. We were as obscure as possible, but we found kinship standing in the back of parade routes as the bigwigs in the front line went on. We struck up a friendship, a friendship that has extended over three decades. And it is a friendship that is based more on just that happenstance of running in the same year. You see, Roland and I are from the same part of Illinois. Roland Burris was born in Centralia, Illinois, a few miles away from my hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois.

But there is more to the story. That is one of the central parts of our Nation when it comes to railroads. I come from a railroad family--my mother, my father, my two brothers, and I all worked for the New York Central Railroad. Roland Burris's family were railroad workers as well. His father Earl ran a small grocery store to supplement his income as a laborer for the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. Earl Burris, Roland's father, had a strong sense of community and a low tolerance for injustice. On Memorial Day 1953, Earl Burris decided to take a stand against injustice by defying Centralia's unofficial ``whites only'' policy for the city's public swimming pool. So he hired a lawyer and arranged for that lawyer to meet him and young Roland, then 16. They were all going to go to the swimming pool. Well, guess what. The lawyer didn't show up.

Roland Burris later said that he remembered his father all summer long saying that if segregation and injustice were ever going to end, people needed to show up and be accountable. By the end of the summer, 16-year-old Roland Burris had made up his mind he would show up. He would pursue a career in politics and the law. So off he went to Southern Illinois University, at Carbondale, which incidentally has a record of being one of the most productive colleges in America for the graduates of African Americans. Roland Burris was one of those. He studied political science and distinguished himself as a leader on campus. He headed a group that exposed discriminatory practices among Carbondale merchants toward African-American students.

In 1963, he earned a law degree from Howard University. That same year, he became a Federal bank examiner at the U.S. Treasury Department--the first African American ever to hold such a position. In 1964, he was hired by Continental Illinois National Bank, where he rose to the post of vice president in less than a decade. He is a past national executive director of Operation PUSH.

In Illinois, the land of Lincoln, we have elected more African Americans statewide than any State in our Union, and we are proud of it. But it is Roland Burris who led the way in 1978, as our first African-American State comptroller and later as the first African-American attorney general in that land of Lincoln, State of Illinois. Roland Burris paved the way for so many to follow, including the man who will be sworn in as President Tuesday--Barack Obama. He has held two of our State's highest elective offices. He was Illinois' first African-American comptroller as well as our first African-American attorney general.

Roland Burris is a good man and a dedicated public servant, and that is why he has returned to public life. Now he is the 48th Senator from the great State of Illinois, and the 1,907th person ever to be sworn into this distinguished body.

Here is an interesting fact as well. Roland and his wife Berlean live on the south side of Chicago in a home once owned by the great, the immortal Mahalia Jackson, the original ``Queen of Gospel Music.'' In 1948, Mahalia recorded a song that became so popular music stores couldn't keep it in stock. It sold 8 million copies. The title of that song was ``Move On Up A Little Higher.''

For more than 50 years, Roland Burris has sought to move on up a little higher--not for his sake alone but for the chance to help others, including our great State of Illinois. I congratulate him. I know this was a rocky road to this great day in his life, but it was a road well traveled and one that I am sure will lead him to appreciate how important this institution is, not just as part of our government but as a part of our future.

He is going to have a chance to not only serve as my colleague but the colleague of 99 other Senators who are going to be able to work with him and learn the values and talents that he brings to the job. I am honored today, by his being sworn into office, to no longer be both the senior and junior Senator from Illinois. We have a junior Senator--his name is Roland Burris--and I look forward to serving with him.

Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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