Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise tonight to speak of my colleague, Senator ARLEN SPECTER, who tonight cast his 10,000th vote as a Member of the Senate. We watched history tonight. Sometimes we have a chance to witness history. Of course, we look forward to his many more votes, but we also look behind us at some of his own personal political history as well his service here in the Senate.
I will offer a few remarks tonight about his service. I can say, after knowing him for many years, and especially after serving with him for now more than 3 years, if you go down that list of votes--all those rollcall votes over many years, serving the people of Pennsylvania--he has had one priority with those votes: Those votes were cast on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania.
He has always been an independent voice for the people of our State. He has fought a lot of battles for the people of Pennsylvania. I know the people of our Commonwealth are proud of his service.
His public service began after he became a lawyer. He went to the University of Pennsylvania, and then to Yale Law School, and then eventually he joined the District Attorney's Office in Philadelphia. He rose through that office and became the District Attorney of Philadelphia. He was elected twice to that office and served 8 years.
He was elected to the Senate in 1980 and was reelected four times after that. He was reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004. So he has performed those years of service as a Senator. Of course, it is more than about years and about votes. It certainly is about the substance of those votes, fighting those battles, such as on behalf of the veterans of Pennsylvania.
We have had a million or more veterans, for many years, in our State. Those who fought our wars, those who worked in our factories, those who went on to build Pennsylvania gave their first measure of devotion to the country fighting on battlefields. He has always fought for them. He chaired the Veterans' Affairs Committee here in the Senate. He continues those battles on behalf of the veterans of Pennsylvania.
On health care, we could talk for a long time about the battles he has fought over and over again; not only the battles he fought in the last year or two as the issue was being debated in the Senate, but especially the battles he fought over many years, battles on behalf of children and women, battles for health care for the vulnerable, those who were poor and may not have a strong advocate other than their Senators or Members of Congress. So he has fought battles on health care.
You could isolate a lot of different issues under that general heading, but one that comes to mind for me is the National Institutes of Health. No one I know of in the Senate has fought more battles for the National Institutes of Health and all of the research that comes from the great work done there, and all the cures, all the ways people are saved because of that research at NIH.
He has fought battles on job creation, not only to preserve and protect and create more jobs at a time of recession--such as the horrific recession we have been living through and our workers and families have been suffering through--but battles over many years, battles to protect the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain, battles to make sure jobs are kept in Pennsylvania instead of going overseas or somewhere else. He has fought those battles to protect our workers and our jobs.
He has fought battles on national defense, making sure we are doing everything possible to keep the people of our Commonwealth and our country safe from foreign enemies, safe from terrorists, and safe from those who seek to do us harm. Over many years, ARLEN SPECTER has cast those votes as well, keeping us safe and keeping us strong.
His independence is something that is critically important to any State, but especially a State such as Pennsylvania. We have a State of over 12 million people. We have a lot of different regions in our State, a lot of different constituencies, and a lot of different challenges all across the State.
What the people of Pennsylvania expect their Senators to do is to try their best to fight their battles, to try to remain an independent voice for them, not for some special interests in Washington. ARLEN SPECTER has done that for years, being that strong, consistent, independent voice for the people of our State.
He has had a strong sense of justice from the time he was a young lawyer, through his service as a prosecutor making sure our streets were safe in Philadelphia, and through what he has done here in the Senate, fighting battles for justice every day in his service in the Senate.
Finally, in a very broad sense, but a very important sense, not only when times are tough, as they are now economically, but even when times seem good, even when the budgets are better and people do not seem to be as concerned about what the Federal Government can do to help them through a difficult period--even in those times of prosperity, he has always fought for our workers and our families.
It is very easy for me to stand here, as someone who has watched him over the years in his service in this Senate--and I know as someone who has served with him for more than 3 years--it is very easy for me to say, without any effort at all, that those 10,000 votes he has cast have been votes on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania, and I believe for the best interests of the people of the United States of America.
I commend ARLEN on that tremendous vote total. I commend him also for his public service, his enduring public service for the people of Pennsylvania. I also commend his wife Joan and his family who I know have supported him for many years to make sure he could help us serve the people of Pennsylvania.
Congratulations, ARLEN.
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