congressional_record: CREC-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12093-3
Data license: Public Domain (U.S. Government data) · Data source: Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API
This data as json
| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CREC-2004-12-20-pt1-PgS12093-3 | 2004-12-20 | 108 | 2 | TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS | SENATE | SENATE | TRIBUTETO | S12093 | S12094 | [{"name": "Paul S. Sarbanes", "role": "speaking"}] | 150 Cong. Rec. S12093 | Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004) [Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 140 (Monday, December 20, 2004)] [Senate] [Pages S12093-S12094] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] TRIBUTE TO SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, in 1998, John Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home State of North Carolina to fill the seat once held by Senator Sam Ervin. He had never before run for, or served in, public office. From the time he received his law degree in 1977 until he entered the Senate, he was an attorney in private practice. For two decades John represented in court North Carolinians who had been grievously injured or disabled and had no one to speak up for them. He quickly made the transition from the courtroom to the Senate Chamber, however, because in both he has been guided by the same unwavering principle: putting to work his formidable talents and energy, along with his training, on behalf of ``the people I grew up with.'' John Edwards grew up in Robbins, NC. Robbins was a mill town. John's father spent nearly four decades working in textile mills; his mother worked in a number of jobs as well. As David Broder once put it, his parents and their friends and coworkers were people who ``earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.'' John was the first person in his family to go to college. For the millions of Americans who were the first in the [[Page S12094]] family to receive a college education--and I count myself among them-- this has very special meaning. He worked his way through school in 3 years, finding summer jobs in the mills. He went on to study law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the Nation's ranking law schools, and there he met, and soon married, a fellow student, Elizabeth Anania. In his book, ``Four Trials,'' which was published just this year, John pays tribute to the men and women who have played some part in his life, but none is more moving than his richly deserved tribute to Elizabeth: ``I have spent many years trying to live up to what she believed I could be, and I am the better for it.'' In the 108th Congress, John served on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; the Judiciary Committee; the Small Business Committee; and the Intelligence Committee--and also for a while on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where we first had an opportunity to work together. These are formidable, wide-ranging jurisdictions. In every assignment he undertook, John fought for policies, as he has put it, that ``reward work--not just wealth, work-- and (to) ensure that the American dream stays alive and available to every single American, no matter where they live or who their family is or what the color of their skin.'' Together with the senior Senator from Massachusetts and the senior Senator from Arizona, John Edwards led the successful effort in the Senate to pass landmark patients' rights legislation, only to see the bill falter in the face of implacable opposition from the White House. John has been a forceful advocate for the thousands of North Carolinians, and indeed Americans, who ``did everything right,'' but were still powerless to prevent their jobs from being swept overseas. When the 109th Congress convenes in January, John Edwards will no longer represent his beloved State of North Carolina in the U.S. Senate. He will be home in the State he loves--``the place that made me love America to begin with''--with the family he loves so dearly. Whether in the Nation's Capital or in North Carolina, however, we know that John will continue to do what he has always done so well, fighting ``for those who do not have a voice, to make sure that ``no one--no one--is lost in America, that that dream is everlasting.'' He will be sorely missed in this Chamber. ____________________ |