out there trying to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, the environmental protection agency, nutrition, food stamps, education? why if somebody has $80 billion are they working so hard for more tax breaks for themselves and for more cuts for the middle class and working class in terms of programs that people desperately need? frankly i think this is not an economic issue. i think it's a psychiatric issue. i think it is an issue that suggests that people are simply power hungry, they need more and more and more, and i think that that is a very sad state of affairs. so, mr. president, the struggle that we are engaged in now is stopping the billionaire class from cutting social security,

from cutting medicare, from cutting medicaid, and from preventing us from creating the millions of jobs that our economy desperately needs. but at the end of the day, what we are really talking about is whether or not this nation is going to become an oligarchic form of society. and what that means, what an oligarchic form of society is about, and has existed in many countries throughout the world, historically many countries in latin america although that has recently changed -- is you have a nation in which both the economics and politics of the nation are controlled by a handful of billionaire families. very, very wealthy. and it doesn't matter what party is in power because the real power, economically and

politically, rests with a billionaire class. and, mr. president, it seems to me very clearly that unless we act boldly to reverse that trend, we are seeing this country moving in exactly that direction. and one of the reasons for that is that as a result of the disastrous citizens united supreme court ruling which regards corporations as people and allows the superwealthy to spend as much as they want on elections, the billionaire party which is obviously aligned with the republicans, is now, in fact, the major political force in this country. it's not the republican party per se, it is not the democratic party per se. it is the billionaire party led by people like the koch brothers and sheldon adelson. and they are the dominant political force in this country

because they can spend unbelievable sums of money on elections, they can spend as much money as they need setting up think tanks and all kinds of organizations which will support their extreme right-wing point of view. mr. president, in the last election for president, barack obama's campaign spent i believe a little over a billion dollars, mitt romney somewhere around there, maybe a little bit less, about a billion dollars. koch bureaus' wealth -- brothers' wealth increased by $12 billion in one year. is there any reason to doubt that in the future this one family will be able to spend more money on a campaign than the presidential candidates themselves receiving donations from hundreds of thousands of people. and that is where we are today.

where we are today is the very foundations of american democracy are being threatened by a handful of incredibly wealthy people who are saying you know what? 80s are billion dollars -- $80 billion is not, i made $12 billion last year, not enough for me. i have to have more and i'm going to get more tax cuts for myself and in order to do that we may have to cut social security, we may have to to cut medicare, we may have to cut medicaid, we may have to cut education for middle-class families. you know, eesh in a debate, mr. president, as you well -- we are in a debate, mr. president, as you well know about whether we raise the minimum wage. my view and i know your view is we should raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour so every working person in this country at least, at least can have a minimal, main minnesota malstliferl -- minimal standard

of living. i have to say and many americans don't know it, it is not just that virtually all republicans in the congress are opposed to raising the minimum wage, the truth of the matter is is that many of them want to abolish the concept of the minimum wage. the theory of the minimum wage is that nobody should work for below a certain wage and for many of my extreme conservative friends, they think it would be perfectly fine if in a high unemployment area we abolish the minimum wage and people today were working in this country for $3 an hour, they were working for $4 an hour. but it is not only economics. many of these billionaires are involved, as the koch brothers are, in energy, in oil. and what they want to do is abolish agencies like the environmental protection agency so they can pollute more and more and more.

the scientific community tells us in an almost unanimous fashion that climate change is real, that climate change is made by human activity, that climate change is already causing severe problems in our country and around the world and if we don't get our act together and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions the problems will only become worse. yet you have families like the koch brothers and other billionaires spending huge sums of money trying to confuse people about the reality of climate change. so, mr. president, to my mind, the issue that we have got to focus on as a congress, the issue that we have got to focus on as american people is what kind of nation do we wish to live in. do we want to live in a nation where a handful of billionaires

own a significant amount of the wealth in this country while the middle class has less and less, where families can't afford to send their kids to college or get decent child care for their little ones, where people are reaching the age of 65 with virtually nothing in the bank in order to provide a dignified retirement, is that the country we want to live in or do we want to see the middle class grow and have a more equitable distribution of wealth and income, a fairer tax system where the millionaires and billionaires and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes. and then from a political point of view which is equally important, do we want to have a nation in which the concept is one person, one vote, that we're all equal, that you have as much say about what happens in government as anybody else, or do we want to have a political system where a handful

of billionaires can sit around the room and say okay, put $100 million into that state, let's put $50 million into that state, where a handful of billionaires will determine who gets elected president, who gets elected senator, who gets elected governor, and have members of congress go crawling up to these billionaires, what do you need mr. billionaire, how do i get the hundreds of millions of dollars you can give me? is that really what american democracy is supposed to be about? so we have some very, very fundamental issues that we have got to address as the united states congress. so i would suggest that we put right on the agenda the issue of distribution of wealth and income, and the implications of that grossly unfair distribution of wealth and income that we have right now. and with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

ms. warren: mr. president? the presiding officer: the sphror massachusetts. ms. warren: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. ms. warren: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. warren: mr. president, this is a difficult day for the city of boston. yesterday boston lost two courageous firefighters who gave up their lives battling a terrible fire in the city's back bay. when others flee, our

firefighters rush headlong into danger, concerned only for the safety of others. they put their lives on the line every time. today we mourn the loss of two brave men, two heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice. lieutenant eddie walsh and firefighter mike kennedy were highly respected and committed members of the boston fire department, who dedicated their lives to keeping our families safe. firefighter kennedy of ladder company 15 on boylston street was a member of the boston fire department for six and a half years. he gree gre grew up in rosalynn, served as a veteran in iraq and was a first responder to the boston marathon attacks last year. he wanted to run in this year's marathon, so to be admitted he wrote an essay about his experiences responding to the marathon bombing. he had been in training for the

big day, but he won't be running this year. lieutenant walsh served on engine 33, also based at the boylston street fire station. he was a firefighter in boston for nine and a half years and lived in west roxsbury with his wife and three young kids. lieutenant walsh dpraim a fir fire-fighting family and followed in the footprints of his father and uncle, both of whom served on the watertown fire department. he will be missed. you know i speak on behalf of the city of boston and the people of boston when i say that all our thoughts and prayers are with lieutenant walsh's and firefighter kennedy's families at this time. boston is deeply grateful to lieutenant walsh, to firefighter kennedy, to all our policemen, firefighters and first responders who put their lives at risk to protect our families

every single day and to all our firefighter families that face the risk that a loved one will rush into a burning building and give up everything to keep all of us safe. thank you, mr. president. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. markey: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: madam president -- the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. markey: madam president, i ask for the suspension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. markey: madam president, every day firefighters and other first respontder responders aror country put their lives on the lining to protect the public. -- o th-- on the line to protece public. yesterday firefighters bravely entered a building in a selfless effort to save lives and keep the people of the commonwealth of massachusetts safe. firefighterfirefighters head toe

danger, as ordinary citizens run away from the danger. they are a very special breed, these firefighters. and it is with a very heavy heart that i come to the floor today, along with senator warren, to honor two of these courageous men: lieutenant edward walsh and firefighter michael kennedy. they became caught in the fire and heroically sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. 13 other firefighters were injured in the blaze and are expected to survive. firefighter michael kennedy was 33 years old, a native of rosalynndale section of boston. he lived in hyde park and had been with the boston fire department for the past six years. a former marine, michael was among the first responders who bravely served those injured in the boston -- those who served

in the boston marathon. lieutenant walsh lived in west roxbury. he came from a fire fighting family. both his father and you l were fire liewrts in nearby watertown, and had been with the boston fire department for nine and a half years and was stationed at engine 33, ladder 15, just blocks from the building where the fire occurred. lieutenant walsh and firefighter kennedy are american heroes. their memories will live on as examples of the extraordinary courage and dedication at the very heart of the boston fire department and in the hearts of firefighters everywhere. boston is strong because of heroes like lieutenant walsh and firefighter kennedy, who placed the safety of others before themselves. in this 9-alarm fishings there were zero civilian casualties.

these two brave men put their lives on the line so that others could go on living. i offer my condol condolences. massachusetts has lost two of its finest sons and i grieve along were the rest of the commonwealth, with senator warren and with everyone for the loss that has been suffered. madam president, i doubt the presence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: i would ask that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: thank you, madam president. george holland was a pretty exceptional kid. when he was 14 years old, he went through something that i don't think any of us can even imagine what it is like to go through. his parents got into a heated argument, and they were estranged at the time but it became so violent that it culminated in his mother fatally stabbing his father. he was 14 years old, having lost his dad and then seeing his mother get sent away to prison. he then went to go live with his aunt. his aunt attests to the fact that he was just full, even in those dark days, of a positive attitude, that he refused to dwell on the murder, used it as a crutch.

he excelled. his friends said that his smile was infectious, that he was always hugging everybody. he played center on the high school football team in providence, rhode island, which is where he is from. his coach said that he was a great team player, that he was a leader and that he was always looking to take the younger kids under his wing. his coach just said -- quote -- "he was just a great kid." well, three years after his mother was killed by his father, george holland died as well. a gunman targeted his house on february 4 of this year, a house that he was visiting. he was with his girlfriend and her family when someone shot into the house around 9:00 p.m. the bullet went through the kitchen window and struck george who collapsed and later died at rhode island hospital. he was 17 years old.

steve finkbeiner and his wife constance were beloved in their town in a place in louisiana. they owned the feed store that was at the end of a quiet road. they had owned it for 28 years. the community all looked upon the finkbeiners as family. everybody had some reason to go into that feed store every now and again, and the -- constance and steve treated them as if their customers were members of their own immediate family. one friend said exactly that. they were like family. they were just like family. others remembered steve as a hardworking man and a community member. it was just after 2:30 p.m. on february 25, just a few weeks ago, when deputies received a call from the feed and supply store. a woman said that she and her husband had just been shot during an armed robbery. constance survived the attack but was critically injured, and her husband steve died.

what happened was that two robbers initially went into the store inquiring about shots for a pet. they left briefly only to return to rob the place and shoot the couple that owned the store. ruth ann long distance at owe lived -- ruth ann lodato lived just over the border in alexandria, virginia. she was a music teacher. 59 years old. she was as involved as she could be in the community. she was a loving wife to her husband, mother of three daughters. she was planning her class' 40th reunion. she was remembered fondly as the music teacher who had hold up her hand to cue the group to sing her school's alma mater. she was the glue that held her family and friends together. that's how she was described. there were 300 mourners at her funeral because on february 6 of this year, again just over a month ago, she was shot after she opened the door to her

suburban home for what was described as a balding bearded man in a tan jacket who shot her dead. rickey roberts was a pretty exceptional guy. he lived out in sonnorra, california. he was a demolition derby driver, and he used his garage to construct these demolition derby cars. that's what he loved to do. he loved it so much when he got married to his wife teddi they got married atop a derby car, probably one he made. july,about 1990, got atop the car at the motherlode fairgrounds. what he also loved was volunteering for his community. he was a longtime sonora police volunteer and a member of the christian heights church.

he volunteered hours and hours every week as one of the sort of citizen police officers and he was really involved with the police explorers, helping to train and organize some of the kids that were involved in the police explorers program. he was just a really positive person. his mom said that he made people feel good about themselves. that he had a great rapport with people. he had a great sense of humor and had the ability to laugh at himself. on february 16 of this year, ricky was found bleeding in his garage, the garage that he built demolition derby cars from, from an apparent gunshot at 11:00 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene. the first homicide victim in sonora, california, in nearly 13 years. madam president, the numbers are pretty stunning. 31,000 people every year die from gun violence, 2,600 every

month, 86 every day. there is no other -- there is no other country in the industrialized world that has numbers that come anywhere close to approximate naturing -- approximating these catastrophic totals. what i've tried to do is come down to the floor every week if he if i can to tell the story of the voices of these victims to let my friends know these are real people with real families who are getting killed at a rate of 86 a day all across the country. we can talk about these statistics but apparently the statistics haven't moved the united states congress or the united states senate to action. maybe the voices of those 86 people a day will even after they leave this place. and the carnage and the wreckage left behind is nearly incalculable. surveys have been done of what it's like to live in cities with

high incidence of gun violence and they show the rates of ptsd amongst the idz kids who live with the knowledge that they're pretty sure that year a friend or a neighbor or a relative will be killed, they rival the rates of ptsd of our returning soldiers. these cities are like war zones. and the tragedy of all of this is that we are not powerless to do something about it. we have the ability to change laws, to modify laws in order to reduce the rates of gun violence all across this country. so i just want to close by drawing attention to the evidence of that. johns hopkins just did a new study. they did a study of a missouri law that for years required background checks before you buy guns and licenses for all handgun owners and in 2007 missouri repealed that law.

and so johns hopkins, one of the best research universities in the country, went in and did an exhaustive study of rates of gun violence before that law was passed and rates of gun violence afterwards. and they controlled for every factor other than this law repeal. so they looked at whether rates of gun violence were increasing in just certain counties, they compared it to rates of gun violence in nearby states, they looked at all of the other factors that could go into an explanation other than the repeal of the law when trying to figure out why rates of gun violence were increasing, and what they found was pretty simple. what they found was that even when you control for all of the other factors, the repeal of the background checks law in missouri led to a 23% spike in firearm homicide rates. that is an additional 55 to 63

murders every year from 2008 to 2012. 60 additional people killed in one state alone because that state has chosen to allow criminals to own guns. when you repeal a background checks law you essentially are allowing criminals to go into places where guns are sold, purchase them and then either use them themselves or sell them in the black market to people who will do the kind of destruction that leads to 31,000 people dying every year. madam president, my colleagues, we have the ability to change this, and i try to make this point every time i come down to the floor to talk about the voices of victims. i understand we are not going to bring these numbers down to zero by passing a commonsense background checks bill or by investing more money into our mental health system or trying to do something even if it's nonlegislative way to address

the culture of violence in our society. there is always going to be gun violence. but we can do something. we can lower these numbers. we can lessen the damage and the trauma and the carnage all across our country, all across the states that we represent. and i just think about a kid like george holland who had overcome so much, the death of one of his parents, the imprisonment of the other to become this just immensely compassionate 17-year-old. who knew, who knows what he was going to accomplish? we'll never get to understand the good that george holland could have done in this world was on february 4 of this year he was gunned down in his girlfriend's home.

hopefully whether it's the data or the voices of victims, the united states senate will figure out that we can do something to change that reality. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. reid: mr., i ask unanimous consent the call of of the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent with the order with respect to the motion to proceed to h h.r. 3979 so when the postcloture time is he can expie senate proceed to proceed to the

bill. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: i now ask that on monday, march 3 is, the senate proceed to h.r. 3042 which we received from the house, which is at the desk. there be no amendments or points of order to the bill with the exception of applicable points of order. that the time until 5: p.m. for debate on the bill. that notwithstanding the previous order following the vote on the owens nomination on monday, march 31, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 4 4302, the bill be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill and the bill be subject to a 60-vote affirmative threshold. finally, on disposition of h.r. 4032, the senate proceed to vote on motion to proceed to h.r. 3979, as provided under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i want everyone to understand that there would be at least three hours of debate on h.r. 4302 and i want to make sure that everyone understands that senator wyden will be -- i will give him the hour and a half that is on our side. the presiding officer: without objection, the request is agreed to. mr. reid: madam president, before chairman baucus became ambassador to china, the senate finance committee under his auspices negotiated a bipartisan-bicameral bill with the house to fix the doctor

payment system. he worked on that for more than a year. but the committees didn't come to agreement on the really hard part -- how to pay for it. senator wyden, the new chairman of the finance committee, has come up with a way to pay for it. i support repealing the payment system, the s.g.r., permanently. i've been in favor of that for a long, long time. and i appreciate the work done on that the past period of time that senator wyden has been chairman of that committee. i repeat, the work done on it for the year didn't have a way to pay for it. so i support repealing the system permanently. i believe we should repeal it without pay-fors or by using reductions in the yoafe overseas contingency fund called oco. now, the deadline is here. i spoke on the floor this morning and i say it again, everyone is saying, well, why are you helping the doctors? madam president, i am helping my

medicare recipients in nevada. they need physicians. and for us to play around with this bill, as we do continually, isn't fair to the patients because doctors are unhappy that they don't have some degree of certainty and that's what they need. so that's why we're getting rid of this totally. we don't have that now. the house passed a short time ago a patch of 12 or 13 months, which is good. so efforts will continue on permanent repeal of s.g.r. and i support senator wyden seeing what he can do to come up for some votes for permanent reveal. -- permanent repeal. he's served a long time in the house. he's served a long time in the senate. he knows what he's doing. so let's hope he gets enough votes. until then, we're left with the patch. i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: the senator from maine, without objection. martin luther king--

mr. king: i rise to memorialize one of the great residents, denizens of this body, senator edmund muskie of maine. who tomorrow, march 28, 2014, would have been 100 years old. i knew ed muskie -- not well, but i knew him. i knew him working here as a staff member. we were very scared of him. he was a presence. he was a force. he was, indeed, a great man. he's a classic american story, a chasic american story that we need to remind ourselves of. he was the son of a polish immigrant tailor in a small town called rumford in western maine. he rose to become a great united states senator, secretary of state, candidate for president, candidate on the ballot for vice president of the united states, and one of the great citizens of maine and the country of the

20th century. ed muskie rose by his own merits. i'm convinced that the secret sauce of america is the welcoming of people from all over the world who came hear to bring their talents and allow them to express themselves fully and freely in the wonderful, rich soil of this great country. ed muskie went to school on a scholarship, went to college, a small college in maine, bates college, where the muskie archives currently reside. then he went on to cornell law school. through generosity of individuals and scholarships, because he had no resources of his own. he was in world war ii and then he came back to practice law in the small town of waterville in central maine. in 1954, ed muskie literally invented the democratic party in maine.

i don't believe that there had been a major democratic officeholder in maine for some 50 years. i think perhaps there were a few in the 1920's and 1930's. but the state was completely dominated by the republican party all through the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, and when ed muskie ran for governor in 1954, it was the longest of long shots. in fact, the story in maine was that, of course, in the 1936 election when franklin d. roosevelt ran, he -- roosevelt carried every state in the union except two: maine and vermont. the sayings, "as goes maine, so go vermont." the story on the coast of maine in a small republican town of cephal hundred people, the clerk announced the vote and at the end of the tally, she said, "landon 47, roosevelt 2."

and someone mumbled, "the s.o.b. voted twice." and that was the way the republican party dominated the state until ed muskie in 1954. he drove from one end of the state to the other with friends, stayed on friends' living room couches, nothing fancy. the idea of a political ad on television in those days was to show up at the tv station at the appointed hour and, as the clock ticked to 8:00, you would look into the camera, give your statement for 30 seconds, and then you were off to the next campaign stop. as that campaign went on in 1994, something happened in maine. some -- an excitement built, a buzz, i guess we would say today, and ed muskie indeed, to everyone's shock and surprise, was elected governor in that year. he then was reelected. in those day, the maine

governor's term was two years. he was reelected in 1956, a very successful governor, and then was elected to the united states senate in 1958. there's a wonderful story about when muskie first came to the senate. lyndon johnson, of course, was the dynamic, powerful, and i say all-powerful majority leader of the united states senate at that time and the story is that johnson took muskie aside and said, now, ed, when somebody comes and asks you for your vote, you just tell them you haven't made up your mind yet. your vote is the most valuable thing you have in the united states senate, and keep it to yourself. and if they press you ands, jus- and if they press you, just say, senator, they haven't gotten to the m's yes. when they do, you know how i'm going to vote. this was johnson's advice to the freshman senator from maine. a few weeks later there was some kind of procedural vote on the floor. johnson wanted to line up his votes in his democratic caucus

and he went to ed muskie and said, can i count on your support in allegedly muskie said, "senator, they haven't gotten to the m's yet." the result was that muskie was exiled to the public works committee. at that time one of the least desirable of committee assignments. of course now this is environment and public works and one of the most important and press city judge of our committees. but city time it was the big -- being sent to the outerlimits by the majority leader who didn't like this smart aleck from maine. but again, this story has an important and i think instructive ending. because ed muskie with his maine work ethic and common sense and his intuition and insight used the public works committee to invent environmental law in america. in 1970, 12 years later, the

passage of the clean air act was the first major passage of an environmental piece of legislation in american history. there had been a few small things here and there, but most states had very little in the way of environmental regulation and slrn i ther certainly thereo national regulation. but the amazing thing, thatestonnishing thing about the passage st clean air act was that it was a very important piece of legislation, it was very significant, it affected every business in the country, it affected the automobile descraisindustry, the paper and manufacturing industries. it was an importantl tremendoust piece of lels. the clean air act passed the united states senate unanimously, unanimously. mr. president, imagine we can't pass the time of day unanimously. and he marshaled the resourced and the votes and the sentiment of the entire united states senate.

he did it through amazingly hard work. they had hundreds of hearings and hundreds of hours of markup, and he listened to his colleagues, he found compromises, he found ways to make it work across the entire spectrum of the united states senate, and there were plenty of conservative senators here in 1970. in fact, at one point in the debate on the clean air act, howard baker, who was the republican leader, gave his proxy to muskie because he had to be out of the chamber for a few hours. now, again, mr. president, imagine today the minority leader giving -- the republican leader giving his proxy to one of the democratic senators on a major piece of legislation. i think it says something about, unfortunately, the difference between then and now in the united states senate, but it also said something about muskie's leadership. it was made up in parts of incredibly high intelligence.

people who knew him well -- like senator george mitchell -- have said that he was one of the most brilliant people they'd ever met. so he had high intelligence, but he also had high emotional intelligence. he could ink ought t inought toe wanted -- he could intuit what people wanted and what they needed to hear and could persuade them. but he also had patience and was willing to listen and understand other people's point of view. the clean air act and later the clean water in 1972 are really the pillars of environmental law in this entire country, and it's hard for us to realize today because we take for granted our commitment to environmental protection, but it didn't really exist until ed muskie's leadership in the late-1960's. it's all the more remarkable for me as a political representative of the state of maine that muskie took this step because it had an impact on our major

industry, a significant impact. maine is a pulp and paper state. huge mills with outpourings into the water and into the air. and, at that time, they were virtually untreated. so this was not an insignificant act for muskie's own political situation. it wasn't like he had a free ride on this. but i believe that part of the impetus for this great action, for this great insight, was muskie's being raised as a young boy in the town of rumford on the anderskogen river. when he was a boy, the saying was the river was too thick to drink and too thin to plow. it was a terrible situation and ed muskie realized that, and he realized that it was something that we had to do something about.

so he used the vehicle of the public works committee where he had been sent in exile to achieve one of the great legislative monuments of the 20th century. he also is the father of our current budget process. he was one of the senators that put together the budget process iin the mid- to late-1970's. he had a distinguished career. he was an incredible force and a very powerful man. i have a vivid personal recollection of him, which to this day i don't quite know what to make of. but it's an absolutely true one. in 1968, he was running for vice president of the united states. he was hubert humphrey's running mate. and in the latter stages of the campaign, in september/october of that year of 1968, it was the last several weeks of the

campaign, and it was a time when presidential and vice-presidential candidates flew around the country and didn't even take the time to have a motorcade and go into town to make a speesm th speech. the plane would land, the crowd would be on the runway. the candidate would come down the starks make a speech, get back on the plane and go. i was a law student that year at the university of virginia. and i heard somehow that ed must sceerks th-- andi heard somehowe was coming to richmond, virginia, was going to be at the airport on a tuesday nievment a bunch of us went over to richmond to hear him. i can remember standing in this crowd along a fenceline -- there were probably 300 or 400 people listening to muskie. this was right before the election in 1968. he spoke about his vision for america. he spoke passionately about what this country can and should mean. and this was a very important election. this was richard nixon versus

hubert hu hum frivment it was -. it was a very close election. here is my strange memory that again i say i don't really fully understand. i remember standing in that crowd, listening to muskie speak, who again i didn't know at all. i had never set foot in maine at that point. i didn't know him. i hadn't met hism but listening to him speak and at the end of f his speech, out of my mouth completely spontaneously came the words "we trust you." "retrust you." -- "we trust you." there was something about the man that made you feel that you could trust him. he was so honest and so authentic and so entirely himself. it was an amazing moment. and here it is almost 50 years

later, and i remember that evening in richmond, virginia, my first encounter with ed muskie. i got to know him somewhat more what i got to work here as staff member. i had the privilege of interviewing him in my capacity as a public television host for a documentary in 1981 when he retired as secretary of state. he had a distinguished career here in the senate and then he went on and heeded jimmy carter's call in 1980 to serve as secretary of state during the height of the iran hostage crisis. he served our country honorably and well during that period and then retired, but when he retired, he didn't stop his involvement in public affairs. he became a champion of access to the legal system for the

poor. he, of course, remained in his commitment to the environment and had a very, very active life, mostly in maine in his beloved house in kennebunkport and was a contributor right up to his death in 1996. ed muskie is a true american hero, and there's no way that my poor words or anybody else's can really capture his career and the impact he made. i think perhaps the closest i could come is to recall sir christopher rend's epitaph which is on his tomb in st. paul's cathedral, and on the tomb it says, "if you would see his memorial, look around you." if you would see ed muskie's memorial, look around you. take a deep breath.