Commemorating the Life of Former Senator William V. Roth, Jr.

COMMEMORATING THE LIFE OF FORMER SENATOR WILLIAM V. ROTH, JR.

Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Chair. I thank the clerk for reading the resolution in its entirety.

Mr. President, my friend, our colleague, Bill Roth, died while the Senate was out of session. Otherwise, I am certain there would have been a profuse outpouring of sentiment on the floor, as when any person of consequence dies.

Bill Roth was a man of the Senate and a man of consequence. He was also, even though we were on opposite sides of the aisle, one of my closest friends in the Senate. We had the honor, as my friend and colleague, Senator Carper, and I do, of riding Amtrak together. In Bill's case and my case, we rode the train together almost every day for 28 years. Literally, for the first 24 years probably every day the Senate was in session.

You can't have that kind of proximity with a man or a woman without getting to know them pretty darn well. I got to know Bill very well. I got to know his family. I got to know his hopes, his dreams, his fears, and his concerns, as he did mine, my family, my hopes, dreams, and concerns.

An unusual thing developed: a bond of trust. I can and will say for the record that there is no person in public life I came to trust more than Bill Roth. I trusted him with my concerns. I trusted him with family issues. I trusted him with personal issues. And I trusted his judgment on political issues, even when he and I disagreed.

We would ask each other questions: What do you think would happen if I do the following? What do you think the consequence would be? Even though we were in opposing parties, neither hesitated to give our friend the best advice we could.

I once said that running against Bill Roth was like running against a wheat thrasher: big, gobbles up everything in his way, and he was very silent. Before it was all over, everything was harvested.

Bill Roth, I think, was the most underestimated man with whom I have served going into my sixth term as a Senator.

I might note for the record that Bill Roth's family is incredibly talented. His wife, Jane Roth, is one step away from the Supreme Court as a Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge. None of us who know her ever hesitated to support her. We pushed her. She is highly regarded and, as my friend from Pennsylvania, Senator Specter, knows-and no one knows the Third Circuit better than he does; literally no one knows it better than he does-is one of the most respected jurists on that venerable circuit.

His son, Bud, is a lawyer who is an extremely talented young man, and his daughter, Katie, is a doctor. I might note that Bill finally had a namesake. Just shortly before he died, he got to see his daughter's son who they named William. Bill actually died here in Washington visiting Katie.

This is a man who lived a full life, raised a great family, and will be missed not just by his family, but by our entire State and all those who knew Bill.

I can say without equivocation that I would have been honored, quite frankly, to have any one of his senior staff members work on my staff. One of the ways I think you measure the mark of a national leader is to look at the people with whom he or she surrounds himself or herself. Look at the people who they pick to represent them. Look at the people who they choose to be their alter ego.

Without exception, Bill Roth chose administrative assistants and senior staff members out of the same mold as himself: always totally honorable, balanced, straightforward, not at all ideological.

I have close friendships, personal friendships, with Bill's former staff directors, people who still live in Delaware and, I might add-I don't want to ruin their reputations-support me politically, support me in my races. It is hard, as I said, in a State as small as ours-I see my friend from Utah, which has grown to be a very large State relative to us, but when I first arrived here, when his dad was here, with whom I served, I think we were a little bit bigger than Utah at the time.

In small States, everyone knows everyone. Everyone has a sense of who everyone else is. It is hard in a State as small as ours, when you are in close proximity to people you respect, not to let it show, and that is exactly what happened in Delaware.

We went through 28 years of serving together, and I cannot think of one single solitary time-not one single occasion-where Bill Roth had or I ever had even a negative inference asserted about the other guy. We have a tradition in Delaware of not being very negative and partisan. I can tell you with the single exception of one highly contested political race, you never heard TOM CARPER, you never heard our sole Congressman and former Governor, MIKE CASTLE, you never heard in my State any of us criticizing the other. It has been a wonderful State to represent.

Bill Roth set the pattern. He surrounded himself with people of character such as himself, and that is something that should be strived for.

Bill, as I said, was known on the Senate floor, known in the country like few of us will be for the Fulbright scholarships, for the Roth IRAs. Everybody knows that Bill Roth was a man who promoted savings. He was a man who was tight with the taxpayers' money, which is a great asset. We used to kid. Every once in a while we would go to a function here in Washington and we would take a cab together. I remember once Bill leaning in to talk to the cab driver.

I said: What are you doing?

He said: I gave him a dime tip and told him to vote Democrat.

He also had a sense of humor, which most people on the floor never got a chance to see.

I don't know anybody who worked with Bill Roth who ever suggested that you could not work with Bill Roth; that he would not weigh in.

One of the things I want to mention about Senator Roth, though-and I am trying to move through this in the interests of time because I know we have the State of the Union and I know matters are going to be brought up today-is that one of the hallmarks of his career is he had a real sense of proportion, a sense of proportion that is missing today in much of public life. He fully understood that the Federal Government was both dangerous and necessary, that it is of value and sometimes part of the problem. He never had any trouble distinguishing between when it should be proactive and when it should not be active at all. He was not driven by ideology that blinded him to the needs of the people of my State, the Nation, or blinded him to civil liberties and civil rights.

He used to always surprise many of my Democratic colleagues because Bill was always so conservative on tax policy. I hope I don't get my friend from Utah in trouble, but one of the things about him is he is a man of independence. I think it surprised some of my colleagues when he voted against the constitutional amendment on the flag.

They said: Wait a minute, this guy is a conservative. It is because he is a conservative, I might add, that he did vote against it. But it would always surprise my colleagues on the Democratic caucus. They would say: Wait a minute, Bill Roth is a strong proponent of Title IX. That is the title that says you have to spread a proportionate amount of money on women in sports and colleges and universities. Bill Roth was very strong on women's rights.

To the chagrin of his colleagues and some of mine, he is in large part a reason there is no drilling in ANWR. Bill Roth is a Republican leader of the effort to see there was no drilling in ANWR. We have the Tongass Forest in Alaska, which is multiple times the size of my State, because of Bill Roth. Bill Roth had an environmental record that could easily have been associated with a liberal Democrat. Bill Roth's views on women's rights, civil rights, was moderate to liberal.

It always used to surprise people on this side of the aisle when they would say, whoa, was that Bill Roth who just voted on this, that, or the other thing?

Bill Roth was a complex man, a man who could not be pigeonholed or characterized by a single label. But he was ultimately a practical guy, a man who knew what he thought, what he believed, and very quietly and unhesitatingly never, never ceased or backed off from what he thought was a right thing to do.

On a personal note, like all of you in these cynical times-I would like you all to know that Bill Roth was anything but cynical. Bill Roth was not only an honorable man, Bill Roth was a noble man. The word "nobility" comes to mind, to me. When I learned of his death-and I was caught off guard as I was asked by the press about it-the first thing that came to mind was: He's a noble man. He's a noble man.

Let me explain what I mean by that. It is the way he dealt with people. It is the way he acted. Name someone for me in contemporary politics who was a winner of the Bronze Star and never once mentioned it. You cannot find a single piece of campaign literature that I am aware of. I never heard him speak of it. I never heard his campaign use it. Who, today, would not be out there talking about having been the recipient of a Bronze Star-to prove their patriotism, to prove their bravery? Bill Roth never, never mentioned it.

This is a politician who was not afraid to use gimmicks. This is a guy who rode an elephant to make a point, out here in front of the Capitol. This is a guy who talked about the $3,000 toilet seats and would hoist up toilet seats. He was a bit of a showman in that regard. But when it came to talking about himself, Bill Roth never did. He had this sense of nobility about him.

The other thing I loved about Bill Roth, in an environment where-I guess it has always been this case in politics-where money is king, campaigns cost so much money-Bill Roth was the chairman of the Finance Committee. Bill Roth could have raised more money than the Lord Almighty. But he always used to drive his chiefs of staff crazy when he wouldn't do what other people legally would do. He wouldn't call in the heads of the corporation and the business community and others who had great interest in what went on before the Finance Committee. He wouldn't do it. Bill Roth had trouble raising money. He was uncomfortable. I loved him for it. I loved the fact that he was uncomfortable doing it.

The other thing that used to drive me crazy sometimes, to show you how he was, I remember we had a little fight on the floor here about a thing most people don't know much about but in Delaware it is a big ticket item financially for the State-escheatment. Escheatment means when somebody dies and leaves no heir and owns a security, under the rules that exist now, that money reverts to the State of incorporation.

So let's say you owned 1,000 shares of stock of General Motors and you passed away, you had no heirs, the estate was left-the State gets the estate. But which State gets it? Historically it has been the State where you are incorporated. So if General Motors is incorporated in Delaware, even though its business is in Michigan, the money goes to Delaware. That is a big amount in their budget.

There was a suit filed in the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court said, no, it is OK to do it that way, but it is up to the Congress to change it if they wanted to.

Mr. President, 78 Senators said let's change that, and 370-some Congressmen said let's change that. I didn't think it was a good idea to change it. I have a simple rule. I say it straightforward. I think I never take personally the competition for highway funds or bridges or programs. We all compete, each of our States, for that. I take it very personally when my colleague or a colleague in the Senate decides to take an action that would benefit his State only marginally, but would do great damage to my State. I take that very personally.

Changing law on escheatment would have been marginally beneficial to 47 other States but a gigantic detriment to my State. So I went to Daniel Patrick Moynihan; New York was affected by this. I went to my friend, my friend who is no longer here, Al D'Amato-affectionately referred to as pothole Al. And I went to my friend Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts, and we said we are going to do what we can to see this doesn't change.

I will tell you the end of the story. We ended up winning. Even though over three-quarters of the Senate cosponsored the change and more than that in the House, we ended up winning in the end of the day. That was because our colleagues realized we took it personally, it didn't affect their States very positively, and they in fact saw the better part of valor here and were willing to help us.

I remember standing in the well of the Senate saying to Bill: Bill, you are chairman of the Finance Committee. Let your colleagues know this is important to you.

He said: I don't know. You tell them. You tell them.

He was even uncomfortable saying that. He was one of the most powerful men in the Senate and he wouldn't say: Hey, look, Bennett, this is important to me. Please help me. He wouldn't even do that.

Although he had all this power, the thing that was so beautiful about him, he was uncomfortable with power. I think it is always healthy when people are uncomfortable with wielding power. But he never hesitated to wield it when he thought it was absolutely clear cut.

So this was a guy who was a noble man. I just watched him. I watched him operate for over 28 years.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for 3 more minutes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, there is a quotation engraved on the wall at Union Station. It goes like this:

Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men sleeping but never dead will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
Bill Roth also brought out the humility in those who worked with him and those who were around him.

There is much more to say about him. I have said too much.

I apologize. I did not realize that time was controlled. My colleague from Delaware, a cosponsor of this resolution, Senator Carper, would like to speak. I ask whether my colleagues would object if Senator Carper is able to proceed.