VIDEO: Senator Reed speaks on the Senate floor about Senator Feinstein’s remarkable legacy

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, after the passing of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), 90, the longest-serving female U.S. Senator in American history, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate saluting her remarkable life and legacy:

SENATOR REED: Madame President, I rise to pay tribute to our colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, who we all know passed away this morning.

As California’s senior Senator and the longest-serving woman senator ever, Senator Feinstein was trailblazer.  Everyone has made that point and it is a true, accurate, and compelling point.

And representing the country’s most populous state for over three decades, she occupied the national stage.  And for many people inside and outside this chamber, she became the archetypal senator: prepared, professional, pragmatic, and unfailing civil.

Californians rewarded her hard work by voting for her by wider and wider margins.

And he fought hard for the things she believed in – and very often successfully – but she never bullied or belittled those who took a contrary position.

Her achievements are many:

The enactment of the federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994. 

The six-year review of the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, which prompted significant reform in the Intelligence community.

She was a leader in the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

And, she delivered for the people of California.  Enacting laws to protect public lands and natural treasures.  Doing the hard work to bring stakeholders together to resolve thorny

issues and complex environmental challenges in her home state.

And she led on national environmental issues, including legislation to improve the fuel economy of automobiles.

I had the privilege and pleasure to get to know her.  We were both members the Aspen Strategy Group…

To listen to her insights, to listen to her analysis was incredibly important to me…

Her hospitality, her friendship, and her decency was just so apparent there as it was here in the United States Senate.

As we look back, Madame President, the simple fact is that Senator Feinstein influenced every major policy challenge that this body and this nation has faced over 30 years. 

With her voice, her vote, with her counsel, with her wisdom and with her unfailing commitment to the people of California and the people of the United States.  She literally never gave up.  She never stopped serving.

And she is someone that will be remembered truly as one of the greatest United States Senators in the history of this country.

It was a privilege to serve with her.

And on this day I wish her family and all her loved ones the comfort of knowing what an extraordinary woman, what an extraordinary senator Dianne Feinstein was. 

With that, Madame President, I yield the floor.