118th CONGRESS 1st Session |
Honoring the life and legacy of Dianne Feinstein, the late Senator for the State of California.
October 4, 2023
Mr. Padilla (for himself, Ms. Butler, Mr. Schumer, Mr. McConnell, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Braun, Mrs. Britt, Mr. Brown, Mr. Budd, Ms. Cantwell, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Carper, Mr. Casey, Mr. Cassidy, Ms. Collins, Mr. Coons, Mr. Cornyn, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Daines, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Fetterman, Mrs. Fischer, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Graham, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Hagerty, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Hoeven, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. King, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Lee, Mr. Luján, Ms. Lummis, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Moran, Mr. Mullin, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Ossoff, Mr. Paul, Mr. Peters, Mr. Reed, Mr. Ricketts, Mr. Risch, Mr. Romney, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Sinema, Ms. Smith, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Tester, Mr. Thune, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Tuberville, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Vance, Mr. Warner, Mr. Warnock, Ms. Warren, Mr. Welch, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Young) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to
Honoring the life and legacy of Dianne Feinstein, the late Senator for the State of California.
Whereas Dianne Feinstein was born on June 22, 1933, in San Francisco, California;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in 1951 and from Stanford University in 1955;
Whereas, while at Stanford University, Dianne Feinstein established the first chapter of Young Democrats and was elected student body vice president, the highest office a woman could hold at that time;
Whereas, in 1960, California Governor Pat Brown, having read a paper about criminal justice that Dianne Feinstein wrote as a fellow at the Coro Foundation in San Francisco, California, named her to the California Women’s Board of Terms and Parole, the first position in public service she would hold;
Whereas, on November 5, 1969, Dianne Feinstein was first elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and, having received the most votes, became the first female President of the Board;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein became the first female mayor of San Francisco, California, on November 27, 1978, a position to which she was subsequently re-elected twice;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein, in the face of tremendous personal loss, demonstrated great strength and leadership in helping unite and heal San Francisco, California, in the aftermath of the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, after the White Night riots and the Jonestown massacre, through the AIDS crisis, and through multiple assassination attempts on her own life;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein saved the famed cable cars of San Francisco, California, and secured funding to rebuild the system in time for the 1984 Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein became the first woman to represent the State of California in the Senate when she was elected on November 3, 1992, in what became known as the “Year of the Woman”, and, with former Senator Barbara Boxer, formed the first pair of female Senators to represent any State in the history of the United States;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein was re-elected to the Senate by the people of the State of California 5 more times, including in 2012 when she received the most popular votes for any Senate candidate in the history of the United States;
Whereas, while serving in the Senate, Dianne Feinstein became—
(1) one of the first women to serve on the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, and the first woman to lead her party on the Committee;
(2) the first woman to chair the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate;
(3) the first woman to preside over a presidential inauguration; and
(4) the first woman to chair the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate;
Whereas, in response to numerous tragic acts of gun violence in the State of California and across the United States, Dianne Feinstein became a leading proponent of efforts to address gun violence, including through the passage of the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act (commonly referred to as the “Federal Assault Weapons Ban”) (subtitle A of title XI of Public Law 103–322; 108 Stat. 1996);
Whereas the singular leadership and determination of Dianne Feinstein led to the enactment of legislation to preserve millions of acres of land in the State of California, from the redwoods of Headwaters Forest to San Francisco Bay and Lake Tahoe;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein devoted particular attention to protecting the California desert and was the driving force behind the establishment of Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preserve, the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, the Mojave Trails National Monument, the Sand to Snow National Monument, and the Castle Mountains National Monument;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein demonstrated incredible courage and tenacity in spearheading the 5-year, 6,700-page report by the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate on the Detention and Interrogation Program of the Central Intelligence Agency, and in the enactment of subsequent legislation with former Senator John McCain to prohibit the future use of interrogation techniques described in that report;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein led congressional efforts to secure marriage equality, end LGBTQ discrimination, defend reproductive rights, combat violence against women, protect victims of trafficking, reform our health care system, provide immigration benefits for agricultural workers, increase fuel economy standards, improve the safety of personal care products, address nuclear waste storage, fund breast cancer research, counter illicit narcotics, enhance cybersecurity information sharing, increase resources to fight wildfires, and manage the water supply system of the State of California;
Whereas, on March 28, 2021, Dianne Feinstein became the longest-serving Senator to represent the State of California;
Whereas, on November 5, 2022, Dianne Feinstein became the longest-serving female Senator in the history of the United States;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein never truly stopped being Mayor of her beloved San Francisco, California;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein inspired generations of women to break barriers and seek positions of leadership, to find common ground in order to get things done for the people they represent, and to serve with grace, strength, and integrity;
Whereas Dianne Feinstein was a beloved sister, wife, mother, and grandmother; and
Whereas the State of California and the United States have lost a trailblazing lawmaker and dedicated public servant: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
(A) has heard with profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death of Dianne Feinstein, the late Senator for the State of California; and
(B) respectfully requests that the Secretary of the Senate communicate this resolution to the House of Representatives and transmit an enrolled copy thereof to the family of Dianne Feinstein; and
(2) when the Senate adjourns today, it stands adjourned as a further mark of respect to the memory of the late Dianne Feinstein.