Race Byrd initially compiled a mixed record on the subjects of race relations and
desegregation. While he initially voted against
civil rights legislation, in 1959 he hired one of the Capitol's first Black congressional aides, and he also took steps to integrate the
United States Capitol Police for the first time since the
Reconstruction Era. Beginning in the 1970s, Byrd explicitly renounced his earlier support of
racial segregation. Byrd said that he regretted
filibustering and voting against the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would change it if he had the opportunity. Byrd also said that his views changed dramatically after his teenage grandson was killed in a 1982 traffic accident, which put him in a deep emotional valley. "The death of my grandson caused me to stop and think," said Byrd, adding he came to realize that African Americans love their children and grandchildren as much as he loved his. During debate in 1983 over the passage of the law creating the
Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, Byrd grasped the symbolism of the day and its significance to his legacy, telling members of his staff "I'm the only one in the Senate who
must vote for this bill". In Marshall's case, Byrd asked
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to look into the possibility that Marshall had either connections to
communists or a communist past. With respect to Thomas, Byrd stated that he was offended by Thomas's use of the phrase "high-tech
lynching of uppity blacks" in his defense and that he was "offended by the injection of racism" into the hearing. He called Thomas's comments a "diversionary tactic" and said, "I thought we were past that stage". Regarding
Anita Hill's
sexual harassment charges against Thomas, Byrd supported Hill. Byrd joined 45 other Democrats in voting against confirming Thomas to the Supreme Court. On March 29, 1968, Byrd criticized a
Memphis, Tennessee, protest: "It was a shameful and totally uncalled for outburst of lawlessness undoubtedly encouraged to some considerable degree, at least, by his [Dr. King's] words and actions, and his presence. There is no reason for us to believe that the same destructive rioting and violence cannot, or that it will not, happen here if King attempts his so-called
Poor People's March, for what he plans in Washington appears to be something on a far greater scale than what he had indicated he planned to do in Memphis". In a March 2, 2001, interview with
Tony Snow, Byrd said of race relations: Byrd's use of the term "white nigger" created immediate controversy. When asked about it, Byrd's office provided this in a written response, For the 2003–2004 session, the
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) rated Byrd's voting record as being 100% in line with the NAACP's position on the thirty-three Senate bills they evaluated. Sixteen other senators received that rating. In June 2005, Byrd proposed an additional $10,000,000 in federal funding for the
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., remarking that, "With the passage of time, we have come to learn that his
Dream was the
American Dream, and few ever expressed it more eloquently". Upon news of his death, the NAACP released a statement praising Byrd, saying that he "became a champion for civil rights and liberties" and "came to consistently support the NAACP civil rights agenda".
Clinton impeachment Byrd initially said that the
impeachment proceedings against Clinton should be taken seriously. Although he harshly criticized any attempt to make light of the allegations, he made the
motion to dismiss the charges and effectively end the matter. Even though he voted against both articles of impeachment, he was the sole Democrat to vote to
censure Clinton.
LGBT rights Byrd strongly opposed Clinton's 1993 efforts to allow homosexuals to
serve in the military and supported efforts to limit
same-sex marriage. In 1996, before the passage of the
Defense of Marriage Act, he said, "The drive for same-sex marriage is, in effect, an effort to make a sneak attack on society by encoding this aberrant behavior in legal form before society itself has decided it should be legal. […] Let us defend the oldest institution, the institution of marriage between male and female as set forth in the
Holy Bible". Despite his previous position, he later stated his opposition to the
Federal Marriage Amendment and argued that it was unnecessary because the states already had the power to ban gay marriages. However, when the amendment came to the Senate floor, he was one of the two Democratic senators who voted in favor of
cloture.
Abortion On March 11, 1982, Byrd voted against a measure sponsored by Senator
Orrin Hatch that sought to reverse
Roe v. Wade and allow Congress and individual states to adopt laws banning
abortions. Its passing was the first time a congressional committee supported an anti-abortion amendment. In 1995, Byrd voted against a ban on
intact dilation and extraction, a
late-term abortion procedure typically referred to by its opponents as "partial-birth abortion". In 2003, however, he voted for the
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which prohibits intact dilation and extraction. Byrd also voted against the 2004
Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which recognizes a "child in utero" as a legal victim if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of a crime of violence.
Richard Nixon era In April 1970, the
Senate Judiciary Committee approved a plan to replace the
United States Electoral College with direct elections of presidents. Byrd initially opposed direct elections on the key vote and was one of two senators to switch votes in favor of the proposal during later votes. In April 1970, as the
Senate Judiciary Committee delayed a vote on Supreme Court nominee
Harry Blackmun, Byrd stated that "no nomination should be voted on within 24 hours after the hearing" after the previous two Supreme Court nominees had delays and was one of the 17 committee members who went on record of assuring Blackmun's nomination would be reported favorably to the full Senate. In October 1970, Byrd sponsored an amendment protecting
members of Congress and those elected that have not yet assumed office. Byrd mentioned the 88 political assassinations in the United States and said state law was not adequate to handle the increase in political violence. In February 1971, after
Fred R. Harris and
Charles Mathias requested the
United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration change the rules to permit selection of committee chairmen on a basis aside from seniority, Byrd indicated through his line of questioning that he saw considerable value in the seniority system. In April 1971, after Representative
Hale Boggs stated that he had been tapped by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and called on FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover to resign, Byrd opined that Boggs' imagination was involved and called on him to reveal any possible "good, substantial, bona fide evidence". In April 1971, Byrd met with President Nixon,
Hugh Scott, and
Robert P. Griffin for a briefing that after which Byrd, Scott, and Griffin asserted they had been told by Nixon of his intent to withdraw American forces from
Indochina by a specific date. White House Press Secretary
Ronald L. Ziegler disputed their claims by stating that the three had not been told anything by Nixon he had not mentioned in his speech the same day as the meeting. In April 1971,
Jacob Javits, Fred R. Harris, and
Charles H. Percy circulated letters to their fellow senators in an attempt to gain cosponsors for a resolution to appoint the Senate's first girl pages. Byrd maintained that the Senate was ill-equipped for girl pages and was among those that cited the long hours of work, the carrying of sometimes heavy documents and the
high crime rate in the Capitol area as among the reasons against it. In September 1971, Representative
Richard H. Poff was under consideration by President Nixon for a Supreme Court nomination, Byrd warning Poff that his nomination could be met with opposition by liberal senators and see a filibuster emerge. Within hours, Poff announced his declining of the nomination. In April 1972, Senate Majority Leader Mansfield announced that he had authorized Byrd to present an amendment to the Senate for a fixed deadline for total troop withdrawal that the Nixon adminition would be obligated to meet and that the measure would serve as an amendment to the State Department‐United States Information Agency authorization bill. In April 1972, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of
Richard Kleindienst as
United States Attorney General, Byrd being one of four Democrats to support the nomination. On June 7, Byrd announced that he would vote against Kleindienst, saying in a news release that this was Nixon's first nomination that he had not voted to confirm and that testimony at hearings investigating Kleindienst's tenure at
ITT Inc. displayed "a show of arrogance and deception and insensitivity to the people's right to know". During the confirmation hearings of Kleindienst's successor
Elliot Richardson, Byrd insisted on the appointment of a
special counsel to investigate the Watergate scandal as a condition for his appointment, eventually leading to the
Archibald Cox investigation. In a May 1972 luncheon speech, Byrd criticized American newspapers for "an increasing tendency toward shoddy technical production" and observed that there was "a greater schism between the Nixon Administration and the media, at least publicly, than at any previous time in our history". In May 1972, Byrd introduced a proposal supported by the Nixon administration that would make cutting off all funding for American hostilities in Indochina conditional upon agreement on an internationally supervised cease‐fire. Byrd and Nixon supporters argued modification would bring the amendment more in line with President Nixon's proposal to withdraw all American forces from Vietnam the previous week and it was approved in the Senate by a vote of 47 to 43. In September 1972,
Edward Brooke attempted to reintroduce his war ending amendment that had been defeated earlier in the week as an addendum to a clean drinking water bill when he discovered that Byrd had arranged a unanimous consent free agreement prohibiting amendments that were not relevant to the subject. Brooke charged the Byrd agreements with impairing his senatorial prerogatives to introduce amendments. During the
1972 general election campaign, Democratic nominee
George McGovern advocated for partial amnesty for
draft dodges. Byrd responded to the position in a November speech the day before the election without mentioning McGovern by name in saying, "How could we keep faith with the thousands of Americans we sent to Vietnam by giving a mere tap on the wrist to those who fled to Canada and Sweden?" Byrd said the welfare proposals were part of "pernicious doctrine that the Federal Government owes a living to people who don't want to work" and chastised individuals that had personal trips to Hanoi rather than official missions as "the
Ramsey Clarks in our society who attempt to deal unilaterally with the enemy". In January 1973, the Senate passed legislation containing an amendment Byrd offered requiring President Nixon to give Congress an accounting of all funds that he had impounded and appropriated by February 5. Byrd stated that President Nixon had been required to submit reports to Congress and that he had not done so since June, leaving Congress in the dark on the matter. In February 1973, the Senate approved legislation requiring confirmation of the director and deputy director of the
Office of Management and Budget in the White House in what was seen as "another battleground for the dispute between Congress and the White House over cuts in social spending programs in the current Federal budget and in the Nixon Administration's spending request for the fiscal year 1974, which begins next July 1". The legislation contained an amendment sponsored by Byrd limiting the budget officials to a maximum term of four years before having another confirmation proceeding. Byrd introduced another amendment that required all Cabinet officers be required to undergo reconfirmation by the Senate in the event that they are retained from one administration to another. In March 1973, Byrd led Senate efforts to reject a proposal that would have made most critical committee meetings open to the public, arguing that tampering with "the rides of the Senate is to tamper with the Senate itself" and argued against changing "procedures which, over the long past, have contributed to stability and efficiency in the operation of the Senate". The Senate voted down the proposal 47 to 38 on March 7. On May 2, 1973, the anniversary of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's death, Byrd called on President Nixon to appoint a permanent successor for Hoover as FBI Director. In June 1973, Byrd sponsored a bill that would impose the first Tuesday in October as the date for all
federal elections and mandate that states hold
primary elections for federal elections between the first Tuesday in June and the first Tuesday in July. The
United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration approved the measure on June 13 and it was sent to the Senate floor for consideration. In June 1973, along with
Lloyd Bentsen, Mike Mansfield,
John Tower, and
Jennings Randolph, Byrd was one of five senators to switch their vote on the foreign military aid authorization bill to assure its passage after previously voting against it. In October 1973, President Nixon vetoed the request of the
United States Information Agency for $208 million for fiscal year 1974 on the grounds of a provision forcing the agency to provide any document or information demanded. Byrd introduced a bill identical to the one vetoed by Nixon the following month, differing in not containing the information provision as well as a ban on appropriating or spending more money than the annual budget called for, the Senate approving the legislation on November 13. In November 1973, after the Senate rejected an amendment to the National Energy Emergency Act intending to direct President Nixon to put gasoline rationing into effect on January 15, Byrd indicated the final vote not coming for multiple days. In June 1974, the Senate confirmed
John C. Sawhill as
Federal Energy Administrator only to rescind the confirmation hours later, the direct result of
James Abourezk wanting to speak out and vote against the nomination due to the Nixon administration's refusal to roll back
crude oil prices. Abourezk confirmed that he had asked Byrd for notice of when he could assume the Senate floor to deliver his remarks. Byrd was absent when present members passed the nomination as part of their efforts to clear the chamber's executive calendar and rescinded the confirmation.
Nixon resignation In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened
impeachment hearings against President Nixon after the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides and the administration became engulfed in the scandal that would come to be known as
Watergate. That month, Byrd delivered a speech on the Senate floor opposing Nixon's potential resignation, saying it would serve only to convince the President's supporters that his enemies had driven him out of office: "The question of guilt or innocence would never be fully resolved. The country would remain polarized — more so than it is today. And confidence in government would remain unrestored". Most of the members of the Senate in attendance for the address were conservatives from both parties that shared opposition to Nixon being removed from office. Byrd was among multiple conservative senators who stated that they would not ask Nixon to resign. Later that month, Republican attorney general
Elliot L. Richardson termed Nixon "a law and order President who says subpoenas must be answered by everyone except himself," the comment being echoed by Byrd who additionally charged President Nixon with reneging on his public pledge that the independence of the special prosecutor to pursue the Watergate investigation would not be limited without the prior approval of a majority of congressional leaders. On July 29, Byrd met with Senate Majority Leader
Mike Mansfield, Minority Leader
Hugh Scott, and Republican whip
Robert P. Griffin in the first formality by Senate leaders on the matter of President Nixon's impeachment. Byrd opposed Nixon being granted immunity.
The New York Times noted that as
Chairman of the Republican National Committee George H. W. Bush issued a formal statement indicating no chance for the Nixon administration to be salvaged, Byrd was advocating for President Nixon to face some punishment for the illegal activities of the administration and that former vice president
Spiro Agnew should have been imprisoned. The Senate leadership met throughout August 7 to discuss Nixon's fate, the topic of immunity being mentioned in the office of Hugh Scott. Nixon announced his resignation the following day and resigned on August 9. The resignation led to Congress rearranging their intent from an impeachment to the confirmation of a new vice presidential nominee and the Senate scheduled a recess between August 23 to September 14, Byrd opining, "What the country needs is for all of us to get out of Washington and let the country have a breath of fresh air". By August 11, Hugh Scott announced he was finding fewer members of Congress from either party committed to criminally prosecuting former president Nixon over
Watergate, Byrd and Majority Leader Mansfield both indicating their favoring for Nixon's culpability being left in the consideration of Special Prosecutor
Leon Jaworski and the
Watergate grand jury.
Gerald Ford era On November 22, 1974, the Senate Rules Committee voted unanimously to recommend the nomination of
Nelson Rockefeller as
Vice President of the United States to the full Senate. Byrd admitted that he had preferred sending the nomination with no recommendation but was worried the act would apply prejudice to the nominee. In January 1975, after President Ford requested $300 million in additional military aid for
South Vietnam and $222 million more for the
Khmer Republic from Congress, Byrd said Ford and Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger had described the aid as "imperative" and that congressional leaders had been told
North Vietnam would take over
Saigon "little by little" if additional ammunition and other aid were not provided by the US to Saigon. In February, along with Mike Mansfield,
Hugh Scott, and
Robert P. Griffin, Byrd was one of four senators to sponsor a compromise modification of the Senate's filibuster rule where three-fifths of the total Senate membership would be adequate in invoking closure on any measure except a change in the Senate's rules. In March, while the Senate voted on reforming its filibuster rule,
James Allen and other senators used their allotted time to speak at length and also force a series of votes. In response, Byrd said the group was engaging in an "exercise in futility" and that the chamber had already made up its mind. In April, after President Ford and his administration's lawyers contended that Ford had authority as president to use troops under the
War Powers Act, Byrd and
Thomas F. Eagleton objected by charging that Ford was establishing a dangerous precedent. Byrd issued a statement on the Senate floor admitting his "serious reservations" pertaining to the Ford administration's intent to bring roughly 130,000 South Vietnamese refugees to the United States, citing cultural differences and unemployment as raising "grave doubts about the wisdom of bringing any sizable number of evacuees here". In May, after President Ford appealed for Americans to support the
resettlement of 130,000 Vietnamese and Cambodians in the US, Byrd told reporters that he believed that President Ford's request for $507 million for refugee transport and resettlement would be reduced, citing its lack of political support in the United States. In September, Byrd sponsored an amendment to the appropriations bill that if enacted would bar the education department from ordering busing to the school nearest to a pupil's home and sought to hold the Senate floor until there was an agreement among colleagues on his proposal. This failed, as the time limit for debating various proposals ran out. On November 10, Byrd met with President Ford for a discussion on the New York loan guarantee bill. In April 1976, Byrd was one of five members of the Senate Select Committee to vote for a requirement that the proposed oversight committee would share Its jurisdiction with four committees that had authority over intelligence operations. In June, after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send a bill breaking up 18 large oil companies into separate production, refining and refining‐marketing entities to the Senate floor, Byrd announced his opposition to divestiture and joined Republicans
Hugh Scott and
Charles Mathias in confirming their votes were to report the bill. In September, Congress overrode President Ford's veto of a $56 billion appropriations bill for social services, Ford afterward telling Byrd and House Speaker
Carl Albert that he would sign two bills supported by the Democrats. Byrd was elected majority leader on January 4, 1977. On January 14, President Ford met with congressional leadership to announce his proposals for pay increases of high government officials, Byrd afterward telling reporters that the president had also stated his intent to recommend that the raises be linked to a code of conduct. Days later, after the Senate established a special 15‐member committee to draw up a code of ethics for senators, Byrd told reporters that he was supportive of the measure and that it would be composed of eight Democrats and seven Republicans who would have until March 1 to issue a draft code that would then be subject to change by the full Senate.
Jimmy Carter era In January 1977, after President-elect Carter announced his nomination of
Ted Sorensen to be
Director of Central Intelligence, Byrd admitted to reporters that there could be difficulty securing a Senate confirmation. Conservative opposition to Sorenson's nomination led Carter to conclude that he could not be confirmed, and Carter withdrawing it without the Senate taking action.
Role in changes in Senate rules On January 18, 1977, after the Senate established a special 15‐member committee to draw up a code of ethics for senators, Byrd and Senate Minority Leader
Howard Baker announced their support for the resolution, Byrd adding that knowledge of the code of ethics being enacted in the Senate would be privy to the public, press, and members of the Senate. Between January and February 1979, Byrd proposed outlawing tactics frequently used to prevent him from bringing a bill to the floor for consideration. He stated the filibuster tactics gave the Senate a bad reputation and rendered it ineffective. His proposals initially earned the opposition of Republicans and conservative Democrats until there was a compromise for the reform package to be split and have the less objectionable part come up first for consideration. The Senate passed legislation curtailing tactics that had been used in the past to continue filibusters after cloture had been invoked on February 22. In March, Byrd negotiated an agreement that a proposed amendment was referred to the Judiciary Committee and would be reported by April 10. The arrangement stated that Byrd could call up the proposed amendment any time following June 1 and his action would not be subject to a filibuster while the resolution embodying the amendment will.
Domestic issues In October 1977, Byrd stated his refusal to authorize the Senate dropping consideration of the natural gas legislation under any circumstances, predicting the matter would be settled in the coming days as a result of conversations with colleagues he had the night before and a growing disillusion with filibusters in place of action on legislation. Byrd added that the deregulation bill would not become law due to it being identical to the Carter administration's proposal and President Carter's prior statement that he would veto deregulation bills. In May 1978, Byrd announced that he would not move to end a filibuster against the Carter administration's labor law revision bill until after the Memorial Day recess. The decision was seen as allowing wavering senators to not be cornered on their votes as lobbying efforts for both business and labor commenced and various opponents of the bill viewed Byrd's call as a sign of weakness toward the Carter administration. Byrd stated that his decision to wait was "to give ample time for debate on the measure" and that he was expecting the first petition to end the filibuster to come sometime following the Senate returning in June. In March 1979, after Attorney General
Griffin Bell named a special counsel in the Carter warehouse investigation, Byrd stated his dissatisfaction with the move in a Senate floor speech, citing the existence of legislation approved by Congress the previous year that would allow the appointment of a special prosecutor. In June, director of
Public Citizen's Congress Watch
Mark Green stated that President Carter had told him that Majority Leader Byrd had threatened that he would personally lead a filibuster against any attempt to extend controls on domestic oil prices. In response, Byrd's press secretary Mike Willard confirmed that Byrd told President Carter he would not vote for cloture in the event of a filibuster. Days later, after the Senate voted to grant President Carter authority to set energy conservation targets for each of the 50 states and allow Carter to impose mandatory measures on any statfailed to implement a plan to meet the targets he set, Byrd reaffirmed his opposition to attempts aimed at President Carter's decision to remove
price controls from
crude oil produced within the United States. In November, Byrd stated that the United States did not have an alternative to coal when attempting to meet its energy needs and that the
technology needed to turn coal into liquid fuel at a lower cost than that of producing gasoline had already been made available, opining that doing this would solve most
environmental problems. Weeks later,
Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate F. Nordy Hoffman sent a letter to Byrd warning him to take precautions against possible attacks by religious fanatics and nationalist terrorists and advocating for senators to "vary their daily routines, take different routes to and from the Senate, exchange their personalized license plates for those that provide anonymity and be generally alert to the possibility of attack". Byrd distributed the letter to the other members of the chamber of Congress. In December, the Senate voted on a Republican proposal to limit overall Government tax revenue that would also yield an annual tax cut of $39 to $55 billion over the course of the following four years. Republican
William Roth sponsored an amendment that Byrd moved to table Senator Roth's request for a budget waiver and won by five votes. The Senate narrowly blocked the proposal. By December, congressional leadership was aiming for President Carter to sign a new synthetic fuels bill before Christmas, with Byrd wanting the bill to contain a $185 billion revenue that was achieved in a minimum tax provision. Later that month, after the Senate approved $1.5 billion in Federal loan guarantees for the Chrysler Corporation tonight after defeating a proposal to provide emergency, Byrd confirmed that he had spoken with
United States Secretary of the Treasury G. William Miller about what Byrd called "excellent" chances that the Senate would complete work on a federal loans guarantees bill for Chrysler. In August 1980, Byrd stated that Congress was unlikely to pass a tax cut before the November elections despite the Senate being in the mood for passing one.
Turkey In July 1978, Byrd introduced and endorsed a proposal by
George McGovern for an amendment to repeal the 42‐month‐old embargo on
American military assistance for
Turkey that also linked any future aid for that country to progress on a
negotiated settlement of the
Cyprus problem. The Senate approved the amendment in a vote of 57 to 42 as part of a $2.9 billion international security assistance bill. Byrd stated that every government in the
NATO alliance except
Greece favored repeal of the embargo. In May 1979, Byrd stated that giving Turkey a grant should not be construed as retaliation against
Greece and that aid for Turkey would improve Turkey's security in addition to that of Greece, NATO, and of American allies in the Middle East. Byrd mentioned his encouragement from the report on the
Greek and
Turkish Cypriot communities agreeing to resume negotiations on the island's future as well as reports that progress was also being made on the reintegration of Greece into NATO. Byrd furthered that American military installations in Turkey were "of major importance in the monitoring of Soviet strategic activities" and would have "obvious significance" in the goal of verifying compliance by the Soviet Union with the strategic arms treaty. The Senate approved the Turkey grant, to Byrd's wishes, but against that of both President Carter and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Foreign policy On February 2, 1978, Byrd and Minority Leader Baker invited all other senators to join them in sponsoring two amendments to the
Torrijos–Carter Treaties, the two party leaders sending copies of amendments recommended by the Foreign Relations Committee the previous week. In January 1979, Byrd met with
Deputy Prime Minister of China Deng Xiaoping for assurances by Deng that China hoped to
unite Taiwan to the mainland by peaceful means and would fully respect "the present realities" on the island. Byrd afterward stated that his concern on the
Taiwan question had been allayed. In June, Byrd opined that a decision by President Carter to not proceed with the new missile system would kill the
strategic arms limitation treaty in the Senate. Byrd held meetings with Soviet leaders between July 3 to July 4. Following their conclusion, Byrd said he was still undecided on supporting the arms pact and that there had been talks on "the need on both sides for avoidance of inflammatory rhetoric which can only be counterproductive". On September 23, Byrd stated that it was possible the Senate could complete the strategic arms limitation treaty that year but a delay until the following year could result in its defeat, adding that senators might have to remain in session during Christmas to ensure the treaty was voted on before 1979's end. Byrd noted that he was opposed to the treaty being "held hostage to the Cuban situation" as American interests could be harmed in the event the treaty was defeated solely due to
Soviet Armed Forces troops being in Cuba. In November, Byrd admitted to complaining to President Carter about Senate leadership receiving only occasional briefings about the
Iranian hostage crisis and that Carter had agreed to daily consultations for Minority Leader
Howard Baker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee
Frank Church, and ranking Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee
Jacob Javits. Byrd added that he did not disagree with the move by the Carter administration to admit
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi for hospitalization and that the same action would extend to "
Ayatollah Khomeini himself if he were needing medical treatment and had a terminal illness". On December 3, Byrd told reporters that the
Iranian hostage crisis was making the Senate uninhabitable for a debate on the strategic arms treaty, noting that a discussion could still occur before the Senate adjourned on December 21 but that he did not believe he would call up the opportunity even if granted the chance. Days later, Byrd announced there was no chance that the Senate would take up debate on the strategic arms treaty that year while speaking to reporters, adding that he would see no harm in having the discussion on the treaty begin in January of the following year.
1980 presidential election In July 1979, Senate members
Henry M. Jackson from Washington and George McGovern from South Dakota made comments expressing doubt on President Carter being assured as the Democratic nominee in the
1980 presidential election. When asked about their comments by a reporter, Byrd referred to Jackson and McGovern as "two very strong voices and not at all to be considered men who have little background in politics" but stated it was too early to participate in "writing the political obituary of the President at this point". Byrd added that the powers of the presidency made it possible that Carter could have a comeback and cited the events in November and December as being telling of his prospects of achieving higher popularity. On May 10, 1980, Byrd called for President Carter to debate Senate member
Ted Kennedy, who he complimented as having done a service for the US by raising key issues in his
presidential campaign. On August 2, Byrd advocated for an open
Democratic National Convention where the delegates were not bound to a single candidate. The endorsement was seen as a break from President Carter. In September, Byrd said that Republican presidential nominee
Ronald Reagan had made comments on the
Iran–Iraq War that were a disservice to the United States and that he was exercising "reckless political posturing" in foreign policy.
George H. W. Bush era In early 1990, Byrd proposed an amendment granting special aid to coal miners who would lose their jobs in the event that Congress passed clean air legislation. Byrd was initially confident in the number of votes he needed to secure its passage being made available but this was prevented by a vote from Democrat
Joe Biden who said the measure's passage would mean an assured veto by President Bush. Speaking to reporters after its defeat, Byrd stated his content with the results: "I made the supreme effort. I did everything I could and, therefore, I don't feel badly about it". The Senate passed clean air legislation within weeks of the vote on Byrd's amendment with the intent of reduction in
acid rain,
urban smog and
toxic chemicals in the air and meeting the request by President Bush for a measure that was less costly than the initial plan while still performing the same tasks of combating clean air issues. Byrd was one of eleven senators to vote against the bill and said he "cannot vote for legislation that can bring economic ruin to communities throughout the
Appalachian region and the
Midwest". In August 1990, after the Senate passed its first major
campaign finance reform bill since the Watergate era that would prevent
political action committees from federal campaigns, lend public money into congressional campaigns and bestow candidates vouchers for
television advertising, Byrd stated that he believed the bill would "end the money chase". Byrd authored an amendment to the
National Endowment for the Arts that would bar the endowment from funding projects considered obscene such as depictions of
sadomasochism,
homo-eroticism, the
sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts while also requiring grant recipients to sign a pledge swearing their compliance with the restrictions. The October 1990 measure approved in the Senate was a bipartisan measure loosening government restrictions on art project funding and leaving courts to judge what art could be considered obscene. President Bush nominated
Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. In October 1991, Byrd stated his support in the credibility of
Anita Hill: "I believe what she said. I did not see on that face the knotted brow of satanic revenge. I did not see a face that was contorted with hate. I did not hear a voice that was tremulous with passion. I saw the face of a woman, one of 13 in a family of
Southern blacks who grew up on the farm and who belonged to the church". Byrd questioned how members of the Senate could be convinced that Thomas would serve as an objective judge when he could refuse to watch Hill's testimony against him. In February 1992, the Senate turned down a Republican attempt sponsored by
John McCain and
Dan Coats to grant President Bush
line-item veto authority and thereby be authorized to kill projects that he was opposed to, Byrd delivering an address defending congressional power over spending for eight hours afterward. The speech had been written by Byrd two years prior and he had at this point steered $1.5 billion to his state. In 1992, there was an effort made to pass a
constitutional amendment to ensure a balanced federal budget. Byrd called the amendment "a smokescreen that will allow lawmakers to claim action against the deficit while still postponing hard budgetary decision" and spoke to reporters on his feelings against the amendment being passed: "Once members are really informed as to the mischief this amendment could do, and the damage it could do to the country and to the Constitution. I just have faith that enough members will take a courageous stand against the amendment". The sponsor of the amendment,
Paul Simon, admitted that Byrd's prediction was not off and that other senators speak "when the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee talks". In a June 1992 debate, Byrd argued in favor of the United States withdrawing accepting
immigrants that did not speak English, the comment being a response to a plan from the Bush administration that would enable
former Soviet states to receive American assistance and allow immigrants from a variety of countries to receive
welfare benefits. Byrd soon afterward apologized for the comment and said they were due to his frustration over the federal government's inability to afford several essential services.
Bill Clinton era In February 1994, the Senate passed a $10 billion spending bill that would mostly be allocated to the
1994 Northridge earthquake victims and military operations abroad. Senate members
Bob Dole,
John Kerry,
John McCain, and
Russ Feingold partnered together to persuade the Senate in favor of cutting back the deficit expense. Byrd raised a procedural point to derail an attempt by Dole that would approve $50 billion in spending cuts over the following five years. McCain proposed killing highway demonstration projects with a $203 million price tag, leading Byrd to produce letters written by McCain that the latter had sent to the Appropriations Committee in 1991 in an attempt to gather highway grants for his home state of
Arizona. Byrd said that McCain "is very considerate of the taxpayers when it comes to financing projects in other states, but he supports such projects in his own state". Along with U.S. Senate member
Chuck Hagel from
Nebraska, in July 1997 Byrd sponsored the
Byrd–Hagel Resolution, which effectively prohibited the US from ratifying the
Kyoto Protocol on limiting and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. In May 2000, Byrd and
John Warner sponsored a provision threatening to withdraw American troops from Kosovo, the legislation if enacted cutting off funds for troops in Kosovo after July 1, 2001, without congressional consent. The language would have also withheld 25 percent of the money for Kosovo in the bill unless the assertion that European countries were living up to their promises to provide reconstruction money for the province was certified by President Clinton by July 15. Byrd argued that lawmakers had never approved nor debate whether American troops should be stationed in Kosovo. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the legislation in a vote of 23-to-3 that was said to reflect "widespread concern among lawmakers about an open-ended deployment of American soldiers". In November 2000, Congress passed an amendment sponsored by Byrd diverting tariff revenues from the
United States Department of the Treasury and instead allocating them to the industry complaining, the amount involved ranging from between $40 million and $200 million a year. The following month,
Japan and the
European Union led a group of countries in filing a joint complaint with the
World Trade Organization to the law.
George W. Bush era Byrd praised the
John G. Roberts Supreme Court nominations to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the death of Chief Justice
William Rehnquist. Likewise, Byrd was one of four Democrats who supported the
Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination to replace retiring Associate Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor. Like most Democrats, Byrd opposed the
Bush tax cuts and his
proposals to change the Social Security program. Byrd opposed the
Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created the
United States Department of Homeland Security, stating that the bill ceded too much authority to the
executive branch. On May 2, 2002, Byrd charged the White House with engaging in "sophomoric political antics", citing
Homeland Security Advisor Tom Ridge's briefing of senators in another location instead of the Senate on how safe he felt the U.S. was. He also led the opposition to Bush's bid to win back the power to negotiate trade deals that Congress cannot amend, but lost overwhelmingly. In the 108th Congress, however, Byrd won his party's top seat on the new Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. In July 2004, Byrd released the
New York Times best-selling book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency, which criticized the Bush presidency and the
war in Iraq.
Iraq War , November 30, 2006 , January 23, 2007 Byrd led a filibuster against the
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 granting
President George W. Bush broad power to wage a
"preemptive" war against
Ba'athist Iraq, but he could not get even a majority of his own party to vote against
cloture. Byrd was one of the Senate's most outspoken critics of the
2003 invasion of Iraq. Byrd anticipated the difficulty of fighting an
insurgency in Iraq, stating on March 13, 2003, On March 19, 2003, when Bush ordered the invasion after receiving
congressional approval, Byrd said, Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech declaring the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq, which Bush made on the
USS Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor, On October 17, 2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush's policies. Referencing the
Hans Christian Andersen children's tale ''
The Emperor's New Clothes'', Byrd said of the president: "the emperor has no clothes". Byrd further lamented the "sheep-like" behavior of the "cowed Members of this Senate" and called on them to oppose the continuation of a "war based on falsehoods". , far right) shakes hands with Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates, while Sens.
Patrick Leahy (D-
Vermont, center right) and
Tom Harkin (D-
Iowa) look on. The hearing was held to discuss further funding for the
War in Iraq. In April 2004, Byrd mentioned the possibility of the Bush administration violating law by its failure to inform leadership in Congress midway through 2002 about its use of emergency anti-terror dollars to begin preparations for an invasion of Iraq. Byrd stated that he had never been told of a shift in money, a charge reported in the
Bob Woodward book
Plan of Attack, and its validation would mean "the administration failed to abide by the law to consult with and fully inform Congress". Byrd accused the
Bush administration of stifling dissent: Of the more than 18,000 votes he cast as a senator, Byrd said he was proudest of his vote against the Iraq war resolution. Byrd also voted to tie a timetable for troop withdrawal to war funding.
Gang of 14 On May 23, 2005, Byrd was one of 14 U.S. Senate members (who became known as the "
Gang of 14") to forge a compromise on the judicial
filibuster, thus securing up and down votes for many judicial nominees and ending the threat of the so-called
nuclear option that would have eliminated the filibuster entirely. Under the agreement, the senators retained the power to filibuster a judicial nominee in only an "extraordinary circumstance". It ensured that the
appellate court nominees (
Janice Rogers Brown,
Priscilla Richman and
William H Pryor Jr.) would receive votes by the full Senate.
Other votes In February 1981, as the Senate voted on giving final approval to the $50 billion increase in the
debt limit, Democrats initially opposed the measure as part of an effort to elicit the highest number of Republicans in support of the measure. Byrd proceeded to give a signal for Democrats that saw caucus members switch their votes in support of the increase. President Reagan was injured during an
assassination attempt in March 1981. Following the shooting, Byrd opined that the aftermath of the attempt had proven there were "holes that need to be plugged" in the constitution's handling of the
presidential line of succession after a president's disability and stated his intent to introduce legislation calling for a
mandatory life sentence for anyone attempting to assassinate a president, vice president, or member of Congress. In March 1981, during a Capitol Hill interview, Byrd stated that the Reagan administration was promoting an economic package with assumptions for the
national economy that might take a year for the public to see its difficulties and thereby lead to a political backlash. Byrd contented that President Reagan would win approval by Congress of $35 to $40 billion of the $48 billion in proposed budget cuts while having more difficulty in passing his tax-cut package, asserting Democratic opposition and some Republicans having misgivings about the approach as the reason Congress would block the plan and furthering that he would be surprised if a one-year cut in rates lasted more than year. Byrd opined that it was time for "some tax reform" that would see loopholes closed for the rich dropped to bring in revenues and expressed belief in the likelihood of the administration dismantling existing energy programs: "Energy programs are not as catchy now as budget cuts. But if the gas lines begin to form again, or the overseas oil gets cut off, we will have lost the time, the momentum, the money. Basically, they have a wholesale dismantlement of the energy programs we spent several years creating around here". In March 1981, during a news conference, Byrd stated that the Reagan administration had not established a coherent
foreign policy. He credited conflicting statements from administration officials with having contributed to confusion in Western European capitals. Byrd also said, "We've seen these statements, and backing and filling, and the secretary of state has been kept pretty busy explaining and denying assertions and pronouncements by others, which indeed indicate that the administration has not yet got its foreign policy act together". In May 1981, Byrd announced his support for the Reagan administration's proposed budget for the fiscal year 1982 during a weekly news conference, citing that the "people want the President to be given a chance with his budget". Byrd added that he did not believe a
balanced budget would be achieved by 1984, calling the budget "a balanced budget on paper only, made up of juggled figures produced out of thin air", and charged the administration with making assumptions, his comments being seen as an indication that little opposition would amount from the Democrats to the Reagan budget. In November 1981, as Senate leaders rejected the request of Senate member
Harrison A. Williams from
New Jersey to introduce new evidence during the Senate's consideration of whether to expel him for his involvement in the
Abscam case, Byrd and Majority Leader Baker informed Williams that he could have a lawyer that would have to remain wordless. On December 2, 1981, Byrd voted in favor of an amendment to President Reagan's
MX missiles proposal that would divert the silo system by $334 million as well as earmark further research for other methods that would allow giant missiles to be based. The vote was seen as a rebuff of the Reagan administration. In February 1982, Byrd wrote a letter to President Reagan urging him to "withdraw the Administration's proposed fiscal 1983 budget, and resubmit a budget that provides for much lower deficits and makes use of more realistic assumptions", recalling his previous appeal to President Carter in 1980 amid the rise of soaring inflation rates and Carter afterward consulting with Democrats in Congress. Byrd stated that he was in favor of "a document we in Congress can work with, one based on realistic assumptions, one which shows a much clearer trend toward a balanced budget". Byrd had cautious praise for a proposal by Democrat
Fritz Hollings called for a freeze on all benefit programs with the exception of
food stamps,
Medicare and
Medicaid in addition to a freeze on military spending while eliminating a pay increase for federal employees. In March 1982, Byrd announced he would introduce an amendment to the
War Powers Act that would bar the president from being able to send combat troops to the
Salvadoran Civil War without the approval of Congress. Byrd described the proposal as only allowing the president to act with independence in the event that Americans needed to evacuate El Salvador or if the United States was attacked. "It is my view that if Americans are to be asked to shed their blood in the jungles of El Salvador, all Americans should first have an opportunity to debate and carefully evaluate that action". By March 1982, along with
Alan Cranston, Byrd was one of two U.S. Senate members supporting both the measure sponsored by Henry M. Jackson and
John Warner calling upon the United States and the Soviet Union to freeze their nuclear arsenals at "equal and sharply reduced levels" and the bill sponsored by Ted Kennedy and
Mark Hatfield calling upon the two countries first to negotiate a freeze on nuclear forces at existing levels before following atomic arms reduction. In January 1983, after President Reagan said during his
1983 State of the Union Address that he hoped for the same bipartisan support that had produced the Social Security recommendations would lead Congress during the year on other issues, Byrd and House Majority Leader
Jim Wright assailed the unfairness of a six-month delay in the cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients during a period of letting the wealthy reap the benefits of the general income tax cut for a third year. Byrd stated that he did not "want a six-month delay in Social Security while leaving in place the third year of the tax cut for upper-income people" and stated that Reagan's speech had been "'rhetorically good, but substantively lacking in measures that would deal now with the crises that millions of people are experiencing". At the beginning of February 1983, House Democrats committed themselves "to an emergency economic assistance program that would create public service jobs, provide shelter and soup kitchens for the destitute and avert foreclosures of homes and farms". Concurrently, Byrd pledged to work with the House Democrats in developing legislation concerning jobs, proposing $5 to $10 billion be spent and introducing legislation intended to form a national investment corporation that would assist with underwriting faltering basic industries and starting new ones in areas of high unemployment. In March 1984, Byrd voted against a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing periods in public school for silent prayer, and in favor of President Reagan's unsuccessful proposal for a constitutional amendment permitting organized school prayer in public schools. In June 1984, Byrd was one of five Democrats to vote against the
Lawton Chiles proposal to cease MX production for a year during study in search of a smaller and single-warhead missile. The 48 to 48 tie was broken by then-Vice President
George H. W. Bush. In September 1986, Byrd endorsed the
death penalty for some drug pushers in
anti-drug legislation that would order President Reagan to end
drug trafficking within 45 days through using the military as a means of intercepting smugglers, and imposing the death penalty on those pushers who intentionally cause a death as part of their operations while providing funding for prevention, drug abuse treatment, and anti-drug laws enforcement that was estimated to cost $3 to $4 billion over three years. Byrd admitted that calling for the death penalty seemed harsh, but cautioned that children in some cases had their entire lives destroyed through using drugs and that Congress had been soft for too long without seeing a change in results. In December 1986, Byrd announced that the Senate would convene a Watergate-type select committee to investigate the
Iran-Contra affair the following year and that he had reached an agreement with Bob Dole for the committee to have six Democrats and five Republicans. Byrd and Dole disagreed on whether it was a necessity for Congress to be launched into a special session that month for the purpose of getting the investigative process moving. Naming members during December enabled participants to informally move ahead by selecting the staff and be prepared before the
100th United States Congress began. In September 1988, in response to charges by
Vice President Bush's presidential campaign that Democratic nominee
Michael Dukakis was weak on defense, Byrd delivered a Senate speech in which he said that the Reagan administration "is living in a glass house when it throws a stone at the Democratic Party for its so-called Disneyland defense policies" and that the U.S. land-based missiles had grown in vulnerability due to the administration being "unable to produce an acceptable solution to make our missiles survivable". Byrd furthered, "Indeed, the
Fantasyland exhibits of this White House's Defense
Disneyland are loaded with the rejected systems that have been developed and discarded. If anything deserves the names '
Goofy' and '
Daffy' and '
Mickey Mouse,' it is those' basing proposals". In October 1990, Byrd and U.S. Senate member
Jim McClure from
Idaho served as floor managers for the appropriation bill for the
National Endowment of the Arts, accepting an amendment by U.S. Senate member
Jesse Helms from North Carolina prohibiting NEA support of work denigrating objects or beliefs of religions. In November 1993, when the Senate voted to seek federal court enforcement of a subpoena for the diaries of
Bob Packwood, Byrd stated the possibility of Americans becoming convinced that the Senate was delaying taking action to protect one of its own members. Byrd also called for Packwood to resign. "None of us is without flaws. But when those flaws damage the institution of the Senate, it is time to have the grace to go!" Packwood resigned in 1995. In October 1999, Byrd was the only senator to vote present on the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The treaty was designed to ban underground nuclear testing and was the first major international security pact to be defeated in the Senate since the
Treaty of Versailles. Byrd opposed the
Flag Desecration Amendment, saying that, while he wanted to protect the
American flag, he believed that amending the Constitution "is not the most expeditious way to protect this revered symbol of our Republic". As an alternative, Byrd cosponsored the
Flag Protection Act of 2005 (S. 1370), a bill to prohibit destruction or desecration of the flag by anyone trying to incite violence or causing a breach of the peace, or who steals, damages, or destroys a flag on federal property, whether owned by the federal government or a private group or individual—can be imprisoned, fined or both. The bill did not pass. In 2009, Byrd was one of three Democrats to oppose the confirmation of
United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. After missing nearly two months while in hospital, Byrd returned to the Senate floor on July 21 to vote against the elimination of funding for the
F-22 fighter plane.
Ratings groups Byrd received a 65% vote rating from the
League of Conservation Voters for his support of
environmentally friendly legislation. Additionally, he received a "liberal" rating of 65.5% by the
National Journal—higher than six other Democratic senators. In 2010, Byrd received a 70 percent lifetime rating from the
American Civil Liberties Union for supporting rights-related legislation. ==Health issues and death==