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Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, yesterday Senator INOUYE and I went to New York City to visit the disaster area. It was an experience I shall never forget.
May 19, 2001
S. CON. RES. 66
Whereas the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act of 2001 (Public Law 107–12, 115 Stat. 20)—
(A) allows the President to award, and present in the name of Congress, a Medal of Valor to a public safety officer cited by the Attorney General of the United States, upon the recommendation of the Medal of Valor Review Board, for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty; and
(B) provides that the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor shall be the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer; .......
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, yesterday Senator INOUYE and I went to New York City to visit the disaster area. It was an experience I shall never forget.
We had the cooperation of the New York National Guard, which flew us in a helicopter over the area of the World Trade Center, and then met Mayor Giuliani on the ground and visited the
disaster scene.
Today, I have come to this Chamber to introduce a Senate concurrent resolution. This resolution would express the sense of the Congress that the Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor should be awarded to public safety officers killed in the line of duty in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
It is with a sad heart that I introduce this resolution, for once again America has seen some of our finest go into harm’s way to help those they are sworn to protect and serve. Many of these firefighters, police officers, and public safety officers gave their lives. They made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in the service of their fellow Americans.
Without regard for their own safety, firefighters, police officers, port authority officers, rescue personnel, and others rushed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to help in the
rescue of workers in those buildings. Senator INOUYE and I visited the Pentagon the day before yesterday to view that site.
Many of these people gave their lives in helping those they sought to rescue. The truly heroic response of our public servants to these horrible and evil at tacks on America and Americans
should not go unnoticed, and we all know the acts will not go unpunished.
The Public Service Medal of Valor was created to recognize public safety officers who act with extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty and to recognize the protective service
that goes often unnoticed in our daily lives.
In 1998, in the U.S. Capitol, Senators, Congressmen, tourists, and staff were reminded of the tremendous sacrifices that officers make every day when Officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson gave their lives defending the peace and defending our lives here in the Nation’s Capitol.
Shortly after that tragic event, I introduced the Senate version of the Medal of Valor Act. The law allows for five medals to be awarded a year, but I believe it is important to recognize all those who lost their lives on September11, 2001, in the horrendous attacks in New York City and the Pentagon. They deserve consideration under this law.
When President Bush signed the Public Safety Medal of Valor Act into law on May 30 of this year, 28 of our colleagues were cosponsors of the Senate version.
It is my hope that they and others in the Senate will join in recognizing the heroic acts of all our public safety officers killed in the line of duty in the aftermath of these terrorist attacks of
September 11 of this year by cosponsoring this resolution and helping to get it passed.
I ask the concurrent resolution remain at the desk so those who wish to cosponsor can do so through tomorrow.
The Reverend Campbell Gillon, Georgetown Presbyterian Church,
Washington, D.C., offered the following prayer:
Almighty God, before Whom civilizations rise and pass away, we bow before Thee. We are creatures of a day, our lives divinely touched into being; endowed with insight as well as sight, conscience as well as cleverness, spiritual responsiveness as well as physical reflexes. In Thee we exist. Forgive us if in the past, we have denied the ‘‘better angels’’ of our nature, thus denying divine guidance and help.
In the light of the recent act of aggression against this Nation, horror, shock, grief, fear, revenge, and anger struggle within people’s hearts. We sorrow at the loss of life, the families shattered, the injuries sustained, and the horrendous images that rescuers and rescued will forever retain. We
commend all such to the care of the One who alone is the help of the helpless, the healer of the heartbroken, the strengthener of those bowed down.
Wherever the way forward lies, lead the Representatives of this great Nation by eternal beacons of justice, truth, understanding, and righteousness, to deal firmly with evil and fairly for a conclusion with honor. For such a task, bless the President, his Cabinet, this House, its leaders, Representatives, staffers, advisors, and all who act for the Nation here. As their days, so may their strength be.
Bless them with vision informed by wisdom; wisdom instructed by truth; truth revealed in integrity, and integrity touched by love; all learned in humility before thee, O God, whose children we are called to be.
This we ask in Thy spirit. Amen
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