Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business for 30 minutes.
Thank you, Mr. President. I rise at this time to offer a few words in tribute to a distinguished colleague and dear friend, Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink, who passed away Saturday afternoon in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend and colleague, Patsy Mink, and I join our Congressional delegation, and the people of Hawaii and the Nation in extending heartfelt sympathy to John and Wendy Mink, her husband and daughter, Eugene Takemoto, her brother, and all of Patsy's extended family and her loyal staff in Washington and Hawaii.
I feel a tremendous sense of loss at the untimely death of Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink. Her passing leaves a void in the House of Representatives, the Hawaii Congressional delegation, and the political life of our Nation. It is difficult to put her spirit into words, but those that come immediately to mind as fitting characterizations of the woman we honor today include courageous, forthright, tenacious, gutsy, outspoken, bold, meticulous, and determined. She was my friend, a dedicated public servant for Hawaii, a strong pillar in our state's delegation, and an advocate for those in America who feel scared, small, alone, mistreated, neglected or forgotten.
Patsy was a petite woman with a powerful voice and a peerless reputation as a champion for equal opportunity, civil rights, and education. She was a courageous and tenacious leader whose lifetime of public service made Hawaii a better place. Her leadership in health, education, child welfare, and social services will endure and continue to benefit Hawaii's people and all Americans.
In the course of her life Patsy was a pioneer, a trailblazer for women, workers, minorities, the poor, and the powerless. In the history of Hawaii and our Nation in the 20th century, Patsy Mink is one of the giants whose vision of hope and passion for justice led Hawaii to statehood and whose efforts broke down barriers and opened doors to opportunity for everyone, regardless of race, gender, or religion. Her passing silences a dynamic voice, but her many accomplishments, her unimpeachable integrity, and passion for justice stand as an incredible legacy to a magnificent woman.
I commend to my colleagues and all those interested in Patsy's remarkable life, a biography by Esther Arinaga and Rene Ojiri included in a book titled Called from Within: Early Women Lawyers of Hawaii, edited by Mari Matsuda. I wish to recap some of her brilliant life and career for the Record.
Born on December 6, 1927, in Paia, Maui, Patsy was independent and ambitious from the start. As an illustration, one family story recalls that she insisted at age four on beginning school a year early. She was driven throughout her young life, and was elected student body president at Maui High School. She graduated as valedictorian in 1944, a year marked by global strife and war.
Patsy's childhood curiosity about medicine led her to study zoology and chemistry at the University of Hawaii. After graduating in 1948, she applied to medical school, only to be rejected along with other bright young women aspiring to be doctors, in a time when women made up only two to three percent of an entering class. Another factor daunting her efforts was the return of our war veterans and a resulting boom in applications for graduate and postgraduate programs. Although discouraged, Patsy took wise counsel from a mentor and applied to law schools. She gained admission to the University of Chicago. It was during her years of law studies that she would meet and marry John Mink, a respected hydrologist and geologist, her loyal campaign advisor, and her lifelong companion. It was in Chicago that they would have their daughter, Wendy, a professor at Smith College.
Returning to Hawaii, Patsy gained admission to the Hawaii bar in 1953, but only after a successful challenge of a statute that required a woman to take the residency status of her husband, who was a native Pennsylvanian. Such an action represented only one of several challenges to sexism that she would undertake during her professional career. In being admitted to the bar, she also logged one of many firsts by becoming the first Japanese American woman to do so in Hawaii.
In the 1950s, Patsy began to take a serious interest in politics and make her mark on the Democratic Party by helping to build the party and draw many young people into its ranks. Patsy's first step into public elected office in the Territorial legislature in 1956 awoke for Hawaii and the world a powerful voice that would only gain strength in its impact and not be silenced until the new millennium. From that moment forward, Patsy's professional and political record would run as if by perpetual motion.
The momentous year of 1959 brought statehood for Hawaii, and by then, Patsy had easily won election to the territorial Senate. Leading up to statehood, while the legislature worked on landmark issues that would lend shape to Hawaii's new society, Patsy authored an "equal pay for equal work" law and scrutinized the Department of Education toward improving education for Hawaii's children - a cause close to my heart, as one who previously served as a teacher and principal in Hawaii's schools.
In 1965, Patsy brought her views to the national stage when she became the first woman of color elected to the United States House of Representatives to represent Hawaii's 2nd Congressional District - a seat I was proud to hold for almost 14 years, before I entered the Senate. Patsy was articulate about the causes she tenaciously shepherded. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside chats, heard years ago on Maui by a young Patsy, had provided her with a foundation of ideals and rhetoric from which she would draw upon for many years in her political career.
During her first tenure in Congress, Patsy served her various constituencies, both in Hawaii and around this Nation, with a strong commitment to wide-ranging domestic issues, including education, the environment, child care, open government, workers' rights, and equal opportunity. She introduced the first Early Childhood Education Act, authored the Women's Education Equity Act, supported strip mining regulation, and became an early critic of the Vietnam War. In 1971, she entered the Oregon Democratic presidential primary. Her candidacy reflected her determined independence and frustration with government cutbacks in social services spending and the ongoing war.
In 1971, in connection with planned underground nuclear tests at Amchitka Island in the Aleutian chain, she filed suit with 32 other Members of Congress to compel disclosure of reports under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). She took issue with alleged Presidential authority to exempt certain information from FOIA and withhold it from judicial or legislative review. In the final outcome, in what had been described by Patsy as a sort of Waterloo of the Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Congress could legislate new disclosure guidelines to permit judicial review of the President's actions. In the end, the case gained tremendous historical significance when the U.S. Supreme Court cited it as precedent for the release of the Watergate tapes.
In perhaps her farthest-reaching accomplishment, Patsy co-authored Title IX of the Higher Education Act Amendments, which prohibits gender discrimination by educational institutions receiving federal funds. The landmark provision was enacted in 1972 and has since, in its 30 years of existence, introduced equality in college sports and contributed greatly to the rise in women's athletics.
An unsuccessful Senate bid ended her first set of years in federal office in 1977, but it did not quiet her political involvement or public service. Indeed, in 1990 she returned to the House. In the interim, she assumed the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Ocean and International, Environmental, and Scientific Affairs, where she helped to strengthen environmental policies, particularly with regard to protection of whales, toxic chemical disposal and ocean mining. In 1980, she took the helm as the first woman president of the Americans for Democratic Action. Two years later, she returned to elected office in Hawaii by taking the gavel as chairperson of the Honolulu City Council. She twice ran unsuccessfully for other office, this time for Governor and Mayor of Honolulu, then triumphed in 1990 in a special election for the remainder of my term in the other body, at the passing of our beloved colleague, Spark Matsunaga.
Since 1990, she continued in characteristic style, advocating and articulating the ideals that she had espoused during her first terms in the other body. I remember Patsy marching up the Capitol steps with vigor, alongside her other female colleagues, to show her support for Anita Hill in 1991. I was pleased to work with Patsy, the distinguished senior Senator from Hawaii, Senator Dan Inouye, the honorable Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta, and my other colleagues in the establishment of a Congressional caucus to address the needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 1994. I recall her leadership in 1996 on a successful boycott of a joint session speech by French President Jacques Chirac, in protest of French nuclear testing in the Pacific, much in line with our shared commitment to championing the disenfranchised peoples of the Pacific in our respective bodies. As we hope to complete action on a welfare reauthorization bill in this session, I remember Patsy's steadfast efforts before the passage of the 1996 welfare reform law in keeping us mindful about the possible effects of social policy changes on children. She had continued the battle cry with the current welfare reauthorization and ensured that the voices of the smallest and most vulnerable were heard.
Patsy was one of the last Members of the 107th Congress who served in the historic 89th Congress that passed much of the landmark Great Society legislation. Patsy's lifelong efforts to open educational access to countless Americans and ensure them the best educational opportunities were the achievements that brought her the greatest satisfaction. "Anything for the children," was Patsy's guiding conviction. I believe we shared the same view about education - that this crucial area is where we can do the most good for the most people.
A great spirit has come and gone before us. Patsy's vigor and courage to tackle difficult issues in the wide realm of social policy will be sorely missed. There are fewer trails for women and minorities to blaze, thanks to Patsy's determination and spirit. Indeed, her trailblazing efforts will not end with her death, for the things she put into place will continue to benefit the lives of countless individuals, in our lifetime and for generations to come, in ways that may not ever be truly appreciated.
We are enjoined to carry forth the mission that my dear colleague pursued during her remarkable career. With great sadness, we bid a final farewell and aloha pumehana to a fearless and remarkable lady, the most honorable Patsy Takemoto Mink.
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
