TRANSCRIPT: Majority Leader Schumer Remarks At Memorial Service For Senator Dianne Feinstein

San Francisco, C.A. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke at California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s memorial. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks:

Thank you Mayor and Vice President Harris, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, Mayor Breed, Rabbi Singer & Cantor Barak, Catherine and all of Dianne’s family, my many dear colleagues who have come here, and friends:

Now, there’s an old story of Dianne I’ve always thought was quintessentially her.    

Some of us might remember that years ago, Senator Feinstein injured her ankle while on a morning walk in Lake Tahoe. Now most people might go see a doctor, clear the schedule, focus on recovering.

But Dianne? Forget it. It was the week of the Lake Tahoe Summit. A signature event of hers, one she inaugurated back in 1997 with Harry Reid, convening leaders from California and Nevada, the public sector, the private sector…all for the cause near and dear to her heart: preserving Lake Tahoe for future generations.

Years later, she looked back on that morning and remembered hearing a bone pop, but chose to finish her day before even thinking about treatment. Turns out it was a pretty significant fracture.

Asked how she got through the day, she only offered three words: “I – just – did.”

There are many adjectives that rightly described Dianne Feinstein.

Strong. Unflappable. Winning. Fierce. Practical. Earnest.

But one quality above all stands out in my mind and will forever set Dianne apart:

Integrity. Integrity.

Dianne Feinstein was a leader of uncommon integrity. She had an internal gyroscope that propelled her, motivated her, never let her stray from a cause she knew was right. When she embraced an issue, she pursued it until the end, no matter the consequences, no matter what others thought. Her integrity made her sparkle like a diamond in the Senate.

I was dazzled by that internal gyroscope for the first time in 1994, when I closely worked with Dianne as the author of the House version of the Assault Weapons Ban, which Dianne championed in the Senate.

She worked that bill harder than anyone I’d seen work a bill: attacking every angle, thinking of every pitfall, resisting every broadside from the NRA…because she knew her cause to be just from her own experience. Thanks to her dedication, her unflappability, her trademark integrity, America turned a new leaf in the fight for gun safety.

Working with Dianne on the Assault Weapons ban was one of the proudest moments of my time in office. From that time on, I not only called Dianne a colleague, but a close friend.

And what a loving, caring friend she was.

When my daughter first moved to San Francisco out of college, that September I got a call from Dianne. She asked me, “Does your daughter have anywhere to go for the High Holy Day services?” I said No. She said “Well then she is going to services…with me!”

There are so many qualities of this amazingly—amazingly—multifaceted woman that I will miss.

I will miss her ability to win over doubters and detractors—and there were many—not by putting them down, but with her elegance, poise, and her piercing wit.

I will miss her sheer dedication and thoroughness. She was better prepared and better informed than just about anyone else. I can’t tell you how many times Dianne would consider a topic and say “let me go home and read on it first” and she’d always come back with forty, fifty, sixty questions the next day.

I will miss Dianne’s talents as one of the Senate’s great dealmakers. If there was the smallest bit of common ground, she’d pursue it if it meant moving an issue forward. Even while being so far ahead of her time on gun safety, marriage equality, women’s’ rights, the environment, and so many other issues, she was never afraid of working with those she disagreed with whenever the opportunity arose.

Dianne Feinstein was a living embodiment of what the Senate should always be: an institution built on cooperation.

Finally, I will always be indebted to Dianne not just as a colleague but as a father of two daughters. Because of Dianne, my daughters grew up in a world that’s a little bit fairer, a little more just, and more accepting of women in leadership.

Speaking at Stanford’s commencement in 1993, Dianne confessed that she never sought to be the first woman in this role or that role.  What mattered most, she said, was to live life to the fullest, and advised the graduates to “be able to accept challenge, to take some risk…but always protect your integrity.” And that is just what she did throughout her entire career.

So today, we grieve. Today, we mourn an immense loss for the Senate, for California, for America.

But we also give thanks. Thanks that someone so rarefied, so dedicated, and with a sparkling diamond-like presence served our country so well for so many wonderful years.

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