By Ray Smock

Senator Robert C. Byrd launched the Byrd Center’s annual Constitution Day Address nine years ago. The lecture series is named in honor of the late Tom E. Moses, a decorated veteran of World War II and a lifelong advocate of civil rights and human rights. In his inaugural speech in this series, Senator Byrd said, “Not a day has passed in the history of this great republic in which the Constitution has not been important.” This thought was on my mind as I drafted this year’s Constitution Day address.

I could not help but be drawn to current events which reflect a growing constitutional crisis—one that may come to pass within weeks of Constitution Day, where Congress may actually shut down the government because a faction in the House is so opposed to the Affordable Healthcare Act and equally opposed to increasing the debt limit of the United States.

Note: This post was previously listed under our "News from the Grey Box" blog series 
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Recently Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and his senior staff paid a visit to the Byrd CLS to learn more about how Congressional collections are managed and the types of programs that centers like ours conduct for the study of Congress.

Our Executive Director Ray Smock gave opening remarks about how the CLS was established and explained our relationship with similar institutions through the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC). Marc Levitt, the Director of Archives, followed up with a slide show regarding the   processing of Senator Byrd’s collection that he has supervised over the past three years.
Senator Leahy and his staff then took a tour  of the Byrd Center, where they saw an exhibit of artifacts from Byrd’s collection, the archival stacks (complete with processed textual documents), and the rest of the facilities of the CLS.

The Byrd CLS is always happy to host members of Congress and their staffs to explore the many ways in which congressional archives can be used to foster a better understanding of how the legislative branch of government works.  We appreciate the Senator taking time out of his schedule to learn more about how centers like ours operate.