Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Harry Reid to lie in state at U.S. Capitol Rotunda

Reid

Jae C. Hong / AP

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivers a speech at the YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas on June 10, 2006. Reid, the former Senate majority leader and Nevada’s longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 82.

Updated Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 | 11:06 a.m.

Harry Reid: 1939 -2021

LAS VEGAS - WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2009 -  Senator Harry Reid speaks at the 6th Annual Joint Chambers Luncheon, which brings together the Las Vegas
Asian, Latin and Urban Chambers of Commerce, at Paris Las Vegas Wednesday, July 1, 2009.. LEILA NAVIDI / LAS VEGAS SUN

***Harry Reid Launch slideshow »

The body of late Nevada Sen. Harry Reid will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Jan. 12, returning one last time to the heart of the place where he spent three decades helping shape the nation.

Reid, who died Tuesday at age 82, spent 30 years in the U.S. House and Senate, where he served as majority leader from 2007 to 2015.

The Capitol Rotunda has served since 1852 as a place to pay tribute with a public viewing to the nation’s most distinguished citizens.

About 35 others have had the honor of lying in state, including 12 U.S. Presidents. Reid follows Republican Sen. Bob Dole (Dec. 9-10) and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis (July 27, 28, 2020) to receive the honor.

It's an opportunity for members of Congress to pay their formal respects to the deceased.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a joint statement announcing the honor. The events will include a formal arrival and departure ceremony. Due to the pandemic, the ceremony will be limited to invited guests.

“He was tough-as-nails strong, but caring and compassionate, and always went out of his way quietly to help people who needed help,” Schumer said in the statement. “Harry never forgot where he came from, and I will miss my dear friend and mentor greatly. Few dedicated their life and career to working for and delivering for working families like Harry Reid, and it will be an honor to pay tribute to him in the Capitol next week.”

They said Reid had a critical role in helping bring landmark legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Of all of Reid’s accomplishments, he said helping President Obama pass the Affordable Care Act ranked highest. Reid is credited with working to secure the Senate Democrats’ 60-vote majority to pass the bill.

In his final address in the Senate, Reid said it would have been “wonderful” if the law had existed when he was growing up in Searchlight. “We didn’t go to doctors. It was a rare, rare occasion,” Reid said. “There was no one to go to.”

Reid spent five decades serving Nevada, starting at age 28 in the Nevada Assembly.

“Senator Harry Reid was a titan of public service, who fought relentlessly for working families like his own,” Pelosi said in the statement. “One of the most commanding and consequential Senate majority leaders in history, he forged extraordinary legislative progress: rescuing our economy during the Great Recession, protecting hardworking families with Wall Street reforms and moving our nation closer to our goal of universal health coverage.”

In a statement Reid’s wife, Landra, thanked Pelosi and Schumer for the honor and continued support.

“Harry spent decades in those halls fighting for what he believed was right and forging lifelong friendships,” she said. “We’re touched and grateful for the opportunity to honor Harry and his accomplishments.”

Reid's funeral is 11 a.m. Saturday at the Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas.