Edhat Staff
Flags across the country remain at half-staff through Thursday (October 5, 2023) at sunset, following the death of longtime California Senator Dianne Feinstein.
President Joe Biden on Friday ordered flags to remain at half-staff until the late senator is buried.
Mourners will gather on the front steps of San Francisco City Hall Thursday to remember Feinstein. The memorial, which will take place at 1 p.m., will be closed to the public Feinstein’s office announced Wednesday, citing “increased security.”
Feinstein, a centrist Democrat, died Friday at age 90. She was the first female mayor of San Francisco, a position she held for ten years. She was then elected to the Senate in 1992 in what was dubbed the “Year of the Woman” and served for more than thirty years. She was first woman senator to represent California, and just the 18th woman to serve in the U.S. Senate in the nation’s history. Only four other women senators served alongside her at the time.
Feinstein was behind the first congressional action on global warming; her bipartisan bill in 2001 helped set fuel economy standards for cars, trucks and SUVs. She also backed a bipartisan bill that was the first to offer legal protection to forests by expediting the reduction of hazardous fuels.
She secured the extension of the Violence Against Women Act until 2027 and helped outlawing the use of torture by the CIA, following an investigation she spearheaded.
Feinstein also authored the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which was in effect until 2004, and has since introduced several pieces of legislation aimed at banning or limiting the sales of assault weapons. She also led an initiative for Breast Cancer Research Stamps, postal stamps that help raise money for breast cancer research. The proceeds have raised more than $100 million since 1998, according to her biography.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Feinstein a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state, but also a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought middle ground.
“She was a political giant, whose tenacity was matched by her grace. She broke down barriers and glass ceilings, but never lost her belief in the spirit of political cooperation,” Newsom wrote in a statement.
Like Biden, Newsom also ordered flags be flown at half-staff across the state in honor of Feinstein.
RIP Senator. I think most of us can agree that you should have retired a while back, but that doesn’t discount all of the good things you’ve done for our country. Rest is peace.