Senator Daniel Inouye

Hawai’i Senator Daniel K. Inouye, formerly the most senior member of the U.S. Senate and the President Pro-Tempore, was known for his distinguished record as a legislative leader and as a World War II combat veteran.  When Hawai’i became the 50th state, Inouye became one of its first representatives in the U.S. Congress. In 1962 he won election to the U.S. Senate. Senator Inouye gained national distinction in the 1970s as a member of the Senate Watergate Committee and, in 1987, as chairman of the Senate Iran-Contra Committee. He was a longtime member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which he chaired from 2009 to 2012. In 2013 Senator Inouye was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, becoming the first—and to date, only—senator to receive both the Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor.