Lawmakers pause to honor Sen. Daniel Inouye

Susan Walsh / AP

Vice President Joe Biden looks back as Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the second-longest-serving senator in history, lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. Inouye was a Medal of Honor recipient who represented his state in the U.S. House and then the Senate, where he served for five decades. He died Monday evening at age 88 of respiratory complications.

By Karoun Demirjian (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 | 9:58 a.m.

Lawmakers Pause to Honor Sen. Daniel Inouye

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Marco Garcia / AP

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye speaks at the Japanese Cultural Center, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012 in Honolulu.

For just over an hour Thursday, lawmakers and staffers crowded the Capitol Rotunda to bid farewell to Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the second-longest-serving member of the Senate and a decorated World War II veteran.

Inouye died Monday at the age of 88.

He has been in office since he first came to Washington, D.C., as Hawaii’s first congressman in 1959.

Inouye is the 29th person to lie in state at the Capitol, according to a list maintained by the architect of the Capitol.

“Dan Inouye was an institution and deserves to spend at least another day in this beautiful building to which he dedicated his life,” said Sen. Harry Reid, the first to speak. “Dan was a vibrant and vital presence in the Senate and in death, will remain a legend...It’s with a heavy heart that I and we bid aloha, goodbye, I love you, to a friend and legend of the Senate.”

House Speaker John Boehner said that as a freshman senator in 1963, Inouye “couldn’t have fathomed all the good he would do here.”

Vice President Joe Biden said Inouye “was in every sense the quintessential American. He possessed, at least in my view, every virtue that we like to ascribe to our country.”