Dear John,

The state of California, and our entire nation, have lost a giant of the United States Senate.

Senator Dianne Feinstein was a trailblazer, a woman of enormous strength and determination, a courageous public servant who set the example of what a public servant could accomplish.

But Senator Dianne Feinstein was not only a trail-blazing leader, she was also my friend. And I will deeply miss her.

The Senator’s legacy is unmatched. She was one of the finest legislators we have ever seen, and her accomplishments made our country and world a better place.

Thrust into the national spotlight by an act of gun violence perpetrated against San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, Senator Feinstein single-handedly pushed an assault weapons ban over the finish line in the Senate, and she never gave up her fight to end gun violence. Three decades after that ban, she cast one of the deciding votes on another bipartisan gun safety bill signed into law last year.

As the longtime chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she took on powerful federal agencies to investigate and uncover torture, to ensure it never happened again. She studied the issues carefully, and diligently, and set a standard for professionalism that I tried to emulate as chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

She was a steward of California’s natural beauty and preserving its lands for future generations.

She fought tirelessly for LGBTQ rights and women’s equality. And never stopped.

My heart is with Senator Feinstein’s family, friends and staff at this difficult time.

California is with them. And so is the nation.

We are all indebted to the Senator and her family for her decades of service, and we are all better off for her dogged efforts to build a more perfect union.

With gratitude,

Adam Schiff