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“RECEPTION OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H4755-H4763 on May 10, 2007.
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RECEPTION OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
The Speaker of the House presided.
The SPEAKER. On behalf of the House, I consider it a high honor and a distinct personal privilege to have the opportunity to welcome so many of our former Members and colleagues as may be present here for this occasion. We all pause to welcome you. I am particularly pleased that we have the former Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, with us today.
As we all know, Speaker Foley is a principled leader and a true statesman who presided over the House in a spirit of bipartisanship. Welcome. We are honored by your presence, Mr. Speaker.
I want to acknowledge the leadership of Congressman Jim Slattery, the President, and Congressman Jay Rhodes, the Vice President, and your leadership of the Former Members Association. You have shown the service to our country. We know it didn't begin when you first set foot on the floor but want to acknowledge that it certainly did not end when you left the Congress. Thank you all for your many years of public service and great leadership in the Congress.
As I look around, I wish to acknowledge also the distinguished former minority leader of the House, Bob Michel. What an honor for us to have you here, Bob. It's wonderful to see you. As we all know, he is a dedicated public servant, as have you all been and are. All of your hard work, the legislation you created, the lives you impacted, your legacy is still reflected in the halls of this magnificent Capitol, and not only that, more importantly, in communities around the country. Many of you were friends and mentors to those of us who are here now and we acknowledge that. We learned so much from all of you.
I am pleased to also acknowledge that in welcoming you, I am joined by our distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer). He and I know, as do our colleagues, that the knowledge, experience and wisdom you shared in your time here has helped guide our work. I have said to the Members on many occasions, when we come here, we are not only colleagues to each other, we are colleagues to everyone who ever served here before, because this, the People's House, is a place where the continuity of ideas and commitment and patriotism to our country has a oneness to it. In that spirit, I feel a colleague to my own father who served in the Congress of the United States.
Do we have a Senator here, as well? Senator Specter, welcome. Thank you for being here.
Thank you all for your work and your leadership on behalf of the American people. On behalf of the current Members again, thank you for your leadership. Please enjoy your day back in the People's House.
I now have the privilege of turning the gavel over to a Republican, a wonderful, wonderful leader in the Congress when he served here, respected on both sides of the aisle. He, too, a principled leader who served with a spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism in the Congress. I am pleased to acknowledge the Vice President of the Association and hand the gavel to Mr. Rhodes to take the chair. The Honorable Jay Rhodes.
Mr. RHODES (presiding). Thank you so much for lending us the Chamber of the People's House. We appreciate it very much.
It occurred to me last night that Ms. Pelosi and I were elected in the same year, 1986, the 100th Congress, and that Congress has produced two Speakers of the House, Mr. Hastert and Ms. Pelosi. Now, I don't know if that's historical or not, but it's at least interesting. Thank you so much.
The regular order of business would be for me now to ask the Clerk to call the roll, but I believe that in the interest of recognizing Mr. Hoyer's time limitations, I would ask that the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Maryland, utilize such time as he may consume.
Mr. HOYER. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
He says he yields me so much time as I may consume. One of the great benefits of being majority leader, or minority leader, for that matter, although no one seeks the benefit of being minority leader, I understand that, but is that you are unlimited in time. You're yielded 1 minute and you take such time as you want. You become very arrogant in the use of verbiage at that point in time. But I am very, very pleased to be here with all of you. I try to make these events every time you come, because as Speaker Pelosi, and what an historic event you have just participated in. You are the first group of former Members in over 200 years of our Republic that has been greeted by a woman Speaker. The President was so gracious the first time that Nancy and I went down and had lunch with the Speaker. It was just 2 days after the election. President Bush could not have been more gracious and more generous in his comments about the historical aspect and his congratulations for Nancy's accomplishment. It is an extraordinary accomplishment. As you have noticed, she is as strong and focused and competent a Speaker as I have served with. And I know there is a wonderful friend here, who I also want to greet, and that is my friend Tom Foley. When I came to the Congress of the United States, Tom was the whip. I had the great honor of being the whip at one point in time, as you know.
I am now in the office that Tom Foley peopled. He was ensconced in the first floor of the Capitol, we had many whip meetings there, and he taught me how to be a Member of Congress. And I could have had no better teacher than Tom Foley, no more principled, decent person than Tom Foley.
I will tell you this, and you have heard me say it before. I would not have chosen to be in the minority. And in 1994 with this hostile takeover as I refer to it of the institution of which I was a Member, I became a minority stockholder in, one of the sadnesses, I think, of the 1994 transfer of authority was not so much it was a transfer of authority, that's what happens in democracies, but that an extraordinary American did not become the Speaker of the House, somebody that I love and respect and honor who I think is one of the most decent people with whom I have served in 40 years in a legislative body and that is, of course, the very distinguished, wonderful American first as well as, of course, a distinguished Republican leader, my friend Bob Michel. Bob, thank you for what you have done.
When the American people think of what they would like to see in the Congress of the United States and the kind of collegiality and respect for one another and civility that they would like to see, they think of Bob Michel and Tom Foley in my opinion. They may not think of them by name, but they think of who they are and what they represent.
I am also pleased to see Arlen Specter who was masquerading as a former Member sitting with the Speaker. As a matter of fact, Ray LaHood traveled with me overseas. We went to Darfur, we were in Sudan, and we were in Egypt. In Egypt, we had a cocktail party, a reception at the Ambassador's residence and I introduced Ray LaHood as the former staffer of the Speaker. Kathy, his wife, came up to me and said, ``Bob Michel was never Speaker.'' I said, ``I know, but in my mind he should have been.''
Jack Kemp is here, also my friend. We had the opportunity to serve on the Appropriations Committee as well. Jack, of course, a distinguished Vice Presidential candidate, now who continues as so many of you do in your own public lives to be so involved in trying to make our country better. Jack, thank you for all you have done.
I could mention each and every one of you, but Speaker Rhodes would say you're pressing on that 1 minute a little much. But let me say that those of you who are former Members, some, of course, are former Members by choice. Some, as you reflect upon a democracy that sometimes makes mistakes, are former Members by mistake of your constituencies. But in any event it occurs to me that all of you are financially far better off than us poor people you left behind, and I congratulate you for that.
I want to congratulate Mr. Slattery, who's our leader on the Democratic side, and Jay Rhodes. I saw Jay in the hallway just the other day. I had the opportunity of serving briefly with his dad and then with him and both reflect the decency of which I have spoken earlier.
Let me also say that I am now the majority leader, and thwarting the will of the majority is something that we criticize very severely and properly so. In a democracy, you do not want to thwart the will of the majority. But as majority leader, I want you to know that I work very hard at thwarting the will of the minority. Sometimes they get upset by it. I don't understand that, Bob, but it happens.
Let me thank all of you. Let me thank all of you for holding high the institutional values that the Founding Fathers and Americans want to establish, a body that brings together the various differences within our society, the various interest groups within our society, and tries to synthesize those differences into rational consensus for progress for our country. If we continue to do that, we will continue to merit the respect of our fellow citizens. If we do not, then they will properly have us all become former Members.
God bless what you have done, are doing and continue to do on behalf of our country and on behalf of the House of Representatives. Thank you very much.
Mr. RHODES. Thank you, Mr. Leader. One of the worst kept secrets in the House of Representatives is that Mr. Hoyer is one of my two Congressmen. He doesn't know that yet. I will write him about the pothole fairly soon.
Thank you, Mr. Hoyer. I appreciate it very much.
And now if the Clerk will call the roll of the former Members of Congress.
The Clerk called the roll of the former Members of Congress, and the following former Members answered to their names:
Former Members of Congress Participating in 37th Annual Spring Meeting
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Mr. Bowen of Mississippi
Mr. Browder of Alabama
Mr. Buechner of Missouri
Mrs. Byron of Maryland
Mr. Coyne of Pennsylvania
Mr. DioGuardi of New York
Mr. Foley of Washington
Mr. Forbes of New York
Mr. Frey of Florida
Mr. Frost of Texas
Mr. Gilman of New York
Mr. Glickman of Kansas
Ms. Heckler of Massachusetts
Mr. Hertel of Michigan
Mr. Hockbrueckner of New York
Mr. Hughes of New Jersey
Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin
Mr. Kastenmeier of Wisconsin
Mr. Kemp of New York
Mr. Klein of New Jersey
Mr. Konnyu of California
Mr. Kramer of Colorado
Mr. Kyros of Maine
Mr. Lancaster of North Carolina
Mr. Lent of New York
Ms. Long of Louisiana
Mr. Mazzoli of Kentucky
Mr. Michel of Illinois
Mr. Moore of Alabama
Mr. Moore of Louisiana
Mr. Nichols of Kansas
Mr. Parker of Mississippi
Mr. Parris of Virginia
Mr. Pollock of Alaska
Mr. Rhodes of Arizona
Mr. Sarasin of Connecticut
Mr. Sarpalius of Texas
Mr. Slattery of Kansas
Mr. Smith of Oregon
Mr. Sundquist of Florida
Mr. Symms of Idaho
Mr. RHODES. The Chair announces that 41 former Members of Congress have responded to their names as being present.
At this point, it is my pleasure to introduce to you a very good friend and a distinguished colleague, the President of the Former Members, Mr. Slattery from Kansas.
Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It's a pleasure to see you all this morning and it's great to welcome you back to this institution that we love. First of all, let me say that it's a special privilege for us to be greeted by the Speaker so warmly.
Thank you, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, for those wonderful greeting remarks. I would like to just associate myself with Steny Hoyer's remarks about all of the distinguished Members that are here this morning. I won't be redundant in recognizing all of you again except to say that it is particularly wonderful to see Minority Leader Bob Michel here, Jack Kemp, and former Speaker Foley, who all of these people inspired so many of us when we first came to this institution. We are particularly grateful to see you. It's great to see Secretary Glickman here, Secretary Henson Moore, and also Governor Sundquist here. It's great to welcome all of you back. Thank you very much for coming.
It is always an honor and a privilege to return to this magnificent institution which we revere and where we shared so many memorable experiences. Service in Congress is both a joy and a heavy responsibility. Whatever your party affiliation, we have great admiration for those who continue to serve their country in this unique institution. We thank them all for once again giving us the opportunity to report on the activities of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress. This is our 37th annual report to Congress, and, Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be permitted to revise and extend their remarks.
Mr. RHODES. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. SLATTERY. Our association is nonpartisan. It was chartered by Congress but receives no funding from Congress. All the activities which we are about to describe are financed either from membership dues, program-specific grants and sponsors, or at our fund-raising dinner. We have a wide variety of domestic and international programs which several other Members and I will discuss briefly. Our membership numbers almost 600, and our purpose is to continue the service to country which for many began during our terms in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
I have had the privilege to serve as President of our association for almost 1 year and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my predecessor for passing this organization on to me in great condition. Jack Buechner was our President for 2 years and although great personal tragedy befell his family during his tenure, he steadfastly implemented a vision which I share and that is that the Former Members Association be known and respected for the substantive programs we undertake, be it in legislative strengthening work abroad or teaching American college students about the role of democracy in the United States.
We again have had a very successful, active and rewarding year. We have continued our work serving as a liaison between the current Congress and legislatures overseas. We have created partnerships with highly respected institutions in the area of democracy building and election monitoring. We have created new projects, most notably a webcasting program which reaches thousands of college students on a weekly basis. And we again sent dozens of bipartisan teams of former Members of Congress to university campuses here in the United States and abroad as part of our Congress to Campus Program. I am, therefore, very pleased to now report on the program work of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.
Less than 2 years ago, our association approached the Canadian Association of Former Members of Congress and the Association of Former Members of the European Parliament to create an entity that would train former legislators in democracy building work, most notably election monitoring. The resulting organization, the International Election Monitors Institute, has become the cornerstone of our democracy building work.
I now would like to ask one of the founders of this institute, Dennis Hertel of Michigan, to report on this aspect of our programming.
Mr. HERTEL. I thank the gentleman from Kansas.
Mr. RHODES. The Chair recognizes Mr. Hertel for such time as he may consume, so long as it's not too much.
Mr. HERTEL. Thank you, Jim, for giving me the opportunity to report on the International Election Monitors Institute and other advances our association has made in this field. The institute has created a board of directors made up of former legislators from the United States, Canada and Europe. I am pleased to see so many of them with us here today from Canada and Europe. I especially want to thank Doug Rowland and his wife Helen for their great leadership in our efforts. We work together to train our former colleagues in accepted election observation conduct, particularly the Code of Conduct created by the United Nations, and we collaborate with several renowned organizations in this field to send our members on election monitoring missions across the globe. We have an invitation from OSCE to add our trained observers to their missions, primarily in eastern Europe. In addition, we are coordinating with the OAS to have former legislators play a role in their delegations. Thanks to the Canadian International Development Agency, we now have a 5-year grant to create a training course and other initial programs to get the institution off the ground, to begin this very month. We are extremely honored to be one of a few organizations that were invited to participate in an election monitoring convention in Strasbourg, France, earlier this year.
But the concept goes beyond election monitoring. We envision that our members can become permanently instrumental in democracy building work, such as training newly elected legislators, or aiding in a peaceful transition of government. We, therefore, are working closely with organizations such as NDI, IRI, IFES, and the U.S. Department of State so that the unique expertise we have can be used to maximum benefit. For example, last year we had the opportunity to bring our members together with elected officials from countries such as Kenya and Afghanistan. We were able to share our experience and aid those nations as they try to establish a democratic form of government. In addition to all of these projects, we are thrilled to continue our working relationship with the House Democracy Assistance Commission, so ably chaired by David Price, Congressman from North Carolina. We will work with them as they bring visiting delegations to the United States, and we will have our members travel abroad to help implement their program in its overseas legislative strengthening missions.
I am very excited that our association has embarked on these types of missions and I believe that we are making a real difference in strengthening democracy worldwide. Please see our Web site at www.usafmc.org for a much more detailed description of these projects.
I really want to thank the members who have been so active in sacrificing their time, including those members who went to oversee the Ukraine election over the Christmas holidays, to show how they have stood up for democracy around the world and making the great sacrifice in their own personal lives. Thank you.
Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Dennis, for the report.
Mr. RHODES. Will the gentleman suspend for a moment.
The Republican leader, Mr. Boehner, is in the Chamber and out of deference to what I know is a busy schedule for him, I would like to recognize the Republican leader.
Mr. BOEHNER. Good morning to all of you and welcome back for the 37th annual Former Members Day. I look around the audience and see a lot of familiar faces. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your service to the institution and thank you for what you are continuing to do.
I presume that some of you know, but of your colleagues, Bob Walker's, wife passed away several days ago. Our prayers are with Bob and his family. Bob and I served together. His wife was a great influence on him and on his career, and it's sad to see her go over a fight with cancer that had gone on since last summer.
I had to come today, one, to see all of you, but to see my good friend Bob Dole. Bob and I got to know each other in 1994, when I was this bomb-throwing new Member, relatively new Member--Sarpalius remembers--and then in 1995 after Republicans took the majority, Bob and I sat in many bicameral leadership meetings together. And for some young whippersnapper who didn't know the ways around here, not that I always agreed with Senator Dole, but I always had great respect for him. Especially now, looking back those 12, 13 years ago, I realize how much I learned from Bob. I think Bob represents all that we would expect of ourselves in his demeanor, the way he did his business here. He represents an entire generation of Americans, the World War II generation, and I couldn't miss this opportunity to come and say hello to him.
Now, all of you know that Bob would tend to sit on his porch and work on his tan. Then he would run off to Florida on the weekends and work on his tan. And one night when we could still fly airplanes, private airplanes out of National, I ran into Bob one day as we were going somewhere, he was coming back, and he looked over at me and says,
``Hey, tan man.'' And so this has been a running joke between the two of us, because if there was somebody who always had a better tan than I did, it was Dole.
I could tell other stories, Bob, but I think I'll stop there. Let me just say welcome. Welcome back to all of you. Thank you for what you did for this institution to keep it alive and healthy for our generation. I just hope that those of us who have some guiding hand in where this institution is going today can do as good a job as all of you have in terms of leaving the institution in a stronger way for the next generation of leaders. Thank you and welcome.
Mr. RHODES. On behalf of the association, Mr. Boehner, thank you very much for your time and your thoughts and for the work you do for all of us.
Mr. Slattery.
Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Leader Boehner, for coming by and greeting us. We appreciate it. I also appreciate your service to our country and to this institution.
In addition to the international work that Dennis just highlighted, our association also focuses on creating a dialogue involving current Members of Congress and their colleagues in legislatures abroad. We administer four congressional study groups involving Germany, Turkey, Mexico and Japan. We have arranged almost 500 special events at the U.S. Capitol for international delegations from over 80 countries and the European Parliament. We hosted meetings for individual Members of Parliament and parliamentary staff, and organized approximately 50 foreign policy seminars in about a dozen countries involving more than 1,500 former and current legislators.
To report in more detail about the Congressional Study Groups, I yield the floor to the former President of the Association, Jack Buechner from Missouri.
Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, Jim.
The association actually operates as the secretariat for four very special programs where we share legislative ideas with parliamentarians, our staff to their staffs, in Germany, which is the flagship of our program, and the longest standing one, Turkey, Japan and Mexico. The study group on Germany serves as a model for all the other study groups under the umbrella of the association and it has been in existence for 20 years. It has allowed communication of really an extraordinary status. The study group was founded in 1983 as an informal group and became formal in 1987. Ongoing study group activities include a Distinguished Visitors Program at the U.S. Capitol for guests from Germany; sponsoring annual seminars involving Members of Congress and the Bundestag; providing information about participants in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program; and organizing a senior congressional staff study tour to Germany. The 2007 annual Congress-Bundestag seminar took nine current Members of the House to Hamburg and Berlin for meetings with their peers in the Bundestag. In addition, we arranged a meeting for the group with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and were thrilled that she participated in a follow-up to that meeting here on Capitol Hill just last week. The Congressional Study Group on Germany would like to thank Craig Kennedy of the German Marshall Fund, the primary supporter of activities related to the study group. Additional funding comes from a group of corporations who have been very supportive, including Lufthansa, Daimler Benz, BASF, Deutsche Telekom and DHL Americas.
Emulating Germany and the other study groups, the association established a Congressional Study Group on Turkey at the beginning of 2005, one of our strategic allies and is at the crossroads of many challenges of the 21st century. Current Members of Congress have been brought together with their legislative peers in Turkey and serves as a platform for participants to learn about relations between our two countries. Thanks to funding from the Turkish Coalition of America, the Economic Policy Research Institute and other groups, including the German Marshall Fund, this is becoming a very, very special relationship. We also want to thank Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan who also came over and met with our members and the congressional Members.
The association serves as the secretariat for the Congressional Study Group on Japan and on Mexico. We have been lucky enough to have Foreign Minister Taro Aso as a visitor twice and then just recently Ambassador Chris Hill, head of the U.S. Delegation to the Six-Party Talks on the North Korea nuclear issue, spoke to a very special group of sitting Members of the Congress.
Last but not least we have got the study group on Mexico which has really been special in taking together senior staffers and exchanging them. I have had the pleasure of moderating a follow-up to this trip when our organization hosted a webcast focused on immigration, obviously an issue that is of great concern to both parties.
Let me also add that the association has had a highly productive working relationship with the French Ambassador, his Excellency Jean-
David Levitte which has led to the creation of the Former Members Committee on France.
There are so many things that the association has done and we thank the Congress for allowing us to work with them and have them exchange with their counterparts throughout the world. We hope it will continue that way. I think that the Members can be very proud of the work they do to make these groups possible. I look forward to being an active participant in the activities of the study groups for years to come.
Thank you.
Mr. RHODES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Slattery.
Mr. SLATTERY. Jack, thanks again for the report.
We can be proud, I think, of the excellent programming offered by these study groups. Of course not all of our activities are international in nature. One of the most gratifying programs involving our association's members is the Congress to Campus Program. This is a bipartisan effort to share with college students throughout the country our unique insight on the work of the Congress and the political process. We have collaborated on this program for many years with the Stennis Center for Public Service and we appreciate the invaluable assistance they render to make this program so successful.
Since 2003, this program was managed by our colleague David Skaggs in conjunction with the Council for Excellence in Government. David has returned to public service and is now executive director of Colorado's Department of Higher Education. But he did a tremendous job managing the Congress to Campus Program and under his leadership it expanded year after year. During this last academic year which just concluded, we visited 28 schools and interacted with approximately 13,000 students. We thank David for his efforts.
To further report on this program is Mike Parker of Mississippi. Mike, it is good to see you and look forward to a brief report here on the Congress to Campus Program.
Mr. PARKER. Mr. Chairman, in the interest of time I would like to just submit my report for the record, we're running a little short of time today, but encourage everyone to get involved in the Congress to Campus Program. It is an extremely effective program for our organization.
Thank you, Jim, for the opportunity to report on this outstanding program. The Congress to Campus Program addresses a significant shortfall in civic learning and engagement among the country's young people of college age. It combines traditional educational content about American government and politics (especially Congress) with a strong message about public service, all delivered by men and women who have ``walked the walk.'' The Program sends bipartisan pairs of former Members of Congress to visit college, university and community college campuses around the country. During each visit, the Members conduct classes, hold community forums, meet informally with students and faculty, visit high schools and civic organizations, and do interviews and talk show appearances with local press and media.
This year, Congress to Campus has expanded to include former Member participation in Washington, DC area meetings with student groups wishing to learn about public service, the U.S. Congress and Federal Government, and important political and policy issues. All told, this academic year former Members spoke to more than 13,000 college and high schools students under the auspices of the Congress to Campus Program. We have to thank the Council for Excellence in Government and the Stennis Center for Public Service without whom this great program could not have been conducted this year.
In the 2006-2007 academic year, the program sponsored twenty-four events involving twenty-eight colleges and universities around the country and the world. These visits took thirty former Members to universities, service academies, and colleges in fourteen states and three countries. Eleven former Members made more than one campus visit.
We continue to fine-tune the content and substance of program visits based on feedback from Members and host professors. The program asks visiting Members and host professors to complete an evaluation of each visit. We encourage host schools to include nearby colleges and universities in Congress to Campus visits and to schedule a broad scope of classes and activities for the former Members. We will continue to make changes in response to the suggestions of participating former Members and host faculty.
A draft schedule of events is prepared in advance of each campus visit and reviewed by staff to assure variety as well as substance. There is a conference call before each trip with Members and the responsible campus contact person to review the revised schedule and iron out any remaining problems. Members also receive CRS briefing materials on current issues and background information on government service opportunities prior to each visit.
This year the Congress to Campus Program greatly expanded its working relationship with the People to People Ambassador Program (PTP). PTP brings groups of Junior High students from around the country to the Washington, DC area to participate in ``World Leadership Forum'' events. Students are nominated by teachers to attend and are selected based on their academic achievement, interest in government and international affairs, and leadership potential. This academic year former Members participated in twenty-seven PTP events by speaking to students about public service and character in political and legislative leadership.
The Congress to Campus Program's association with PTP furthers the Program's goals of promoting public service and understanding of the U.S. Congress and federal government. Several former Members were more than generous with their time and efforts as they participated in several of these early-morning PTP events. Those participating in PTP events this year were Bob Carr (MI), Bill Clinger (PA), Orval Hansen
(ID), Matt McHugh (NY), Bruce Morrison (CT), Ron Sarasin (CT), and David Skaggs (CO). I also participated in some of these meetings and can highly recommend the experience to my colleagues. It is just great to interact with these kids!
Congress to Campus made its first international visit in October 2003 to the United Kingdom. Since that time campus visits have taken former Members to universities in Canada, China, Germany, and back to the United Kingdom. This year former Members made four visits outside of the U.S. which included stops at eight universities in Canada and the United Kingdom.
The success of the Program obviously depends on Members' participation. With travel back and forth, Members end up devoting about three days to each campus visit. This is a priceless contribution of an extremely valuable resource. This year Members of the Association will again be surveyed to solicit information regarding their availability for and interest in a program campus visit. We will use responses to these surveys and personal contact with the membership to update the roster of those available to make campus visits. Association Members are encouraged to complete and return the survey they will receive this summer and then to be ready to accept assignments to one of the fine institutions of higher education the Program will serve next year.
Interest in Congress to Campus remains strong in the academic community. Association Members participating in campus visits are enthusiastic about the value of the Program and the rewards it brings to all who are involved in those visits. The Program could be expanded even further on domestic levels if funding uncertainties can be addressed and Member participation is broadened. Thank you.
Mr. SLATTERY. Mike, thanks so much. Again, we thank David Skaggs for his leadership on this. We are running short on time here today, so we will move along quickly.
There are numerous other activities of the Association of Former Members which deserve to be highlighted today, but in the interest of time we are going to be very brief in this.
I would like to yield to my friend and colleague Lou Frey of Florida who conceived this idea of a webcasting program. Lou, if you could give us a brief report on the webcasting project which I think holds great potential in terms of our ability to communicate especially with college students all across the country and we are already reaching thousands with this webcasting program, thanks to your initiative.
Mr. FREY. Thank you, Mr. President.
I have an institute at the University of Central Florida and we have about 500 to 1,000 kids come every 6 months. It was rather frustrating because lot of young people couldn't get there. We said maybe we can put this on the Internet and somebody will look at it. We started doing that and next thing you know, we had about 60,000 or 70,000 young people over the Internet looking at it.
So I went to Jim and I said, Jim, there is no better place for programming than the former Members of Congress. There's more intelligence here, there's more knowledge, and it's really needed across the country. And why don't we see if we can take this idea and use it for the former Members.
So we started that process. We have had, oh, five, six or seven Internet programs already. We have reached about 60,000 people. We just signed an agreement with an Internet radio station that has up to 13 million subscribers, and we were very pleased to see Staples has agreed to come on as our chief sponsor. So now we've got a base of maybe 60 colleges, a school district in California, a number of high schools, and I think by the time we get to this place next year, we seriously should have somewhere between a half a million people and a million people on our Internet system. It really will get the former Members out across the country and it is something that's really needed.
I want to mention, too, that Brook Smith, who is the head of it, the network, itself, has been a great help, Jim, in working with us. I will submit my remarks for the Record.
Thank you, Jim. You are absolutely right, in addition to the election monitor venture Dennis Hertel described earlier, the webcasting project is certainly the most exciting new development for our Association in many years. I became involved in creating programming for the Internet via the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the University of Central Florida. We have a symposium every six months and it always seemed to me that the panels and expert discussions we hosted ought to reach an audience greater than the five hundred to a thousand people we could fit into an auditorium. So about 2 years ago we put one of our events on the internet and hooked up a couple of universities to participate. The response was tremendous and it very quickly became obvious that we had discovered a real need for substantive and issue-
specific programming to go out to a community of universities and high schools. Picture a three-hour program focused on the environment. It goes out to numerous schools via the Internet and students from all over the country can view it and, more importantly, engage in a live dialogue by asking questions and e-mailing comments to the panelists.
The obvious next step was to expand the list of content providers while also expanding the list of viewers. Given all the important and fascinating work our Association does, I immediately thought of the former Members as a regular webcast producer. Our Association staff, particularly Pete Weichlein and Rebecca Zylberman, have put tremendous effort and imagination into this idea and they have really run with it. We've worked together for many months on the webcasting project and we have created some very impressive programming and discussions. This in turn has driven university subscribers and we now have over 60 institutions of higher learning, along with over 20 high schools and an entire California school district, subscribing to the program. That's a potential audience of over 500,000 students! We also have an agreement with an internet radio station that reaches 13 million subscribers. And the list keeps on growing. The first webcast of the Association was in early November of last year. Our staff put together three separate panels consisting of almost 20 of our Association members to analyze every aspect of the mid-term elections. The webcast lasted three hours and was viewed by over 60,000 students. We have since then put together a slew of very impressive and informative programming, focusing for example on President Bush's State of the Union Address or on the immigration debate in the Congress. Just yesterday we hosted a one hour webcast involving our Canadian and European colleagues to discuss the importance of election monitoring and the mechanics of observing both a campaign and an election. This program is a great way of reaching out to thousands of college and high school students. It gives them the chance to have a real discussion with our members about topics they read about in the newspapers or hear about on TV. And it gives our members the chance to interact with the next generation of America's leaders. Given the great work we do with the Congress to Campus Program, the webcasting project is a natural extension of that effort.
To make the webcasting project a permanent addition to our programming, we had to find some partners who could support this endeavor. We are working with the Educational Webcasting Network (EWN) and its President Brook Smith and they provide to us the technological know-how to present a professional broadcast to our students. Also, via the EWN, we have found a corporate sponsor to make the program a reality. I am very pleased to announce today that Staples will support our webcasting project and give it the necessary backing to continue this active and exciting endeavor. We are thrilled about this new partnership and I would like to thank Staples for the trust they have placed in us.
Virtually everyone of our Association's many programs lends itself to being discussed via a webcast. For example, I am working right now on completing a follow-up to the Association's very successful publication: Inside the House, Former Members Reveal How Congress Really Works. This second volume will compile the rules of the road of politics and life former and current Members of Congress have sent to me over the past 2 years. For instance, less than a year before he passed away, President Ford sent me a five-page summary of his rules. What were your basic rules of thumb, both in politics and in life? How did they play out once you got to Capitol Hill? We have received a tremendous number of responses to our last call for submissions, but it is not too late to send me your rules of the road, just do it as soon as possible. You can contact our Association office and they'll let you know how to get it to me. We are hoping to finish the book later this year and will have a book presentation via our webcast once the 2nd volume is published.
Our Association has taken great strides toward becoming a well-known and highly respected think tank nationally and internationally for a wide range of tremendously important issues. We all have such a unique skill-set and experience, and I am thrilled to see that via the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress there is a vehicle to share that expertise with the public, particularly students, both here in the United States and abroad. Thank you.
Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Lou.
Mr. Speaker, in the interest of time, I will insert the rest of our report in the Record.
dinner, new orleans
Thank you, Lou, for that report and thank you also for pioneering this webcasting opportunity for our Association. I agree with you that this is a very exciting development with tremendous potential for our organization and its members. Our Association also owes Lou Frey a debt of gratitude for his 10th year as chairman of our Annual Statesmanship Award Dinner. This is the Association's only fundraising event and without Lou Frey we would not have had 10 years of financial growth for our organization. He is tireless, some say merciless, in whipping our dinner committee into shape and working until the very last minute to make the evening a success. The 10th annual dinner was held in March and we were very pleased that we could honor not one, but two of our former colleagues. We bestowed upon former Member Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho--as you well know he currently serves as Secretary of the Interior--our Distinguished Service Award. And, we took the occasion of this being our 10th dinner, to create a new award: the Excellence in Public Service Award. We recognized former Member Rob Portman of Ohio for his tremendous work since leaving Congress, most recently as the Director of OMB. Mr. Speaker, allow me to just briefly highlight some of the other activities of our Association during 2006. For example, in October of last year the Association hosted a Fall Meeting in New Orleans. The purpose of the Fall Meeting is to bring our membership together in a place other than Washington, DC. A little more than one year had passed since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and we wanted to give our members the opportunity to see for themselves how far the rebuilding effort had come along and how much work still needs to be done. At this point we should thank Senator Mary Landrieu and her fantastic staff for helping us put together a very intense and impressive program. Our members met with city officials, including the Superintendent of Police, as well as the Army Corps of Engineers. We toured the lower 9th Ward and the 17th Street Canal Breach. It is an understatement to say that our group was unprepared for the devastation still rampant in that beautiful city. Even today, there are whole neighborhoods that remain uninhabitable. But we should also highlight that the reconstruction efforts the city and its people have undertaken are amazing and inspiring. New Orleans is one of the jewels of this country and we need to be mindful that the city deserves all the help we can give it.
Officers and Board
Mr. Speaker, the Association benefits tremendously from the efforts and leadership of many people. I wish to thank my fellow officers of the Association for their energy, dedication and invaluable counsel during my first year as President. They are Jay Rhodes, Dennis Hertel, Mike Parker, and Jack Buechner. Let me also thank the members of our Board of Directors and our Counselors for providing excellent guidance and support throughout the year. In addition, we benefit greatly from the wonderful work of Auxiliary, led so ably by Debi Alexander.
Mr. Speaker, to administer all these programs takes a staff of dedicated and enthusiastic professionals. We expanded our team from four to five full-time employees since our last report, which is another sign of how active and successful a year it has been for the Association.
Visiting Foreign Former Members
Mr. Speaker, we already reported on the work of the International Election Monitors Institute which we created in conjunction with our colleagues from Canada and from the European Union. We are very pleased to have with us today several former legislators as our guests. The Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians is represented by its Chair, Doug Rowland, as well as former Members Don Boudria and Doug Frith. Mr. John Parker is with us representing the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians. From the Association of Former Members of the European Parliament we welcome Anna Pietrasik and Richard Balfe. And from the New Zealand Parliament we are joined by Maurice McTigue. We are honored that you are here and thank you for the great relationship our organizations enjoy.
Mr. RHODES. I would like to just add what I know you would like to add in terms of thanks to Lou Frey for his service to this association.
Mr. SLATTERY. Absolutely.
Mr. RHODES. He does a lot of work for us and it always turns out well. It always adds to his ulcers, but in the end everything comes out just fine, Lou. We appreciate you very, very much. Thank you.
Mr. SLATTERY. Amen, Lou. Appreciate you and appreciate all you do and have done for the association.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to just take 1 minute to acknowledge the incredible staff that we have over at the Association: Pete Weichlein, our executive director, who's doing an incredible job; Sudha David-Wilp who manages our international programs is just wonderful; Rebecca Zylberman, the senior program officer; Meredith McNeil, the international program officer; and Tracy Fine, our executive assistant. This staff that we have put together over there thanks to my predecessors is just doing a tremendous job. I encourage all of you to be in touch with them as you attempt to engage in the work of the association.
At this time, Mr. Speaker, it is now my sad duty to inform the House of those people who served in Congress and have passed away since our report last year. They are:
William Robert Anderson of Tennessee
Lloyd Bensten of Texas
Joel Broyhill of Virginia
Clair Burgener of California
Helen Chenoweth-Hage of Idaho
Harold Collier of Illinois
N. Neiman Craley, Jr., of Pennsylvania
Steven B. Derounian of New York
Reverend Robert F. Drinan of Massachusetts
Thomas Eagleton of Missouri
President Gerald R. Ford of Michigan
Robert Giaimo of Connecticut
Ralph Harding of Idaho
Chic Hecht of Nevada
Jim Jontz of Indiana
Thomas S. Kleppe of North Dakota
Thomas Manton of New York
Robert Mathias of California
Jack Metcalf of Washington
Juanita Millender-McDonald of California
Sonny Montgomery of Mississippi
Charles W. Norwood, Jr., of Georgia
James Olin of Virginia
Charlotte Reid of Illinois
Theodore Risenhoover of Oklahoma
J.T. Rutherford of Texas
George A. Smathers of Florida
Virginia Smith of Nebraska
Marion Gene Snyder of Kentucky
Gerry Studds of Massachusetts
I ask all of you, including the visitors in the gallery, to rise for a moment of silence as we pay our respect to their memory.
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, each year the Association presents a Distinguished Service Award to an outstanding public servant and former Member of Congress. The award rotates between parties, as do our officers. This year, we are very pleased to be honoring a remarkable Republican, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole from Kansas, my home State.
General Colin Powell once described him as ``a plainspoken man of strength, maturity and integrity.'' I know him as a fellow Kansan with an unconventional candor and prairie wit who loves his State and loves our country. We all know him as one of the most prominent political figures of our time and one of the legislative giants in our Nation's history.
Senator Robert Dole was born July 22, 1923 in Russell, Kansas. He has been quoted as saying, ``Anyone who wants to understand me must first understand Russell, Kansas. It is my home, where my roots lie, and a constant source of strength. In Russell, I came to understand there are things worth living for, and, if need be, dying for.''
Senator Dole served in World War II as a platoon leader in the legendary 10th Mountain Division in Italy. In 1945, he was gravely wounded on the battlefield, spent 39 months in the hospital, and was twice decorated for heroic achievement. His decorations including two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster.
Senator Dole graduated from Washburn University in 1952 with a law degree and went on to represent then the Third District of Kansas, later what became known as the Big First, from 1961 to 1969. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968, Senator Dole served as either majority leader or minority leader from 1985 to 1996. He was chairman of the Committee on Finance during the 97th and 98th Congresses, as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1971-72.
While serving in the Senate, Senator Dole earned national acclaim for his leadership on behalf of the disadvantaged and Americans with disabilities. He left his mark on many pieces of major legislation, ranging from farm bills to Social Security and food stamps. He was always a conservative and strong voice for fiscal responsibility.
In 1976, he was the GOP candidate for Vice President alongside President Gerald Ford. In 1996, Senator Dole was the Republican Party's candidate for President. In 1997, President Clinton recognized Senator Dole's remarkable career of public service by granting him a Presidential Medal of Freedom, our Nation's highest civilian honor.
Since his retirement from the Senate, Senator Dole has reestablished his law career here in Washington; has written a book called ``One Soldier's Story: A Memoir''; served as chairman of the National World War II Memorial; and joined forces with President Bill Clinton to serve as cochair of the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, assisting the educational needs of the families of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Flight 93. Most recently, President Bush appointed Dole as chairman of the commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics housed at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, was established to encourage public service and promote bipartisanship and statesmanship in American politics.
I have often said that when the doors were closed and the tough work of governing had to be done, Bob Dole could be counted on to make the hard decisions that he believed were in the best interest of the country that he loves. That makes him in my mind a statesman and a great patriot.
On behalf of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, it is a great pleasure and honor for me to present our 2007 Distinguished Service Award to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Let me read the plaque as it is inscribed:
``Presented by the United States Association of Former Members of Congress to Senator Robert J. Dole of Kansas for a lifetime of dedicated and exceptional service to his country. Whether as an officer in World War II or as the highest ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, Bob Dole has always exemplified strong and courageous leadership. He has received his Nation's highest honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Purple Hearts, and the Bronze Star. He served as Senate majority leader and as his party's nominee for Vice President and for President. Bob Dole is a true American hero and his former colleagues from both sides of the political aisle salute him. Washington, DC, May 10, 2007.''
Mr. RHODES. The Chair is pleased to recognize the Honorable Senator Robert Dole for such time as he wishes to consume.
Mr. DOLE. Well, I am pleased to have somebody with Kansas roots presiding. So thank you.
Mr. RHODES. The blood is there, Senator.
Mr. DOLE. Well, I never had this many people show up when I was in the House, so this is a big improvement over the 8 years I spent here.
I've been trying to get Slattery to use Grecian Formula. Once you get used to the taste, it works very well. I'll send him another bottle.
I've been thinking about this place and all the people here and some of whom I've served with. There are not many left anymore, but I see my friend Bob Michel here.
It will be 11 years on June 11 since I left the Capitol and 38 years this past January that I left this Chamber. Forty-six years ago I walked into this Chamber and didn't have a clue. I didn't know anything about anything. Maybe that happens even now, but I doubt it. Before I go any further, I want to recognize my wife, Elizabeth. Thank you for being here.
I just jotted down a few things. I always spoke on the 1-minute rule. Speaker McCormack was always very kind to give us a little time, but it was to say the least exciting to have a front row seat for somebody from Russell, Kansas, in the Congress of the United States. My hero, of course, was President Eisenhower. He was leaving Washington just as I was arriving. I remember shortly after he left, he invited our freshman class, all the Democrats and Republicans in our freshman class, to come to Gettysburg where he spent about 3 hours giving us a personal tour of the Gettysburg battlefield, and then we had lunch and he put us on a bus and waved good-bye. That is still one of the most memorable moments in my career, because whether you're a Democrat or Republican, Eisenhower was revered by people of all generations.
I came to Washington when John Kennedy was elected President, and I remember it very well, because there was a big, big snowstorm the night before the inaugural, and I was trapped in my office in the Cannon Building and I didn't have any clean shirt to wear and there was a drug store at that time right across the street, they even handled shirts, so I went over and bought me a fresh shirt and it was a very, very bitter cold day. I remember when President Kennedy gave his inaugural address, he challenged the Nation, all of us, Republicans, Democrats and led by a new generation because he was a new generation, as he said, ``Tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.''
He went on, declaring, and this is a very famous quote that we all know about, that we would ``pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.'' It is much the same today though we have maybe different ideas on how it is to be done.
I was thinking back about what really happened as far as legislative achievements in the 8 years and many things when I was here did happen, many things were important. I remember amendments to the national school lunch program and the food for peace program that was initiated by President Eisenhower. It was a nonpartisan program. I was here when I heard President Johnson proclaim, ``We shall overcome.'' Here I was a conservative Republican, President Johnson a liberal southern Democrat, but we were as one on the defining issue of our times and the defining issue of our times was civil rights. I was here and proudly voted
``aye'' in 1964 when the first civil rights legislation was passed.
I remember Speaker Rayburn. I remember I used to grip the chair and he was very quiet, very reserved. I never had a long conversation with him. I don't think many people did. But I served longer with John McCormack of Massachusetts, who was Speaker from 1962 to 1971. And then when I left the House and went to the Senate, I knew Carl Albert very well. He was a great guy and from Oklahoma. Tip O'Neill, Jim Wright, Tom Foley, Newt Gingrich.
I think of all the Speakers I knew, the one that I had the best rapport with was Tip O'Neill. I think Bob Michel might agree, because he would sit in his office and roll that cigar back and forth and have a conversation. He was just one of the finest politicians--and I use that word in the right sense--finest politicians I ever met. Politicians take a lot of beating which they don't deserve, but that's another topic.
But Tip O'Neill was a friend of another leader of this body, Gerald Ford. As many of you know, Gerald Ford's ambition was to become Speaker of the House. Well, he never made it, but he became Vice President and President of the United States which probably to him was a second prize. And I think we were all reminded earlier this year that history chose a good and decent man to heal the wounds of Watergate when President Ford was there.
I remember being asked, I can't remember by who, what I would do in the House. Well, my answer was to follow the advice of a late Senator from Kansas, Senator Frank Carlson, who told me to sit back and listen and then stand up for what you believe in. The truth is while I served here, I did what my parents taught me: You work hard, you keep your word, you treat others the way you want to be treated, and, of course, you do your best.
As Jim Slattery pointed out, I'm proud of my Kansas roots and I would not have made it here had it not been for my friends in Russell who sort of rallied around me after World War II. They taught me that the greatness of America lies not in the power of her government but in the goodness of her people. I owe my life to my family, to a lot of doctors and nurses in and out of Army hospitals, and many, many others.
Finally, age may or may not bestow wisdom, but it does carry certain privileges, among them the right to remember and perhaps distill whatever perspective comes with experience. As I reflect on my years in Congress and in Washington, what comes to mind first are not the legislative battles won or lost but the friendships forged for life. Thomas Jefferson said that ``a friendship is precious not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life. And thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine.'' Much of the sunshine in my life stems from the privilege of serving in Congress and working with men and women of both parties.
I am very proud to receive this award. I have learned that if you live long enough, you get a lot of awards, they're coming in pretty fast at my age, but I consider this a very distinct honor because I know how hard you all worked.
I would just close with, some of us at least, it may be a confession on my part. First I want to thank you for all you do. But somebody handed me a little poem called Around the Corner. Sometimes we get so busy and so maybe self-centered sometimes, this is what it is:
Around the corner I have a friend,In this great city that has no end.Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,And before I know it, a year is gone.And I never see my old friend's face,For life is a swift and terrible race.He knows I like him just as well,As in the days when I rang his bell.And he rang mine but we were younger then,And now we are busy, tired men.Tired of playing a foolish game,Tired of trying to make a name.Tomorrow, I say, I will call on Jim,Just to show that I'm thinking of him.But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,And distance between us grows and grows.Around the corner, yet miles away,
``Here's a telegram, sir.'' ``Jim died today.''And that's what we get and deserve in the end,Around the corner a vanished friend.
Thank you.
Mr. SLATTERY. Senator Dole, one other thing we wanted to give you. This is two little booklets of congratulatory letters from your friends. We wanted to just present that to you, also.
Mr. RHODES. Our thanks to the Senator from the United States of America, Mr. Dole.
There are a couple of things I need to mention. We would be remiss if we did not recognize that we have several foreign visitors, Members of Parliament from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and Great Britain. We appreciate your being with us and hope you'll enjoy the rest of the day with us.
Members who did not record their presence can come forward and record their presence verbally with the Reading Clerk. I need to mention to you that our buses are out on Independence Avenue. It would be helpful if you would proceed to those buses as if you were civilians rather than Congressmen.
Last, I want to recognize a voice that has not been heard here today. That is the voice of Paul Hays. Paul was the Reading Clerk in this House when each and every one of us was here. Paul has retired. I understand that there is to be a reception in Paul's honor this evening at 5 o'clock in the Rayburn Room.
I want to thank all of you for being here. Good luck to you.
The House of Representatives will reconvene in 15 minutes.
Accordingly (at 10 o'clock and 8 minutes a.m.), the House continued in recess.
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