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“RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT--AMENDMENT NO. 1640” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S331-S332 on Feb. 4, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT--AMENDMENT NO. 1640
Mr. REID. Mr. President, we will shortly be called upon to vote on an amendment that I offered yesterday with Senator Torricelli to change the name of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, in effect to take his name off the building and have it referred to as the FBI Building.
That underlying amendment is really about how we honor those who undertake the profession of public service. The amendment is about those who serve the public and also contrasting that with those who abused its trust and violated the rights of thousands of public and private citizens.
Mr. President, we dishonor our undisputed reputation as the greatest defender of civil liberties in the world by maintaining the name of J. Edgar Hoover on the FBI's headquarters. This amendment will remove one of the last vestiges of McCarthyism still on display in Washington.
Yesterday, Mr. President, I talked about some of the things that he did. I talked about some of the people he abused, such as Joe Louis.
Today, I am going to talk about a few more people whose civil rights he violated. Irving Berlin, the man who wrote ``God Bless America,'' and ``White Christmas'' and hundreds of other songs, was a person that J. Edgar Hoover investigated endlessly for years. Irving Berlin did not die until he was 101 years old, but he was investigated by J. Edgar Hoover for most of his life.
He conducted surveillance on Albert Einstein, Wernher Von Braun, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Rock Hudson, Elvis Presley, Senator John Tower, Cesar Chavez.
Mr. President, in Chavez's case, the FBI seemed omnipresent, tuning in to the Reverend Jesse Jackson's radio broadcasts dealing with Cesar Chavez when Jesse Jackson was simply appealing for support for the farm workers. Chavez created so much concern by J. Edgar Hoover that they had many FBI agents keeping tabs on a Valentine's Day dance at Grand Rapids Junior College in Michigan where there was literature being distributed about a grape boycott. He even had investigators following people who were on a 12-man march dealing with the grape boycott.
We simply do not honor the historical record of this country by maintaining this man's name on Bureau headquarters.
Mr. President, in a biography that I talked about yesterday, written by Curt Gentry, which he spent 10 years writing, Gentry says that Hoover used his FBI files to advance the careers of numerous politicians he liked, including President Nixon, and against those he did not like, including the Kennedys, Estes Kefauver and Adlai Stevenson.
Gentry further said that extensive records were maintained on the suspected amorous adventures of President Kennedy. And Hoover ordered the bugging of the entire Justice Department during Bobby Kennedy's tenure as Attorney General. Gentry isn't saying that he maintained wiretaps of various places in the Justice Department, but everything was wiretapped in the Justice Department.
So the list is endless of people who this man thought was suspicious. There is no question in my mind that he is the greatest violator of human rights during this century in this country. That says a lot. I hope that my colleagues will remove from that building something that is and should be an embarrassment to all people who believe in human rights.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, I want to rise today to introduce the Survivors of Torture Support Act and to ask my colleagues for their support, and I send the bill to the desk.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and referred to the appropriate committee.
(The remarks of Mr. Grams pertaining to the introduction of S. 1603 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
Mr. GRAMS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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