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“CARL ELLIOTT FEDERAL BUILDING” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6893-H6896 on July 25, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CARL ELLIOTT FEDERAL BUILDING
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4806) to designate the Federal building located at 1710 Alabama Avenue in Jasper, Alabama, as the ``Carl Elliott Federal Building''.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 4806
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.
The Federal building located at 1710 Alabama Avenue in Jasper, Alabama, shall be known and designated as the ``Carl Elliott Federal Building''.
SEC. 2. REFERENCES.
Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Federal building referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Carl Elliott Federal Building''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette).
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4806 designates the Federal building located at 1710 Alabama Avenue in Jasper, Alabama, as the Carl Elliott Federal building. This legislation was favorably reported out of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, American Public Buildings, Hazardous Materials and Pipeline Transportation this morning.
Carl Elliott was born in Vina, Franklin County, Alabama, in 1913. He graduated from the University of Alabama Law School, and he was admitted to the Alabama Bar in 1936.
Later that same year, Congressman Elliott established a law practice in Russellville, Alabama, before relocating it to the city of Jasper. Congressman Elliott bravely served the United States of America during the course of World War II. After returning from the war, he was elected to the 81st Congress. During Congressman Elliott's 8 terms in office, he championed educational issues, including providing educational opportunities in rural communities.
While serving on the Committee on Rules, Congressman Elliott supported moderate social issues to provide opportunities for all Americans. After leaving office, Congressman Elliott served on President Lyndon Johnson's Library Commission in 1967 and in 1968. He also served under President Johnson and President Nixon's Public Evaluation Committee, Office of State Technical Services, and as a member of the Technical Advisory Board in the Department of Commerce.
Congressman Elliott passed away January 9 of last year. This is fitting tribute to a former Member. I support the bill and encourage my colleagues to join in support.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation will designate the Federal building in Jasper, Alabama, as the Carl Elliott Federal building. The Member whom we honor represented the 7th district of Alabama for 16 years. He was born in 1913 to a family of very modest means in Franklin County, Alabama.
He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1933 and from its law school in 1936. He practiced law in Russellville, and later moved to Jasper. He was a World War II veteran. He came back to Jasper and got involved in civic activities and was elected to Congress 2 years after my predecessor, John Blatnik, with whom he was a very close friend. John Blatnik, Bob Jones, and Carl Elliott, a Northern Minnesota, but Northern Minnesotan and these two Alabamians, were very, very close friends.
I served as administrative assistant for John Blatnik for 12 years and got to know Carl Elliott and Bob Jones very well. Congressman Elliott lost his seat in the House for an act of courage. He wrote a book entitled ``The Cost of Courage, the Journey of an American Congressman.''
The forward to that book says: ``I am not a man who shows much emotion. I can't remember crying too many times in my life. I cried when my son died. I cried when my wife died, but I don't show a lot of personal feelings. So all of those folks up in Boston probably didn't know how I felt when they brought me out in front of that crowd on a rainy Tuesday morning in the spring of 1990 to give me the first John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award.''
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And he thinks back through time, saying, ``It has been a long time since those farmers and miners sent me to Congress in 1948, where I spent 16 years doing all I could for them, getting dams put up, libraries built, roads cut, mail delivered, doing as much as I could for the Nation; working 10 years to build and finally give birth to the National Defense Education Act,'' and he was the author of that education legislation, ``which opened college doors to millions of students who, without it, never could have afforded the education that change their lives. A long time since I rode the crest of a progressive liberal wave in Congress, spearheaded by my contemporaries from Alabama, Senators Lister Hill, John Sparkman, Congressman Bob Jones, Albert Raines, Ken Roberts and others, to a spot on the Rules Committee, working arm-in-arm with Sam Rayburn and the new President, John F. Kennedy. The world was in our hands. So much of it seemed to be changing for the better. And all of a sudden it came apart. George Wallace was elected Governor of Alabama in '62, Kennedy shot in '63, the tide of segregation and racism cresting, swamping the South in hatred and driving me out of Congress in 1964. It was a long time since I gathered to make a stand against that tide, to face the forces of Wallace, to fight the Klan and the Birchers, the gunfire and smears and hysteria that all became a part of the Alabama governor's race of 1966, a campaign the likes of which my State and this Nation had never seen before, and I pray will never see again.
``That race was 25 years ago, the last time a man seriously stood up to George Wallace in this State, and I paid for it. I paid in dollars, cashing in my pension fund to help finance that campaign, and watching debt follow debt in years to come. I paid in dignity, going to colleges I helped build asking to be hired to teach politics or history. I paid in friendship, seeing many who stood by my side suddenly turn away as they were swept up by the same forces that left me behind. I paid in reputation, still hearing people tell me today that I purely and simply had been a fool, that everything would be fine if I had just played the game, not to commit political and financial suicide for a cause that was hopeless.
``They were higher prices, these were, than I ever imagined. I am 77 now, and I am still paying those prices, but we have all paid the price when the walls of segregation began crumbling across America. The torment, the pain, the push and the passion on both sides of the civil rights movement nearly tore the country apart. America, especially the South, paid a high price then, and is still paying today. The force I faced 25 years ago, a pointed power of racial hatred and sullen resistance, is far from dead in this Nation. To fail to see this, to neglect to continue to do all that we can to resist and rise above it, is to pay a higher price than any of us can afford.''
In his speech at the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, he said, ``There were those who said I was ahead of my time. But they were wrong. I believe that I was always behind the times that ought to be. The thing that I cherish more than any award or honor is the National Defense Education Act. It is still putting equipment into schools, training teachers, giving good students an opportunity to go to college. More than 20 million students have taken that opportunity. I consider them my family. When everything is said and done, when all the shouting and the hullabaloo are over, and there are no postscripts left to write, all you have got is yourself and the way you lived your life, the things you stood for, or didn't stand for. If you can live with that, you are all right, and, me, I can live with that.''
I think we can all live with the Carl Elliott Federal Building.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I always learn a great deal when I listen to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) talk, it does not matter what the subject. The gentleman has more knowledge, institutional and otherwise, than any Member of the House.
I did not know that Mr. Elliott was the author of the NDEA. And if it had not been for the NDEA, I would not have had the opportunity to afford to go to college. So I am doubly pleased to be bringing the bill to the floor today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt), the author of the legislation before us.
(Mr. ADERHOLT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. ADERHOLT. Mr. Speaker, it has already been stated tonight and it has been stated very eloquently some things about Congressman Carl Elliott, who served as an outstanding representative for Alabama and our Nation throughout his life.
He was born to Will and Nora Massey Elliott of Vina, in Franklin County, Alabama, in 1913, and he tirelessly devoted himself to serving others. He was a 1936 graduate of the University of Alabama Law School and he was admitted to the practice in Alabama under the Alabama State Bar the same year. He also set up his law practice in Russellville, Alabama, in 1936 and later moved that practice to Jasper, Alabama, where he later served as judge of the Recorders Court.
In June of 1940, Carl Elliott married Jane Hamilton, who remained his wife until her death in 1985. Through their years together, the couple raised four children, Carl, Jr., Martha, John and Lenora.
Following military service in the Second World War, Carl Elliott rose quickly in public life and was elected to the 81st and seven succeeding Congresses beginning in 1948.
From the first day he came to Washington, Carl Elliott began working on a bill for Federal aid for education. In every Congressional session from 1949 to 1958, Carl Elliott introduced some form of a student aid act, knowing that under the seniority system, his legislation might take years to get a hearing. Despite these challenges, Carl Elliott was undeterred in his strong desire to improve the quality of our Nation's education system, from the elementary and secondary level through higher education in our Nation's colleges and universities. This persistence paid off when he was appointed to the House Committee on Education and Labor in October of 1951, the committee on which Elliott is known for having done his greatest work in the House.
But Carl Elliott knew it was not always politically popular for a Congressman to be a champion of our Nation's educational system. In his autobiography, The Cost of Courage, the Journey of an American Congressman, Elliott wrote that ``By stepping into the arena of the fight for Federal aid to education, I was entering a battleground littered with nearly two centuries of corpses. Only twice in America's history had the Federal Government been able to pass laws that significantly and directly provided aid to the Nation's schools. The first was the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, which set aside public lands for elementary and secondary schools. The second came in 1962, when Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, which provided land grants for state universities.''
As chairman of the Education and Labor Subcommittee on Special Education, Carl Elliott saw that wherever he went, he was told the same thing that he had already known for quite some time, that something needed to be done to strengthen our educational system, particularly in the fields of science and technology. This need became dramatically clear in our Nation when Sputnik I was launched by the Soviet Union in October of 1957. With its strange beeping sound heard by millions of Americans as it orbited the Earth that month, Americans realized that there was a tremendous need to increase our scientific and technical knowledge base to win the space race and eventually win the Cold War.
When the House convened in 1958, Carl Elliott's number one priority was passage of his bill, the National Defense Education Act. This historic legislation established loans to students at our Nation's colleges and universities, and provided financial assistance for strengthening education by authorizing Federal grants to States to purchase equipment for science and mathematics instruction.
The National Defense Education Act helped to strengthen math and science instruction at a critical time in our Nation's race to the Moon and our eventual victory in the Cold War under Presidents Reagan and Bush.
Carl Elliott was also responsible for the Library Services Act, which brought libraries to rural communities, and even now provides millions of dollars in Federal assistance for low-income elementary, secondary and college level students.
As a member of the House Committee on Rules, Elliott worked for progressive social legislation and took a stand on racial issues during a time in the South when such a stand was anything but popular.
Despite his Congressional defeat in 1964, Carl Elliott continued his career in public life, serving as a member of President Johnson's Library Commission in 1967 and 1968. He also served under Presidents Johnson and Nixon as Chairman of the Public Evaluation Committee, Office of Technical Services, and a member of the Technical Advisory Board within the Department of Commerce.
Although elected and appointed to high office throughout his career, Elliott never forgot his roots, resuming his law practice in Jasper until his death on January 9 of last year. Two of Elliott's children, Martha Elliott Russell and Lenora Russell Cannon, who currently live in Jasper, are still living today, and also I just found out today that his grandson, William Russell, is working now on Capitol Hill.
In 1990, Carl Elliott was given what is perhaps the greatest honor of his career when he was named the first recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Created by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation to encourage elected officials to show courage in their political leadership, more than 5,000 people were nominated, but only one person was chosen, and that was Carl Elliott.
In his autobiography, Carl Elliott himself best summed it up, and, as the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) eloquently put it tonight and it is the way he said it best in his book in the Profile in Courage speech, ``There were those who said that I was ahead of my time. But they were wrong. I believe that I always was behind the times that ought to be.''
To honor Carl Elliott's long and distinguished career, I am proud to introduce H.R. 4806 to designate the Federal building located at 1710 Alabama Avenue in Jasper, Alabama, as the Carl Elliott Federal Building. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. I believe it will serve as a fitting tribute to a great leader who truly made a difference in making the lives of Americans in his era and in our own better than they would have been without his leadership.
I had an opportunity to personally know Carl Elliott. As a college student I was working on a term paper and I went to see the former Congressman to discuss the topic that I was working on, the history of Winston County. He sat down with me, he was helpful, he was sincere, and he took time to help a student who needed his help.
It is only fitting and proper that we honor Carl Elliott through this legislation.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, while Mr. Aderholt was speaking, I was talking to the excellent staff director of our subcommittee, Rick Barnett, and he informed me he also was the recipient of an NDEA loan.
While I am on that subject, the members of the subcommittee today as we marked up this piece of legislation were stunned to find out that our staff director, Mr. Barnett, is leaving us and going into private service, and I would be happy to yield some time to the ranking member of the full committee when I finish these remarks.
I have been lucky enough to be on this subcommittee for the last 6 years since I came to the Congress in 1995. It is one of the best kept secrets in the United States Congress, this particular subcommittee. It goes through a lot of permutations. But the one constant during my tenure on the subcommittee has been the staff director, Rick Barnett.
Anyone who is here for any period of time at all, Mr. Speaker, recognizes that while we get to stand in front of the C-SPAN cameras, it is the staff that is the oil and grease and everything else that makes this place go.
Rick Barnett has provided professional service to not only the members of the subcommittee, but to the members of the full committee, and I could not have done my job and I know the chairman of our subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Franks), could not have done his job without him. As a matter of fact, during my three terms, we have had three chairmen, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest), Mr. Kim, and now we have had the gentleman from New Jersey
(Mr. Franks), and Mr. Barnett has been the one constant that has made sure all of the ``t's'' were crossed and ``i's'' were dotted.
Mr. Barnett, I will miss you very much.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. LaTOURETTE. I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota, the distinguished ranking member.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and especially thank him for taking time to pay tribute to Mr. Barnett. I also appreciate the gentleman's kind words about my previous remarks on the Elliott bill.
Mr. Speaker, I am quite surprised that our colleague on the subcommittee is leaving. I have memos in my files going back to the early 1990s when Mr. Barnett began service on the committee and our side had the majority. His memos were a model of rectitude and thoroughness then, as they are today. He has provided great service.
He is a thoroughgoing professional, a gentleman in the fullest sense of that term, but especially a bicyclist. It is not well known that he is a superb competition-level bicyclist, and the only solace I can take in his leaving the committee is that I will now probably be the strongest bicyclist on the committee among members or staff, either side of the aisle. That is the only consolation we take.
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We regret greatly Mr. Barnett's departure from the committee and wish him success in all that he undertakes. Wherever he lands, he will be a success because he has demonstrated his professionalism here and his objectivity and thorough pursuit of the highest goal of public service. My congratulations.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished ranking member of the full committee; and I would just mention to him, if I am his only competition in cycling, he is going to be way, way ahead of any threat.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest), who was the first chairman that I served under on this wonderful subcommittee.
Mr. GILCHREST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a comment about Mr. Barnett's service on the committee. It was my first time as chairman of the committee and Rick ensured that the stability, the consistency, and the professionalism of that committee was carried out in an efficient, prompt manner.
I would also like to say something above Rick Barnett's ability to ride a bicycle. He is also a good horseback rider. In fact, on the day of the tragedy in Oklahoma, when the Murrah Building was bombed, Rick and I were riding horses in Kennedyville, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore when we came back to the House and saw that tragedy unfold. From that point on, Rick made sure that our committee was fully engaged in the healing process and the legislative process to ensure that that type of terrorist activity would not happen again.
So I salute Mr. Barnett in his future career.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I think from comments of the gentleman from Maryland
(Mr. Gilchrest), we now see Mr. Barnett embodies the intermodalism we are so proud of on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. I would urge passage of the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of our time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4806.
The question was taken.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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