[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      RETIREMENT OF RUTH VAN CLEVE

  Mr. WALLOP. Mr. President, at the end of December last year, Ruth Van 
Cleve retired after almost 43 years of public service to this Nation 
and especially to the residents of our territories. Her long and 
distinguished career was marked by a grace and dedication which is too 
often absent. Even in the most difficult circumstances she brought 
scholarship, commitment, and an unruffled and pleasant stance.
  Mrs. Van Cleve graduated from Mount Holyoke College magna cum laude 
and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her law degree from 
Yale, a choice of schools which I warmly applaud, and went to work for 
the Department of the Interior serving on the Commission on the 
Application of Federal Laws to Guam, which was created in 1950 pursuant 
to the Guam Organic Act. She served in the Office of Territories and 
was appointed to be Director of that Office in 1964 by Secretary Udall. 
At that time she was the highest ranking woman in the Department and 
served with her characteristic good humor, wit, and skill. She was 
awarded the Department's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award 
in 1968.
  From 1969 until 1977, Mrs. Van Cleve served in the Office of General 
Counsel of the Federal Power Commission where she received an 
outstanding performance award and the FPC's Meritorious Service Award 
as well as becoming the FPC's first woman Assistant General Counsel. In 
1977, Mrs. Van Cleve returned to the Department of the Interior to 
again take up the reins as Director of Territorial Affairs under 
Secretary Andrus. When the position was changed to Assistant Secretary 
in 1980, she served as Deputy prior to moving to the Solicitor's Office 
in 1981, where she served until her retirement with a brief tenure as 
Acting Assistant Secretary early last year.
  There are a few basic texts on Federal territorial relations in 
general, although there are many on particular issues. Any person 
wanting an understanding of the subject, however, is well advised to 
obtain Mrs. Van Cleve's work on the Office of Territories which was 
prepared as part of the Praeger series on Federal agencies. The work is 
enjoyable as well as enlightening. You can even find a discussion of 
the Department's excursions into which agency exercises 
responsibilities with respect to the moon. Her most recent endeavor, 
undertaken over the past 10 years, is a three volume comprehensive 
review of the entire body of Federal law and analysis of its 
application to Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. It is a truly remarkable 
document. Reading her exhaustive, although far from exhausting, 
memoranda gives the reader some sense of her unabashed fascination with 
what would to most people be a dreary recitation of arcana.
  Arnold Leibowitz in the acknowledgements to his recent and excellent 
work on territorial relations summed up Mrs. Van Cleve's stature when 
he wrote that ``I think it most kind of her to allow me to write this 
book when she could well have preempted the field by writing a better 
one.''
  We will not only miss her scholarship but also her equanimity and 
grace. When I served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Parks of the 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, all I had to do was look at 
the witness list to tell what the administration's position would be. 
If the Assistant Secretary was to testify, you could be certain that 
the administration supported the legislation. If the Director was to 
testify, then the administration supported the objectives but wanted 
more time to do studies or reviews. If someone else was the sacrificial 
lamb, you knew what was coming. That never happened when Mrs. Van Cleve 
was the Director. No matter how absurd the position taken by OMB or its 
predecessor, the Bureau of the Budget, she would faithfully defend the 
administration. The most you could extract was a reluctant ``the 
position is perhaps not all that we might wish it to be.''
  Over the years, Mrs. Van Cleve has tackled some of the most 
unrewarding assignments the Department could have, including the review 
of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, and she has performed each admirably. 
From the standpoint of at least this Senator, it is a mark of my 
admiration that I seriously considered the staff suggestion when she 
was appointed as Acting Assistant Secretary under Secretary Babbitt, 
that we simply not confirm any nominee and leave her in that position. 
Her reaction was to threaten to move up her retirement date, so we 
relented.
  The residents in the territories have lost an irreplaceable resource 
with her retirement and the Nation is also the poorer. Her retirement 
is well earned and I wish her every happiness, but I do so with some 
regret when I contemplate the agenda before us.

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