[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         RUTH VAN CLEVE RETIRES

                                 ______


                            HON. RON de LUGO

                         of the virgin islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 26, 1994

  Mr. de LUGO. Mr. Speaker, for many years, the Interior Department has 
had the task of being the Federal Government's primary agency for 
handling Federal responsibilities regarding territories. Its principal 
mission in this regard has been to help the territories develop to the 
point where they could assume the responsibilities of local self-
government themselves.
  In recent decades, Interior's role regarding the territories has 
diminished as the insular areas have developed. In fact, its 
territories mission is now being reconsidered because of greater self-
government in the insular areas, growth in their economies, and the 
extension of Federal programs to them.
  At the same time, there is an increasing consensus that there should 
be a new structure for relating to the areas. Many of us think that it 
should reflect their development and accord them the recognition that 
States receive while still ensuring the special attention they need in 
the Federal decisionmaking process because of the power that they lack 
in it.
  No one individual who has been in Interior deserves more of the 
credit for it fulfilling its past territories assignment, though, than 
a woman who recently retired from the Department, Ruth Van Cleve. Over 
35 of almost 43 years of truly distinguished service, Ruth became so 
much a part of what Interior did regarding territories that she 
personified its territories functions for many of us--that is those 
that were good and made sense and worked well.
  As a matter of fact, Ruth Van Cleve wrote the book entitled ``The 
Office of Territorial Affairs'' during her brief tenure away from 
territories responsibilities during the Nixon and Ford administrations. 
An excellent explanation of both the Office and the insular areas that 
it dealt with at the time, the book revealed her empathy for the 
peoples of the islands as well as her understanding of the complexities 
of the job.
  The Territories Office has always been a relatively small part of 
Interior, even when its responsibilities were much more extensive than 
they are now. Yet, it has been in one of the most difficult positions 
in the Government. It has had to help territories develop and been 
called to account for conditions in them at the same time that it has 
lost its authority to supervise islands and to be a link between them 
and the rest of the Federal Government.
  Ruth was sensitive to this changing role and respectful of local 
decisions.
  She is, perhaps, best known as the Director of the Office during most 
of the Johnson and Carter administrations. Given how she conducted 
herself and what she helped to achieve, I can easily say that the 
Office has had no better head in the four decades that I have been 
dealing with it.
  She also served the Federal Government admirably while being as 
sympathetic to the insular perspective as possible.
  She towed the line of administrations while still ensuring that we 
understood what was needed regarding the terrotiries--even if it wasn't 
supported by the executive branch.
  I never remember her varying from the official position; but I also 
remember her consistently making the Congress aware of what it wanted 
to know and should know. She did her job well in acting both on behalf 
of Federal interests and those of the people of the islands.
  Ruth became a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Territorial and 
International Affairs through President Carter's effort to improve and 
upgrade the way that territorial matters were handled in the executive 
branch. She helped develop this initiative which recognized the self-
government that the territories had assumed, that agencies other than 
Interior were increasingly responsible for the programs affecting the 
territories, and that Interior's territories mission had been limited 
to providing specified developmental assistance and to helping work out 
further self-government arrangements.
  Ruth was shifted back to the solicitor's office--where she had begun 
her territories career--at the end of the Carter administration so that 
her vast institutional knowledge and capabilities would not be lost.
  Persident Carter had proposed a review of all Federal laws applying 
to the insular areas and she was assigned that enormous task. The 
purpose was to develop recommendations on what changes in policy should 
be made in light of the political, economic, and social circumstances 
of the insular areas, especially where they differed from those of the 
States.
  Ruth delayed her retirement from Government until she could complete 
the laborious assignment of going through every part of the Federal 
Code. She retired shortly after the completion of a 1,468 page report 
written in her distinctive, precise, and pleasurable-to-read style. It 
will be a very valuable reference tool although I think that some of 
the recommendations that she might otherwise have made may have been 
sanitized out by others.
  Mr. Speaker, the term ``bureaucrat'' is generally used in a negative 
way; but Ruth Van Cleve was a bureaucrat who exemplified everything 
that a civil servant should be. She was professional, knowledgeable, 
effective, concerned, and serious about doing the people's business. 
She also is a person of good humor, common sense, compassion, and 
exceptional communications skills.
  She made a difference and she is missed.
  I wish her well in retirement.

                          ____________________