[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 20, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
         TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE JAMIE WHITTEN OF MISSISSIPPI

                                 ______


                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 20, 1994

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise in tribute to a 
great American, whom I am proud to call friend, mentor, and colleague, 
the Honorable Jamie Whitten.
  There are many tales that have been told, and will be retold many 
times over, about the dedication and hard work that has permitted this 
able statesman to achieve the heights of public service that he has 
achieved in his more than 53 years in the House of Representatives.
  Justly so, we who are Jamie Whitten's colleagues speak in voices 
tinged with awe, and with pride, when we speak of the many benefits 
that have flowed from the unprecedented half-century of public service 
of our friend from Mississippi.
  For over five decades, Chairman Whitten has served with distinction, 
presiding over appropriations where every dollar appropriated to be 
spent was over a good cause, whether to feed and educate hungry and 
disadvantaged children, or help communities grow and their citizens to 
have a better quality of life. His long service on matters fiscal and 
economic has been crucial to our Nation, and has brought a sense of 
stability and continuity to the legislative process.
  Throughout his career--which began with President Franklin Roosevelt 
and lasted through 10 Presidents in all and 7 Speakers of the House--
Jamie Whitten has never backed away from a battle, and he hasn't lost 
many either. He has waged and won his own battles and entered many 
others not of his making, and he won them too. Because of his fighting 
spirit, he served his own constituency and ours, whether it was putting 
rural electrification programs in Mississippi or flood control projects 
in West Virginia.
  Among many, there are two programs that are, and have for many years 
been, extremely important to West Virginia's economic welfare--and they 
are the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Economic Development 
Administration, known as ARC and EDA. Chairman Whitten has always been 
one of their most enthusiastic supporters, and for many years without 
his leadership as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, these two 
critically needed programs would have expired. They survived and 
continued to serve the needy because of Jamie Whitten's personal, 
strong fight to preserve them. The ARC and EDA have survived since 1982 
through the appropriations process alone--and they remain, viable 
resources in areas of economic distress throughout the Nation, helping 
boost the economies of high unemployment and low per capita income 
States like mine and like his own Mississippi. I say, again, thank you, 
Mr. Chairman.
  Chairman Whitten has always been an inspiration to me because of his 
wealth of knowledge, his mastery of the appropriations process, and his 
understanding of the workings of this House. He is a legend in his own 
time, and I join my colleagues in paying him very special tribute.

                          ____________________