[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 146 (Saturday, October 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             THE RETIREMENT OF THE HONORABLE J. ROY ROWLAND

                                 ______


                               speech of

                         HON. MICHAEL BILIRAKIS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 1994

  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I want to join my colleagues in wishing 
my good friend, Congressman Roy Rowland, the best of luck in his future 
endeavors. I know he is looking forward to retiring from the Congress. 
Unfortunately, his retirement leaves a void in the House of 
Representatives that will never be completely filled. For many years, 
Congressman Rowland has been the only family physician in the entire 
Congress. He willingly shared his experience and medical knowledge with 
his colleagues on numerous occasions. Many times, when health care 
legislation was debated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, 
Congressman Rowland's opinions and suggestions were sought out. My 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle and I always found them 
invaluable.
  Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to work closely with 
Congressman Rowland and his very capable staff, especially Kathy 
Hennemuth, on health care reform. Before that, we had served on the 
House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Veterans Committee. In 
addition, we served as cochairmen of the Congressional Sunbelt Caucus 
on Infant Mortality.
  In my opinion, our greatest legislative accomplishment together was 
drafting two separate and completely bipartisan health care bills in 
the 103d Congress. H.R. 3955, the Health Reform Consensus Act, was the 
first comprehensive health bill introduced in the Congress that was 
truly bipartisan. In addition, Congressman Rowland and I forged a 
completely bipartisan group of five House Republicans and five House 
Democrats. This congressional group was responsible for drafting the 
House bipartisan health bill, which drew significant support in the 
House this past summer--as well as interest in the other body. In my 
opinion, Congressman Rowland's medical background provided this bill 
with crucial credibility among our House colleagues.
  Prior to this year, Congressman Rowland already had established 
himself as a legislative leader on health issues. A bill authored by 
Congressman Rowland to reduce unnecessary red tape in the Medicare 
Program was enacted into law. As a leader in the House rural health 
care coalition, Congressman Rowland assisted in drafting a wide range 
of bills to improve the delivery of rural health care that later became 
public law. He also authored legislation creating the National AIDS 
Commission to establish better coordination among programs associated 
with the disease. Finally, while serving as the vice chairman of the 
National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, he cosponsored several 
measures to provide prenatal and child health care services to high-
risk mothers.
  Throughout his congressional career, Congressman Rowland has been an 
effective legislator in other legislative areas as well. He has been 
actively involved in environmental issues and, in fact, served on the 
joint conference committee that authored the 1990 Clean Air Act. He 
also played a key role in the 1987 Clean Water Act and served as a 
House conferee when the final version of this legislation was debated 
by a House-Senate conference committee. In addition, Congressman 
Rowland served as one of the leaders in promoting the proposed balanced 
budget amendment to the Constitution.
  With regard to veterans, Congressman Rowland served as the chairman 
of the House Veterans' Hospitals and Health Care Subcommittee. He has 
been a leader in fighting for improvements in the veterans' health care 
system and cosponsored several legislative measures to assist our 
veterans.
  These are some of the highlights of Congressman Rowland's 
accomplishments as a Member of the House of Representatives. He has had 
numerous legislative achievements throughout his congressional career 
in Washington. While I congratulate Congressman Rowland on this 
distinguished career on the occasion of his retirement, I believe the 
U.S. Congress is losing one of its finest and most respected Members. 
He will be sorely missed, not only by me, but by all of us.

                          ____________________