[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 29, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1840
 
 EXPRESSION OF PROFOUND APPRECIATION TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS S. FOLEY, 
                SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 
586), and I ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.
  The SPEAKER. The Clerk will report the resolution.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 586

       Resolved, That Members of the House express their profound 
     thanks and appreciation to the Honorable Thomas S. Foley, 
     Speaker of the House of Representatives for the very fair and 
     impartial manner with which he has presided over our 
     deliberations and performed the arduous duties of the chair 
     during his tenure as Speaker.

  The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from 
Illinois.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Michel] is recognized 
for 1 hour.
  Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Speaker, you and I have served in this body together 
since 1965, and during that time we have usually found ourselves on 
different sides of the issues, but we have forged a friendship for one 
another based on our mutual respect and love for this institution. You 
brought to the high position you now hold not only admirable analytical 
skills, but personal qualities of the highest order.
  The Almanac of American Politics, writing of the Speaker, has this to 
say:
  Speaker Foley retains the reputation for fairness and intellectual 
honesty that he has built up for 25 years.
  While I agree with that assessment, and I am sure every Member of 
this House does likewise, I say to the gentleman, You came to the 
Speaker's office at a time when our institution needed the kind of 
virtues you have for so long typified: integrity, decency and a 
commitment to crafting reasoned solutions to difficult problems. You've 
also had what I like to think of as the preliminary virtue of the 
legislator, the ability to combine personal integrity, party loyalty 
and parliamentary skills for the good of the Nation, and when I sat 
with you to discuss problems facing the House, I could talk freely 
because I knew I could always trust your discretion, and your judgment, 
and the confidentiality of those very personal conversations that took 
place. Those who have not known the burdens of leadership cannot know 
how important it is to be able to rely on the word of a fellow leader, 
especially one of another party.
  Mr. Speaker, we may disagree on the issues, and we may have 
diametrically opposed views of what constitutes good policy for the 
country, but what matters in the long run is the ability to trust each 
other because trust is often the foundation upon which House Members 
can form a consensus that transcends party line.
  Mr. Speaker, you have well served your party, this institution and 
the Nation. I personally hold you in the highest personal esteem and 
regard, and I wish you and Heather all the best in the years ahead. I 
salute you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MICHEL. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior], the 
distinguished majority whip.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. 
Michel] for yielding, and, before I echo some of his comments, let me 
say to him how much this institution will miss him in the service he 
provided the people of Illinois, and his district, and this great 
country of ours.
  I just wanted to take this opportunity on behalf of my colleagues 
and, I know, others who have a word to say as well to you, Mr. Speaker, 
that we will miss you dearly, and I have had the good occasion to be in 
the leadership of the Speaker for about 8 years now, and I have watched 
his keen mind at work, I have been graced by his humor, his wit, his 
magnificent understanding of parliamentary procedure, his ability to 
frame a difficult issue and make it understandable. All of that has 
served this institution so well and, of course, has served his 
constituency so well.

                              {time}  1850

  Tom Foley was elected in 1964. He worked hard and he rose through the 
ranks and became the Speaker. Not many have achieved such a high 
purpose in our Nation's history, Mr. Speaker.
  When you were here back in the sixties, those were pretty heady days. 
Democratic activism on behalf of working Americans for civil liberties, 
for the environment, for Medicare, for civil rights expansion, for the 
Voting Rights Act, for clean air and clean water, all of those issues 
came to the floor when you graced this great institution.
  The Speaker has, as the gentleman from Illinois so eloquently said, 
been known as a man of principle and a reformer. For those who are 
unfamiliar with his early years, he became the chairman of the 
Democratic Study Group in 1972, during the first wave of congressional 
reform. Of course, as Speaker he has led the second era of reform. He 
has an innate sense of fairness that I think often masks his very 
steely determination.
  I think if I was to remember something so very special that I would 
like to carry with me about Tom Foley, it is two things: No. 1, his 
love of the Constitution. There are few people that have served in this 
great institution who know the Constitution, who have defended the 
Constitution, with the passion and the understanding and the broader 
frame of reference that it means to people on both sides of the aisle. 
His sense of fair play I think has won the respect of all of us.
  The second thing I personally will remember, Mr. Speaker, is the 10-
year fight that we waged on Central America. I know it was 
controversial. But always in those meetings the Speaker was looking out 
for the best interests of this country and the best interests of those 
who would be engaged in battle.
  This has been an historic and very productive Congress. I know people 
have judged it in different manners, but we have really passed landmark 
bills on education reform, on family leave, on crime, on deficit 
reduction, and it is a credit to your leadership, Mr. Speaker, that we 
have done this.
  Many other times we have sat in your office, enjoyed your humor, your 
wit and your wisdom. You have been a model to all of us, and you will 
be sorely missed. But I am sure we will be seeing you, and, of course, 
you are welcome to all of our offices as you grace these halls in the 
years ahead.
  We thank you, we love you, and we look forward to being with you.
  The SPEAKER. The Chair would like to ask our distinguished Republican 
colleague, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Michel], if he would please 
take the chair.
  (Mr. MICHEL assumed the chair.)
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Michel). The Chair recognizes the 
distinguished Speaker of the House for whatever comments and whatever 
statement he wishes to make.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I must remind the Chair that the Chair has to 
put the question on the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Would the gentleman prefer that the Chair do 
that before he speaks on behalf of his own resolution?
  Mr. FOLEY. It is always better to get the resolution passed before 
the speech.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  Mr. FOLEY. I want to say it is a great pleasure for me to address 
you, Mr. Speaker, and to say that all that you have said and my good 
friend Dave Bonior has said has been a very touching thing for me, and 
particularly to be here on this last day of the 103d Congress with so 
many of my colleagues and to have a chance to say to you, all of you, 
Republicans and Democrats, what an honor it has been for me to serve 
with you.
  My congressional career has come to a close, and I leave this 
Congress with a sense of satisfaction and gratitude, gratitude to so 
many. To my constituents, who gave me their confidence for so many 
years and gave me the great honor that we all know of representing so 
many of our fellow citizens in this central place of American 
democracy, the House of Representatives; to my staff, and to 
principally my wife, who has served without pay or compensation as my 
chief of staff for so many years, giving unselfishly of her time and 
talent to me and to the people of my district, and our district, and 
our State; and also to all of my colleagues, past and present, who have 
honored me by allowing me to serve with them.
  This institution is a great institution. It is, unfortunately, not 
always seen in its fullest and proper dimensions by our fellow 
citizens. And I think that is a great tragedy, because of all the 
institutions of our public life, it is in the Congress, and 
particularly in the House of Representatives, where this country's 
judgments and hopes and concerns and ambitions and decisions are made 
for the future.
  We have a task, I think all of us, those in public life and those who 
leave it, to ensure that the true dimension of the work that is done 
here is understood and appreciated. Because other countries have 
presidents and courts and magistrates, but it is the institution, which 
for so many of the people of the world has been represented by the 
Congress, the place where we come together to speak the voice of 
America and democracy, and it is that voice that is found to echo 
resoundingly throughout the world today.
  The American democracy has been a symbol of liberty and freedom for 
so many hundreds and hundreds of millions of people, and so we have a 
special responsibility to ensure that our own citizens do not fail to 
understand the value and importance of this, their House of 
Representatives.
  So in leaving I thank you, and I salute you, and I wish you all, 
those of you who are leaving with me and those who will be part of the 
104th Congress, every success in the future. I wish to all who follow 
in this great responsibility that they will have some of the same 
satisfactions and some of the great opportunities which I have had, and 
for which I will always be deeply, deeply grateful.
  Thank you, and good-bye.

                              {time}  1900

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Michel). As Speaker, if I might exercise 
the prerogative of the Chair for just a moment, and that is to say to 
my dear colleagues on both sides of the aisle, first, Mr. Speaker, 
thank you for giving me the opportunity to wield this gavel at least 
one time and actually sit in the chair. It was something to behold.
  More importantly, the Speaker just spoke with great eloquence and 
insight into this institution and what we do here as a body. I just 
want to say to all the Members on both sides of the aisle how much I 
appreciate the camaraderie and the cordiality that I have enjoyed 
during my tenure in this body, and all those wonderful good things that 
have happened to me this past year, and your acknowledgment from time 
to time. It is overwhelming.
  I just want you to know some of us chose to leave voluntarily, and 
some obviously did not, but that is the way the system works. The more 
important thing, I guess, is those memories that we take away from this 
body. Hopefully they will always be cherished ones of those wonderful 
days we spent as a Member of the U.S. Congress. Thank you, each and 
every one.
  I yield back to the distinguished Speaker.

                          ____________________