[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S28]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        TRIBUTE TO C.G. NUCKOLS

  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to one of the 
original staff members of the Congressional Budget Office, C.G. 
Nuckols. Mr. Nuckols has served the Congress at CBO for almost 20 
years, most recently as Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. He is 
retiring today to begin a new career in the private sector.
  C.G. Nuckols began his Federal service in 1963 as an operations 
research analyst for the Department of the Navy. From there he moved to 
the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he became Director of the 
Program Cost Analysis Division. In recognition of his efforts, he was 
awarded the Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. Soon after CBO 
started operations in 1975, Alice Rivlin and James Blum persuaded Mr. 
Nuckols to leave the Defense Department to help establish CBO's Budget 
Analysis Division.
  Every Member and every committee of the Congress relies on the work 
of the Budget Analysis Division. We on the Appropriations Committee 
expect our appropriation bills to be scored overnight--or sooner. The 
Budget Committee depends on the division for help in preparing the 
functional totals and committee spending allocations for the budget 
resolution. And the authorizing committees routinely receive timely CBO 
cost estimates for virtually all reported bills.
  Although the Congress now takes all of these things for granted, it 
was not always so. In 1975, CBO was a blank slate. Together with James 
Blum, C.G. Nuckols established the rules, formats, and procedures for 
preparing budget projections and bill cost estimates. He made sure that 
work was completed on time, that analyses were carefully justified, and 
that precedents were scrupulously followed--whether the estimate was 
for a freshman or a powerful chairman.
  Yet if there is one item above all for which we have C.G. Nuckols to 
thank, it is for the quality of the budget analysis staff at CBO. From 
1975 to today, Mr. Nuckols has personally interviewed almost everyone 
hired by the Budget Analysis Division. Only those who meet his high 
standards of integrity, intellect, and training pass muster. Then, 
having hired the best, he has worked to ensure that they had the 
resources and support necessary to perform at their best.
  Mr. President, the appreciation we feel for the work of the 
Congressional Budget Office is due in no small part to the efforts of 
C.G. Nuckols. During his 20 years at CBO, Mr. Nuckols has served the 
Congress with quiet, tireless, nonpartisan professionalism. I wish him 
well in his new venture, knowing that he leaves behind at CBO a staff 
that will continue the tradition he did so much to establish.


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