[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 28 (Monday, February 13, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E323-E324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     TRIBUTE TO HON. CHET HOLIFIELD

                                 ______


                          HON. CARDISS COLLINS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 13, 1995
  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, as ranking member of the 
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, I rise today in tribute 
to a great legislator, our former colleague Representative Chet 
Holifield of California. This remarkable man served in Congress for 32 
years, from 1943 to 1975, and during those years he was a member and 
later chairman of committees that were predecessors of the present 
committee. Last Sunday, February 5, Chet passed peacefully in Redlands, 
CA, at the age of 91.
  During my first term in Congress, it was my privilege to serve with 
Chet as a member of the Committee on Government Operation, of which he 
had become chairman in 1970, following the passing of its prior 
chairman, Congressman William L. Dawson of Illinois.
  Chet's extraordinary record of accomplishment in legislation and 
oversight covers such diverse and pioneering areas as Government 
reorganization, atomic energy, Federal procurement, Federal property 
and administrative services, national security operations, and Federal 
paperwork reduction. As a subcommittee chairman in 1949, he presided 
over the creation of the Federal Property and Administrative Services 
Act. These matters have been well chronicled in many publications. I 
would cite among them Congressional Record issues for March 25, 1970, 
March 7, 1972, November 26, 1974, and December 20, 1974, offering 
extensive tributes from colleagues. I am told, by the way, that this 
year, we may expect to see published the only authorized biography of 
Chet Holifield, dealing with his career as a legislator and nuclear 
statesman.
  It is very fitting on this occasion to speak about the personal 
character of Chet Holifield. Chet was an American original, a leader, 
largely self-educated, morally courageous, enterprising, perserving, 
and unswerving in the service of his fellow men and his democratic 
principles. He was a model of the traits and values woven into the 
American ideal, not the least of which was the beautiful family life 
that he and his lovely wife Cam created with their daughters and their 
now 31 grandchildren and great grandchildren.
  This personal character was a key factor in Chet's being able to 
achieve what he did. It enabled him to win respect, trust, and 
confidence from colleagues in both bodies of the Congress, from 
Presidents, from Federal officials, from
 representatives of the academic and business worlds, and from 
representatives of international agencies.

  As I said, I did not know him long. Perhaps the best testimony about 
Chet's character is that of Members of this body who knew him well and 
worked with him over many years. Their remarks have provided inspired 
recognition of the man and his works. I should like to cite here three 
examples from remarks by committee colleagues in the December 20, 1974, 
Congressional Record. Chet by this time had announced his retirement.
  The late Craig Hosmer of California, who, as the ranking Republican, 
served with Chet on the Joint Atomic Committee, stated:

       Unique and extraordinary is the only phrase I know that 
     properly characterizes 
     [[Page E324]] our departing colleague Chet Holifield. He is a 
     most special and most precious person. One cut out of no 
     mold, but individually fashioned and endowed with inimitable 
     style, extraordinary wisdom, inexhaustible energy, great 
     physical stamina, and total perseverance of purpose.

  The late Benjamin Rosenthal, a member and subcommittee chairman on 
the Government Operations Committee, payed this tribute to Chet:

       His numerous achievements are far to many to chart or 
     catalog. But it is a mark of Chet's distinguished career that 
     those achievements resulted not so much from his House 
     seniority as from his creative energies.

                           *   *   *   *   *

       Chet and I have disagreed, from time to time, on certain 
     public policy issues. But I know that his public positions 
     were formulated with only one test in mind: Will the public 
     interest benefit? Perhaps the greatest tribute I can pay him 
     is that I will always remember him as a doer, an innovator, 
     and a builder.

  One person uniquely qualified to speak is our recently retired 
colleague Frank Horton. For 30 years, Frank was a member of the 
Committee on Government Operations. For 12 of those years, he and Chet 
served opposite each other as leaders of their parties either on Chet's 
subcommittee or on the full committee. They dealt with issues before 
the committee in full bipartisanship. Frank has stated that their 
relationship grew as close as father and son. Chet, he said, treated 
him, and I can quote him, ``like he was my father.'' Out of this hard 
work together, many of the great and lasting accomplishments of the 
committee became realities. They include creation of the Departments of 
Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, the landmark 1973 
Report of the Commission on Federal
 Procurement, on which both Frank and Chet served as members, and the 
Report of the Commission on Federal Paperwork, which Frank himself 
chaired.

  Addressing the House on December 20, 1974, Frank remarked about Chet:

       During 32 years of service to his constituents and to 
     America and mankind, he has shown himself to be fair, 
     compassionate, objective, hard-working, and brilliant. He 
     more than any man I know, has lived his principles each day 
     of his life. He is true to his family, to his country and to 
     his ideals.

  Evidence of Chet's hard work and iron purpose is found in Frank's 
statement that at his prime as chairman of the Joint Committee on 
Atomic Energy Chet was the most knowledgeable layman in the country 
concerning atomic energy.
  But I want to return to Frank's remarks to the House and conclude. It 
is good to listen to this deeply felt encomium, which speaks movingly 
to the virtues and principles of Chet Holifield as well as to virtues 
and principles to which all of us as legislators are called.

       Mr. Speaker, there are few combinations of people in human 
     experience who get to know each other better than the 
     chairman and ranking minority member of a committee--who must 
     work day-in day-out to solve problems on issues, and to forge 
     compromises on bills in the heat of pressure and controversy.
       For all my 12 years in the House, it has been my privilege 
     to serve with Chet on the Government Operations Committee. 
     Ten of those years have been spent serving opposite each 
     other as leaders of our parties in subcommittee, and 2 of 
     those years, during this Congress, we led the full committee 
     together.
       It would be impossible to sum up what this experience has 
     meant to me, or to describe my respect for the man. Let me 
     only say that I have never worked with any person who 
     approached the needs of the public more objectively or 
     keenly, or who was so devoid of selfishness or of either 
     partisan or other prejudice. Chet Holifield, the legislator, 
     comes as close as any man to the ideals Americans look to in 
     a Congressman. He understands what the public interest is, 
     and he puts it first--always. All other considerations, 
     however worthy or tempting, however much easier they may be 
     to serve, come second.
     

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