[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 50 (Friday, March 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4146-S4147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RESIGNATION OF WILLIAM A. GALSTON

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I noticed today a small item that appeared 
in the Washington Post, the news that the President's Deputy Assistant 
to the President for Domestic Policy, Mr. William Galston, had 
submitted his resignation, effective in May.
  Mr. Galston is a Democrat. I am a Republican, but I have been an 
admirer of some of the work that he has done in the past. He played a 
prominent role--I believe he was executive director--in the Progressive 
Policy Institute, the arm of the Democratic Party that was looking for 
new and innovative ways to address, in particular, some of the social 
concerns, of the Democratic Party.
  Mr. Galston said he is resigning because of his desire to strike a 
different balance between family and career. And I do not doubt that at 
all.
  Mr. Galston has written eloquently, has done a great deal of 
research, and, I think, made a real effort in the administration to 
point out the importance of the family and American life in our 
society. He is going to return to teaching at the School of Public 
Affairs at the University of Maryland, where he is a senior research 
scholar at the university's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. 
He has been a prolific writer, author of five books and 
[[Page S4147]] numerous articles on political philosophy, American 
politics, and public policy.
  He served in the Marine Corps, is a graduate of Cornell, with a Ph.D. 
from the University of Chicago, and taught at the University of Texas 
for 10 years before coming to Washington in 1989.
  Mr. Galston, along with Elaine Ciulla Kamarck, co-authored a policy 
paper criticizing liberal fundamentalism in the Democratic Party. Mr. 
Galston urged the Democratic Party to identify more with ``middle-class 
values--individual responsibility, hard work, equal opportunity--rather 
than the language of compensation.''
  Those are phrases and words that, obviously, Republicans have been 
using for some time. We were encouraged when someone from the other 
party, who occupied an important position in the Clinton 
administration, used those terms and identified himself with that 
particular philosophy.
  Mr. Galston has been, and I am very sure he will continue to be, an 
advocate of the importance of the family in the development of our 
children, an advocate of teaching individual responsibility and 
personal achievement as the means of success and as the real solution 
to the problems facing our society today.
  We are at a crossroads, Mr. President. We are at a critical juncture. 
Our problems are great. Our society is laboring under the burden of a 
disintegrating moral and cultural fabric. To turn this tide, we will 
need voices of moderation, of reason. Voices such as William Galston.
  I hope that Mr. Galston's resignation does not signal that voices of 
moderation, voices of reason, advocates for individual responsibility 
and moral courage are no longer welcome in the Clinton White House. 
This would be an ominous signal. I trust that is not the case.
  But I want to wish Mr. Galston the very best and thank him for his 
contributions and his efforts to try to point out the importance of 
family, individual responsibility, the decline of the moral climate in 
this country, and the need to reestablish and restore the fundamental, 
basic institutions of our country--family, church, education, community 
service--that have been so important in transmitting moral values to 
our children and to the next generation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. HEFLIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
  

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