[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      TRIBUTE TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ensign). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it's been nearly 2 weeks since a 
terrorist's bomb ripped a hole in the Murrah Federal Building and 
ripped a hole in the heart of the Nation. The images of bloodied 
children being carried from the rubble will stain our collective memory 
for a long time to come. How could it happen here, we asked.
  Through media reports, we have come to know the children who were so 
brutally murdered--we know their names and faces--Baylee Almon, Colton 
and Chase Smith, Aaron and Elijah Coverdale and Ashley Eckles. They 
have become our children, too.
  And, we have learned about other victims of the bombing, as well. We 
know that more than 500 people who were working in the Murrah Building 
on that awful day were federal employees. Many were killed. Federal 
employees were at the Social Security Administration, helping seniors 
in their retirement; they were there at the Housing and Urban 
Development Office, helping families find affordable housing; they were 
there at the BATF and the Secret Service helping to enforce our laws 
and protect our people.
  To understand the scale of this tragedy, one need only to talk to 
employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which had 
approximately 90 workers in the building at the time of the attack and 
suffered the greatest loss of life. At last report, 32 HUD workers have 
been pronounced dead, two are hospitalized and another 3 are still 
missing.
  To understand the scale of this tragedy, talk to employees at the 
U.S. Secret Service. All six of their employees assigned to Oklahoma 
City are now gone: Mickey Maroney, Alan Whicher, Kathy Seidl, Donald 
Leonard, Cynthia Brown and Linda McKinney. Together they leave behind 6 
spouses, 6 parents and 11 children.
  Too often, we in this Nation, and, in particular, in this body, have 
been guilty of forgetting who these people are--they are not nameless, 
faceless bureaucrats. They are husbands and wives, brothers and 
sisters, and they are parents.
  One of the 32 HUD employees who did not survive the Oklahoma blast 
was Lanny Scroggins. Lanny was a decorated Vietnam veteran who spent 
the last 23 years as a Federal employee, helping others. How is it that 
Lanny Scroggins could survive the jungles of Southeast Asia, but be 
taken by a terrorist's bomb while at work in America's heartland? No 
one has the answer.
  But, while Federal employees were the victims in Oklahoma City, they 
were also the heroes: Federal
 employees from FEMA pulled survivors from the wreckage and helped feed 
the hundreds of rescue workers.

  Federal employees from the FBI, BATF and Secret Service launched a 
swift and sweeping investigation that brought the primary suspect into 
custody within hours of the explosion.
  But Federal employees are heroes every day. Every day they work to 
take care of our seniors, to house our poor, to enforce our laws, to 
bring food, shelter and clothing to those stricken by natural disasters 
and manmade atrocities, like the one in Oklahoma City.
  And, yet, for these heroes there are no Congressional Medals; no 
parades down Main Street; no statues in town square. Instead, these 
heroes too often are belittled as bureaucrats. In debate on this House 
floor, Federal employees have been the target of overblown political 
rhetoric, on both sides of the aisle.
  We don't know what impact our words have on deranged individuals or 
the lunatic fringe groups we've read so much about over the past few 
weeks. We do not know. Wouldn't it be best to err on the side of 
caution? Let's not rely on others to do the right thing, let us do the 
right thing and leave nothing to chance.
  Make no mistake, there are groups in this country who are waging a 
war against Federal law enforcement. For many of these fringe groups, 
law enforcement has become the enemy. They are not ``jack-booted 
Government thugs,'' as the National Rifle Association asserts. And they 
deserve better than to have voices of hate on our airwaves advising 
listeners about ``shooting them in the head.''
  We need to have congressional hearings in the wake of the Oklahoma 
bombing on the increasing threats against Federal employees. By doing 
so, we don't politicize a tragedy. Rather, we live up to our 
responsibilities to address this tragedy and make sure it doesn't 
happen again.
  And, we also need to look at the words we use. All of us in this body 
want to cut the size of the Federal Government. But our goal in 
reducing the size of Government should be to make it work better for 
people. We should be able to make those arguments based on the facts, 
without demonizing Federal employees--without belittling their 
contributions.
  The Federal employees who were killed in Oklahoma City dedicated 
their lives to serving us. Now we should serve their memory by standing 
up to the forces that seek to divide us with words of hate.


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