[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES TO THE FAZIO FAMILY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Metcalf). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me extend to 
our good friend, the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio], and his 
family from the Republican side of the aisle our sincerest condolences 
on the death of his daughter, Anne.
  I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a daughter or a son, 
but I certainly do not want to experience that. So we wish Vic the very 
best and his family the very best, and they get all of our deepest 
sympathy.


                      tribute to russell w. brown

  Mr. Speaker, it is interesting, the reason I am taking this 5-minute 
special order is because in 1964, I met a fellow who was to become one 
of my dearest friends, and he died day before yesterday of cancer, and 
he became like a brother to me.
  I remember in 1970, when I first decided to run for Congress, I 
talked him into getting involved in politics. He said, ``Oh my gosh,'' 
he says, ``I wouldn't want to do that. It takes too much time. There is 
so much crookedness and corruption,'' you know what people say. I 
talked him into it. His name was Russell W. Brown, incidentally. He 
became one of the political leaders in Indianapolis, IN, and the State 
of Indiana for 30 years.
  I do not know what our party or the political process would have done 
had we not had such a person in a leadership position in Indianapolis. 
He was an inspiration to everybody. He spent a tremendous amount of 
time, as both sides of the aisle know, working for various candidates, 
making sure that their views were expressed and they got elected.
  Those people are the unsung heroes. We get elected and we get on 
television and people around the country find out who we are. They may 
not agree with us, but at least we get some notoriety. But people like 
Russ Brown, who spent 15, 20, 30, 40 hours a week working on our behalf 
and on behalf of the country, the Nation, never getting much 
recognition. But they certainly deserve it. Without them, the foot 
soldiers, the people who are the political leaders back home, without 
them we would not be elected and the country would not be able to get 
its job done, and the Congress would not be able to get its job done.
  I would just like to say today, and I guess I am kind of rambling, 
Mr. Speaker, I normally do not do that, I guess, I am certainly going 
to miss Russ. He was a wonderful man. He was a great humanitarian, a 
great father, a great husband, and he was one of my dearest friends, 
and throughout the remainder of my life, I will miss his smiling face, 
and his words of encouragement, and all the wonderful things he did for 
me and for this country.

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