[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H154-H156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP ABDICATING ITS RESPONSIBILITIES FOR GOVERNANCE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that partisanship has
never been the major reason that I have been serving in this Congress,
and I think, over the years, I have tried very hard in my career to
build bridges across the aisle on all the committees I have served on
and build bridges between regions and representatives from different
regions of the country. But as I witness the current impasse, and have
never seen anything like it in my career, I would have to say that we
have a serious problem within the Republican Party.
This week we saw that the Senate, which is in Republican control,
pass a bill to end the shutdown, this historic shutdown of the Federal
Government. As we have seen workers temporarily laid off, without
checks, across this country, the House Republicans cannot find it in
either their management or their personal skills to pass the bill that
was passed in the Republican Senate.
So my question this afternoon, with all due respect, is what is wrong
with the Republican leadership in this Chamber that is abdicating its
responsibilities for governance? I would say it is not only the budget
that needs to be balanced, but, I think, it is the Republican leaders
in this House that are out of balance, and it has gotten to the point
where it is not just the Federal workers that are being affected, but
the taxpaying public of this country that is being denied services.
Let me say in that regard, as someone who has taken a lifelong career
interest in veterans affairs, that today I received a communication at
my request from the Veterans Hospital in my region of the country,
which has jurisdiction over the Ann Arbor Medical Center, as well as
the Toledo Veterans Outpatient Clinic in my own home district, and I
asked the chief of medical services there, Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, for a
report on what was happening in our region of the country, and learned
that the personal in that particular hospital, in our outpatient clinic
as well, received paychecks with less than half of their normal amount,
as only time worked before December 15 was credited for pay.
In fact, in those checks deductions were taken out in full, and that
accounted for significantly less than half a paycheck in many
instances.
Dr. Jacobs indicated to me that this has caused very significant
hardship for people working in our clinic and hospital. For example, a
clinical pharmacist, who is the sole supporter of two young children,
is already having trouble meeting mortgage payments for that family.
Another single mom in that hospital, with a 13-year-old child, is
seriously worried about adequate food until the next paycheck. And one
employee told him about the fact that she was unlikely to be able to
come to work because she was having difficulty buying gas and she
really did not have her full payment.
Before I recognize the esteemed member of the Committee on Veterans'
Affairs here, let me just say that the doctor told me that his staff is
now so demoralized, sufficiently distressed, and distracted that he has
recommended, as medical center director in our region of the country,
that they are going to diminish medical services to our veterans,
including cutting back and stopping reconstructive vascular surgery,
cardiothoracic surgery, interventional cardiology, and other risky and
stressful procedures, because he is worried about the people who
support him in the operating rooms concentrating on the operations they
are supposed to be performing on our veterans. He wrote me saying he
hopes this is temporary and can we not do something here in Washington
so that he can begin doing the job the taxpayers expect him to do, and
that is to operate on the veterans in our region who are seeking
medical care.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr.
Montgomery].
Mr. MONTGOMERY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to
me. What she said is exactly true, and is happening in all our 171
veterans hospitals across the country. We are really headed for a
disaster unless we come up with something to pay these people, to pay
our bills on surgical equipment, medicines, and the things we have to
use and do to be sure that these veterans get the proper medical care.
It is a problem. I congratulate the gentlewoman for pointing it out.
We have to do something. We have to pass a continuing resolution to
take care of these veterans hospitals. If we do not, we are not taking
care of those that marched off and did a great job for our country and
have served well. I appreciate the gentlewoman's yielding.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to ask the
distinguished gentleman from Mississippi, who has served in this
Chamber with honor for many, many years, has he ever seen anything like
this before?
Mr. MONTGOMERY. Never in my 30 years.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that.
All I can say is that one quality seems to be missing in this
Chamber, and that is good measure, good measure, on the part of the
Republican Party. And if I could plead with the Members who are here on
the floor, please heal your wounds, take us away from this edge of
brinkmanship. Pass the bill that the Senate has sent over here.
[[Page H155]]
TRIBUTE TO 100TH BIRTHDAY OF SENATOR EVERETT DIRKSEN
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. LaHood] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr.
Kingston].
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to respond quickly to my friend
from Ohio, and I think it is important that we recognize that, yes, it
is true nothing like this debate has taken place, and yet if our
Founding Fathers were here today, they would say, wait a minute, let me
get this straight, we are almost $5 trillion in debt; we spend $20
billion each month in interest on the debt; if a child is born today he
or she owes $187,000 as his or her portion of the interest just on the
debt, above and beyond local, State and Federal taxes? I think our
Founding Fathers would be shocked and appalled that we are even
negotiating a 7-year balanced budget and not an immediate balanced
budget.
This is a tremendous moment in history that we have got to address,
and I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, and I would have done this
earlier had I not been in the Chair most of the day, to insert into the
Record an article that appeared in my hometown newspaper, the Peoria
Journal Star. Today commemorates the 100th birthday of one of the
greatest leaders of the U.S. Senate, Senator Everett Dirksen.
I do not think it could be really more fitting for me to be inserting
this article and commemorating the 100th birthday of Senator Dirksen,
because many people have used the quote that he said, ``A million here,
a million there. Pretty soon it adds up to real dollars.'' This is what
we have been talking about for so long around here, the idea of a
balanced budget.
Senator Dirksen lived in the district that I represent, and at one
time he was the Congressman from the district that I now represent. He
hailed from Pekin, IL, and when he died in 1969 was the minority leader
of the Senate; and, actually, prior to being elected to the Senate, was
the Congressman who became ill, retired from the House, was cured of
his illness, which was an eye problem, and then returned as a U.S.
Senator, and had a distinguished career serving under President
Johnson, who was a very close friend of his.
Nobody knew more about trying to balance budgets, working with
Members on both sides, trying to reach agreement and compromise than
Senator Dirksen, and I do want to insert this article in the Record.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to yield to my friend from California, who
was actually a staffer in the Senate during the time that Senator
Dirksen was the minority leader, and I would ask if the gentleman from
California [Mr. Horn] would have any comments with respect to Senator
Dirksen.
{time} 1845
Mr. HORN. Just briefly, Mr. Speaker. Senator Dirksen, without
question, was one of the great legislators of the twentieth century.
That is why his colleagues in the Senate named one of the three
buildings of the Senate after him.
I spent a good part of 1965 in his back office as assistant to the
Republican whip, Senator Thomas H. Kuchel, who was his principal
deputy, and there is no question the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was
completely drafted in Senator Dirksen's back office by a joint
bipartisan team from the Johnson administration, the Democratic
majority leader, the Republican whip and the Republican leader.
When we finished one day and his chief counsel announced to the
Senator we were done, he said, ``Get me the President.'' When his
secretary did, he said ``Lyndon? Everett. You now have a bill that you
can send to the Congress of the United States.''
That was the first major legislation since before the Franklin D.
Roosevelt administration completely drafted in the Senate. Senator
Dirksen was also the key person on the passage of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964. Without Everett Dirksen's leadership, there would have been no
Civil Rights Act. We had to break a southern Democratic filibuster of
18 Senators, and it took 1 year to do it and Dirksen's leadership is
what got the job done.
Earlier in the House, Dirksen proved himself to be a true legislative
craftsman. More than anyone else in the House, he was responsible for
passing the only reorganization act in this century pertaining to
Congress. That was the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946.
So, it is correct that my friend from Illinois honors a great
legislator and a great human being.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would also add, and I
appreciate very much the gentleman from California [Mr. Horn]
participating in this commemoration of the 100th birthday of Senator
Everett Dirksen, who was, as I said, from Pekin, IL.
I would also add that in the last 1960s, when Senator Dirksen was the
minority leader in the U.S. Senate, that was the end of the decade when
we had balanced budgets around here. Since that time we have had a very
difficult time balancing our budget. As I said, the quote that has been
used so often I think really deserves to be attributed to Senator
Dirksen. I appreciate the opportunity to commemorate his 100th birthday
today.
[From the Peoria Journal Star, Jan. 4, 1996]
Dirksen Brought Sense of Reality Wherever He Went
One hundred years ago, fathers might have dreamed that a
son born in a log cabin could become president. But no way
could Johann Dirksen have imagined Jan. 4, 1896, that his
baby boy's birthday celebrations one day would launch the
social season in the nation's capitol.
Yet, Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen's birthday bash, usually
at the Mayflower hotel ballroom, was the opening ``must go''
event of the social season each year in Washington, D.C.,
even before he became minority leader of the Senate and a
national figure beyond the Beltway. Everybody who was
anybody, as the saying goes, attended from both political
parties and from the administration and the congress.
Those glittering parties were a long way from the
neighborhood in Pekin known as ``Beantown.'' Yet, growing up
in Beantown may have been an important part of ``Ev'' Dirksen
being the toast of the town in the nation's capitol.
Actually, the residents, themselves named it that--or
rather in their own language, ``Bohnchefiddle.'' They were
German immigrants who didn't indulge in euphemisms. They had
a strong sense of reality. And the reality was that rich
folks had flower gardens in their yards; immigrants grew
beans. They were who they were, and saw nothing wrong with
it. Beantown was just their American starting place.
In fact, most residents in Pekin, and millions more across America,
gardened their yards. Even a narrow small-town lot was 50 feet front,
150 deep, and provided space for people who didn't own a
horse and didn't need a barn. There was space for berry
bushes along the lot line, half a dozen fruit trees set
wide apart, orderly squares of garden vegetables, and a
grape arbor.
There was a lot more than beans, and it all required care.
Many folks kept a small flock of chickens by the back porch
as well. At one time, in fact, the Dirksens raised a pig.
The bigger boys spaded the gardens and raked them smooth.
Before he was old enough for school, the youngest son, Ev,
could help punch holes in the prepared ground with the wooden
split pegs used as clothespins keeping a straight line along
the board on which he knelt.
Keeping clothes as clean as possible was important when
washing them was a major weekly chore. As the produce grew,
ripening in sequence, much of it had to be ``put up'' for the
winter in fruit jars and glasses, sealed with hot paraffin or
special lids, after being well cooked. Cabbage was chopped
and salted and then pounded and pounded until it was soaked
in its own brine to be kept for winter--sauerkraut.
The Dirksen boys took part, and it was the boys who peddled
surplus vegetables door to door. The basics of life to the
German families were food, clothes, shelter from the cold and
cleanliness. So, before he learned to read and write, Everett
Dirksen became part of a family team, doing his share in
providing those basics, and grew up knowing from whence came
the necessities of life. Somebody had to do the work to
produce it.
Their father had a stroke in 1901 when Ev, the youngest,
was only 5. By the time Ev was 9, Dad was dead. The boys were
raised by their mother, and the team game of survival that
they played put a solid foundation under his whole life.
In those circumstances and in the absence of radio,
television, telephones or computers, he found school and
learning downright fun. Learning was an adventure and a kind
of game. He loved reading. He loved to discover a new big
word and roll it off his tongue. In books, he could explore
the far reaches of this world and of the world of ideas.
Thus in his youth, and progressively thereafter, Everett
Dirksen combined those wonderful opposites, the
contradictions of idealist and a realist. It fit the Lincoln
tradition of central Illinois.
With his older brothers grown and earning money, the family
could let young Everett go off to college. He worked nights
while
[[Page H156]]
schooling at the University of Minnesota, until World War I
interrupted.
Three years of ROTC there gave him a leg up on a
lieutenant's bars. In France, he was an artilleryman. His job
was to ride a wicker basket under a rough, hydrogen-filled
balloon, held by a cable and linked by a primitive telephone
to the gun batteries, overlooking the battlefield. There, he
observed the fall of the artillery shells his battery mates
were firing and tell them how to adjust their fire to bring
it on target.
Of course, such balloons like his were sitting ducks, even
for the primitive planes of the time.
When the war ended, the army found his ability to speak
German useful and kept him in Europe. He remained overseas
for 18 months in all, much of the time interpreting for
others or dealing directly with the local German population.
He also knew Paris, Berlin, other German cities, and visited
England and Ireland. In Rome, the ambassador asked him to
join his staff, but Ev was homesick for Pekin.
Thus, young Lt. Dirksen returned to Pekin and Bohnchefiddle
at age 24, with an extraordinary range of experiences. He was
now a college man, a combat veteran and an ex-officer who
had traveled, often in very sophisticated circles, in
postwar Europe.
Back home, he married a Pekin girl and launched his
remarkable political career as the youngest person ever
elected to the Pekin City Council.
As city councilman, he was a young man dealing with a
rapidly changing world. Streets needed to be paved for the
growing number of those new motor cars. The fire department
needed trucks to replace the horse-drawn rigs. The aging
streetcar, one car running back and forth on a single track,
needed replacement with bus service.
Power plant were under construction bringing electricity.
The Edison resolution was on, and radio was waiting in the
wings. These were not hypothetical or abstract problems to be
solved abstractly for the young councilman. He was intimately
involved with the reality of finance for technology and the
even tougher reality of the effects and demands new
technology and dramatic change made on the city workers and
the public.
When he grappled with these problems as a councilman, he
also worked delivering his brothers' bread to 50 small
groceries scattered about town. Everybody knew his route, and
at many a stop he confronted people with problems to take to
their councilman. Before he went to the national macrocosm,
this man had a thorough and heavy dose of the microcosm.
Thus, the nature of the man was well-founded long before he
became one of that city's best-loved figures, before he
crafted the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and brought over the
votes to pass it with him, before he won a Grammy for
recording ``Gallant Men,'' before he was the confidante of
presidents both Republican and Democrat, and before he became
a darling of the once-skeptical Washington press corps.
He brought to Washington the prestige of being the
Congress' best orator, a skill founded and practiced in Pekin
and which largely won for him his original seat in the House
of Representatives in the first place.
He also brought the attention to detail, the realism, of
Bohnchefiddle, and was, undoubtedly, the most skilled
parliamentarian in the Senate of his time. He knew how the
system worked in every detail, and he knew who was the person
that counted, the person to talk to, not only in the Senate,
but in every department of the national administration.
Finally, he made many friends and no enemies in the best
tradition of the small town where he grew up, and where some
of his local political foes were also lifelong personal
friends.
When Everett Dirksen died, the President of the United
States gave the eulogy--proclaiming that Sen. Everett
McKinley Dirksen had more impact on history than many
presidents.
That he was, and he didn't learn that in Washington. That
was the boy from Bohnchefiddle.
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