[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H807-H808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO HON. MIKE SYNAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, as Sandy and I joined in that overflow crowd 
today in the St. John's Episcopal Church to celebrate the life of Mike 
Synar, I looked around and I realized what an incredibly vital person 
Mike was, as every person in that church felt a personal tie to Mike; 
someone who was so full of energy, so full of life, so full of 
commitment, so full of passion for what he did; and how someone in such 
a short life span, a life of only 45 years, could mean so much to so 
many people, not only in that church, but people across this country, 
who felt a personal kinship to Mike.
  One of my early memories of Mike is I invited him, when I was a new 
Member, to come to our district to our annual senior citizen 
convention. I remember Mike grabbing the microphone, he would not be 
contained by lecterns and podiums and stages and things like that, 
grabbing that microphone and charging into this crowd of several 
hundred people. He did not know them; it did not matter. They were 
people, and he was incredibly empathetic, and his infectious enthusiasm 
revved them up as well.
  That enthusiasm characterized Mike's whole life, and certainly his 
service in this Chamber, because in many ways his service in this 
Chamber was his life, 16 years of service, being elected at a very, 
very early age.
  Courage is another word that describes Mike. The previous speaker 
spoke eloquently about the Framers of the Constitution. Mike was the 
most ardent defender of those Framers. If the Congress violated the 
will of the Framers, Mike knew how to take care of that.
  He went to the U.S. Supreme Court. That is what the Constitution said 
to do. I remember particularly one piece of legislation, I believe it 
was the Gramm-Rudman bill, he went and won. Do you know how popular it 
was to take on a so-called balanced budget provision and get it struck 
down on legal grounds? Mike did, and won, and forced this Congress, of 
course, to do it properly.
  Mike could be a policy wonk, but he was one of the few people I know 
that combined policy and commitment. He knew the ins and outs of 
legislation. He could get very excited about how the words were phrased 
and what this word was and how it fit in the context of the overall 
passage.
  But he was not just a policy wonk. At the same time he was out there 
organizing people. He was a grassroots organizer, one of the best I 
have ever seen; not only organizing people in the grass roots at his 
district or across the country, but organizing people in this Chamber. 
He always was asking ``What can I do to help,'' and he meant it.
  Mike was never bitter. He certainly had some setbacks. I remember one 
time one of his many causes, one he believed passionately in, as he 
believed passionately in so many things, was campaign reform.

                              {time}  1615

  In order to get a bill passed, a decision was made by those whom he 
had been working with to go with a lesser version, and so in the last 
moments before the vote was taken, the message went out, ``Vote for the 
lesser version to try and get something through.'' In many ways, I 
guess, that undercut what Mike was doing. I asked him whether he was 
bitter, and he just smiled and said, ``That is the way the process is 
and we will try and go get the rest later.''
  I have mentioned reform several times. I guess change or reform would 
have to be what characterized Mike Synar. He was always fighting for 
reform and change. Regardless of the issue, you could disagree with 
Mike on an issue. He would work with you, and he would argue with you 
and he would realize that he would have to go some place else, but he 
would come back and work with you on the next issue.
  He brought a lot of change and much reform to this country. One of 
his greatest issues, and he would want me to mention it as he dedicated 
much of his time even after his leaving the Congress, was campaign 
reform. Mike believed that the strength of this body is how we get 
people here, and that is a battle that still must be fought. My hope is 
that when it is, we recognize the role that Mike Synar had in bringing 
us to this day.
  Mr. Speaker, Mike was one of the few people I know that took no PAC 
contributions and had a very strict limitation on individual 
contributions, and 

[[Page H808]]
yet through a grassroots effort was able to raise the amounts of money 
that he needed to wage very difficult campaign battles.
  Mike was 45 years only when he died. Not many of us who have lived 
much longer could have accomplished what he did.
  The test, Mike, of someone's life is how much you leave in others. 
You leave a lot in a lot of us. We carry on much better because we know 
that you are behind us and we know the example that you have set for 
us.

                          ____________________