[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4126-H4127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SAM GIBBONS, A REAL HERO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Houghton] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I hope I am not going to bend too many 
rules by referring to this distinguished gentleman over here, and Sam, 
I am not going to say anything unusual. You have heard it, but I want 
to reiterate it because it means something to me.
  After 50 years of public service you are stepping down, and that is 
pretty unusual. You are a real hero in anyone's mind, and I suppose no 
one can replace any one of us as individuals but you are somebody very 
special.
  Let me go back to this World War II experience which many people have 
referred to. I was in World War II, but I am not a hero like Sam is. 
The concept of dropping 15 miles behind the enemy lines in Utah Beach, 
2:30 in the morning on January 6, to wipe out the enemy, to make it 
safer for those boys to come in on the beach, is really an act of 
heroism.
  And that is not all. Sam went then on to Holland and, as many of you 
know, remember the story ``A Bridge Too Far'' and the Rhine campaign, 
and then there was the Battle of Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge, 
and then, ultimately, the final attach on Berlin. You were there. As 
somebody who was associated with you, but in a different part of the 
war, I will always be grateful for that, Sam.
  So, what do you say about somebody who leads a group, there are less 
than 25 in this House Chamber now that served in World War II, and will 
be going on to other things and will not be here to give his wisdom? It 
is going to be a different place.
  I mean, every one thing leads to another thing. In talking to Sam's 
son, Cliff, a terrific young guy, he was saying, ``One of the things 
that differentiates my father from many other people is that that 
experience in World War II carried on to everything he did in life.''
  There were two particular areas when he came to Congress. One was the 
field of education, and you have heard a lot about Head Start. People 
could say, well, anybody could have started Head Start. They could not 
have. They did not. This is the man who did it. But you did not do it 
in a vacuum. You did it because of your feeling that if people can be 
educated and not beaten by the time they go to first grade, they could 
learn, they could understand the world in which they lived.
  That was the whole genesis of the great service that Sam performed in

[[Page H4127]]

the Education and Labor Committee. Sam, I know I am talking about 
things that you know far better than I, but again they mean a great 
deal to me.
  Then when you got on the Committee on Ways and Means, I understand it 
was not an easy task. I understand it came down to a couple of votes 
right here on the House floor, getting on Ways and Means. And then what 
you did as far as trade is concerned, I used to be in the glass 
business, and I remember coming down here as part of a group called the 
Labor-Industry Coalition for International Trade, and Senator Heinz and 
Senator Baucus and Senator Roth and Sam Gibbons were part. And I had a 
sense, and I was not looking at it from a political standpoint but I 
had a sense, here was a man who understood the essence of tried. 
Obviously that has been manifested with your support of GATT and NAFTA 
and things like that.
  But again it was to try to relate the peoples of the world, whether 
it is through education or whether it is through the economy, so that 
they will understand each other, and there will not be a problem in 
terms of generating the real gulf of lack of understanding which 
obviously results in wars.
  Now, you say you judge a man by his friends. I say you judge a man by 
his family. I know John Mica has mentioned this, and you cannot take a 
look at Sam and his lovely wife Martha and Cliff and the other 
children--Martha and Cliff are the other members of the family that I 
know--without realizing that here is somebody who is not just a 
perception, he is a real, real person representing all those values 
which you and I think are important.
  Now, there are going to be many people who are going to be going 
after your seat in Congress and there are going to be many people, Sam, 
who are going after your seat on the Committee on Ways and Means, and 
that is right and natural. But you know something, Sam's job, Sam's job 
is not up for grabs, and it never will be, because Sam's job is where 
Sam is.

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