[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5979-H5982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO THE PAGES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Kolbe] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, just a few moments ago on the floor we cast 
what would be for this group that is standing around the back of this 
Chamber here the last vote for their page careers, not, I trust, the 
last vote for their careers. I suspect some of them we will see back 
here again in some capacity.
  Today and tomorrow, today from the business of the House, tomorrow 
when they hold their graduation exercises from the page school class 
marks the end of yet another milestone, another class of our page 
group.
  I rise today to make this special order as the vice chairman of the 
page board, a former page myself. I do so with making my remarks on 
behalf of myself and the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Emerson], whose 
therapy for his illness has made it difficult for him to be in the 
Chamber at this hour, but asked that I especially say to the young 
people that he joins me in my remarks and joins in wishing them all the 
very best. I suspect that each of the comments that will be made by 
others here, that he also would join in those.
  Let me, if I might, begin by yielding to a classmate in another 
class, another page member from a later class, I should say, the class 
of 1967, the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Wicker].
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for 
yielding me the time.
  I am addressing the House today, Mr. Speaker, from the Democrat side 
of the aisle, which is unusual, but I do so for a purpose. That purpose 
is to recall that, when I was appointed a page in 1967, I received that 
appointment from a Democrat, the Honorable Jamie Whitten, who served as 
my predecessor for some 53 years in this House of Representatives.

                              {time}  1530

  No sooner had I arrived than I was assigned to the Republican page 
desk. Who knows, Mr. Speaker, that may have made all the difference.
  I want to congratulate these pages, to tell them, Mr. Speaker, how 
much we appreciate them and how much we realize that they contributed 
with their hard work. They have been part of a very, very proud 
tradition in this House of Representatives, and I congratulate them on 
their accomplishments and wish them well. They will take with them many 
valuable memories.
  I look back on my time here in 1967 and I recall some of the people 
who I regarded as giants in this House, leaders like Jamie Whitten; 
Gerald Ford, then the minority leader; John Rhodes; Mel Laird; John 
McCormick who served as Speaker, a Democrat, during my time here as a 
page. Who knows what names this group will take with them. Certainly 
Gephardt and Gingrich. But it might be that they look back on the 
giants of Kolbe and Davis and Rohrabacher. Who knows who they will look 
back on years from now?
  I hope they will take other memories with them as well, including 
addresses by Presidents and Prime Ministers. They were here, Mr. 
Speaker, on the day that Bob Dole announced his resignation from the 
U.S. Senate. They were here during poignant times to hear the 
announcements of the death of a Cabinet member, the death of a member 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They will recall fiery debates, all-night 
sessions, Government shutdowns.
  I also hope, Mr. Speaker, that they will take with them the memory of 
times of comity and civility and bipartisanship and good will, because 
there were also those times during their service here in the U.S. 
Congress.
  I hope they will remember that they worked with able men and women of 
goodwill from all across the country, of both political parties, doing 
their best to represent their constituencies. And that we are doing our 
best as Members of this Congress to make sure that their generation, 
and their children, will be able to enjoy a brighter future.
  I salute these pages, and I wish them the very, very best.
  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman from Mississippi for his very warm 
remarks. I think it especially comes from the heart when you have been 
a former page yourself and have a feel for the experience that all of 
us that were pages have had here. I appreciate very much the 
gentleman's taking the time to be with us. I know, like myself, he 
needs to be in the Committee on Appropriations and I will be headed 
there soon but I thank the gentleman very much for joining us in this 
tribute to our pages.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kildee], who 
is a member of the Page Board with me, and with whom I have served for 
the last 2 years in this capacity, and it has been a great honor for me 
to serve with him.
  Mr. KILDEE. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Tomorrow night we 
will bid our formal good-byes, farewells, but you will come back to the 
pages who have served us so well in the 104th Congress. I see them 
standing back there with the former Clerk of the House, Donn Anderson, 
who still wears his page ring with great pride.
  The pages here operate in three different areas, here on the floor of 
the House on Capitol Hill; in the school in the Library of Congress; 
and in the dorm. The pages have operated very well in all three of 
those areas this year, and I am very, very proud of them. The pages 
really see Government like no one else sees government. As a matter of 
fact, they see through eyes that I have not seen. I have talked to 
pages before, and they observe things that I would not have observed 
had I not talked to some of the pages. They have seen Congress at its 
best and its not so best at times. They have seen Government close up, 
more close up than those who have participated in a program called by 
that.
  Albert Einstein once said that 100 times every day I remind myself 
that my inner and outer life depend upon the lives of others, living 
and dead, and that I must exert so I may give in the same proportion as 
I have received.

[[Page H5980]]

  You really have received a great deal and you have given a great deal 
here in the floor of the House. But I also ask you when you go back 
home to give and share that experience which you have had here in the 
House of Representatives.
  You have seen heads of State, you have seen the President of the 
United States, you have seen changes in Government, changes here in the 
Congress of the United States that are historical.
  I commend you to go back and do that. Because at the beginning of the 
third millennium, which will start just 5 years from now, in the year 
2001, at the beginning of that third millennium, you, the pages of 
today, will begin to take control of the institutions in this country 
and in this world. It is very, very important. You will be beginning to 
reach out and take control. Some day some of you may return here. You 
may be involved in science and in business, but whatever capacity, 
looking at you, I know that you are the ones who can take control and 
shape the future of this country and of this world.
  Franklin D. Roosevelt about 60 years ago uttered these words and I 
think they are as appropriate today as they were when he uttered them 
years ago. He said, this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with 
destiny. I have look at you, talked with you, and I am confident that 
you, the pages of the 104th Congress, can meet the challenges of that 
rendezvous. You give me great hope for the future. Thank you very much 
and God bless you.
  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for those words that 
he said on behalf of our pages. I must say that it has been a great 
pleasure for me to work with Dale Kildee as a member of the Page Board 
as we have gone through some of the trials and tribulations this year, 
through the certification of the school, its accreditation. It has been 
a great experience to work with somebody who has such a commitment to 
this program and to the young people who are with us here today, and I 
thank the gentleman for joining us.

  I would like now to yield to another member of the same class of 1967 
that we heard from earlier, the class of the gentleman from Mississippi 
[Mr. Wicker], another page from that class, the gentleman from Virginia 
[Mr. Davis].
  Mr. DAVIS. I appreciate my friend yielding. I, too, rise to pay 
tribute to the retiring pages. They are part of a proud tradition that 
has brought many Members back into this body either as Members or as 
legislative aids or to the Clerk of the House.
  When I was a page, 1963 to 1967 was the 4-year period that I served, 
and I ended up graduating in a class of 18. I could always brag I was 
in the top 10 in my class. I was able to say that for my life. I do not 
know if I would have been able to do that or say that had I gone 
anywhere else.
  We do not always appreciate the work ethic and the discipline it 
takes to be a page, to be able to keep up the academic side of being a 
page, their studies, their regular high school courses, and at the same 
time come to work on the House floor, often staying until very late in 
the evening and not having time to get to the books until much later. I 
hope this has been good training for them. I think this should put them 
in good stead throughout their life, if they can learn that kind of 
discipline and balancing.
  This group of pages has really performed in an outstanding manner. 
They have witnessed and been a part of a number of the historic changes 
that this Congress has undergone. They have witnessed, as the gentleman 
from Mississippi [Mr. Wicker] noted, the longest Government shutdowns 
in our history, probably not one of the proudest eras in the 
relationship between the Congress and the President, but they were a 
part of that, a part of some of the toughest budget battles in our 
country's history.
  I am very proud of the job that they have done and been very proud to 
be associated with them. I think they leave a good legacy for the next 
group that will come in. I hope they will come back and visit us often. 
I hope some of them are inspired maybe to go into elective office or 
serve as public officials. I cannot think of a better way to help one's 
fellow man. For this Member and for, I think, many others who could not 
be here this afternoon, they not only have our good wishes, but we wish 
them good luck and Godspeed.
  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman for his comments, and appreciate 
very much the fact that we have two of our freshman class, outstanding 
Members, who have been former pages. That can be a challenge to our 
pages that are here with us today.
  They have been with us for the better part of this last year, for the 
school year. They have seen, as has been already pointed out, a lot of 
things that have gone on on the floor of the House of Representatives, 
and I expect those experiences are things that they will remember, if 
they are like the rest of us, that they will remember for a lifetime.
  I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from California for some 
comments.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I thank my friend. First of all, I have been honored, 
two great honors in this House, and both of those are being selected as 
a guest speaker for the pages going away at their class party. I call 
them critters, because they are critter power, and we could not do this 
job around here without their assistance.

  My favorite speaker is a guy named Will Rogers. He tells stories. I 
would like to give you a story I think is important.
  I would say to my friend from Michigan [Mr. Kildee], with whom I 
serve on the Education Committee, I am the world's worst baseball 
player. I grew up in a little town of 2,133 folks in Shelbina, MO. To 
tell you how bad I was in baseball, we did not even have a baseball 
diamond at the school. We had to go to the fairground to play.
  At that fairground, to show you how bad in baseball I was, I was 
sitting on the bench during practice, and we did not have too many 
people to pick from in Shelbina, MO to play, but we had to field two 
teams for practice. I remember walking up to the coach, taking my 
baseball glove. I looked at the coach and I was mad because I was not 
out there playing, and I threw my glove and I hit the coach right in 
the chest and I said, ``I quit.''
  I walked all the way through the length of Shelbina, which took about 
30 seconds, and walked into my house. My dad said, ``Randy, what are 
you doing?'' I said, ``Coach won't let me play.'' I said, ``I quit.'' 
That was the wrong thing to tell my dad.
  My dad literally picked me up by the ears and walked me back out to 
that baseball diamond. I did not want to see that coach at that moment, 
or my peers. But I remember the words of my dad, whom I lost a year and 
a half ago, when he said, ``Coach, my son may never play another second 
on this baseball team, but quitting becomes a way of life, and I don't 
want my son to be a quitter.''
  The coach let me back on that team. I did not play very much, but I 
at least learned a lesson from my dad, and I hope you take a lesson 
from this: Never, ever, ever quit. Take back a positive response, 
whether you are a Democratic side critter or you are a Republican side 
critter. God bless you, and if any of us can ever be the wind in your 
sails, please give us a call.
  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman from California for his remarks, and 
if the gentleman from Florida would like to add something to this, we 
would be happy to hear his comments.
  Mr. MICA. I did want to come out and make a couple of comments about 
our page class. We have been really honored to have these young men and 
women come among us. They have served the Congress and their country so 
well. I think each of the Members know that. They have also had to 
endure some long speeches, some great speeches, and some terrible 
speeches, but they have learned a part of the process. Hopefully I have 
given some of both.
  But I did want to come out and say how much we appreciate every one 
of them. They are just like our own children, our own young men and 
women in our own homes. They come here to serve the Nation. They are 
really a little bit like the Congress, because we all came from so many 
different parts of the country, and you have your viewpoint as to what 
the Congress is like, you have your thoughts about what it will be like 
when you get here, and then you get here and you serve.
  The pages are reflective really of this Nation. They come here from 
every

[[Page H5981]]

walk of life, and they have had so many experiences, like we do. We get 
to learn from each other and the Congress. They have gotten to learn 
from us and from each other in their service.
  So it has been a learning experience for them, an exciting experience 
for me. I have had two pages from my district here at exciting times, 
and they have shared them and I have shared them, and we will miss them 
as they leave now.
  But I also wanted to take just a minute, there are people behind the 
scenes, too, that they have grown to respect, and love and admire and 
who each of us love, respect, and admire, who oversee this flock. These 
young men and women just do not come here and are left on their own.
  Perry Sampson has done such an incredible job; Tim Harroun; Joelle 
Hall is just a treasure; and Jim Oliver in the Republican cloakroom on 
our side have done so much. I could not come up and recognize the pages 
on our side without recognizing them.
  But on either side of the aisle, we thank you for your service, we 
congratulate you as you graduate and go on, and we hope that as you 
graduate, you have found this as great an experience as I have in 
serving the Congress and the country in this fashion.

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman for his kind remarks and especially 
the comments he made about the staff that supervises the pages on both 
sides of the aisle and in our cloakrooms, as well as the teachers in 
the school and the monitors in the dorms who really make this program a 
success for these young men and women.
  I am very pleased to yield a couple of moments to the gentleman from 
California.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Arizona. You have as 
great an inspiration as anybody will ever have at your age in Peggy 
Sampson from the cloakroom on our side. I know there are great folks in 
the other cloakroom. She was a lady cop, a police officer, for a long 
time.
  I know that some of you just said some nice things to me about 
talking about heroes on this House floor. The amazing thing is how 
often in our lives we pass heroes all the time and never notice that 
they are any different than anybody else. It is just that they 
volunteered. They were a vanguard. They extended themselves.
  We used to have sitting here for the first 10 or 15 years I was in 
this House, for the first 10 or 12 years in the time of the gentleman 
from Arizona, [Mr. Kolbe], a gentleman named Chris Highly. He was small 
in stature, had pure white snowy hair and the face of an angel even as 
he approached retirement. One day he passed me in the hall and thanked 
me for mentioning D-day, and today is the 52d anniversary of D-day. I 
said is that day special for you? He said, yeah, I was there. I said 
you were not in the first or second wave, were you? No, no I was not. 
Well, did you go in like leader Bob Michel a few days later, that 
afternoon? He said, no, I went in at 3:30 in the morning. I said, 3:30 
in the morning? I said, the first wave hit the beach after 6 o'clock. 
He says, well, I was a combat engineer; we had to go on the beach early 
to make it safe for the invasion forces in the morning, safer, to blow 
up the tank traps.

  Donn Anderson, who is a legend around here, was the cause of one of 
the greatest ceremonies ever in this beautiful building. Down in the 
crypt area one floor down he arranged to display, I hope forever, as 
long as this free country survives, the first Medal of Honor ever given 
to a young enlisted man who had been captured. Eight of his friends, 
hung by their neck and killed by the opposing forces in the South, had 
stolen a train. There were prisoner exchanges in that early part of the 
Civil War, so they exchanged a few of them and a group got the Medal of 
Honor. The first went to a man named Parrot. and Donn arranged for Adm. 
Bulkeley, who just died a few weeks ago, some of you remembered my 
tribute to him, Adm. John Duncan Bulkeley, who had taken MacArthur off 
Corregidor, he arranged for Admiral Bulkeley to come into the building, 
down to the crypt area, and say a few words about a time of heroes, 
which 52 years ago certainly was.
  I have signed some of your books. Godspeed in all your endeavors. Try 
to be different. Try to find some way as a man or a woman to make a 
mark, to respect that fireman. I know some of you saw Back Draft, and 
what is the name of it, the movie that was on this week? That was based 
on fact. More firefighters die in this country than police officers and 
too many men and women are dying wearing blue and khaki defending us 
from a crime wave that involves so many young people.
  Billy Graham was in that Rotunda May 2. He said some frightening 
words to all the leadership of the House and the Senate. He said we are 
a Nation on the brink of self-destruction. How can that be in a Nation 
of such wealth and bounty and physical beauty and so many charging 
young people like yourselves?
  Do not let it happen. Make a difference. Stand for something and 
never forget your wonderful days here at the seat of our Government. 
The Presidency is important, but they put that White House down in the 
swamp. They put us on the high ground of Jenkins Hill that we now call 
Capitol Hill. This is first among equals of our tripartite Government, 
and this is the people's House where all the money bills start, all the 
taxing starts and where most of the legislation begins that has to do 
with our domestic scene.
  Godspeed again. Go out there and let them know that you were alive 
for a while in this great country. God bless you.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for his 
stirring remarks and words about heroes in our lives.
  I would like to yield to one of our distinguished new freshmen 
Members, the gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Watts].
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Arizona for yielding time to me.
  I too want to say my good-bye, my official good-bye, to the pages 
from both sides. I have served in this body now for about 17, a little 
over 17 months, and I have worked with many of these young people and 
have learned from them, and I hope that they are taking something 
positive and that they have learned something from this distinguished 
body.
  Before I came to Congress one of the things I did was I was a youth 
minister at my local church, and I must say that you guys have 
represented the youth of America very, very well. I know there were 
times when I have worked with the youth in our community around the 
State of Oklahoma and around the country when I have gone into some 
community to speak and sometimes I have worked with some young people 
that I have kind of wanted to take them and hang them out the second 
story of the church building and kind of drop them on their head. They 
would do things and say things that I would just kind of think, well, 
are they worth working with, and I would want to give up on them. And 
my pastor several times would remind me that what we build and nourish 
and encourage the youth of America to be today is what this country is 
going to be 20 years from now.
  As I have worked with you guys over the last 17 months, I am 
encouraged that America's tomorrow is going to be very, very bright 
because of what you guys have represented. You have represented your 
families well, you have represented your respective cities very well, 
and you have been a real knight in shining armor, a real star in the 
104th Congress.

  Again, I hope that you have taken something positive from this body, 
from this experience. You have been a delight to work with. I 
appreciate your efforts on behalf of the 104th Congress. And on behalf 
of myself, again, I wish you well. I wish you Godspeed. Keep the chin 
up and keep smiling. Thank you.
  Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for his wonderful 
words. And let me just conclude with a couple of thoughts of my own.
  The gentleman from California, Mr. Cunningham, spoke about the lesson 
he learned about not being a quitter, and Mr. Dornan spoke about the 
heroes in our lives. I can say from having worked with this class 
during the course of this year, they are not quitters. The class knows, 
as well as I do, that it has been a tough year.
  There have been some ups and downs within the page school group, but 
that

[[Page H5982]]

will not be the defining thing they will remember. They will remember, 
I think, the more positive experiences that they have had here, and 
none of them have been quitters. They have stuck with this.
  It has been tough at times and not just tough physically to do this 
job, and there are times when you wonder about whether you should quit. 
I can remember when I started this experience I dreamed of becoming a 
page, and then the day came and suddenly I was flying off to 
Washington, DC, and I was a scared little kid. But I am glad I stuck 
with it because I think it has been one of the defining experiences of 
my life.
  I hope you take away from this an understanding of the complexity of 
our Government; that it is a very complex place. I hope you take away 
from it the understanding, as was said earlier by Bob Dornan, that this 
is truly the people's body; that you have spent the better part of a 
year in probably the most important place on the face of this Earth for 
democracy.
  This has been the model, the dream, the hope of hundreds of millions 
of people all over the world that they could emulate our democracy, and 
it is the House of Representatives, the people's body in the 
legislative branch of our Government that is the symbol of this 
democracy for this country, and really for the whole world, and you 
have been privileged to spend your time here and work here. I hope you 
will take that away with you and I know you will.
  I think you have also learned a great deal. If my experience is any 
measure, you have learned a great deal about yourself as well, about 
your own capabilities, your own limitations, your own hopes and dreams. 
You have probably gained a lot in your own self-esteem.
  Most of you will not go into politics, I suspect, but there will be 
some of you that will. Whether or not you go into politics, the 
experience that you have had here is one, I think, that will last for 
an entire lifetime, because I think these experiences go with you 
regardless of the career or the profession that you have. They are 
experiences not about Government, not about our Congress but about life 
itself and about the meaning of this country and the meaning of our 
democracy.
  I think it is for that reason that this program is so important and 
that we not ever say that we are going to end this program. Many people 
have said it would be so much easier to hire people to be pages, to 
hire graduates, to hire people who were older; that you do not have to 
worry about a school and a dorm and things like that. But we would be 
missing something. We would be missing the challenge of having young 
people in our midst, and we would be missing giving this experience to 
so many, to more than 100 people in the course of a year and a summer 
that has this experience and that goes out and carries this message to 
the rest of the country.
  So that, in conclusion, is the challenge to you, to take the message, 
to go out and to talk to others when you go back to your school next 
year, when you go off to college, when you go into life, about what 
this country means, about what democracy and freedom and liberty and 
the legislative process means for all of us.
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I want to insert in the Record a list of 
all pages who have been with us for this spring semester, and I know 
that they will all want to get a copy of the Congressional Record 
tomorrow so that they will have that available to them.
  I wish them well in their future endeavors. I congratulate them on 
the completion of this event. Godspeed and God bless each of you.
  The information referred to follows:

                 House Page School Spring Semester 1996

       Tobin Addington, C.J. Albertie, Cheryl Arensdorf, Jesse 
     Barrick, Theda Browdy, Beth Burhenne, Melissa Chesnov, Camrin 
     Christensen, Rachael Clark, Matt Claypool, Chris Creaghe, 
     Charlotte Coffee, Lisa Dang, Karyn Dest.
       Chris Finnegan, Alice Ganier, Geffrey Gismondi, Jennifer 
     Hall, Thea Handleman, Kim Harrington, Nancy Hogan, Dan 
     Hughes, Amy Johannes, Mark Johnson, William Johnston, Richie 
     Jones, Jessica Kirk, David Kizler, Melinda Knox.
       Bonnie Kress, Robert Leandro, Chris Legett, Tim Lipke, Greg 
     Lundell, Kristen Marconi, Megan Marcus, Kate Martin, Travis 
     Martin, Angie McKinney, Sarah Metthe, Stephanie Moore, 
     Michael Morrow, Jennifer Mueller, Jacquelyn Nash.
       Greg Newburn, Matt Patton, Tonya Petty, Lyandra Retacco, 
     Philip Ross, Trese Ruffino, Rebecca Sage, Rachel Schatz, 
     Brian Sells, Kris Soma, Bethany Spencer, Jessica Stults, Matt 
     Tenney, Kathryn Watts, Emily Wengrovius, Julia Whitley, 
     Melissa Young.
  Mr. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, today marks the last day of service of our 
current class of pages. For those who may be unfamiliar, we have a 
system here by which most pages serve for the school year, commencing 
their activities in September and ending in June, and then from June 
until September we have what we call summer pages. But the pages who 
are here with us for the school year are all juniors and tomorrow they 
will have their going away ceremony.
  As the current chairman of the House Page Board, I wish to pay 
particular tribute to this very wonderful group of young people who 
have rendered distinguished service to the 104th Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that this experience has been for them everything 
that we hoped that it would be. As many folks here know, I am a former 
page and personally know that the House Page Program is a great 
learning experience, one which I hope this class of pages will remember 
and benefit from all of their lives. I can truly say that for me in the 
83d and 84th Congress being a page was probably the finest, most 
objective, educational experience of my life. I've said many, many 
times that you learn as a page by doing and observing and 
participating, and that is just an awfully lot different than reading 
about it in the textbooks.
  So, on behalf of the entire House, I wish all of our departing pages 
well in their personal endeavors. Some of you will go off to college, 
others to the military, and others to perhaps a myriad of other 
pursuits. Hopefully, this experience will serve as a constant point of 
favorable reflection throughout their lives and that it begins a path 
of much success and happiness and good health in all understandings.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to say to the pages a hearty thank you 
for all that they have done this semester and this past year. In going 
forward, I want to extend to them my own best wishes, the best wishes 
of the entire House, and wish them Godspeed in life's future course.

                          ____________________