[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN BILL EMERSON

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, I also stand here in the well to remember 
our dear colleague, Bill Emerson from Missouri. I can still see him in 
the back row, all the way in the back in the last aisle, standing there 
talking. And many of us used to go back to talk to him and ask him, 
Bill, what are the nuances of this vote and would he explain it. He was 
very knowledgeable about different bills on the House floor. But he 
would also give you a sense of humor, a point about the bill that would 
make you chuckle and laugh, knowing that sometimes Members were forced 
to vote on things they did not like, because within the whole bill 
there would be a small something you did like. But Bill Emerson had 
that way.
  And I also want to tell you, Mr. Speaker, that many times I spoke to 
him during his illness and encouraged him and gave him several 
articles, articles which talked about other Americans suffering from 
cancer and how they met this disease and the type of mind frame they 
put themselves in and tried to encourage it. But he did not need to be 
encouraged in terms of a positive attitude because his entire 
relationship that I had with him and saw on the House floor was one of 
optimism, one of being a positive American and showing other Americans, 
through his leadership and through his personality, the purpose of all 
of us is that we are to be caring and helpful for our fellow man.
  So I tell you, Mr. Speaker, when I come here to the well, I can 
almost still see Bill in the back there, laughing, encouraging all of 
us, and giving that light chuckle he has, together with the sparkle in 
his eyes. So I bid him adieu and wish him and his family well and with 
deepest sympathy remind my colleagues of the great Congressman Bill 
Emerson.

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