[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 116 (Thursday, August 1, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H9773-H9774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      J. PHIL CAMPBELL SENIOR NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION CENTER

  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I call up the bill (H.R. 3387) to designate 
the Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center located at 1420 
Experimental Station Road in Watkinsville, GA, as the J. Phil Campbell, 
Senior Natural Resource Conservation Center and I ask unanimous consent 
for its immediate consideration in the House.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Colorado?
  Mr. STENHOLM. Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, although I 
do not intend to object, I yield to the gentleman from Colorado Mr. 
Allard for an explanation of H.R. 3387.
  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3387 is a noncontroversial bill sponsored by 
Congressman Charlie Norwood. H.R. 3387 renames the Southern Piedmont 
Conservation Research Center located in Watkinsville, GA, as the J. 
Phil Campbell, Sr. Natural Resource Conservation Center. The bill 
memorializes Mr. Campbell, an FDR appointee, for his leading role in 
locating the Center in Watkinsville and for maintaining funding for the 
center.
  H.R. 3387 was approved by a voice vote in the Subcommittee on 
Resource Conservation, Research, and Forestry and in the full Committee 
on Agriculture on May 30 and June 19, respectively. Moreover, Secretary 
Glickman has provided Chairman Roberts with a letter, dated June 19, 
which states that the Department has no objections to H.R. 3387, and 
which further acknowledges Mr. Campbell's profound contributions to 
American agriculture.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. STENHOLM. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for 
yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3387, a bill to rename 
the Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center in Watkinsville, GA 
as the J. Phil Campbell, Senior Natural Resource Conservation Center.
  J. Phil Campbell, Senior lived on this Earth for 66 years, but in 
that time, he gave more to the men and women of this country that can 
be measured. His contributions to agriculture, not only in the 
Southeast, but throughout the Nation, are well known and widely 
recognized. Mr. Linder and I introduced this legislation to, in a small 
way, give Mr. Campbell the recognition he most certain deserves.
  James Philander Campbell was born in Dallas, GA, just northeast of 
Atlanta, on March 2, 1878. He grew up on a farm and, at the age of 17, 
began teaching school. At a young age, J. Phil Campbell, Senior fought 
for and helped to secure legislation providing for teaching agriculture 
in rural Georgia schools. In 1907, he spent 6 months traveling 
throughout the State advocating for the creation of district 
agriculture schools and a State college of agriculture. All of this was 
done before he turned 30 years of age.
  Between 1908 and 1910, J. Phil Campbell, Senior served as the first 
farmer extension supervisor to the Southeast region. This was done 
before passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1915, which created a Federal 
extension service.
  In 1910, he began a career as the Georgia State agent for the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture. He also served on the Georgia State 
University's College of Agriculture staff. During his tenure, he 
organized nearly 13,000 Georgia children in ``corn'' and ``canning 
clubs.'' He also helped organize 5,000 Georgia farmers into farming 
demonstration work. These efforts were done under the supervision of 
Dr. Seaman Knapp of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

  During this time, he also served as the Director of Extension Work in 
Agriculture and Home Economics. In 1933, he took a leave of absence to 
assist the Federal Agriculture Adjustment Administration in their 
cotton belt crop replenishment division. After 1935, he was elevated to 
a Federal position in the Roosevelt administration as assistant chief 
of the Soil Conservation Service in the USDA. He served in that 
capacity until he died in December of 1994.
  In addition to his clear record of accomplishment in the area of 
education, J. Phil Campbell, Senior was also extremely interested in 
agricultural research and maintained close ties with Georgia's 
agriculture experiment stations. He was integral in the creation of the 
Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center. He chose its siting in 
Watkinsville, just outside of Athens and the University of Georgia. 
When funding for the center was threatened in its first year, Phil 
Campbell fought to keep the center open and secure its line of funding. 
It exists to this day on Experimental Station Road in Watkinsville.
  I introduced H.R. 3387 as a small token of recognition and gratitude 
for Mr. Campbell's contributions to agriculture and the communities and 
Nation he loved. Fortunately, Mr. Campbell's contributions to 
agriculture are not being recognized after his death only. In the mid-
1930's, Dean Paul Chapman, the first dean of the University of 
Georgia's College of agriculture, stated, ``J. Phil Campbell and I were 
pioneers in promoting professional agricultural work and in the 
establishing of agencies to carry on such work. With little 
professional training ourselves, we were plowing new ground to create 
such training.'' Later, in a ceremony honoring Mr. Campbell after he 
departed for Washington, Dean Chapman stated that no one had as many 
friends in Georgia as did J. Phil Campbell. Mr. Campbell was also 
recognized in the ``Who's Who in America'' collection in the 1940's. 
Clearly, given his contributions to agriculture in the State of Georgia 
and throughout he Nation, Mr. Campbell had more friends than he could 
have ever known.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to offer this legislation. In a letter from 
the USDA, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman stated that, while the 
USDA generally discourages the naming of its laboratories after any one 
individual, given the Department's admiration and appreciation of, 
``the great service Mr. Campbell has rendered to agriculture and the 
Nation, the USDA has no objection to the enactment of H.R. 3387.''
  We have also received assurances from the CBO that enactment of H.R. 
3387 will result in no significant cost to the Federal Government and 
does not include any inter-governmental or private sector mandates.
  Given this, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join with me to 
recognize Mr. Campbell's many contributions and support this 
legislation.
  With that, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation of objection, I 
thank my colleague for his explanation of the legislation.
  I rise in support of H.R. 3387, and wanted to thank my colleagues 
from Georgia for their work on this effort. Mr. Campbell was certainly 
a driving force in their home State, as well as in a number of areas in 
agriculture, including Extension Service and research activities, in 
addition to serving as assistant chief of the Soil Conservation Service 
here in Washington during Franklin Roosevelt's administration. 
Therefore, it is appropriate that the agriculture research facility in 
Watkinsville that works on issues involving our natural resources be 
named after him.
  Again, I thank our colleagues, the gentlemen from Georgia, Mr. 
Norwood and Mr. Linder, for introducing this legislation, and I urge 
its passage by the House.
  Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Colorado?

[[Page H9774]]

  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the bill, as follows:

                               H.R. 3387

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION OF J. PHIL CAMPBELL, SENIOR NATURAL 
                   RESOURCE CONSERVATION CENTER.

       The Southern Piedmont Conservation Research Center located 
     at 1420 Experimental Station Road in Watkinsville, Georgia, 
     shall be known and designated as the ``J. Phil Campbell, 
     Senior Natural Resource Conservation Center''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the building referred 
     to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``J. 
     Phil Campbell, Senior Natural Resource Conservation Center''.

  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, was read 
the third time, was passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the 
table.

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