[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 37 (Thursday, March 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S2728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO PROF. ROBERT J. LAMPMAN

 Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise to offer tribute to Dr. 
Robert J. Lampman, economist, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor 
and noted researcher on poverty, who passed away March 4 at his home in 
Madison.
  Mr. President, Dr. Lampman spent much of his distinguished 
professional career studying and writing about poverty and working to 
develop strategies to achieve its end. In 1966, he became the founding 
director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, a nonpartisan center 
for research into the causes and consequences of poverty and social 
inequality in America, on the UW-Madison campus, which established the 
university as a leader of research in that field. A colleague at the 
University of Wisconsin, Dr. Lee Hansen, called Dr. Lampman ``a true 
scholar in that he was always asking questions to get a better 
understanding of the issues.''
  Despite his standing in his profession, Dr. Lampman was known as a 
professor who regarded his students as colleagues. One news report 
describing his career included a recollection by Dr. Thomas Corbett, 
once a graduate student studying with Dr. Lampman and now a University 
of Wisconsin professor of social work and acting director of the IRP. 
Dr. Corbett recalled Dr. Lampman's stopping by his office and saying he 
wanted ``to pick my brain.'' ``In a world where egos can become 
overwhelming, he was a guy who never lost his perspective,'' Dr. 
Corbett said.
  In 1962, he joined the staff of President John Kennedy's Council of 
Economic Advisors, where he prophetically warned that economic growth, 
alone, would not eliminate poverty. He was later a key author of the 
historic chapter on poverty contained in Lyndon Johnson's ``Economic 
Report of the President'' in 1964 that helped call America's attention 
to poverty.
  Dr. Lampman became, in the words of Nobel laureate economist James 
Tobin, ``the intellectual architect of the War on Poverty,'' and he 
emphasized the importance of economic growth, income maintenance, and 
opportunities for education and jobs for those mired in poverty.
  In 1964, as the War on Poverty was getting underway, he predicted to 
a group of University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students that, 
within 20 years, ``by present standards, no one will be poor.''
  Mr. President, it turned out that Professor Lampman was overly 
optimistic. Poverty was not eliminated in 20 years, but the War on 
Poverty had an impact. In 1964, before the War on Poverty was up and 
running, 19 percent of Americans were poor. Within 5 years, programs 
created by the Federal Government and a broadly expanding economy had 
combined to bring that number down to 12.1 percent. By 1973, the 
poverty rate was down to 11.1 percent.
  That progress stalled, for many reasons. Census Bureau estimates for 
1995, the most recent year for which data are available, tell us 13.8 
percent of our Nation's population was poor, and, in the wealthiest 
nation in history, one American child in five lived in poverty.
  Mr. President, Dr. Lampman's dedication, his intellectual energy, and 
his commitment to solving one of the most difficult, complex, and 
persistent social challenges we face should inform and inspire us. We 
should apply, as Dr. Lampman did, our best efforts to ridding our world 
of the plague of poverty and finally establishing social justice. That 
would be the most fitting tribute we could pay to this man.

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