[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 65 (Friday, May 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2867-H2869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           JONNA LYNNE CULLEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Upton] is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer a tribute to a special 
friend who sadly is fiercely battling this awful disease called cancer.
  Jonna Lynne Cullen, J.L. as we call her, served in this House as a 
staff member from 1967 until 1981. I got to know her very well when she 
was my boss at the Office of Management and Budget. She headed the 
Office of Legislative Affairs and to everyone's recollection she 
probably is the first woman that ever headed that office working for 
President Reagan from 1981 until 1984.
  Mr. Speaker, she was a special friend. She was back here on the back 
rail. Many Members of Congress from those years, as they came into 
office, really learned the ropes in terms of what was going on, her 
ability to understand legislation, to work with all Members on both 
sides of the aisle. And it was sort of interesting, when she came in 
1967, she worked for then the chairman, the Democratic chairman of the 
Committee on Rules, Bill Colmer. Trent Lott was his administrative 
assistant.
  And Trent Lott came into office, of course, later on and is now the 
majority leader in the Senate. I know as I have spoken with both Trent 
Lott and other Members of the House that have moved to the other body, 
whether it be Olympia Snowe, Jim Jeffords, a whole host of Members that 
served here, they would very much like to speak this afternoon but of 
course as Members of the other body they are unable to do so.
  As I look around the floor today and we have adjourned with 
legislative business, I have a number of my colleagues that are anxious 
to catch their planes and go back, but I wanted to recognize them in 
this hour that I have.
  First, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the very distinguished chairman of the 
Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. 
Livingston].
  Mr. LIVINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Michigan for 
yielding to me. I thank him for taking out this special order. I want 
to take this opportunity to wish our friend, Jonna Lynne Cullen our 
very best because I join with the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Upton] 
in recognizing J.L. as a truly remarkable lady.
  Our thoughts and prayers are with her as she lies in bed fighting an 
ongoing bout with cancer. But we do extend our love and best wishes to 
her for a speedy victory over that dreaded disease. Jonna Lynne's 
accomplishments here on the Hill and in the Reagan Office of Management 
and Budget in the early 1980's are well known. She came to the 
Committee on Rules as a teenager some time ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I met her when she was on the staff of Trent Lott from 
Mississippi. His district was neighboring mine and we had that natural 
southern affinity. And in fact I guess I am wearing the right suit for 
this effort because she was a true southerner, represented the grace 
and charm and dignity of the Deep South and yet the calm efficiency as 
well of a lady that knew her way around Capitol Hill and with open and 
friendly manner literally could get anything done in Congress and 
throughout Washington, DC.
  She served for many years as a staffer here in Congress. Her 
expertise and her talents and her dynamic personality won her the 
respect and admiration of many Members on both sides of the aisle. 
Those talents and abilities were tapped by OMB Director Dave Stockman 
during President Reagan's first term where she served as head of 
legislative affairs for OMB. And in fact J.L.'s knowledge of the Hill 
and her terrific relationships with so many Members of the staff were 
invaluable assets to the Reagan budget team. She played a pivotal role 
in garnering congressional support for the Reagan tax cuts and the 
budget plans that led to the greatest sustained peacetime economic 
expansion in this century.
  Jonna Lynne Cullen was not your average liaison official. Her 
influence with the House and her abundant talent won her the trust of 
the most senior Members of the Reagan and Bush administrations. The 
real reason we rise to pay tribute to her transcends her 
accomplishments on the Hill and down at the other end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue. We here honor a woman who never for one moment took her life 
for granted. She was a painter. She was a traveler. She was a gourmet 
chef. She most importantly has been a fighter and a fierce patriot 
whose love of America drove her to share our Nation's dreams and ideals 
with people across the globe.
  She is a lady who, when faced with breast cancer, refused to just 
give up but poured her energy into helping others. The American Cancer 
Society was one of the chief beneficiaries of her time and her passion 
and her efforts, notwithstanding all of the other many demands on her 
time.
  When she thought she had cancer beat, she not only continued her 
efforts on behalf of the American Cancer Society but she traveled 
worldwide, teaching and encouraging women in Latin America, Russia, and 
other emerging nations to reach out for success. She was an ambassador 
of entrepreneurship and excellence and a beacon to women around the 
world who never imagined that they had the ability to achieve success.
  Today we think of Jonna Lynne Cullen who by sheer force of will has 
refused to give in to cancer. I last saw her a few weeks ago when she 
came to a reception on behalf of Blanquita Cullem who is a radio 
personality here in Washington. And there was Jonna Lynne with her 
Raggedy Ann red wig because she was going through chemotherapy and just 
brightly showing off that she was fighting every inch of the way.
  She continues that fight and, as she lies in bed, she is still 
struggling against that dreaded disease. Her courage is an inspiration 
to all of us. We wish her well. We wish her success. We wish her 
victory in that fight. Keep on fighting, Jonna Lynne. We love you.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I would yield to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Thomas].
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan 
for taking this special order. There will be a number of Members who 
will speak about their recollections of J.L. I do not want to catalog 
her many achievements. I would much rather provide a personal profile.
  I had not planned to come to the House of Representatives. I enjoyed 
what I was doing out in California. I was at that time in the State 
legislature and was on a faculty of the local college.
  The incumbent Congressman died, had a heart attack after the primary. 
There was a special convention that was convened which placed me on the 
ballot to come back here if I were successful in November. I had not 
gone through a primary. I had not gone to the Kennedy schools. I 
literally knew no one. And when I was elected in November 1978, I was 
amazed at how many of the 77 classmates that came back in the 96th 
Congress had some connection or relationship. They were either on a 
Member's staff, their family had been involved in politics, their 
relatives were involved or they indeed had worked in the private sector 
that was directly involved. And I had had no involvement whatsoever. So 
I walked onto the floor about as green a freshman as we can ever 
imagine.
  Sitting in the back row was a woman who already knew about me. She 
asked me to sit down. And J.L. began to explain to me who was who and 
how the place worked and what I should and

[[Page H2868]]

should not do. And if anyone knows me, someone who attempts to tell me 
what I should or should not do, it is taken somewhat with a grain of 
salt because I am going to do what I think I should do.

                              {time}  1400

  However, I have to say that in the years that J.L. helped me 
understand this institution, her graciousness as a woman, her 
upbringing in the South, which comes through in a manner, for those of 
us who are very crass and uncultured from the West and from the North 
have never, ever been able to fathom but appreciate when we see it in 
operation, allowed her to show me that there were ways to accomplish 
one's desired ends that I had never imagined.
  She could, all at the same time, praise, scold, and direct someone. 
It happened to me a number of times. Those who had that experience 
always walked away charmed.
  J.L. was as good at what she did as anyone I have ever known. She 
represents to me the institution to a very great extent as it used to 
be. Frankly, this institution is less for the fact that we not only do 
not have J.L. Cullen personally, but I believe we have fewer of the 
type that J.L. represented. She understood when it was necessary to be 
partisan. More importantly, she understood when it was required to be 
institutional. But she could always do it in a warm and friendly way.
  I think it is especially appropriate today to tell J.L., ``Thank you 
for all of the help you gave me when I needed it most, and that as all 
of us are here talking about you, we would much rather be talking with 
you. Just from me personally, J.L., thanks for everything.''
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, at this point I yield time to the 
distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Johnson].
  Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Michigan, my friend, Mr. Upton, and I rise with pride to acknowledge 
the service and leadership of my friend J.L. Cullen.
  J.L., as others have said, was a southern lady. And as a northern 
daughter of a southern family, I say those words with deep respect. 
Graceful, gracious, kind, gentle, firm, able, intelligent, tough. The 
range of all those adjectives, those capabilities, were J.L. Sensitive 
of mind and spirit. She painted. She was a gourmet chef. She saw, 
sensed, talked about, and enjoyed the fine things of life: the 
subtleties of beauty, of visual beauty, of smell, of taste, the 
richness of life. But sensitive of mind as well.
  I loved listening to the stories told by my friend, the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Thomas], because she was sensitive of mind; a very 
sharp ability to analyze issues; able to pierce right to the heart of 
that issue and how it was going to affect people's lives, which is what 
Congress should be and is about.
  A sharp mind, a sensitive heart, and below it all, incredible 
courage; incredible organizational capability. If she said something 
needed to be done and you were working with her, boy, it got done. If 
you carried your part, she carried hers and everybody else's, and 
whatever needed to happen actually did happen, and happened well and 
right.
  Furthermore, you could count on not only it happening right in terms 
of substance and content, but everything was always done with 
integrity. This was a woman who believed that honesty mattered, who 
believed that treating people with mutual respect was what God required 
of you and her fellow human beings required of her.
  Her experience was broad and deep, and she brought to action not only 
character and integrity and knowledge but a breadth of experience that 
reflected a deep understanding of what makes our lives individually 
rewarding and communally strong.
  J.L. was an entrepreneur, and she thought beyond the dots long before 
it was commonly the thing to do. She was outside the box long before we 
invented words like ``a new paradigm'' and all those fancy phrases to 
talk about thinking creatively and thinking aggressively beyond the 
bounds we put on ourselves through the routine of our daily existence.
  J.L. thought outside the box, and because she did, she did something 
for the Republican women of Congress that no one else would have been 
able to do, would have thought to do, would have had the knowledge and 
experience to do or the get-up-and-go to do, and that was to get us all 
together, the women Members of Congress, to think about a number of 
issues that we tended not to think about, because we tended not to 
bring the kind of experience to the table that one needs to get through 
them.
  So she led us through some very important discussions. She helped us 
organize dinners at which we would get together and talk with leading 
people in the media about issues, about our own work as individuals, 
about their jobs to get the public to understand who we were, what the 
Congress was about, and the nature of politics in America today. Always 
the mentor, always the teacher, always the ally, but very deeply, 
always the friend.
  J.L., you fought many battles. You have always won because of your 
spirit, your personal strength, your personal courage, and your 
integrity. This is one more terrible trial, but this, too, is a 
winnable battle, because you bring to it the strength and the courage 
that it demands, and we are with you, we are behind you, we are beside 
you, and we will be there. Our love and thanks to you for all you have 
done for us over the years, and our toast to your courage and success.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman raises a good point about 
J.L. being a vote counter. She has the votes here on both sides of the 
aisle to get through this thing.
  Mr. Speaker, at this point I want to yield some time to my good 
friend, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Thornberry].
  Mr. THORNBERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Michigan for 
taking out this time and for all of those who are contributing to it.
  Today I am glad to join others of my colleagues in honoring J.L. 
Cullen for her outstanding service to our country and her commitment, 
really, to the best ideals of this country.
  J.L. came to Washington from her home State of Mississippi and of 
course wound up in positions of significant responsibility here in the 
Committee on Rules and in the White House under President Reagan at the 
Office of Management and Budget, and it was during that time that my 
wife and I both had the opportunity to first meet J.L.
  My wife Sally and I both came to Washington in the early 1980's and 
had the opportunity to work as staffers first up on the Hill and then 
later in the administration, and we were both new to Washington and 
were both very impressed by J.L.'s energy and her legislative knowledge 
and her commitment to good, sound public policy.
  But for me, the thing that impressed me the most was that no matter 
how busy she was, and in those early Reagan years everybody was very 
busy, particularly J.L., in trying to implement the economic program of 
the Reagan administration, but no matter how busy she was, she always 
took time to say hello and offer some advice or encouragement to a 
young staffer who was wet behind the ears and really did not know very 
much about what was going on up here.
  Our colleague, the gentleman from Oklahoma, J.C. Watts, often likes 
to say that character is what you do when nobody else is looking, and I 
think it says something about J.L.'s character the way she treated 
everyone no matter how busy she was and no matter how experienced some 
of us were.
  And as my colleagues know, this is a city where people are often in a 
big hurry, but J.L.'s southern warmth and hospitality have always 
stayed with her and have always been a key part of her success. And I 
say that with all due respect to my colleague from Michigan, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut, and others. But that, as our colleague 
from California was talking about, that was a key part of why I think 
she has been so successful here.
  J.L. is a terrific example of someone who has worked very hard in her 
jobs, throwing everything she had into it, but also doing so with a 
sense of humor and good grace. And if there is anything we need more of 
around here, it is that sense of humor and good grace that enable us 
all to work together.
  As a matter of fact, I think it is her sense of humor, her ability to 
laugh during intense negotiation or a close

[[Page H2869]]

vote, that helps explain as much as anything why those of us who have 
worked with her in the past and know her think so highly of her and 
have such a special appreciation of her.
  It turns out last year J.L. happened to be traveling outside the 
country and some constituents of mine, who were close personal friends 
from my hometown, just happened to run into her. And even in that brief 
encounter, outside the borders of this country, they were struck by her 
charm, her intelligence, and her zest for life. It transcends, of 
course, all barriers.
  J.L. has faced more than her share of life's challenges, and as she 
battles cancer with all the determination that she brought to a number 
of legislative battles around this place, I want to take time to offer 
her our prayers of strength.
  I am honored to be able to express my thanks for the battles that 
J.L. has fought, often behind the scenes, often late at night, but all 
to make our country a better place. She is someone that we can all 
learn from, particularly her sense of humor and good grace, and I 
appreciate again the chance to say a few words about her in the time 
that our friend has taken to honor her.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas, and now I 
want to yield time to my good friend, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. 
Wolf].
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's taking this time 
out.
  I was sitting in my office and heard about it and just wanted to come 
over to pay tribute to J.L., for her career, and thank her for all the 
good things she has done, and for her friendship over the many years.
  I attended the University of Mississippi for a year, and I know J.L. 
moved up here from Mississippi. In fact, as I remember, when I was at 
the Department of Interior, working for then-Secretary Morton, I would 
go around and visit the office of Mr. Colmer, who was then the chairman 
of the powerful Committee on Rules, and Senator Trent Lott was the 
administrative assistant.
  He was a Democrat in those days, a very conservative Democrat, but 
naturally, I guess, as most of America has, he moved into the 
Republican Party because of the changes.
  But J.L. came here in 1967. I came up here on Capitol Hill in 1968 
for a Republican Member and, off and on, had a relationship and would 
see her at different events. And I just wanted to join the gentleman 
from Michigan and the other Members in paying special tribute to her 
and let her know that she will be in my thoughts and my prayers.
  And that is not just a throwaway line that we say. I will pray for 
her healing and that the Lord will give her strength to face this time.
  Again, I thank the gentleman for taking this time. And, J.L., it is 
nice being with you.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I know we just heard that the Speaker of the 
House was unable to come this afternoon, but he intends to do a 1-
minute on her behalf next week, because he was also very close to J.L.
  I want to say a few things before we end our time here this 
afternoon. Particularly as I look at the gallery and think about the 
people listening this afternoon, there is an element of Washington that 
a lot of folks do not understand.
  There are very powerful parts of this institution. One is the 
Committee on Rules, which meets behind those doors to my left. The 
Committee on Rules really runs this place in lots of ways. Every bill 
that comes to this House floor has a procedural vote first, and the 
Committee on Rules dissects those bills. They are the ones that decide 
what amendments, who will offer them, how long we will debate things, 
what is the procedure of each piece of major legislation as it hits the 
House floor.

                              {time}  1415

  J.L., through her role working for then Chairman Colmer, got to know 
those rules of the House, which are this thick. She knew every I and 
every T in those rules, and she was one that tried to figure out where 
the votes were going to come. Because of her expertise, a young man who 
probably learned a lot of the ropes from her, one of my predecessors, 
David Stockman, hailed as probably one of the greatest directors of the 
Office of Management and Budget and who helped run the think tank, the 
executive branch, for President Reagan, selected her to run that Office 
of Legislative Affairs.
  Again, for people outside of the beltway in many respects, at least 
until 1981, not a lot of people knew what OMB did, either, sort of like 
the Committee on Rules, though it is a very intricate part of the way 
things work; because the Office of Management and Budget decides the 
battles between all of the different agencies within the executive 
branch on where the administration stands. They are the ones that give 
the final recommendation to the President as to whether he should sign 
a bill or veto a bill. They are the ones that decide whether they 
support an amendment or oppose an amendment. They are the ones at the 
table, whether it is the budget agreement which was adopted this week 
and determining where the President's policy was.
  Because of J.L.'s experience of running this House and knowing where 
all the things were, she was a perfect selection to run that Office of 
Management and Budget legislative office. And really through her 
skills, Ronald Reagan, who is certainly going to be hailed as one of 
the greatest Presidents this country has ever seen, who marshaled an 
agenda through this House, particularly in the early years of his 
Presidency when he did not control the House. Republicans were 80, 90 
votes down, yet he saw victory after victory after victory. She was the 
one that helped work the strategy, engineer those votes so that 
President Reagan could get the credit and see his program come through.
  We look at the people that she worked with, Ken Duberstein, later 
chief of staff, she taught Ken a lot of things in terms of what went 
on. Look at some of the Members that are here. I think there are about 
50 some Members at least on the Republican side today that were here in 
1981 when she left, but as the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas] 
said, if you wanted to know what was going on, you sidled back with 
J.L., back at the back rail, and she knew everything that was going on.
  We look at some of the former staff people that have served in this 
House and some that serve today: Ron Lasch, Bill Pitts, Martha 
Morrison, Keith Kennedy in the Senate, Sheila Burke, Jim Whittinghill. 
Those are the names that Members of Congress often go to to find out 
what is going on and how they can work an amendment or a bill, and they 
are the ones we go to when we want some straight advice, to be a 
straight shooter.
  J.L., I think it was the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] 
talked about her red wig. Some of us have seen that red wig before. She 
has tried to battle this chemotherapy and has worn this cheerful red 
wig. I can remember that same wig a decade or so ago when she came out 
to Michigan and dressed up as a Raggedy Andy, waving a little sign, 
``Vote for Fred,'' standing on street corners and getting people's 
attention.
  She is a great painter. Magnolias. She has a terrific sense of humor. 
Lots of jokes. And it kept everyone going when we worked sometimes 15, 
18, 20 hours a day when I worked with her, when I also worked at the 
Office of Management and Budget. She got things done and she still is, 
and that is why so many of us here wish her the best.

                          ____________________