[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3811-H3814]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ANDREW JACOBS, JR. POST OFFICE BUILDING
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill--H.R. 1057--to designate the building in Indianapolis, IN, which
houses the operations of the Circle City Station Post Office as the
``Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Post Office Building,'' as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 1057
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.
The building in Indianapolis, Indiana, which houses the
operations of the Indianapolis Main Post Office shall be
known and designated as the ``Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Post Office
Building''.
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
``Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Post Office Building''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York [Mr. McHugh] and the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fattah],
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York [Mr. McHugh].
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1057 was introduced by the chairman of the full
committee, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton], and, as required by
the committee policy, supported by the entire Indiana delegation.
Mr. Speaker, the original bill designated the Circle City Station
Post Office as the ``Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Post Office Building.''
However, the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight approved the
amendment proposed by the Subcommittee on Postal Service designating
the facility housing the operation of the Indiana Main Post Office as a
more appropriate building to bear the name of ``Andrew Jacobs, Jr.''
Mr. Speaker, as most of our colleagues in this House know full well,
Andy Jacobs is and has always been a product of Indianapolis. After
finishing high school in 1949 in that city, he entered the U.S. Marine
Corps and served in the Korean conflict. He returned thereafter to his
home State and received his B.S. degree from Indiana University and his
LL.B. from Indiana University School of Law. He practiced law in that
State and in that city, and
[[Page H3812]]
he was elected to the Indiana State House of Representatives at age 26.
He served in the 89th Congress and was a Member from 1965 to 1973. As
he was not reelected to the 93d Congress, he did return to Indianapolis
once again to teach and practice law. He was elected again to the 94th
Congress and served through the 104th Congress thereafter. During his
tenure he chaired the Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee
on Ways and Means.
Mr. Speaker, those of us who remember Andy remember him for his
political unorthodoxy. He returned tens of thousands of dollars to the
U.S. Treasury from his salary, veterans disability payments, mileage
reimbursements and office allowance. In fact, an Indiana newspaper once
described him as ``refreshingly unpredictable.''
He is reported to have said of himself, ``I am not the best go along
in the House. Frankly, sometimes I do not get along very well.''
That may be true in that self-observation, Mr. Speaker, but I am sure
all of us agree that Andy Jacobs got along very, very well. He was one
of the most respected and certainly one of the most admired Members
that this House has seen in many, many years. I certainly think that
this naming bill is a very appropriate way in which the Members of this
House and the people of this Nation can say gratefully to this
gentleman, thank you for all that you have done. I strongly urge
passage of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I am pleased to support H.R. 1057. This legislation naming a postal
facility in Indianapolis, IN, after our former colleague Andy Jacobs.
Last year Congressman Jacobs completed a very long and distinguished
career in public service. As a young marine he was wounded in combat
during the Korean war. He later worked as a police officer, served in
the Indiana House of Representatives and was elected to the Congress in
1964. Many of his years here were spent on the House Committee on Ways
and Means and as chair of the Subcommittee on Social Security.
He will be remembered most for his efforts to balance the budget and
minimize spending on his own reelection campaigns. This legislation
bestows a fitting honor upon a Member who served with great distinction
in this body for over three decades.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for, as always,
his input and his support and his assistance on not just this but the
other bills that the subcommittee has considered.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr.
Burton], chairman of the full committee, chief sponsor of this bill.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding me the time.
Let me just say that I have served in this body now for 15 years. I
have served with no finer Congressman or Congresswoman than Andy
Jacobs, Jr. Andy is a dear friend of mine. I know some of my Democrat
colleagues might find that interesting, since he comes from the other
party, but he is one of the finest people I know. He is a good father,
a good husband. And he is a great American. He really cares about this
country.
We have heard a lot of the good things about Andy today. He served in
this body for 30 years. But he was such a man of integrity that I think
everybody who knew him on both sides of the aisle agreed that here was
a man who, if he gave you his word, you could bet the house on it
because he would not break his word.
I will just say this about Andy. If I could pick one Member that I
would trust with everything I own including my family, it would be Andy
Jacobs, Jr. He is that kind of a person. And that is about as high a
regard as I can hold anyone.
Some other things that a lot of my colleagues may not know is Andy
was a marine. He did not talk about this very much. But during the
Korean war, one of his buddies was killed. And it was of course the
frozen fields of Korea during the war over there that Andy really
showed what kind of a man he was. He carried on his back for almost 3
days his dead comrade back to our lines so that he could be properly
honored and buried. That is the kind of guy Andy Jacobs is.
If we had 435 Members in this body like Andy Jacobs and 100 Members
in the other body like Andy Jacobs, we could solve so many of the
country's problems in a very rapid order because he was that kind of a
man and is that kind of a man.
The thing I could say that means the most to me is that Andy Jacobs
is my friend and I miss him.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman
from Indiana [Ms. Carson], a brave woman who has been sent by the State
of Indiana to replace Andy Jacobs here in this body serving the people
of her great State.
Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr.
Fattah] and the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] for those very
eloquent remarks. Imagine standing here today in support of the House
bill, H.R. 1057, as an individual who succeeded Congressman Andy Jacobs
out of the 10th Congressional District in the State of Indiana. There
is no way that Andy Jacobs can be replaced. As Henry Fonda used to say
very profoundly in an advertisement for Andy Jacobs, Andy Jacobs is a
Congressman's Congressman. And although I am very proud to have been
able to succeed him, as he opened up his seat for election of a new
Member to Congress, I say that with a great deal of pride and certainly
lament the fact that Congressman Jacobs no longer represents the 10th
Congressional District of the State of Indiana.
We have heard that Andy Jacobs was in fact in combat as a marine
infantryman in the Korean war and let the Treasury Department hold his
disability check as he served as a Member of Congress. And we have
certainly heard that Andy Jacobs also was Marion County deputy sheriff
and that he graduated from law school. Congressman Jacobs was in fact a
member of the Committee on the Judiciary that helped to write the
historic 1965 Voting Rights act, and I know a lot of my colleagues in
Congress would like to be reminded that Andy Jacobs is the one that
sponsored legislation that made Father's Day a legal holiday. So, as my
colleagues enjoyed their family a couple of days ago under the banner
of Father's Day, please know that it was Congressman Andy Jacobs who
authored that legislation.
Andy Jacobs was the only Indianapolis Congressman in the 20th century
to serve on the House Committee on Ways and Means where he did chair
the Subcommittee on Social Security and the Subcommittee on Health.
Andy Jacobs followed in the footsteps of his father, Andy Jacobs, who
was also a Member of Congress from the State of Indiana.
Andy Jacobs authored ``The Powell Affair: Freedom Minus One,''
because he sat on the Committee on the Judiciary throughout all of
those hearings and he tells the story of the ouster of the Harlem
Congressman from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Congressman Jacobs retired from Congress in 1996 to spend more time
with his lovely wife, Kim Hood Jacobs, and his sons, Andy, Jr., who is
6 years old, as we speak, and Steven, who is 5 years old at this time.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this very worthy
and appropriate legislation as a special tribute to the honorable Andy
Jacobs who served his country well.
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Indiana [Mr. Buyer].
Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to cosponsor H.R. 1057 to
designate the Main Post Office in Indianapolis, Indiana in honor of
Congressman Andy Jacobs. Following in his father's footsteps, Andy
Jacobs, Jr. began his congressional career in 1964, after serving 5
years in the Indiana House. For 30 years Indianapolis was well
represented by a real gentleman and a formidable legislator.
As I was waiting here to make these remarks, I happened to listen to
the opening segments here of 1-minutes on the House floor. I think Andy
was always bothered by what I would refer to coming from his own party
as rhetorical political terrorism. Those are inflammatory words that
are meant to incite class warfare and paint others as uncaring or
callous. That was not Andy Jacobs at all. Andy Jacobs was someone who
exemplified the essence of the
[[Page H3813]]
nobility of life; that is, someone, as a former marine and as a deputy
sheriff, who was in touch with the inner sensibilities of life and
those tender sensibilities.
Andy Jacobs voted his conscience. He did not go along party lines.
There are some Members that will go along party lines, and then some
will break from party lines for a particular political purpose. Andy
was a gentleman who voted his conscience.
For example in 1989, it was Andy Jacobs that cast the deciding vote
on the Committee on Ways and Means in favor of a capital gains tax cut,
despite the Democrat majority at the time in opposition of cutting
taxes. His tenure on the Committee on Ways and Means provided Indiana
with a very powerful presence.
It was truly an honor for me to serve here for 4 years with Andy
Jacobs. I wish Andy and his wife Kim and their children all the best as
they move into the new phase of their lives.
I applaud the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] for having brought
this initiative to name the Main Post Office in the honor of my friend,
Andy Jacobs.
{time} 1445
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to
just suggest that the people of the State of Indiana and the 10th
District have sent forth a Representative now, we just heard from her,
to speak on their behalf on some of these very important issues of tax
policies and the like, and I think that the issues of how Andy Jacobs
would have voted on some of the matters that were discussed in the one-
minutes are really beyond the point.
What we are here to do is to honor his 30 years of service and,
through this legislation, to name a post office after him; and we seek
no partisan advantage in that process.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from the State of
Indiana [Mr. Hamilton], a most distinguished Member, to comment on this
legislation.
Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this
time, and of course I rise in strong support not only of H.R. 1057, a
bill to rename a post office in Indianapolis, IN for former Congressman
Andy Jacobs, but I wish also to rise in support of the bill that
follows, H.R. 1058, to rename a post office now under construction in
Terre Haute, IN for former Congressman John Myers.
I, of course, have known Andy and John for many, many years. I think
I served with each of them in this institution for 30 years, for a
total of 60 years' association with these two gentlemen. I hold them in
highest esteem and regard. They were a true credit to this institution
during their many years of service. The House of Representatives misses
them, the State of Indiana misses their service, and I miss them as
personal friends in this institution.
It was a great personal pleasure for me to work with them over the
years. Both of them are individuals of the highest integrity and
dedication and professionalism. They have had a tremendous impact on
our great State of Indiana and its people as well as the citizens of
this country. Each of them, I believe, left a distinctive mark on the
U.S. Congress, and everybody in this Chamber, and many people
throughout the country, are better for it.
Andy and John are missed for their personal qualities that they
brought to this floor. In national politics and in Congress, we often
hear now about the decline of civility. Andy and John, in contrast,
were models of civility and decency. They certainly had their views on
the issues and were never afraid to voice them, but they always
respected those with whom they disagreed and they worked tirelessly in
this institution to build a consensus on some of the difficult
challenges that we had. They understood how Congress works and they
worked in a constructive and bipartisan manner to achieve their
purposes. Each one of us can learn from their example.
Their work here was a mark of distinction. Andy and John have every
right to look back on their service with a full measure of
satisfaction. They were wonderful colleagues and they are great friends
of mine. They represent the very best that our State of Indiana has to
offer.
These bills are fitting tributes to two outstanding Members of
Congress. I congratulate the chairman of the subcommittee and the
ranking member of the subcommittee for bringing the bills forward and I
thank them for it.
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
to, very briefly, in closing, say that I think the words spoken here
today by the gentlemen from Indiana, Chairman Burton, Mr. Hamilton, Mr.
Buyer, and others, underscore in what great esteem Mr. Jacobs is held
by Members of this House. And I am sure that equal esteem will be
forthcoming for the Member who is honored through the next bill. With
that, I close by urging all of the Members to support this very worthy
and very meritorious piece of legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Indiana [Mr. Visclosky].
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Andy Jacobs and
in strong support of H.R. 1057 to designate the new postal facility in
Indianapolis, IN, in his honor.
I had the pleasure of serving with Andy since I was first elected to
join the Indiana's congressional delegation in 1984 and until his
retirement last year. In that time, I grew to appreciate him not only
as one of the most thoughtful, honorable, and well-spoken legislators
to serve in this body, but also as a good friend.
Because Andy's sons, Andy and Steve, and my boys, John and Tim, were
born about the same time, we were able to share the mutual joys of
fatherhood together. And whether our advice to each other on raising
sons would be considered problematic or not, we always took pleasure
about talking about Johnko and Bronko.
While I will certainly miss his wisdom and sense of humor in these
Halls, I find comfort in the knowledge that Andy is enjoying his
retirement with his wife, Kim Hood, and by watching his two boys grow
up to be mature young men.
Since Andy was first elected to represent Indiana's 10th
Congressional District in 1964, he made his mark as a tremendous
legislator. As a new Member of Congress, he helped to write the 1965
Voting Rights Act, and led the House debate to help get the United
States out of Vietnam.
A member of the Committee on Ways and Means, Andy quickly developed
an expertise in Medicare and Social Security, and he worked tirelessly
to help improve the lives of millions of America's senior citizens.
During his tenure in the House, he served as chairman of both the
Subcommittee on Health and the Subcommittee on Social Security of the
Committee on Ways and Means. In Andy's capacities he was able to
strengthen and enhance the Social Security Administration and Medicare
programs.
Widely recognized as one of the most fiscally conservative Members of
Congress, Andy was an early proponent of a balanced budget
constitutional amendment, and took the lead on other efforts to reduce
Federal spending. He also was legendary among Members of the House for
his own frugality, regularly returning tens of thousands of dollars to
the U.S. Treasury from his personal office's funds.
Mr. Speaker, in his own unique way, Andy Jacobs came to epitomize
what is good and right about serving his fellow citizens as a Member of
Congress. Indeed, with his interests ranging from poetry to Social
Security, the people of Indiana and the rest of the Nation are
fortunate to have had Andy Jacobs representing their interests in the
United States Congress.
Passage of H.R. 1057 is only a small token of our appreciation, and I
urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio
[Mr. Traficant].
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I want to associate myself with the
remarks of the gentleman from Indiana, Chairman Burton, and I want to
commend him for bringing forth the legislation.
Andy Jacobs was as well a friend of mine. There was not a Member ever
to serve here with a sharper wit or a nicer attitude. He was a war
hero, but one
[[Page H3814]]
would never know it. He did as much to protect Social Security as
anyone in history. One would never know it. Loved his family, Kim and
the two boys, and just a super guy.
I also want to rise in support of another great legislator from
Indiana, John Myers. I know John is here. I did not see Andy. John is
here visiting with Jimmy Quillen from Tennessee. Two of the greatest
Members. And I want to rise in support of the naming of the post office
for John Myers, for Andy Jacobs, and I personally consider them great
friends and I want to thank them for having helped my district and
helping the people of all of America.
So I want to associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Hamilton,
Chairman Burton, and all of those who have spoken here, but I am so
very pleased that John Myers and Andy Jacobs are getting their just due
here, because there is nothing more fitting than naming these two post
offices for these two great Hoosiers.
Mr. Speaker, I will stop with that, because I know others will extol
their virtues.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Virginia [Mr. Wise].
Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I too want to join in thanking the committee
for moving this forward.
Let me just say that a number of us here owe a debt of gratitude as
well as the American public to Congressman Andy Jacobs, not only for
his representation over many years but also personal notes.
As a personal note, as a new Member, he took me under his wing and
showed me around and made sure I did not fall too badly in my early
years here. Of course, he also introduced me to the woman who was later
to become my wife. And so I am very, very grateful to him for that
certainly as well, and our two children also thank him greatly.
I want to just note about Andy Jacobs, he was often a study of
contrasts, and he was someone we needed to have in Congress and we need
to have. He was a combat veteran who understood how awful war could be
and always worried about sending, in his words, kids off to fight our
wars. So he examined each cause for going to war carefully.
He was someone who, while many might say he was a liberal Democrat
because he believed in programs that helped people, he was probably the
tightest person with the taxpayers' nickel that I have run across in a
long time.
And, finally, Andy was probably someone who, of anyone, would never
ask that a post office be named after them and, Mr. Speaker, those are
the people that we ought to be naming post offices after and Federal
buildings after so the taxpayers and those who will use that building
know that they were well represented and that the spirit that they
would like to see in government is still memorialized.
So we thank very much the committee for moving this forward.
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Indiana [Mr. Roemer], the last and final Member with remarks on this
bill from our side of the aisle, whom I served with on the House
Committee on Education and the Workforce, who has been very close to
Congressman Jacobs.
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this
time and for his hard work on this particular bill.
Mr. Speaker, I will submit for the Record a formal statement, but
Andy Jacobs was anything but formal. Andy Jacobs was somebody that at
12 o'clock at night, when this session was in, and we were working hard
doing the people's business, was the first person to say something off-
the-cuff and funny to keep his colleagues' sense of humor and comedy
and sense of bipartisanship alive.
Whenever we talked to Andy, if we did not get a funny quip out of him
first, the first thing on his mind was always his family. His two
children and his wife Kim always took priority over everything else.
And the latest story about his 5- or 6-year-old was always on the tip
of his tongue.
The trappings of this House of Representatives never captured Andy.
Not only did he not spend money on things that would keep him in office
or were part of the trappings of the facade of office, Andy hardly ever
ran a campaign in the State of Indiana that would cost more than
$20,000. That, by itself, is a monumental accomplishment.
Finally, when it comes to naming a post office after my good friend
Andy Jacobs, I have to say that Andy was a Member of Congress that
probably read each and every single one of his constituents' mailings
to him, and often would reply in a sentence or two, or in three or four
pages. And he had a lot to say to each one of his colleagues, sometimes
very funny anecdotal stories, and sometimes things that none of his
colleagues would dare write in our responses, but Andy could get away
with it because he had such a great rapport with his constituency.
So my heart misses Andy but my hat is off to him and Kim, and we just
wish him well in his next career in his lifetime.
Mr. Speaker, our Hoosier colleague, Andy Jacobs, served 15 terms in
this House, and he is dearly missed. Andy is missed for his humor, his
charm, and his grace. He is also missed for his powerful commitment to
those in society who truly deserve and need help: the oldest, the
youngest, and the most vulnerable.
Andrew Jacobs, Jr., served Indiana and the country well, but he
rejected the trappings of office. His independent thinking and Hoosier
common sense endeared him to his constituents, who returned him to
office again and again without noisy or expensive campaigns. And then,
without fanfare, Andy quietly decided to move on from the House of
Representatives.
Mr. Speaker, Andy was a good mentor, and is a good friend. Like our
colleague, John Myers, whom we also honor today, Andy put progress
before partisanship, and expressed deep concerns about the lack of
comity in the House. His gentility was a living rebuke to those whose
rhetoric did not support civil discourse. We miss him all the more for
his example.
Mr. Speaker, in naming a postal facility for Andy Jacobs, we are
conducting a fitting tribute, if a modest one, for a man who served
well by hard work, by integrity, and by example. I am pleased to rise
in support of H.R. 1057, and to recognize my good friend Andrew Jacobs,
Jr., today.
{time} 1500
Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield back all remaining time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from New York [Mr. McHugh] that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1057, as amended.
The question was taken.
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 5 of rule I and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
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