[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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