[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 111 (Thursday, July 31, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H6669-H6671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ELECTION OF CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 
207) and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution constitutes a question of 
priviledge.
  The Clerk will report the resolution.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 207

       Resolved, That James M. Eagen, III, of the Commonwealth of 
     Pennsylvania, be, and he is hereby, chosen Chief 
     Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner] and 
the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Boehner].
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I have known and worked with Jay since I came to Congress in 1990 and 
have grown to admire and respect his professionalism and his work 
product. I am honored today to be able to stand on the floor and 
introduce this resolution to make him the chief administrative officer 
of the House of Representatives.
  Jay has worked on the Hill since 1982. He started out in Congressman 
Steve Gunderson's office and moved over to work for the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling] in 1985. He then went to work for the 
Committee

[[Page H6670]]

on Education and the Workforce in 1991 as the Republican chief of staff 
and is currently in that same position.
  I know Jay to be an excellent leader, a meticulous organizer, a 
fabulous administrator and a well-respected manager. I also know Jay on 
a personal level and know of his deep commitment to his work and to 
this institution. He will be a wonderful chief administrative officer 
to this House and I cannot think of anyone else I would rather 
recommend for this job than Jay Egan.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio], the former ranking member of the 
Committee on House Oversight and the chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to indicate that I was privileged to serve 
on a small panel headed by the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas] 
to select the individual who would be the chief administrative officer. 
Not having known Jay earlier, I came to conclude that he was in the 
finest tradition of the development of our staff, people who stay with 
this process and learn it and broaden their skills, developing 
administrative strength as well as substantive knowledge. I want to say 
to my friend, the chairman of the Republican Conference, that people 
like the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kildee], our colleague here, and 
other members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce felt very 
good about this appointment on the premise that he was fair-minded and 
objective and treated the minority with the kind of respect that it is 
due. As a consequence, I am pleased to endorse this selection and 
indicate that I think it is in keeping with what I hope will be a trend 
toward the management of the institution in a manner which will be most 
acceptable to all Members. Hopefully quite a contrast with the 
experience that we had during the first 2 years of the new majority's 
tenure here.
  I want to thank the gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas] for the 
process he put in place and indicate that I look forward to working 
with Mr. Egan, as I am sure others do, in a way that will hopefully 
make this institution proud of the way in which it is managed.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Thomas], chairman of the Committee on 
House Oversight.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding this 
time. I want to thank my colleague from California for his comments. 
Obviously Jay Egan was the choice of a professional search team, an 
extensive review by staff and then a review by a panel of Members 
consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans: the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Fazio], the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. 
Clyburn], the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Ney], and myself.
  I believe that we obviously got the pick of the lot, and the 
professional organization that did the searching brought us a number of 
people who had been in public administration positions and, as a matter 
of fact, in the private sector across a broad region of the United 
States. It is not in my opinion accidental that we have found what we 
believe to be the highest caliber person laboring here in the House. It 
was important, I think, to look outside to give a comfort level for us 
in making the decision that we made. It was an open, fair competition. 
And Jay won. He won by unanimous vote of the panel. That tells you a 
lot about the qualities that he is going to bring to this job.
  But I also want to say that I enjoy very much the working 
relationship with the gentleman from California. This could have been a 
process which could have deteriorated fairly rapidly if in attempting 
to hold confidences, discussions that were had in private were leaked 
to the press or announced prematurely. I do want to say, the gentleman 
from California over the two Congresses that I have enjoyed working 
with him in a distinctively reversed role from previous Congresses, has 
been absolutely honorable in all of the commitments that he has made as 
we made some very, very difficult decisions.
  This was not a difficult decision. The process whereby we arrived at 
the requirement to make this decision was at times very difficult. But 
the decision to pick Jay Egan as the chief administrative officer of 
the House was a pleasure.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling], the chairman of the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce and the current employer of 
our soon-to-be chief administrative officer.
  Mr. GOODLING. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, today I am losing my left arm, I am losing my right arm, 
but I can afford to lose both for the benefit of an institution I love, 
the House of Representatives. Where I am totally unorganized, your new 
administrator is totally organized. Where I do not pay much attention 
to deadline, your new administrator pays specific attention to 
deadline. Where I do not think much about planning for the future, your 
administrator constantly thinks about the next move. So I in losing 
after 14 years someone who has served our committee very well, has 
served my constituents very well, and I can guarantee you he will serve 
this institution very, very well.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I 
do not rise to oppose this nomination. I do want to make, however, some 
observations.
  This process has been ongoing for a long period of time. Frankly, the 
Democratic leadership was severely criticized in the 102d and the 103d 
Congress for the administration of the House of Representatives. In 
fact, in Congresses before that.
  The fact of the matter is in the 102d Congress, there was a 
discussion about reform. The present Secretary of Agriculture made a 
very strong recommendation that we adopt a position of administrative 
officer for the House of Representatives. He made that recommendation 
to Speaker Foley. In bipartisan meetings between the Republican 
leadership and the Democratic leadership, there was a discussion of how 
that would be formatted. Sequent those discussions in the next 
Congress, we did establish in fact a position of administrative officer 
for the ministerial duties, that is, the nonpolicymaking, 
nonlegislative duties of the House. That was the appropriate and 
correct step in my opinion to take.
  At the urging of the Republican minority in the 103rd Congress, and 
in the 102d, the selection of that administrative officer was 
established in a bipartisan fashion, so much so that the minority 
leader in effect had a veto over the selection of the administrative 
officer. The committee selecting that administrative officer was made 
up of the Speaker, the majority leader and the minority leader and it 
had to be a unanimous choice, thereby giving the minority leader 
essentially a veto. That was done to assure that we would have a 
bipartisan agreement on an administrator for the business of this 
House.
  All of us love this House and want it to be respected by the American 
public. I think all of us want to have this House run in as effective, 
businesslike fashion as we can accomplish. That benefits everybody in 
this House and it benefits all of America. Our differences should not 
be on how we efficiently operate the House, it should be on the 
policies that we adopt, that we contend for both in elections and on 
this floor.
  In the 104th Congress, that policy that was adopted was changed and 
the administrative officer was created as a partisan officer. I frankly 
did not necessarily disagree with that, as I said in committee, as the 
gentleman from Ohio will recall. Because effectively what the new 
majority said was that the Speaker was responsible for the 
administration of the House. I think that is basically correct. 
Frankly, on our side I had argued that proposition in the 102d and 103d 
Congress but I had lost and we had created the bipartisan mechanism for 
selecting the administrator.
  In the 104th Congress, though, the change resulted in a committee 
being established with the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Nussle], I believe, 
as the transition officer, I suppose. And an administrative officer was 
selected, in my opinion not in a bipartisan fashion, not with input 
from the minority, and in my opinion frankly without much discussion 
perhaps in the majority

[[Page H6671]]

party as well. We have a report pending on that, on the performance of 
the administrative officer in the last Congress and for the first few 
months of this Congress. We will be discussing that at some time in the 
future.
  The selection of this administrative officer, I think, was done in a 
proper fashion to the extent that it was done in a bipartisan fashion 
with input from the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, who has been at 
the administration of the House for many, many years because he has 
been in the leadership for over a decade. I have had the pleasure of 
serving with him in the leadership for over a decade.

                              {time}  1715

  I do not know Mr. Eagen. The gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] 
has indicated that he is a man of ability and integrity, and the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kildee], for whom I have great respect 
indicates a man of fairness. That is the kind of administrative officer 
this House needs.
  So, as I said, I have no intention of opposing the selection of this 
administrative officer. Suffice it to say, however, that the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Thomas] has indicated that there was a national 
search for an officer. I think that was appropriate because what this 
House needs in a bipartisan and effectively nonpartisan way, to assure 
ourselves and the American public that the business of the House, the 
paying of our bills, the managing of our information system, all of 
that which has nothing to do with the formulation of policy but 
everything to do with the effective management of the people's House is 
being done in a proper fashion. I would hope and expect that that will 
be the result from this appointment.
  With those few words, Mr. Speaker, unless there is anybody who wants 
additional time, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume once 
again to my colleague from California, Mr. Thomas, the chairman of the 
Committee on House Oversight.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding this time 
to me.
  I do not wish to revisit the distant past, a time when there were no 
independent audits, and the first ever chief financial officer on the 
first decision he made was not backed up and, therefore, resigned 
because he could not be independent. I wish to revisit the recent past, 
the past between the resignation of the first CAO and today because 
frankly someone who has not yet been recognized has performed yeoman 
service for the House. Jeff Trandahl, who has been the acting CAO for a 
period longer than he had anticipated, I believe now has a high comfort 
level as he leaves this temporary office and moves back to the Clerk's 
office where he is the Clerk's right arm. I just think it is 
appropriate, as Jay Eagen comes in as the new CAO, for the House to 
recognize the extraordinary service of someone who was asked to help 
and who has never said no, and for, as I said, a longer period than 
anticipated has helped and helped willingly in making sure that the 
transition to the new CAO is as smooth as it has been, and I want the 
House to recognize the contribution made by Jeff Trandahl.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BOEHNER. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Fazio], my colleague and the chairman of the 
Democrat Caucus and former ranking member on the Committee on House 
Oversight.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to indicate to 
Jeff Trandahl the support that he has generated on the minority side. 
Because of the way he has conducted himself, he has been a tribute not 
only to his employer, the Clerk, Robin Carle, but also to his former 
employer, one of the more delightful Members to ever have served in the 
House, the Senator from Kansas, Mr. Roberts. He set the right tone in 
the job that he has performed over the last 6 months and I think has 
shown the way in which the job can be performed to those who succeed in 
it, and I want to congratulate him on the performance and indicate that 
those on this side of the aisle wish him well in his future, short term 
and long term.
  Mr. BOEHNER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, let me close this 
discussion by also congratulating the Acting CAO, Jeff Trandahl. Jeff 
is a valued employee of the House, and he worked for Pat Roberts for 
many years, and he worked for the Committee on Agriculture and then 
worked in the Clerk's office over the last 2 years before taking over 
this temporary assignment. And I think the best tribute to Jeff over 
the last 6 months, 7 months or so, is that we have not heard one word 
about the Acting CAO for this period of time that he has been there, 
and he has done, I think, a marvelous job running the organization, and 
with that I look forward to the dawning of our new CAO, Jay Eagen.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the 
previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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