[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H18]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO THE LATE HONORABLE JOHN MOSS

  (Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I have the sad duty to make an announcement 
to the House jointly with my dear friend and colleague, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Brown). It is our sad duty to announce the death 
of our former colleague and dear friend, the Honorable John Moss from 
California.
  Mr. Speaker, I now yield to my dear friend, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Brown); and then we will have further comments at a 
time later.
  Mr. BROWN of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding; and I, too, wish to participate in this notification to the 
House of the death of John Moss.
  John was a dear friend, a man who reflected the best in California 
and whom I felt some rather deep bonds with because of certain 
similarities in our careers. I think we both came to Congress with the 
reputation of being somewhat of a maverick, and we felt the 
consequences of that for a while.
  John was a man of deep commitment to his principles and deep loyalty 
to the concerns of his constituents in his State. He came here 10 years 
before I did, but after I arrived we found we had a similarity of 
interests.
  I remember in particular that when he decided to give up his place on 
the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy he insisted that the leadership 
appoint me in his place, and he was sufficiently adamant that he 
refused to resign from the committee until he had received the 
assurances that that would take place.
  Of course, the committee was abolished shortly after that, so the 
results were not all that earth shaking. But I remember John's 
commitment which he had made to me that he would make sure that I did 
replace him, and he kept that commitment.
  He was a great man, and I thank the distinguished gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Dingell) for allowing me to participate in recognizing 
that.
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank my good friend, 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Brown), the dean from the California 
Democratic Delegation; and I want to express my personal sorrow and 
grief at this event and also to extend the commiserations and 
condolences of myself and my wife, Deborah, to John's wonderful widow 
Jean and to his daughters, Jennifer and Alison, and to his four 
grandchildren.
  As mentioned by the gentleman from California (Mr. Brown), John Moss 
was a man of enormous vigor, great courage, enormous energy, who 
maintained a real sense of responsibility to the people he served and 
also a sense of outrage about wrongdoing. He served in the House from 
1953 to 1978; and I had, with the exception of 2 of those years, the 
privilege of sitting next to him on the Committee on Commerce, where he 
was a chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and 
where he was also the chairman of other subcommittees with important 
responsibilities.
  He has left us a great heritage, protection of consumers, not the 
least of which by the Consumer Product Safety Act. He also was one who 
believed in open government; and he was the author of the Freedom of 
Information Act, which he led the fight to see enacted. He also was the 
author of the Federal Trade Commission Improvements Act and scores of 
other pieces of legislation of importance to the people of this 
country.
  His action with regard to the Freedom of Information Act was 
something which led to open government in which people could have 
reason to trust not only their government but that their interests were 
fully and properly considered and cared for.
  His wife Jean and he had a great romance, and they greatly loved each 
other and had a long and happy life together.
  John, as I mentioned, served from 1953 to 1978. He died on December 
5, 1997. He was a great American, a real patriot, a distinguished 
Member of this body, a great public servant, and a man whom we will all 
miss. He was also a man whose contributions to the well-being of this 
country and to the dignity and to the effectiveness of this institution 
were great indeed.

                              {time}  1445

  We will miss him, we will pray for his soul, and we extend our 
condolences and sorrow to his dear wife Jean and to his daughters 
Jennifer and Allison.

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