[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H4228-H4230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO PAGE CLASS OF 1998

  (Mr. KOLBE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as we do traditionally on the 
last day that our pages are with us, to recognize them, to talk about 
the program and the contributions that they make to the House of 
Representatives and to all of us individually.
  The gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Fowler), the Chairman of the Page 
Board, wanted very much to have been here to do this herself, but she 
had to catch a plane from Baltimore and so has left us. But, Mr. 
Speaker, I will include at this point in the Record the remarks of the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Fowler) and the list of all the pages 
who have served us this year.
  Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as Chairman of the House Page 
Board to give my heartfelt thank you to all of the wonderful and 
talented students who have been involved over the last year in the 
House's Page Program.
  I know the hard work and, at times, late hours involved in being a 
page. But I can assure you that it is good practice as you embark 
college and eventually a career. This program is designed to give you a 
rich experience as to how our democratic government works. As you leave 
these marble buildings I hope that you will take with you a deeper 
understanding of what it means to be an American.
  After spending so many hours here in this honored chamber, you must 
know that you have played a role in history. Your name may not be up on 
the voting display or your words may not be printed in the 
Congressional Record, but you helped to make what this Congress 
accomplished this year possible. You should feel proud of your 
achievement and I hope that your service here will inspire you to 
further success in life. We wish you the best of luck and thank you for 
your service to our country.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time I will include for the Congressional 
Record, the names of the pages that we salute today:
  Joshua Allen, Dominic Alpuche, Chad Appel, Thom Backes, Sarah 
Beckett, Charlie Bond, Andrew Brehm, Brian Callanan, Keegan Callanan, 
Marianne Certain, Sarah Clark, Michael Conlon, Leia Cooper, Jason Dore, 
Richard Downe, Jamie Etherton, Robert Evans, Nathaniel Finn, Julie 
Fishman, Rebecca Fowler, Stephanie Ginebra, Brock Grunhurd, Lexi 
Harlow, Ashley Heher, Kristyn Hemingway, and Robin Hill.
  Jill Hogue, Shyanne Hughes, Monique Jackson, Michelle Jenkins, Amanda 
King, Emilie Klein, Jacob Kosoff, Rodney Lake, Ryan Lane, Jennifer 
Lewis-Pike, Abbigail Look, Matthew McClellan, Danae McElroy, Jeremy 
Milne, Adam Morehouse, Anna Nichols, Jerry Paradise III, Janet Patton, 
Beth Pezik, Amy Phillips, Kevin Powell, Kristin Quinlan, Elizabeth 
Quinn, Abigail Racster, and Tracy Raeder.
  Ambar Renova, Leslie Robertson, Glenn Schatz, Gina Schilmoeller, 
Erica Schmitt, Mike Shapiro, Kathleen Sherwin, Timothy Skidmore, Lauren 
Stafford, Brigit Swanson, Erin Vanderveldt, Meaghann Weniger, Adam 
Wiggins, Brian Woody, and Erik Yassenoff.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of Members who wish to 
speak on this, and I want to accommodate them all. I would like to 
begin with the other member of the Page Board who is with me today, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee).
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, about 15 years ago Tip O'Neill appointed me 
to the Page Board, and that appointment has been one of the most 
rewarding responsibilities I have had in the Congress of the United 
States.
  We have had great pages in those years, in my 22 years in the 
Congress, very great pages, and this year's page group is among the 
very, very best I have known.
  There is a program in this country called Close-Up, which is a very, 
very good program, but no one has seen the Congress as close up as have 
our pages. They have seen us at our best and at our worst; they have 
seen democracy in action; they have seen our national leaders; they 
have seen world leaders. They have enriched us, and I hope that they 
have been enriched by their experience here.
  About a month ago they had an auction to raise some money, and among 
the things auctioned off was to have lunch with myself. I was the 
winner of that auction, because I had lunch today with Andy Brehm, 
Brian Callanan and Keegan Callanan, and I look at people like them, who 
are representative of all of the pages, and I really have hope for our 
future.
  About sixty years ago Franklin Roosevelt spoke these words, which I 
think are as true today as they were then. He said, ``There is a 
strange cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given; of 
other generations, much is expected.''
  This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny, and, 
knowing you, I know that you will meet the challenges of that 
rendezvous. Thank you and God bless you.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend and fellow 
member of the Page Board for his remarks. He has been one of the 
stalwart individuals who has helped to make this page program work so 
well, and we thank him for his kind remarks.
  There are few Members of this body that are better friends of the 
pages, few Members that take more time to stop by and say hello and 
thank them and do things for them and even take them on to his boat on 
the Potomac, than my good friend and colleague from California, Duke 
Cunningham. I would like to yield to him at this time.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. You 
know, a critter is something that is usually cuddly. They know what a 
critter is. It is something that is underfoot all the time. Sometimes 
you swish it away, sometimes you pat it on the head for doing a good 
job, and critters do whatever critters do. So I aptly named this class 
``the critters.''
  We were fortunate enough to have a sunny day and we took 70 of these 
critters out on the Potomac. I want to tell you, I bought 20 pizzas, 12 
bags of chips, 12 bags of pretzels, 15 cases of soda pop, two Price 
Club bags of nuts, and they were gone before we got to Mount Vernon. 
They are also hungry critters, as most kids are.
  But we do not thank these kids enough. Sometimes they go about, they 
do their work. And if you have children and you want to talk about 
responsibility, when they left the boat, I said to a guy when I was up 
above driving the boat, I said, ``Is it clean down below?'' One of the 
critters looked at me and said, ``Duke, we are pages,'' like that is 
expected.
  That is the way that they carry on their daily basis. They do not do 
it because they have to or that it is expected. It is because they are 
professionals, they are loving critters, and God bless every one of 
you. If any of us can ever be the wind in your sails, please give us a 
call. Thank you.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for his 
remarks. It is because of individuals like him that the program for the 
pages is more than just a job, it becomes a real life experience, where 
they get to know real people that work here in our Congress and our 
government, and I thank Duke Cunningham for making that very possible 
for us.
  I would like to yield to the gentleman from Virginia, who also is, 
like myself, a former page, and knows something about this program, 
though from a slightly earlier day.
  Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, it was many years ago. I remember 
my

[[Page H4229]]

last day as a page. I was here for four years. In those days you could 
stay for the full time limit. I will add, in all these years on Capitol 
Hill, I have never been on Duke Cunningham's boat, so you are way ahead 
of me.
  We have had a great outstanding group of young men and women who 
participated in the page program this last year, and I do not think 
everybody appreciates sometimes the dedication, the focus, the long, 
long hours and the flexibility that you have had to share, and 
hopefully the lessons that you have learned from that and the 
discipline that you have had to incur will stay with you and enable you 
to be successful in whatever you do.
  But the average person sees you running around, doing errands on the 
floor, and does not recognize that you are getting up very early in the 
morning to attend school, and putting in a full day and sometimes a 
full night of work, and then going back to school the next day, and the 
rigors that it entails.
  I know during this time you have witnessed some of the great debates, 
and some of the not-so-great debates, that go on here on a daily basis. 
I just hope you take the experience, the knowledge and the history that 
you have been part of with you, to be able to share it with others. And 
maybe some of you will, like the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) and 
myself, enter the public arena some day. But whatever you do, we hope 
you will be successful and hope to keep running into you throughout the 
years.
  God bless all of you, and thank you for your efforts.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his 
kind comments about our pages and for his service here as a page, as 
well as a Member of Congress. I am sure he has had an opportunity to 
explain to the pages that he was always perfect when he was here and 
never engaged in any kind of antics. I know that certainly was the case 
for myself when I was here.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to my friend and colleague, the 
distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the former page from Arizona for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I was never a page, but I had the opportunity, as I have 
told page classes in the past, as President of the Maryland Senate, to 
run the page program in the Maryland Senate for four years. It was, 
like the page program we have here, an extraordinary, unique education 
for a very select group of young people, a group of young people who 
had an experience, as you have had, like a very, very, very small 
percentage of their age group have.
  We talk about the future being up to you. The gentleman from Michigan 
(Dale Kildee), who has done so much for the page program over the 
years, talked about Franklin Roosevelt's observation about some 
generations being given much, and some generations having much expected 
of them.
  In my opinion, all generations through the ages of pages ought to 
have a lot expected of them, and we expect a lot of you. We expect a 
lot of you because you are outstanding members of your generation. 
Unlike some other outstanding members of your generation, you have had 
an experience that they will not have. You have had the opportunity to 
be present firsthand in the body that is looked to throughout the world 
by the billions of people who live on our planet as the center of 
democracy, as the center of a successful effort for people to come 
together and peacefully resolve differences.
  During the course of your being a page here and your very outstanding 
service to not just us as individual Members of Congress but to this 
institution and to the people of America, you have had the opportunity 
to see some pretty animated debate. You have seen some of us get, I 
would say, angry at some times at one another. Duke Cunningham has 
gotten angry from time to time, and I have gotten angry from time to 
time. But then you saw a Duke Cunningham and a Steny Hoyer come 
together as friends, honored by their neighbors in being elected to 
this House, knowing full well that we are all Americans, and though we 
are animated in debate, it is really that on which we agree that is 
most important. You have had that opportunity.

                              {time}  1515

  There is a lot of cynicism in America among some people about their 
Democratic institutions, and that is not helpful in a democracy. We 
need to have citizens have confidence in their democracy, in their 
institutions of government, and particularly in this House and the 
Senate just down the hall, because that is the way we resolve our 
differences and make progress as a democracy, a model for the world.
  You, with your special knowledge, can educate your generation to the 
substance of what their democracy is all about as represented here in 
the people's House. I am always pleased.
  I thank my friend, the gentleman from California, and my friend, the 
gentleman from Arizona, for allowing me to participate in this 
farewell. But it is not farewell. Obviously the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Davis) is here, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe) is here, 
and you may be here for years to come in various capacities.
  But thank you. Thank you for taking the time to expend the effort to 
learn, to participate, to contribute to making this House and this 
country a better place. You are richer for it. We are richer for your 
service. I hope that you will go back to your respective communities 
and your families and your schools and talk to your friends, educate 
them further, and make our democracy better. Congratulations to all of 
you. Godspeed.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Cunningham) who has had one more thought and has to catch a plane.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, as usual, I forget something, and I will 
be brief. But I would ask three things of you kids, critters.
  First of all, when there is a page reunion, come back, and make it a 
positive thing to do that, whatever it takes, because you have made 
lasting friends. I think that is important.
  Secondly, each and every one of you is going to go back home. You are 
used to going to Georgetown. You are used to going on the Metro. You 
are used to going down here to the little soup and salad place all 
together, all on your own.
  The first time you go out the door, your mom and dad are going to say 
``Where are you going?'' and you say ``I am going out, mom and dad.'' 
They say ``Not so fast.'' Break them in easy.
  If I have ever seen a problem, it is with pages going back that have 
had their independence here and freedom, and all of a sudden going back 
home and to the reality of parenthood. Break in your parents easy.
  The third thing is come see us in the offices. Call us and send us 
letters. God bless.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Cunningham) very much.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Mica).
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for 
yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to take a moment, I have delayed my 
departure back to my district, to congratulate each of our pages this 
afternoon.
  I just wanted to say briefly that the pages have had a great 
experience and a rare opportunity, and it is very similar to what we 
have as Members of Congress, a tremendous experience being elected to 
represent our individual districts. It is a rare opportunity that very 
few individuals ever get to experience. So you, too, have had that 
privilege, that honor, and you have served us very well.
  Sometimes the pages are taken for granted. They get here, and they 
hit the ground running, and they are called on immediately to perform. 
Right up to their last hour of service this afternoon, they have been 
called on and performed so well. Again, it is, though, an incredible 
and rare experience, and we are so proud of the way that this class has 
conducted itself.
  I am a little bit of a history nut, as some of you know, and my 
interest in the Capitol and the history of this Chamber. Today, as you 
leave on June 4, you will be part of the history of an incredible body.

[[Page H4230]]

  I think you have had the opportunity to see, too, what very few 
individuals ever get to see up close; and that is that, in fact, this 
government does work and, in fact, it is truly representative of this 
Nation. Just like each of you have come from different families and 
different districts and different backgrounds and different party 
affiliations, but you have come together and been a part of the history 
and this process. So it is a tremendous and unique opportunity.
  As Daniel Webster said up there, if you look, he said that you 
perform when you come here. If you perform a service, it is something 
worthy to be remembered. Certainly your service has been in the same 
light as asked by one of our great Americans who served in Congress 
with such distinguished history. You have been, again, a tremendous 
credit to us.
  I thank you personally, and I now extend the thanks of all of my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We wish you Godspeed and the 
very best in your future careers. Thank you.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. I am 
very pleased to yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. 
Clayton).
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, 
and I thank him for assembling and having given me the opportunity for 
me to join in words of appreciation.
  First, I am appreciative of the fact that you wanted to come; that 
you were talented enough to be selected for this unique opportunity. 
Not only were you talented or willing to come, but you so ably and so 
joyfully served in your capacity.
  You did a variety of things. I know some of them were less exciting. 
Never did we see it on your face. Always with a sense of expectancy, 
always with a sense of your purpose. Your presence suggested that you 
had all the confidence.
  I feel, as you go forth, that you bring us hope. Those of us who 
serve in Congress, sometimes we become a little cynical because we are 
not quite sure if what we do and all of the discussions we have are 
making that much sense. In fact, sometimes we know we are not making 
sense.
  But one of the things we feel is that, of all the things we do, if we 
can give hope to young people, young people can share part of their 
life and inspire us to be all the things that we can be for this 
country, we know this country has embraced that.
  So I thank you for being with us, but thank you for who you are and, 
more importantly, I thank you for what I think you will become.
  All of you are very special, but one of you comes from my district. 
So, Monique Jackson, I expect great things. You one day may be in here 
in Congress yourself. So thank you very much.
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her kind comments 
and good words.
  Mr. Speaker, if I might ask my colleagues and the pages to indulge me 
for just 1 minute for a couple of comments of my own as we close here.
  Mr. Speaker, let me also add my words of thanks to the pages for the 
service that they have given us. This is a program that goes back a 
long ways, almost 200 years ago, when an individual was appointed to 
serve as a runner here in the Congress.
  Through the years, the program has sputtered on and off, but it has 
generally been with us. It has kind of been more formalized in this 
century. Of course, for the last 20 years it has been a much more 
organized and formal program.
  But even though the program has changed dramatically through the 
years, when I was here as a page it was boys only, when I was here as a 
page it was 4 years of high school that you could be here for, the 
program has changed a lot but many things about it are still very much 
the same.
  What is the same about it is the kind of good work you do for us, the 
kind of help you give us to make our lives just a little bit easier. It 
is like the grease on the wheel that just makes it turn a little bit 
easier. We sometimes take it for granted and forget about it, but you 
make our lives just better and easier for us.
  I hope it is the same for you, that you take something back from this 
program, as I think you should and you will. I know for me there were 
many things I took back from it, good friends, and I know from the 
exchanges of phone numbers and addresses and, of course, now E-mail. We 
did not have that either when I was here as a page.
  You are all going to be staying in touch and you will be coming back. 
But I have taken many good friends. Two of them are here on the floor 
of the House of Representatives that were in my class. Donn Anderson 
used to be the Clerk of the House of Representatives, and Ron Lasch, 
our majority person here on the floor, assistant on the floor, both of 
them were in my class. They have stayed and given an incredible amount 
of service to this body and to their country through the years.
  You have an opportunity to do that as well. When I left here, people 
would ask me, ``What is it you really learned about politicians and 
Senators and Congressmen from your experience as a page?'' I thought 
about it, and I said, ``Well, you know, I guess the most important 
thing I learned is that they put their pants on one leg at a time like 
everyone else.'' We may laugh at that, but it is true.
  You learn the very best and you learn the worst about politicians 
here. You see them at their very best. You see them at their very 
worst. That is true of any experience you are going to have in life 
where you are close up with people. You will see the human frailties, 
but you will also see the good things that will come out about people. 
I hope you will remember the good things, and you will use the good 
things to build on that.
  This week I flew across this country of ours to attend the funeral of 
my sponsor, Barry Goldwater. He was a great mentor to me. I learned a 
lot from Barry Goldwater. But I think what I learned most was some very 
simple values that he gave of integrity, of honesty, of patriotism.
  When you go away from this experience, I hope that above anything 
else that you get out of this, it will be some of those simple values 
that you can use in life no matter what you do.
  Whether you return to the Congress as a Member, as a staff person, 
whether you serve in government as he served for so many years, there 
are values that go beyond any particular job. There are values of 
patriotism, of honor, of integrity. You have a great opportunity to 
make a lot from this.
  We wish you Godspeed and we look forward to seeing each and every one 
of you come back. I thank each and every one of you.

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