[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H690-H697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO BOB LIVINGSTON, REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE FIRST DISTRICT OF
LOUISIANA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I take this special order tonight so that
Members of the Louisiana delegation and colleagues from across our
country can honor the service of a gentleman who will be leaving our
body as a Member on the 28th of this month, just a few days from now;
that being the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Livingston).
Of course, Louisiana is still literally in shock that we are losing
the services of this man who has represented our State so admirably for
so many years, since 1977 when he first came by virtue of a special
election, the first Republican elected in the First District of
Louisiana in 102 years, and has served our State for the past 11 terms,
and most recently for the last four years as chairman of the most
important committee of this body, the Committee on Appropriations.
Bob is leaving many, many friends behind when he takes his leave from
us on the 28th, not just friends and colleagues who have worked with
him but friends who have known him personally, as I have, and others,
throughout his political career. Bob is an extraordinary individual
and, as he leaves this body, I thought it important that we take some
time out to say thank you to him for his friendship, his service to our
State and this country and to the many people of the First District in
Louisiana who mourn and grieve the fact that he will be leaving public
service in just a few days.
Colleagues have come to join me today in honoring him and remembering
his great work for our country, and I would like now to yield time to
my friend from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) for comments.
Mr. McCRERY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Tauzin) for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, it is with mixed emotions that I appear on the floor
today. On the one hand, I regret that our colleague, the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Livingston) will be leaving the House at the end of this
week and, as my colleague, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin)
said, ending his long, distinguished public service.
On the other hand, it is a pleasure for me to come to the floor and
say some things about my retiring colleague, the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Livingston) perhaps that a lot of people do not know,
and be able to share those experiences that I have had with him with
the public.
When I came to this body 10 or 11 years ago as a freshman, never
having held public office before, I had a lot to learn. Bob Livingston
I looked up to in more ways than one. He is a lot taller than I am, but
also I had followed his distinguished career through the years and I
knew that he was a person of substance, a person of character and
learning, someone who, if he would, could teach me a lot about this
body, how it works, how to get along here, how to get things done.
I suspected that because of his stature in this body, being a fairly
senior member even at that time of this body, and having the
responsibilities that he had on the Committee on Appropriations and
with his own district in the New Orleans area, that he would have
little time for a new guy like me. Well, I was wrong. Well, I was right
he did not have much time but I was wrong because he made time.
He took the time to counsel me on numerous occasions. He took the
time even to travel with me to my district. Then I did not realize what
a sacrifice that was for a Member, any Member, much less a senior
Member of the Committee on Appropriations, to take a day away from his
family, away from his work, to go to some other Member's district for
that Member's benefit, but he did it. He flew from Washington to
Shreveport, Louisiana, to help us in Shreveport with an economic
development project.
Now that I realize, having been here awhile, what a sacrifice that
was, it makes me appreciate that gesture on his part all the more. He
is that type of individual. He is that type of human being, of person.
He really goes beyond what is required of a Member of Congress. He
really goes beyond what is required of a colleague, even a colleague
from Louisiana, to help all of us.
I am sure each Member of the delegation can relate a similar story
about Bob Livingston bending over backwards to try to help us with
something that we needed in the State of Louisiana. So he has been a
real asset to me and my growth here in this chamber. He has been a real
asset to his home district. He has been a real asset to the State of
Louisiana and to this country.
I will miss him. I know that Louisiana will miss him, and I would
submit that the country will miss him as well. So it is with mixed
emotions that I appear on the floor here today, but I have no mixed
emotions about wishing my colleague from Louisiana, Bob Livingston,
well. I wish he could stay with us a little longer but he thinks it is
time for him to go, and he will do well in the private sector, I am
sure. We look forward to seeing him here often, though, as he will
still be able to share with us some of the wisdom and knowledge that he
has gained over the years of his public service.
So, Mr. Livingston, wherever you are, and wherever you will be, know
that I have cherished getting to know you, cherished the knowledge that
I have gained from my visits with you and hope that you will know that
I and many others in this chamber will miss you. Bon voyage. Come back
and see us.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, during the course of this hour, I will be
telling some things about Bob Livingston as I introduce my colleagues.
I thought it best, first, to say a little bit about his family history.
It is important to note that one of Bob's immediate ancestors, for whom
he is named, was Robert Livingston, the minister to France, who was
sent on a great mission by
[[Page H691]]
then President Jefferson to acquire from Napoleon the territory of
Louisiana. It was his signature on that document of purchase that is of
historic reference to us, all of us in the 13 States or parts of States
that have been formed out of the Louisiana Purchase.
Robert Livingston was also the sixth Congressman to represent the
First District in Louisiana. He served between the years of 1823 and
1829. Coincidentally, when he signed that document of purchase, of the
Louisiana Purchase, he signed it on April 30, 1803. April 30 happens to
be Bob Livingston's birthday, a great coincidence of history. Of
course, Bob was not born in 1803. He was born significantly later but
nevertheless a coincidence of history that this document bears his
birth date on the signature of Robert Livingston, his ancestor.
What is interesting about this history is that Bob Livingston, our
friend and colleague in Louisiana and the colleague of so many of us in
this body and a friend of so many of us in this body, with all this
great history, with this lineage, nevertheless came into this world to
very humble conditions.
In fact, Bob was raised by his mother, his father having passed away
unfortunately early in his life. His mother was forced to take a job in
a shipyard, where she worked to raise Bob and his sister, Carolyn. His
mother Dorothy Billet worked those days in that shipyard for her two
children to give them a better life and to introduce them to an
education.
Bob went on to get his education, getting his degrees, both
undergraduate and his law degree at Tulane University, and went on to a
great and distinguished career which I will later describe today.
It is from these humble beginnings that Bob Livingston represents, as
so many stories in American history and in this chamber, the life of an
American citizen coming from humble roots and yet rising above those
difficulties because he had a great mom who worked hard to see to it
that her two children had a chance in life.
Bob Livingston himself returned to that same shipyard and worked in
that shipyard to again begin his life and his career, before he indeed
went on to a greater era of public service, again, which I will
describe in just awhile.
Now I want begin introducing some of his other colleagues who also
want to wish him well in honoring this day as we say good-bye to such a
great friend and colleague. Let me introduce from the great State of
California, the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon).
Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Tauzin) for yielding the time and I appreciate him doing this special
order and I appreciate him telling those stories about Bob.
I am not as senior as many here today who will be speaking and have
not known Bob for as long, so I appreciate the opportunity of learning
a little bit more about him on a personal nature from some of these
stories. I also, like the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery), have
mixed emotions. I hate to see Bob leave. He will leave a hole here in
the House, but I appreciate his desire to leave, and after giving over
20 years of service to his country I think he deserves the opportunity
to pursue new ventures, new paths.
I have been here now for just a little over 6 years. In my first term
here, I remember Bob coming up to me one day and saying that he would
probably be approaching me and talking about getting some support for a
leadership position he was considering running for. I did not know him
really at all, and I thought I was probably going to support somebody
else at that time, but I started watching Bob. When you are new here,
you have certain heroes that you kind of build up around you and after
awhile Bob became one of my heroes. I appreciated his humanity. He did
not seem to get caught up in himself. There are people around here that
sometimes egos are hard to overcome.
People give us a lot of adoration, and it did not seem to go to Bob's
head. He kept his humanity. He kept his humility. I saw how people
would talk to him and he gave them his attention, and he was a great
listener. I appreciate the integrity that he has shown through his
service here, especially the last one he made with giving up the
opportunity of being speaker because he felt that that was the thing to
do based on his love for his family, his love for his wife, and I think
that showed us a great deal.
{time} 1745
I appreciated his leadership style. He listens, he builds consensus,
and then he moves forward with determination to get things
accomplished.
I appreciate the opportunity he gave me to work with him briefly in
moving forward in his planning to be the Speaker of this Congress. I
had a chance to look at him a little closer. And all of the feelings
that I had for him grew because I saw he was a real, genuine person.
And we really will miss him here, but I understand he is going to be
around in town and we will have a chance still to enjoy our friendship.
I look forward to that.
Mr. Speaker, I wish him all the best in time spent with his family
and in pursuing new ventures in life, and feel that it is a privilege
and honor to be able to call him a friend.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California. Bob
did not live his whole life as a welder in the shipyards. He went on to
other pursuits, and one of those was his distinguished service in the
United States Navy as an enlisted man from 1961 to 1963. He received,
later on, an honorable discharge from the Naval Reserve in 1967.
Bob's career before politics was in law enforcement, and he served
from 1970 to 1973 as a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the
U.S. Attorney's office in New Orleans and was honored as an outstanding
Assistant United States Attorney for his work there.
His experience also included, by the way, serving as the Chief
Special Prosecutor and Chief of the Armed Robbery Division of the
Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, 1974 to 1975; and he was the
Chief Prosecutor for the Organized Crime Unit of the Louisiana Attorney
General's Office from 1975 to 1976. A distinguished career in fighting
criminal elements and representing the Justice Department of our
country, and the District Attorney's office of the City of New Orleans
and the Attorney General's office of the State of Louisiana.
It is from that background that Bob, I suppose, was encouraged to
seek political office eventually and saw the need for men, indeed, of
great commitment to join the Congress and to represent our State here.
And so it was in 1977 that he indeed succeeded in his second quest to
come to the Congress in a district that had a 3 percent Republican
registration, by the way, when he was elected; an indication of the way
that he has reached out across boundaries, old boundaries and old walls
and old wounds to build a consensus, as he demonstrated in his years in
Congress.
At this point I would like to go across the aisle and to recognize a
colleague of his, a great friend of his, the gentleman from Maryland
(Mr. Cardin).
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for
yielding me this time so I can express my congratulations to Bob
Livingston and thank him for his public service.
I think the Members of this body know very well many of his strengths
and many of his contributions to this institution. The great chairman
of the Committee on Appropriations who helped bring about, as has been
pointed out, consensus on a lot of the difficult fiscal issues of our
country.
People think of him in the Republican Caucus for his leadership in
rising to the top of the Republican Caucus here in Congress. I might
just give one more dimension to where I think Bob Livingston has made a
unique contribution to this institution, and that is the love of this
institution and the respect for what this body should be doing and the
respect for each Member in this institution.
Before coming to Congress, I was the Speaker of our House in the
State of Maryland, and I really appreciated individuals who went out of
their way to speak up for an institution when it is many times very
fashionable to bash an institution, to go back home and slam it and
say, gee, I can make political points. But that is not Bob Livingston.
He understood that we are going to do better as a body if we strengthen
the body. He singled himself out here
[[Page H692]]
as a person who wanted to go the extra mile to strengthen this body.
I had the opportunity, did not ask for it, nor did Mr. Livingston ask
for it, to cochair the group that looked over the ethics laws that we
have to abide by here. I do not think anyone but Bob Livingston could
have successfully navigated all the mine fields that we had in that
effort. He brought out a bill that ultimately is now the ethics
standards by which we live that have really elevated us above partisan
attacks. It is not by accident that these last years have been more
peaceful as far as the ethics process. And Bob Livingston deserves the
credit for doing that.
He truly is a unique individual in his love for this institution and
I just could not pass up this opportunity to say from one Member,
``Thank you for your public service, thank you for your friendship, we
will miss you. We will miss you on both sides of the aisle.''
Mr. Speaker, we like a good fight on the Democratic side and we
always appreciated having a good fight with the gentleman from
Louisiana. We just wish we could have won a few more times.
Congratulations.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Cardin). I might add that the Dean of the House, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Dingell) will be inserting his comments into the Record
somewhere at this point, along with other Members of the other side of
the aisle who have also recognized and appreciated Bob's service and
his willingness indeed to cross those boundaries and lines that divide
us too often to build consensus and to work as a team.
In fact, so good was Bob at that effort, that I think it is worth
recording and worth reporting today that just a few years ago when we
passed what we thought would be a 5- to 7-year effort to balance the
books of this government over that 5- or 7-year period, Bob Livingston
took over the reins of the Committee on Appropriations and for the
first time did something quite remarkable in all the years I have
served with him in these 11 terms, and that is he actually provided a
lower level of expenditure than the previous year.
The result of that austerity, that difficult set of choices that he
was willing to forge with Members on both sides of the aisle to bring
us to a balanced budget agreement and to enforce it by stringent
controls of the Committee on Appropriations, where obviously we want to
go help people by spending money. He nevertheless exercised such
restraint and control that within several years, not the 5 or 7
predicted by many economists, but within 7 years we are debating about
what to do with the surplus, rather than the great deficits that were
predicted for our country in all of these years.
Bob probably more than any other individual in this Chamber, I think,
is personally responsible for getting us that surplus earlier than
anyone expected because of the discipline he showed in those early
years as Appropriations chairman and because he was willing to work
across the aisle.
Several of the appropriations cardinals who helped make it work are
here today and I want to recognize them. First, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Packard).
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hayes). Before the gentleman from
California is recognized, let me exercise for a moment the privilege of
the Chair to extend my thanks personally to the gentleman from
Louisiana (Mr. Livingston) and his wife Bonnie, for the friendship, the
wisdom, and the kindness that they extended to me and my family. And
also for the honor that he has brought to the country, his family, and
this body by his actions.
The gentleman from California (Mr. Packard) is recognized.
Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, I have a long and rather eloquent statement
to make and I am just going to submit that for the Record and speak
from the heart.
Bob is the kind of person in my life that one does speak heart to
heart quite occasionally, and I have had that thrill and that
opportunity. Really in a short hour of special orders, it does not do
justice in paying tribute from this body to a man that has had such a
remarkable influence on the institution and on the country.
Mr. Speaker, I wish that we had more time and more opportunity, but
maybe that is not what we need. We just need to let Bob know how much
we love and appreciate what he has done.
I have served here for 16 years and so I have known Bob for those 16
years and watched him grow and watched him become a rather significant
leader in this institution, and ultimately rise to the point where he
changed the direction of the country.
I have always believed that where we spend our money, whether it be
in business, whether it be in our family budget, or whether it be in
government, where we spend our money is where we set priorities. We
spend our money where our priorities are. We can give lip service to
priorities, but if we do not really fund or spend our money in those
areas, then it is just rhetoric.
But the Committee on Appropriations determines the priorities of this
country. We determine where the money goes and we determine what is
going to be funded, what is not, and at what level they will be funded.
And Bob has been the leader of that process. And so in that sense, he
has literally changed the direction of this country and I think very
much for the good.
As the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) mentioned, he was
probably the most responsible person in all of this Congress for
balancing the budget because, again, he controlled the pursestrings. He
controlled some of us who serve as chairmen that also control
pursestrings, but he was the one who gave us the direction. He was our
leader and every one of us looked to him for leadership.
I appreciated the fact that he called me to be a chairman of one of
his subcommittees. That was an honor to me, and I appreciated the
chance to work with him.
Actually, when the Republicans took the majority 4 years ago, that
changed the direction. Bob was at that time put in the most, perhaps
one of the most responsible positions in the House by our Speaker, Newt
Gingrich, to be the chairman. Even though he was not the ranking member
of the committee, he became the chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations.
Why was he chosen even though he was down the list a few slots? He
was chosen because he had demonstrated the ability to make very
difficult choices and make them right. That is really a unique quality
of anyone to be able to make very difficult choices, but to make the
right decisions in making those choices. And there is no position in
the Congress that it is more crucial that we have that kind of a
leadership than chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.
So, I really did appreciate the chance to work with him. I learned a
lot. He was my mentor. He was, as someone said, my hero and still is.
One of the things I noticed about his leadership on the Committee on
Appropriations was that he kept it fun. Sometimes we lose sight of the
fact that we ought to enjoy what we do here. I really had fun going to
do the hard work of the appropriators because Bob was a fun person to
work with. He always had a twist of putting across the tough difficult
decision. And I loved that, because we can get so serious and so
passionate. And certainly there are few people in this institution that
are more passionate on a few issues than Bob Livingston. And to watch
him on the floor in those passionate speeches, we can recognize that
passion.
But one has got to enjoy the work. One won't be good if they do not
enjoy the work. Bob enjoyed his work. He helped us to enjoy the work,
and it was a real pleasure to serve on the committee and to serve with
him.
Mr. Speaker, I look upon him as truly one of the more distinguished
and noble men in the country. He has had me and my wife to his home. We
have been very privileged to come and share some time with his
beautiful wife, Bonnie, in their beautiful home on the Potomac.
I really do appreciate him. We have worked well together. I have
learned to love him as a colleague. I have learned to love him as a
man. I have learned to love what he has done for America and what he
has done for this institution.
There are few people in our lives, our whole lives that we meet and
work with and rub shoulders with that genuinely have a remarkable
influence on our lives. Bob has been one of those persons in my life.
There are not many
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people. I could probably count them on the fingers of my two hands, my
father, probably leading the pack, that have made a profound influence
on my life. And I would list Bob among those.
Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from Louisiana, ``Bob, I
will miss you. I will miss you more than this institution will miss
you, because you have been such a remarkable influence for me for good.
I hope the good Lord will bless you in your future ventures, in your
home, in your family, and all that you do. I am confident that he will,
because you have really paid your dues. Thank you very, very much for
your friendship.''
Mr. Speaker, it is with great admiration that I rise today to pay
tribute to Congressman Bob Livingston. Bob has been an unforgettable
force in the U.S. House of Representatives and he will surely be
missed.
When Bob Livingston entered the U.S. House of Representatives 22
years ago, this nation did not have a balanced budget and we were
facing increased taxes with each new Congress. Thanks in part to Mr.
Livingston's leadership, today Americans are enjoying a budget surplus
and a host of tax changes that allow the American public to keep more
of their hard earned money.
Bob Livingston has a remarkable ability to turn his ideas into
action. He would take ideas, pass them through the House and Senate,
and get those ideas signed into law in a way that no one else could.
Bob Livingston is a ``doer'' and he will carry this characteristic with
him in all of his future endeavors.
As Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Bob Livingston was
in charge of all spending legislation approved by this body. In all
that he did, Bob will be remembered for his fairness, his dedication to
his work, and his commitment to the interests of all his colleagues.
Over the past four years of Bob's tenure as Chairman of the
Appropriations Committee, I have had the pleasure of serving as an
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman. This opportunity to serve with
Bob not only helped with my own success as a Subcommittee Chairman for
the past four years, but enabled me to watch closely as Bob grew into
one of the most effective leaders Congress has ever known.
As someone who has served on all levels of government, both local and
here in Congress, I have often been amazed at Bob's ability to bring
this diverse body together behind sound ideas and policies. Time after
time, Bob Livingston put aside partisan differences and personal goals
to forward an agenda that all Americans could benefit from.
For the past four years, Bob and I have had the opportunity to serve
closely on the Appropriations Committee. This allowed our friendship,
which I already treasured, to grow. Over this time I was continually
reminded of the level of man Bob Livingston is. Bob is an honest man of
high integrity and I truly respect him as a friend. I know this
institution will miss Bob Livingston as a leader, but I will miss Bob
Livingston as one of my closest friends.
Bob, I'm not sure if you realize how important you are to this
institute, or how many lives you have touched. As a colleague I am
honored to serve with you and as a friend I admire you. While we may no
longer serve side by side in this House, I can assure you that your
legacy, or the many lessons you have taught me, will not soon be
forgotten.
I wish you and Bonnie all the best for the future. Thank you for your
service to this country. You will be deeply missed.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, we just heard comments of one of our
colleagues who indeed has worked so closely with Bob. The relationship
has grown incredibly close and personal, and there are others in this
Chamber who will speak, but I wanted to take a minute to recognize one
of our close friends within our delegation who is also with us to say a
few words and that is the gentleman from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Mr.
Baker).
Mr. BAKER. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to commend the gentleman
from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin) for his effort in organizing this
opportunity for Members this evening on what is a difficult but
obviously very significant occasion of the announced retirement of our
good friend, Bob Livingston.
So many speakers have come to this mike already this evening and
talked about Bob's passion. We do not have to guess where Bob
Livingston stands when it comes to an important issue. Everybody knows.
And it is always an informed opinion, one strongly held. Bob is a
person for whom all Members have great regard.
{time} 1800
There is sometimes some concern if he happens to be on the other side
of the issue because you know he is going to be very persuasive, and I
can speak from direct knowledge on that subject. I can also say that,
as an ally, one cannot have a better friend.
Rather than to talk about a lot of things, I would simply point to
one important project that I worked on for 3\1/2\ years in this
Congress with Bob Livingston as chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations. All too often, the chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations is viewed as the person who has to do the tough things,
cut the budget, tell people no. But there is another side to that
responsibility which all too often is ignored.
There was a facility within the Sixth District of Louisiana that
really was in deplorable condition. It had ministered to people in a
certain health condition for well over 100 years and was under
significant budgetary pressure to close. It was historically
significant, a facility that was built in the mid-1800s and had served
a great and long mission of caring for people who otherwise were viewed
as social outcasts.
I went to Bob with the problem and told him what we wanted to do with
that facility, which was to create a new education and job training
program for at-risk youth, young people who were out of high school,
had not gotten their GED, who were not yet in trouble with the law but
were likely to end up in a life of social dependency or, worse yet, in
the criminal justice system.
It took 3\1/2\ years, but Bob Livingston would be pleased to know
that this April the first class of young adults will enroll in the
Carville Academy. These are people who are going to be given a chance,
not just to get a GED, not only to get job training, but, at that
facility, they will be guaranteed a job upon the completion of their
successful course work.
That is not something many of Bob Livingston's constituents would
have the opportunity to see. But it is commitment to doing something
right that makes a positive difference for people who otherwise may
never even know Bob Livingston's name. That is the kind of fellow he
is. He has commitment, purpose and principle. He never gives up. He
does not quit.
For the people of the Sixth District and all of Louisiana, we will
not only miss his colorful leadership, we are going to miss his
positive, principled leadership in this House. For that, we will all
suffer loss.
I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Baton
Rouge, Louisiana (Mr. Baker).
I present to the House another one of the cardinals who have come to
the floor today to bid bon voyage to the great chairman of the
Committee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Alabama Cardinal
Callahan.
Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Tauzin) for making the arrangements today for me to join most of the
members of the Louisiana delegation in paying this tribute to my close
friend, Bob Livingston.
We develop friendships here in the Congress. Ironically, when one
leaves, occasionally history will reflect that one passed a certain
piece of legislation that may be named after one or one did certain
things. But the real mark of a character is how many friends one has
when one leaves here.
Bob, you certainly leave here today with a myriad of friends, true
friends, friends that will stick by you no matter what, friends that
you have helped and friends that have helped you. I am proud to call
myself one of those friends.
I happened to listen today to all of these Louisiana Cajuns talk
about Louisiana, and I have had the opportunity in past years to visit
Louisiana, both with Bob Livingston and the gentleman from Louisiana
(Mr. Tauzin). I have had the opportunity to meet with their governors.
They are always extolling the merits of Louisiana, talking about what a
great, great State it is and talking about the great restaurants and
the cuisine and all of the wonderful people there.
But I very seldom hear any of them publicly talking about the
greatest asset that the State of Louisiana has, and that is it is only
like 75 miles from the Alabama line. Each weekend, you see these people
coming from Louisiana to visit the beautiful beaches of
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Alabama. Bob, you have been to Alabama, and you have visited the
beaches there, and we welcome you any time you want.
I would like to share some of the comments that my colleagues have
made about your contribution. When I first came to Congress in 1984, we
had budget level deficits of some $300 billion, and it seemed to be
growing. Suddenly, 4 years ago, that trend stopped. As a result of
that, now we have budget surpluses, something that has never been heard
of in our lifetime almost.
So many people are positioning themselves or speculate on who was
responsible. There are many who say that Ronald Reagan started it, and
certainly he did make a tremendous contribution towards the beginning
of this surplus that was created. There are some that said George Bush
had a lot to do with it, and certainly he did.
There are some, President Clinton being one, taking credit for it,
even though some of us think that there was very little contribution on
his part, but it did happen on his watch. Certainly he is to be given
credit.
But if there is one single individual who deserves the most credit,
we have to give it to Bob Livingston. Certainly, Bob, that will be your
legacy. That will be the legacy you leave here in this Congress that,
under your leadership, under your guidance, as the chairman of the
Committee on Appropriations, you cut the domestic spending level that
created this surplus as we know it today. I am happy to have been a
part of that team.
I had the opportunity to sit in on all of these meetings and listen
to Bob Livingston pound his fist on the table and say we are not going
to spend more money than ``X'' dollars. So I know the contributions
personally he has made. I have watched it in my own little purview of
jurisdiction of foreign operations where he has said ``no more,'' where
he has said ``cut.'' As a result of that, we did cut. As a result of
that, we do have a surplus that we, ironically, are arguing about today
as to what to do with that surplus. But is it not remarkable and is it
not wonderful that we do have the surplus?
I listened to the history lesson of the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr.
Tauzin) about Bob Livingston's great, great grandfather when he was
participating in the Louisiana Purchase. I remind everyone and all of
their friends listening today in Louisiana that, at that time, Mobile
was the capital of Louisiana. Mobile started the Mardi Gras which you
all take so much credit for today.
So we, too, in Alabama sort of feel a companionship, feel a kinship
to Bob Livingston's great, great grandfather who purchased the
Louisiana territory and thus, as a result of that, became all of the
great States that we know today.
Bob leaves at a unique time in history. He is leaving on a good note.
He is leaving on the fact that he helped organize this Congress. He is
leaving on the surplus that I earlier mentioned. He is joining another
career, a career where, hopefully, he will be as successful as he was
in the Congress and as he was before he came to the Congress.
But he leaves at a very unique and opportune time in his own personal
life, because this week, this week, he was blessed with the greatest
gift God can give to man, and that is the birth of a grandchild,
Caroline Grace, who was born just this week, the Livingston's first
grandchild.
So, Bob, you are going to have the opportunity to spend untold hours
with Caroline Grace. She is going to benefit. You are going to benefit.
Bob is going to benefit.
I am certain that your career as you leave this body will be just as
successful as every endeavor you have ever made in your life. I am
proud to call you my friend, and I look forward to seeing you on a more
personal level in the years to come.
If I just might add one thing, when you go out into the private
venture, when you begin making a little bit of money whereby you can
afford some of the better things that you have been denied during your
public service in life, I do wish you would buy an automobile with an
air conditioner, because let me tell my colleagues, I have so many
times, on so many occasions, ridden with Bob to meetings at the White
House and the State Department in his antique automobile in the heat of
August without air conditioning.
I will assure my colleagues that, after all of this is over with,
with respect to the rules and regulations that say one cannot call on
Members of Congress, one cannot lobby, we are still friends. We can
still go places. But I do wish you would get an air conditioned car.
God bless you, Bob Livingston.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr.
Callahan) for all of his kind words and for that piece of revision of
history. We want him to know that Mobile does, in fact, do a marvelous
imitation of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. I have enjoyed it in Mobile
with him on occasion.
I hate to correct a colleague, but Bob Livingston does not drive an
antique automobile. That would be giving much too much credit to that
automobile. It is just an old automobile and a pretty wretched one at
that.
We are joined today by a great and distinguished colleague, Bob, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier), chairman of the Committee on
Rules of the House of Representatives.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am not a cardinal. I am not a Louisianan.
I am not even from Mobile, Louisiana. But I am a huge admirer of Bob
Livingston, and I have to join my colleagues in saying how sad we are
to see him leave, but very happy for the great opportunity that lies
ahead for both Bonnie and Bob.
I am a southerner, though I come from southern California like that
great cardinal we have heard from. It is interesting to listen to the
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) talk about the disparity between
the Louisianans and Alabamans. From southern California, they all look
the same to us.
But I want to say I remember very vividly the first time that I met
Bob Livingston. I am glad to see that we are joined by our former
colleague, Mr. Vander Jagt, here on the House floor, who obviously had
a very distinguished career here as a member of the Committee on Ways
and Means. I remember that it was at the time that Guy Vander Jagt was
the chairman of our Congressional Campaign Committee that I first met
Bob Livingston. Bob probably does not remember when that was. It was at
the Shoreham Hotel, and it was just a few weeks after he had won his
special election to serve here.
I was there at some Republican gathering at the Shoreham and was at
that juncture considering running for Congress myself. While Guy Vander
Jagt provided us with great inspiration, the enthusiasm that Bob
Livingston showed just weeks after he had been elected was key to my
deciding to move ahead and to run for the Congress. Because he said we
have got to win a majority in this place. We have to do everything that
we possibly can to implement our very positive Republican agenda. Well,
two long decades later, nearly two decades later, we got to the point
where we were able to do just that.
The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) mentioned the issue of
spending cuts. One of the things that I think is very important to note
of Bob Livingston's reign as chairman of the Committee on
Appropriations was the fact that, when we looked at emergency spending,
when we looked at even spending for defense, urgent defense items, what
was it that Bob Livingston did? He said, there must be offsets. That,
to me, was a very positive signal. He stood his ground to make sure
that we would have those.
I hope very much that, as we look at a wide range of spending
programs for the future, that we in fact follow that great Livingston
model which is a very important thing for us, I believe, to do.
I was looking forward to being Bob Livingston's Committee on Rules'
chairman, as I have taken on this new responsibility, and I am very
sorry that I have not been able to do that. But I want to say that Bob
Livingston played a key role during that transition in late November
and December. The role that he played is still being felt and I believe
will be felt throughout the 106th Congress and beyond.
Not only did he make many very important appointments of members to
committees and other spots around here, which, to his great compliment,
Speaker Hastert has continued to follow through with, but it was a
leadership meeting that Bob Livingston
[[Page H695]]
shared where we implemented the four-point agenda that we as
Republicans are pursuing: to reform public education; to make sure that
we provide tax relief for working families; to deal with saving Social
Security so that those that are at or near retirement are not in any
way jeopardized, but also look at the very important plans for baby
boomers and those younger looking at retirement for the future; and,
the fourth point, recognizing that since 1985 we have witnessed a
diminution in our defense capability. We are standing firmly for
rebuilding our defenses as we look at the very serious challenges that
we face throughout the world.
{time} 1815
Those four points, education, tax relief, Social Security, and
national security, all emanated from the leadership team that Bob
Livingston put together.
And so while he is retiring and going on to an opportunity that will
allow him to maybe be able to buy actually an antique automobile and
replace that with his old automobile, it is air conditioned, he should
know that the things that he has done throughout his entire two decades
here, and most recently those efforts that he was able to pursue in
bringing about the transition in our leadership, will be felt
throughout this Congress and for many years to come.
So I wish him well, and his entire family well, and I want to say
that he will clearly be sorely missed around here, and I thank my
friend.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, let me point out to my colleague that Bob
had the good sense of marrying a good Cajun girl, and Bonnie Robichaux
has literally been an extraordinary woman and partner and friend. And
to Bonnie and Bob's four children, Rob and Richard and David and Susie,
who are all indeed working, Susie here in Washington, D.C. and Rob and
Richard and David all in Louisiana, we want to wish them the best. We
know that now, finally, they are probably going to see an awful lot
more of their dad than they could in all these years that he served
both in law enforcement and now in the United States Congress.
To round out this extraordinary parade, I wanted to yield to another
one of the cardinals of the Committee on Appropriations who can speak
with great eloquence about Bob's friendship and his extraordinary
contributions to this body and to the country, the gentleman from Ohio,
Cardinal Ralph Regula.
Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
And, Bob, tonight, when the phone rings, it will not be someone wanting
you to change your phone service, it will be an automobile salesman.
Just make sure it's an American model; saying that from Ohio.
We cannot claim kinship with Louisiana, being much further north, but
I want to say, Bob, we do appreciate that offshore oil that you send up
to fuel our factories and our farms and our homes. And Louisiana, with
your leadership, has been out front in providing for the Nation's
security.
Bob was given a tremendous challenge as the new chairman in handling
a rescission bill. We tend to forget how vitally important that bill
was to demonstrate the majority party's commitment in real dollars to
reducing the cost of government. It was an enormously challenging
responsibility, because what his leadership required was to say to
people we are going to take something back that you already have, and
that is not easy to do.
And yet we had a very successful bill under the leadership of Bob,
saved several billion dollars in rescinding programs that would have
otherwise been wasteful spending. And, most importantly, it established
a lower base. Because the programs in appropriations build on the base
from year to year to year, that savings achieved by that first
rescission bill will lead far into the future in saving the taxpayers
money. That was an enormous contribution, and it was, I think, quite
evident of his excellent leadership as the new chairman of the
committee.
I would also say that I was always impressed with his grasp of the
issues. Because as chairman, Bob would go from committee to committee
and participate in some of the difficult challenges of each of the
subcommittees, and to do that he had to have an understanding of the
issues. He did very well in serving in that role. And I believe that
contributed substantially to the success of the appropriations process
in achieving what we now have as a balanced budget, because basically
the budget is a composite of all the separate programs.
I would also say, Bob, if things get tough, you can be a diplomat. I
experienced that in your office one day when you were between a couple
of Members who had a somewhat different point of view, and you
exercised great diplomacy in avoiding bloodshed. A good thing you did
have those knives that you had for the first meeting out of reach. It
was a real feat of diplomacy because of the different points of view.
Also, Bob, if things get real tough you can start a restaurant. You
have a wicked pot of jambalaya, and we enjoyed that in your home one
night. I think you said you produced it. It was probably Bonnie's
handiwork, but nothing like taking credit when she was not within ear
shot.
But, really, I have enjoyed your leadership and I have enjoyed the
fact that you have always supported each of us in the subcommittees in
dealing with some very difficult problems. Oftentimes we have to make
decisions that are not necessarily pleasing to Members in order to keep
a restraint in spending, and to accomplish this required having your
support as we would bring a bill through the process. I think you have
done a superb job of providing leadership. You have established a
benchmark that will be a challenge to those in the future.
And since it was the first time in 40 years that we had the
chairmanship of that committee, the way in which you conducted it does
create a pattern that I think will be followed in the future. So your
contributions will reach far beyond your tenure in the Congress, and I
join all my colleagues in wishing you and Bonnie the very best. You
have been blessed with a good helpmate in Bonnie, and it has been a joy
to just be part of this Congress and serving with you and knowing both
of you.
Mr. TAUZIN. Thank you, Chairman Regula.
Mr. Speaker, before I yield to the next Speaker, let me just point
out that this extraordinary conciliator, this extraordinary legislator,
who has reached out across party lines and whole divides, was once an
opponent of mine for the governor's race in Louisiana.
He and I contested mightily for that position. In fact, then I was a
Democrat and he was a Republican contender for governor of our State.
At an event after the race was over, I mentioned Bob had gone around
the State of Louisiana trying to convince everybody what a rotten
governor I would make; and I had gone around the State of Louisiana
trying to convince everybody what a rotten governor he would make. And
we must have both been very credible, because they believed us both so
well they elected Congressman Buddy Roemer to that seat.
In the end, I, a Democrat, left with a huge debt, defeated in that
race for governor, turned to Bob Livingston. And he, as our dean, led
an effort, with all the Members, Democrats and Republicans, to help me
pay off that debt so that I could move on and serve our State, as I
have tried to serve it well as a Member of the United States Congress.
It is that kind of spirit, this man, that I think has been the hallmark
of his career.
Finally, I want to yield to a few people who want to comment about
that, among them my good friend, the gentlewoman from California (Anna
Eshoo).
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman of the
Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection of
the Committee on Commerce, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin). I
was in my office and I had this station on and I was listening, Mr.
Livingston, to the marvelous things that were being said about you and
I wanted to come to the floor and pay tribute to you for the kind of
man that you have been, for the kind of Member you have been, and the
leadership that you have provided here in the House of Representatives.
Just anecdotally, my earliest memory of Bob Livingston is at the
Hershey retreat, at the bipartisan retreat 2 years ago. I had gone to
mass that Sunday morning, and I looked in front of
[[Page H696]]
me to say ``peace be with you'', and who was standing there but Bob
Livingston and his wife. Now, I think that in order to be great, and in
order to do really extraordinary things, that you have to be a good
person. And I believe that Bob Livingston is a very, very good man.
The next time I remember seeing him, and I thought, gee, we keep
bumping into one another at religious-like undertakings, was here in
the Capitol at a magnificent, beautiful memorial service
for Congressman Emerson. And there he was again in his tall and quiet
way.
I wish that Bob Livingston were remaining in the House of
Representatives, where he would continue the very important work that
he undertook both as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations
and the kind of leadership that he has given.
This is the first time that I have crossed the aisle and spoken from
the Republican side. I do that, Mr. Chairman, to pay tribute to you,
because I think that people across this country, whether they know your
name or not, will be the beneficiaries of the kinds of good things that
you have done here.
You will be remembered long after you leave here for your goodness,
and I wanted to come to the floor to pay tribute to you tonight and to
say to you that I have every confidence that you have many, many
chapters of exciting times of your life to come. Thank you for what you
have been here. Thank you for the gentleman that you are.
I want you to know that I am one of many, many, many here that had
looked forward to working with you as Speaker of this House. But you
will move on, you will be extraordinarily successful, because you have
all the ingredients of leadership to do that regardless of where you
are. And may I say, ``May God bless you''. You deserve it.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her
extraordinarily warm and generous remarks.
I am pleased to round out this session of honor to my friend Bob
Livingston by yielding to another great friend, a good man, another
Congressman from my State, my dear friend, Mr. Bill Jefferson.
Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me,
and I think the remarks the gentleman made about the Governor's race,
when you and Bob were in it, were exactly right. We will have more to
say about that in the future, Billy.
I want to say this about my friend Bob Livingston. Bob started out
representing a district that was largely Democratic. That is why I
believe he learned to work so well with Democrats across the aisle,
with Democrats in general, and of course with his own colleagues on the
Republican side, because he had a lot of practice doing it in the first
district that he undertook back home. Bob Livingston understood how to
deal with ordinary people, and he understood how to deal with a city
that was as diverse as New Orleans is.
He and I had the good pleasure of working together, not just as
colleagues in the Congress but as people who had a responsibility for
making the Congress regard our city and for having the Congress respond
to the needs of our city, and we did that in a beautiful partnership.
He, of course, was the leader of the partnership; I was the junior
partner. Nonetheless, he listened to me when I first came here. He
encouraged me, he gave me whatever guidance he could, and he parted
with me over time to take the issues that I knew were important to our
area. He listened to me very well and he made these issues his own.
And so, Bob, for the folks who drive the RTA buses, we thank you. For
the people who worry about the hurricanes and those levied areas, we
thank you for that. For those folks who drive on the streets that never
really were quite right, that never will be because the ground is too
soft and the street is always going to give way, we thank you for
always remembering us in our community development programs and
efforts. We thank you for what you did for our schools and for
education, and for the way you tried to introduce technology, a very
new feature, into the Louisiana economy, and how you helped to diverse
our economy.
We now have a monument that is an example of the kind of innovation
that you are capable of, and it sits at the University of New Orleans,
and will be there, I hope for all time, as a living monument to your
creativity. What you did was to bring to our area, and to bring to the
whole of our government, a new way of thinking about how to save money
and to consolidate and to make our budget work better and in more
effective ways; and, at the same time, to partner with the private
sector in ways that now have created more than 1500 jobs in our area in
this one facility and that will be there, hopefully for a good long
time, as a Bob Livingston memorial.
Now, we all hope to be remembered well when we leave this place. And
as many of my colleagues said earlier, I'm confident that you will be,
mostly for your decency, because people could talk to you, because they
could work with you, because they respected you, and because we all
looked forward to greater service from you. Bob, for one, I am really
going to miss your presence here and I am going to miss the prospect of
what would have been, I believe, great service as the Speaker of this
House.
{time} 1830
And so, for those folks in Louisiana who would like to stand here
with me today and from my district and say good-bye to you, let me on
behalf of all of them give you our fondest farewell and our fondest
best wishes for you and your wife and your family and say we were lucky
to have a chance to serve with you and lucky to have a chance to be a
partner with you for the time I have been and lucky to have known you
and your family, and we wish you the best luck and Godspeed for all
that you do in the future.
Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. TAUZIN. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.
Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for
yielding.
I just come to the floor to say thank you to a real gentleman, Bob
Livingston, to say thank you for his honesty and integrity, someone
that I admire very, very much and, last of all, to say thank you for
the opportunity that Bob Livingston gave me to serve with him on the
Committee on Appropriations. His leadership is something that will
always be very, very important in my career here in the House.
He is going to be missed tremendously. We love him and wish him
Godspeed.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend and neighbor for his
kind words.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. TAUZIN. I yield to the gentleman from California.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for
yielding.
Not many people know, I think, the heart of Bob Livingston, but he is
somebody that can be ferocious but caring ferocious. I served under a
lot of different commanding officers in the Navy, and we had good, bad
and others. So you get to judge leadership a lot being in the service.
Let me give my colleagues one instance, and Bob will remember this. I
had worked four terms trying to get on the Committee on Appropriations,
and I felt that I had been cheated out of the Committee on
Appropriations, and I did everything I could working with the
leadership, even above the Appropriations chairman, Mr. Livingston, to
get on Appropriations and Defense Appropriations.
Well, it was almost a no-no situation, and yet I proceeded to do just
that. And when I finally got on the Committee on Appropriations and
Defense, Bob Livingston, to get me on there, had to give up his slot on
the Defense Committee on Appropriations. That is what he did. But, in
the meantime, he took me back in a little room and put his finger in my
chest and treed me for about 10 minutes. But you learn that Bob
Livingston did this not in front of other people but he expressed
himself man on man, directly to me. That itself shows leadership. It
shows caring. It shows compassion.
Bob, we are going to miss you. Godspeed. And if I can ever be the
wind in your sails, let me know.
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I think this hour is just about over. It has
gone
[[Page H697]]
much too fast, and there is so much more we could say to honor and
extend our great respect to Bob Livingston as he terminates his many
years of service to the State of Louisiana.
I just want to add one personal thought. Bob and I have been friends
for a long time. We contested each other politically. We have been on
different sides of the fence occasionally. At the end of the day, we
have always been friends. And that has been the hallmark of his career.
He leaves so many friends here.
Bob, Louisiana will miss you. Louisiana will miss your service.
Louisiana will miss your caring, concern for her, for all of her
people. And my colleagues in Louisiana and across this body will miss
you for the good man that you are.
Mr. Speaker, with great thanks and appreciation to the gentleman from
Louisiana (Bob Livingston), who I will now replace as dean of the
Louisiana delegation, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my
friend and the Representative of the good people of Louisiana's First
District, Bob Livingston.
Bob Livingston is a man of courage and honor. In every aspect of his
career in Congress, he has made clear his enduring love and respect for
the institution of the House of Representatives in which he has served
for 22 years.
At a time when our nation was calling out for leadership, Bob
Livingston reminded us all that the institutions of our democracy are
stronger than any one person.
I have witnessed firsthand the strength and fairness with which Bob
Livingston led the Appropriations Committee and how he demonstrated
exceptionally well the leadership necessary to bring people of
divergent ideas and talents together. I can say proudly, too, that as
New Jersey's only Member of Congress to serve on the Appropriations
Committee, Chairman Livingston was receptive to the needs of New
Jerseyans and supportive of my work in Committee on important state
priorities.
It is, of course, legend now, that day he came to take over the
Committee wielding a ``Louisiana fileting knife.'' And with a surgeon's
precision, he led us to make cuts that put our budget in balance for
the first time since 1969. Under his leadership in the 104th Congress,
our Committee reduced government spending by over $50 billion, and we
continued this trend in the last Congress, too. This will be Bob's
legacy, and I am proud to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.
Bob, you will be missed. Thank you for your courtesy, and your
friendship. I wish you and Bonnie continued success for the future.
General Leave
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on my special order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hayes). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from Louisiana?
There was no objection.
____________________