[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H799-H800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FAREWELL TO HONORABLE BOB LIVINGSTON

  (Mr. TAUZIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman from 
Wisconsin for those most kind and warm and generous remarks about the 
gentleman from Louisiana. I know that there are many others who would 
like to similarly make comments for the record. There is leave to do 
so. The day before yesterday we held an hour special order to honor and 
extend our respect and admiration and best wishes to the gentleman from 
Louisiana on behalf of the people of Louisiana and this grateful 
Nation. If Members would like to submit words for the record, there is 
5-day leave and I would encourage them to do so.
  In that special order, we wanted the Nation to know a few very 
important things about this man. One of them is that he comes from an 
extraordinary lineage. It was his ancestor of many great degrees back, 
Robert Livingston, who as Minister to France signed the Louisiana 
Purchase on behalf of President Jefferson and purchased the territory 
from which 13 States or parts of States have been carved. Yet with that 
amazing lineage behind him, Bob Livingston rose from very humble 
beginnings. Losing his father at a very early age, his mother 
nevertheless went to work in a shipyard in Louisiana to raise Bob and 
his sister and to give them a chance at an education. Bob himself 
returned to that shipyard to work as he got his own education in his 
later years.
  But Bob's life has been spent in public service. Bob did a stint in 
the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Navy Reserve. He worked most of his career as a 
U.S. Justice Department prosecutor in New Orleans as a prosecutor for 
the criminal court system in New Orleans and for the Attorney General 
of the State of Louisiana before coming to this body and serving for 
those 21\1/2\ years. He has given his life to public service.
  And our State and our Nation are deeply grateful, Bob, for all you 
have done in your whole life for this country and for the people of our 
great State of Louisiana. More importantly, Bob Livingston has been a 
remarkable legislator in this House of colleagues who all rise to 
different levels of greatness. Bob Livingston, acknowledged by many 
Members of the Committee on Appropriations the other night, is probably 
the single individual most responsible for finding the consensus in the 
last 4 years as chairman of the

[[Page H800]]

Committee on Appropriations that has delivered for this country a 
surplus for us to talk about this year, has taken us out of deficit, 
not in 5 or 7 years as predicted but in a short 2-year period.

                              {time}  1045

  Mr. Speaker, for all the things he will be remembered for and for all 
the good things he has done in this body and throughout his public 
career, I think this Nation owes him a debt of gratitude for that most 
important thing of taking us out of deficit and giving us a surplus to 
debate this year.
  The gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Bob Livingston) may not ever get 
the credit he deserves, Mr. Speaker, but I will tell my colleagues that 
I know it in my heart and the people of Louisiana know it in their 
heart: We have rarely seen a man of that kind of dedication and spirit 
and deep respect and love and compassion and, as was said, tolerance 
for different opinions represent our State than has Bob Livingston. 
Louisiana will miss him sorely, and on behalf of all the people of his 
great district, and by the way Bob leaves with not a 60 or 70 or 80 
percent approval rate, Mr. Speaker. He leaves Congress with an over 90 
percent approval rate. On behalf of those people in his district and 
the entire State of Louisiana and, I know, this great Nation, I thank 
my friend for all the years he gave us. God bless him and Bonnie and 
his family.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to wish the gentleman from Louisiana the great 
Cajun wish of joie de vie. I hope his life is full of joy, that his 
life is rich and that the retirement he justly deserves is one that he 
and his family will fully enjoy.
  Again, Bob, thank you. God bless you.

                          ____________________