[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1482-H1483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1115
              BUILDING ON BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RETREAT

  (Mr. KIND asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, last weekend we had the second bipartisan 
congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A lot of people helped 
in pulling that together. I want to commend the gentleman from Illinois 
(Mr. LaHood), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Sawyer), the planning 
committee, the staff at Hershey, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Aspen 
Institute who all helped in bringing Members on both sides of

[[Page H1483]]

the aisle together, but I want to especially commend my colleagues who 
took the time out of their busy schedules to bring the family and the 
children and their spouses to the retreat so that we could get to know 
one another a little better and talk to one another. The goal of the 
retreat was simple, to try to make this great institution a more civil 
place in which to conduct the Nation's business. The format was also 
simple, get out of Washington, away from the media, bring the families 
in and the children and the spouses so that we could have some honest 
conversations across the aisle of how we could improve this great 
institution. Because it is a fundamental rule of human nature that the 
better you know someone and their spouse and their little children, a 
lot harder it is going to be to demonize that person than during the 
hot debates of the day. I think we made a good, honest attempt last 
weekend, Mr. Speaker. I hope we can now build upon that for the sake of 
this great Nation.

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