[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 59 (Wednesday, April 28, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNIZING THE WORK OF DR. DAVID J. CANTOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, after this week we will be losing a trusted 
friend at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) who has been 
instrumental in providing timely and accurate information to Members of 
the Congressional Steel Caucus and to our staffs regarding the U.S. 
steel industry and its workers. I am speaking of Dr. David J. Cantor, 
who is retiring at the end of this month after spending 18\1/2\ years 
with CRS as a specialist in industry economics.
  Dr. Cantor brought to CRS a distinguished academic and professional 
background when he joined the staff in 1980. Dr. Cantor has a Ph.D. in 
Economics from Harvard University and held faculty positions at Boston 
University, Nasson College and Golden Gate University. He spent several 
years with the U.N. Industrial Development Organization in Vienna, 
Austria and worked as an Energy Specialist with the California Energy 
Commission.
  At CRS, Dr. Cantor has followed energy economics and the 
pharmaceutical industry, but his primary specialization has been 
following the steel industry. In the early 1980s, Congress enacted an 
enforcement mechanism for the Voluntary Restraint Agreements (VRA), 
which allowed the domestic steel industry and its workers to take 
actions to modernize the U.S. steel industry and make it world 
competitive. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Cantor authored 
numerous reports monitoring the Steel VRA program which allowed the 
Steel Caucus to closely monitor the Administration's enforcement of 
this program.
  Dr. Cantor also authored a report demonstrating that import 
limitations of the steel VRA program were not responsible for rising 
steel prices. More importantly, Dr. Cantor authored a series of reports 
that defined the steel industry as a basic industry, and not just as a 
supplier to steel using sectors of the economy. As Chairman of the 
Congressional Steel Caucus, Dr. Cantor's work has been instrumental in 
our work to maintain this vital U.S. industry and the important jobs 
associated with it.
  Most recently, many of us have worked closely with Dr. Cantor to 
understand the current steel import crisis and to formulate legislative 
proposals that respond to this import crisis.
  We in Congress who work closely on issues relating to the U.S. steel 
industry and to workers in this important industry have come to trust 
and value Dr. Cantor's analysis of steel issues. We have come to expect 
the clear and unequivocal conclusions that he has provided to us. To 
his tribute, he has earned the trust of not only Members of Congress 
and their staffs, but also of the steel industry, the unions and steel 
users. On behalf of the Members of the Congressional Steel Caucus, I 
would like to thank Dr. Cantor. We wish him and his wife all the best 
when they begin their retirement in Phoenix, Arizona this summer.

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