[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 157 (Tuesday, November 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11841-H11842]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO THE LATE GEORGE E. BROWN, JR.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walden of Oregon). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, what a wise man, what a good man George Brown 
was. We have heard tonight of his efforts to create or strengthen 
various scientific institutions, the National Science Foundation, the 
White House Science Advisers, OSTP, the EPA, the Office of Technology 
Assessment, NASA. He advanced international scientific cooperation, 
energy conservation, alternative sources of energy, sustainable 
agriculture, peaceful uses of space. He advanced the cause of peace 
around the world.
  I have long respected George Brown for these contributions as a 
scientist and as a Member of Congress before I got to know him. When I 
was a AAAS fellow in Congress in the early 1980s, George Brown served 
as a positive example to us fellows of how government policy could be 
used in the support and advancement of science. His personal enthusiasm 
and passion for science and for the people associated with the fields 
of science has left perhaps the most lasting impression of George Brown 
around the country.
  And, Mr. Speaker, I will provide for the Record some of the remarks 
of other AAAS fellows who have shared with me their memories of George 
Brown.
  George Brown understood the big picture of how science could benefit 
the world and how to construct government mechanisms and policy to 
appropriately support it. I believe no one in Washington had a better 
understanding of the role and the nature of science.
  George Brown was a champion of science, but he was not an apologist 
for science. It was George who challenged both the scientific community 
and its policy advocates to be self-aware, yes, to be self-critical 
lest we continue to, in his words, develop an uncritical faith that 
where science leads us is where we want to go.

[[Page H11842]]

  George Brown did not shy away from asking the tough questions. He 
pointed out that ``It is still difficult to draw a correlation between 
scientific and technological capability on the one hand and quality of 
life on the other.'' He reminded us that if we look at the world as a 
whole, it is not at all clear that advances in science and technology 
have translated into sustainable advances in the quality of life for 
the majority of the human race.
  He warned us of the potential societal crisis fueled by a 
deteriorating public education system, unaffordable health care, ethnic 
polarization, urban violence, environmental degradation, and the lack 
of political courage and leadership necessary for decisive action on 
these matters. Representative George E. Brown, Jr. had that kind of 
courage and he demonstrated it in each of his 18 terms in this House. 
George Brown never took the easy or politically expedient way. What a 
model he provided for us.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my good friend and colleague, the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Farr).
  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding to me, and I would like to add, Marta, that I felt that 
memorializing your husband, our colleague, in statuary hall, where he 
was surrounded by some of the greatest leaders of this country, was 
appropriate because in my mind George was as great as all of them and 
he should be in that hall. He is in this hall here tonight, because as 
long as someone is in our minds, they are here.
  We have heard from his colleagues tonight. What a great father for 
the State of California. I do not think anybody understood what made 
California tick, what made California the center of so many 
excellences, the center of excellence for electronics, the center of 
excellence for the entertainment industry, the center of excellence for 
agriculture, and so many kinds of agriculture. Agriculture in the north 
and agriculture in the south, totally different. From row crops to 
forestry, to all kinds of diversity, he understood the diversity of the 
people who live in the great State of California.
  When we talked to him, we realized that we were talking to someone 
who grasped the entire potential of California. I think he saw that 
defined through science and technology; that if we could take enough 
good minds and put those good minds to practical use on beautiful 
places, like the diversity, the geographical diversity, that we cannot 
help but solve problems. And those problems are not just solved for 
California, they are solved for the United States. And when they are 
solved for the United States, they are solved for the world.
  Just a remarkable human being in our time. Every one of us was 
touched by him. I think that he was, indeed, one of the fathers of 
modern California, and for that we will forever remember him as one of 
the great statues of this great state.

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