[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 71 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H4164-H4168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMEMORATING HOUSE PAGES ON THEIR GRADUATION
(Mr. KOLBE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege today to speak about our
pages. It is the last day of their service to us. I am going to yield
to the chairman of the page board first, but as she speaks, I wonder if
all the pages would come down and join us here in the well so that your
families and others and everybody can see you here. I would like for
all the pages to come down here to the well.
I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly).
Mrs. KELLY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Today is
a special day for our pages. It is graduation day. It is a time to
reflect on their
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past year of service to this body, on the school, on building
relationships, on dorm life, and the range of experiences and emotions
they have felt in their time in Washington. For many of you, this was a
challenging experience. But I hope it was a special time for you as
well. You are part of a select club, a small group of people who have
served in Congress as congressional pages. Some of the Members of that
club stand before you today as Members of Congress themselves. You are
a special group of people. You have been given the opportunity to
witness history's greatest experiment in democracy firsthand. During
your time here, you have not heard this as much as you should have, but
thank you. Thank you very much.
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We thank you. I thank you from all of the Members and the staff of
this House. You have been a very special part of this institution. You
have witnessed firsthand the fact that Members of Congress tend to
become wrapped up and focused on the day's floor activity and the tough
debates which frequently characterize the House of Representatives.
Do not think for a moment, however, that we have not noticed the
essential work that you perform every single day. You are a special
part of this place, you lend character to this place, and you are a
daily reminder to all of us of why our work is so important, because
you are our future leaders.
Over the course of the last year, as I have gotten to know each of
you, I have seen something special in you. Many of you have told me how
much you have learned about while you are being here. Remember this,
knowledge is power only when you turn on the engine, so do not be
afraid to turn on the ignition as you go on through life.
We are grateful for your service here. Your future and the future of
this Nation is limited only by your ability to dream and the courage to
pursue your dreams. I wish all of you the best of your future and the
best of luck in all of your dreams.
Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly), who
has served in a very distinguished capacity as chairman of the page
board. We recognize that the gentlewoman has another event that she has
to get to, but we certainly appreciate her taking the time to speak to
the pages and of the pages this afternoon.
Mr. Speaker, it is my great privilege to yield to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert.)
Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to be down here, not
just as Speaker of the House, but I spent a great deal of time before I
got into politics as a teacher. I taught economics and U.S. history and
world history and sociology and government and all of those things that
we talk about here day in and day out.
Every time that we see a new set of faces come in, pages in this
Congress, we also see a new challenge for each of you, a challenge of
learning what this government is about, actually living the lives of
what people do inside this House day in and day out.
It is certainly a lot different than what you read in the textbooks.
It is a lot different from what you hear in lectures, because this
really is the essence of this place. As we struggle here, day in and
day out on issues that some of us care very, very dearly about and some
of us other issues that we struggle on, trying to get things done, that
is the essence of what this government is about.
It is the essence of what this country is about, that we can come
here and we can sit on two different sides of an aisle, and we can
disagree and we can fight, but at the end, we have a product, we have a
law. We have something that guide the people in this country, and for a
year you have been a part of that. You have seen the struggles. You
have seen the fights. You have heard the debates.
You know that is something that I think you will take with you for
the rest of your lives. We appreciate the work that you do. We
appreciate the challenges you have taken. You know we appreciate your
families giving you up for a year to have this experience here. We
depend on you. We appreciate you. We thank you for what you have done,
and we just ask you to go on and live the rest of your lives as best
you can.
You have seen what people can do. You have seen the very best and
sometimes you have seen the toughest side of life here, but if you put
your mind to it, you can do anything in this country. This country is
an open door. It is an open book, all you have to do is write your page
down. Thank you for being part of it. God bless you all.
Mr. KOLBE. I thank the Speaker for his kind remarks.
It is my privilege to yield to a very distinguished gentleman, the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), my colleague, my ranking member of
the subcommittee that I chair.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Kolbe) for yielding.
This has been an extraordinary experience for all of you young
people. Some of the best young people in America are chosen to come
here to see firsthand American democracy in action. You have heard
Members from time to time talk about this as the people's House, and
that is what it is. A group of extraordinary human beings got together
in 1787 in Philadelphia in what Catherine Drinker Bowan in a book the
Miracle at Philadelphia called appropriately a miracle and created a
government, a way that people could resolve their differences and set
policies for their future.
It perhaps does not seem quite extraordinary from the vantage point
of the 21st century as it was in the 18th century, such a construct was
unknown in the world. Now, in the world, there is a shining example for
every Nation in the world, and it is the United States of America. It
is that Constitution that was written in 1787.
It is an extraordinary document, and this House was created
specifically to represent the people, directly to represent their
passions, their fears, their hopes and their vision, and it does so.
And as all of you live in communities and you see sometimes the people
have great aspirations and sometimes they have feelings that are not so
great, that are small, and, perhaps, not worthy of themselves or their
community, and you see that reflected here as well sometimes.
But over the decades and, yes, the centuries that this House has been
the repository of the hopes and visions of the American people, it has
for the most part acted well and, as a result, is the example
throughout the world of what a democratic institution ought to be.
Now, the body across the way, in which you have not served, the
United States Senate, was created, as you know, as a representative of
the States, of those 13 independent Nations that got together and
formed a Nation, and, in effect, it gave up some of their sovereignty
but made a deal in the process to make sure that the States were
represented in the United States Senate.
In the last century, of course, we amended the Constitution, they are
directly elected, not by the State legislatures, it is this House
elected every 2 years that was designed to reflect the will of the
American people. And you, as the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Kelly)
said a little earlier, had been given an extraordinary privilege.
Think of all the millions of young people your age in America today
and think of how few of you got the opportunity to visit here, be here
and work here every day that we were in session. And you got to learn
firsthand how well this extraordinary experiment in democracy, in
people working together to resolve problems and set policies can and
does work. Because you had been given a significant privilege, you also
have a very serious responsibility, and that responsibility is to go
home and talk to your friends, your fellow students, people who you
will work with, your parents, your sisters, your brothers, your aunts,
your uncles and other relatives, and tell them about their democracy.
And, hopefully, you will go from here excited about what you have
learned and excited about this process and urge people to participate
in their democracy, by voting certainly, but by participating as well
on behalf of the party or candidate or policy of their choice, because
that is what makes this an extraordinary body.
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It reflects the sentiments of citizens, but it can reflect the
sentiment of citizens only to the extent that they participate and
articulate those sentiments and let the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Kolbe), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Davis) and myself and the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Kanjorski) know those sentiments and the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Lee). And because you have firsthand knowledge that
millions and millions of Americans will never have, you have had a
special privilege, but also, as I said, a particular responsibility.
I would be remiss if I did not say to James Kelly from my district,
who, in a few short years, will either vote to hire me again or fire me
again, how pleased I have been to have him here. And I know every
Member feels as keenly about each of you whom they had the privilege of
representing as I do about Jim Kelly.
This is a graduation of sorts. I see some tears, and there will be
more, but those ought to be tears not just of sadness. You will have
made friends that you will keep for all of your lives and information
and knowledge that you will never lose. Use it well.
Thank you for your service, not only to us, not only to this
institution, but to your country as well. Congratulations. And
Godspeed. Thank you.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Hoyer) for his extraordinarily eloquent remarks.
It is my privilege now to yield to an individual who can speak
firsthand about the page program, in fact, I think he served certainly
longer than I did here, he was here 4 years as a page. I only was here
3, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) was here for 2.
Okay. So the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) holds the record. And
we appreciate the gentleman coming today and speaking to the pages. I
yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to address this
first page school class of the millennium here today. And although I
served 4 years, it was in the other body, so it seemed like about 10
years. And this is a much faster and brisker pace over in the House of
Representatives than we have down the hall.
I know it has been an extraordinary privilege and honor for all of
you to serve here, and I hope that it has been worth your while in
terms of the lessons you learned, the discipline you have had to
achieve to move forward, and we appreciate you doing this.
This is probably the most difficult time to become a page because you
are trying to balance your academics with working as a page on the
floor, and it is very difficult with late night sessions coming back
and forth. We understand the sacrifices that you have made, many of you
coming from high schools where you had interests in sports and other
activities, and you gave those up to come here to Washington to pursue
this. We are very much appreciative of that.
You will make lifelong friendships here. My best friend today was
someone who served with me as a page. I am going to see him this
weekend out in California. He went on to be mayor of his town and we
ended up marrying sisters, who would have thought when we were sitting
here in the page school class. So you join a long list of page alumni,
including many Members of this body, some Members of the other body.
Bill Gates was a page, but not only that, every other segment of
society, teachers, homemakers, attorneys, look around.
The important thing is when you leave here, the lessons that you have
learned here, you take what you have learned and you use it to become
better citizens and you have a better understanding of government. And,
most importantly, even if you do not pursue any role in politics, you
can pursue helping others, that is what this is all about, that is why
we serve here, to try to help our country and to help other people.
And I hope you will take that with you, that is what inspires us to
get up every morning and go through those long hours. And I think that
is what has inspired you to come here and give up what you had back
home and get up early in the morning and go to the school all day and
then work the rest of the day and study at night.
I am just most appreciative for what you all have done here over the
last session. The best of luck to you as you pursue your dreams in this
very most exciting time in history and thank you very much for what you
have done.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize another former page, who
has had the distinction of having served at one of the most dramatic
moments in history for pages and he is memorialized forever in that
photograph in the cloakroom as he was carrying stretchers down the
front steps of the Capitol after the attack by some of the independent-
minded people from Puerto Rico in 1954. And with, I might add, our
former and beloved colleague who is no longer with us, Bill Emerson. It
is my privilege to recognize the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr.
Kanjorski).
Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe). Today really was an interesting
day, because it allowed me to relive my youth in a way. I had the great
pleasure of having a night conversation and lunch with my sponsored
page Becky Hoffman, who is part of this class. And her grandmother and
her grandfather are very old and dear friends of mine are in the
gallery watching this ceremony.
I went over and thought how being a page some 47 years ago had
changed my life. And as my friend, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Davis) said, it allowed me to form my best friend relationship through
my entire life, Bill Emerson, who I met here on my first day as a page,
was a roommate with him for 2 years while I was here. And he continued
on for his 3rd year, and then we had the honor to come back and serve
in the Congress together for about 7 years prior to his untimely death.
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My class and my Congress that I served in was exceptional because out
of that class of pages we produced three Members of Congress. I know
that after having been here, maybe you all think, gee, that is the last
thing in the world I would ever want to be; but I hope you have taken
the charge that Mr. Hoyer has given you, and that you have had this
window of opportunity to see from within, as the Speaker said, the real
activity of the legislative process and democracy in action. I hope it
spurs you on to develop an ambition to be in public service,
particularly to be participants.
I know you are the best and brightest from all over the country, and
you are going to go to great attainment in your life. If I could give
you a little advice for when you go back to your schools: you will be
different. You are more mature, more worldly; there will be some
jealousy toward the experience you had. You have to treat that gingerly
so that your peers learn something from you and do not have envy for
what you had. Take the opportunity to bring them along in your peer
groups in your various high schools. Do that. Do not be foolish enough
to think about this experience as having made the touchdown, as being
the most important game of your senior year in high school and as the
high point of your life. Page activity is very important, but do not
let it ever be the high point in your life. You are just beginning now
to go on to attainment and to great success, and you should look
forward every day in your life to doing bigger and better things, and
every one of you can.
I would just like to say that over the last 47 years since I started
here as a page with Bill Emerson and Bob Bauman, we were both in the
83rd Congress, the last Republican Congress before these three
Congresses when the Republicans were in power, I formed a friendship
for life, I learned what I wanted to do, and I had an experience that I
have carried with me, and I want to pass it on to you. These Members
that you deal with day in and day out and you see and you witness, and
the Members of the Senate, you have already met four or five future
Presidents of the United States. They are here among us. How to discern
who they will be is another matter, and that will test how perceptive
you are; but they are here.
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I was thinking back how fortunate I was in 1953 and 1954. I got to
meet almost every President of the United States who subsequently
became President when they were either a Member of this House or a
Member of the Senate. So you have had that same enjoyment. You have
probably met and have served with a lot of future cabinet officers,
governors, all kinds of individuals. You, if you are interested in
public service, can be like Bill Clinton, the President of the United
States. You are about the same age as he was when he met with President
Kennedy when he was your age in Washington. He looked around, he looked
at his classmates, and he decided that he too would like to be
President of the United States. He tells an interesting story, because
30 years later from that day, almost within 3 or 4 days, he took the
oath of office as President of the United States. Every one of you have
that opportunity. But most of all, every one of you have the
opportunity to serve, to distinguish yourselves and honor your
classmates, and the institution of being a page.
I cannot think of all the great pages, but the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Davis) mentioned Bill Gates. Well, he is the wealthiest,
I am sure, of the former pages. But people like Daniel Webster, people
like Senator Arthur Vandenberg, one of the original charter writers of
the United Nations charter, and on and on we could go. It is quite a
tradition. Now that you are part of it, you have an obligation to use
it wisely, treasure it, and not to embarrass it. We are honored to have
served with you, and I am sure I speak for all 435 Members of the
House. You have done a great job. Go on now and do an even greater job
in life.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his wonderful
remarks. I am sure I speak for all of the pages when I say that one of
the favorite Members is the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), who
never fails to stop by the page desk and inquire about the pages and
spend a little time talking to them. It is my privilege to yield to the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).
Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. First let me pay back
the compliment you have just given me and ask the pages to salute him
for his dedication to the page program.
Mr. KOLBE. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I wish I was in Bill Gates's class. I would
be planning my estate taxes and issues like that, because obviously, he
has done very well. It is not just about wealth; it is about this
country. I hope I can get through this, because this is a sad day. We
watched the kids come here, excited, exuberant, happy about serving
their country; and we see them leave as mature young people who are
ready to carry out life's dreams.
In this class we had several Andrews and several Adams and multiple
Christophers, several Lindseys. Some came with dyed hair, Christopher;
some have used the Nation's supply of gel; Spike, as I call him. Some
of you have changed outfits and changed looks, but the thing that I
think unites us all is that you are outstanding young people.
Oftentimes, you read the newspaper and you look at the TV news and
you hear about the bad kids in life. Happily for America, that is only
about one-half of 1 percent. Regrettably, we do not read about the good
kids, the kids that are here today that are sacrificing being away from
their friends and family back home, the time that they could spend in
high school, the favorite years of your life in your hometown, in your
home community, with your boyfriends and girlfriends and family.
But instead you chose to venture to our Nation's Capital, the seat of
government, the center of the world. You have served, and I know at
times you have been frustrated. I have seen some of you dragging in at
10:30 at night while some of us continue to talk to the cameras above,
talking to our residents back home on C-SPAN, and you say, are they
ever going to stop? Will they cut special orders sometime soon? And yet
you get up the next day full of exuberance.
As I am running in the morning, in fact, I run on Thursdays with Kay
Bailey Hutchison, I said, Kay, you better watch your job, because
Parker Payne may be running for Senator some day in this class. He is
already threatening, so I think you and I should keep running and keep
working to make sure that you are the Senator from Texas.
But you will have elected officials in this class. You will have
entrepreneurs; you will have doctors and lawyers and scientists. But
the one thing that is sure, as was mentioned, you will have lifelong
friends. You will have bonded together; and 10, 15, 20 years from now
you will look back and think of that special time you had when you were
sharing dormitory space and thinking about how your senior year would
be and how the prom would be. Tonight we will send you off back to your
families and back to your parents, many of whom I have met; and I know
that they are proud today and that they have helped raise you. And I
think you have to recognize how proud you are of them, for thinking of
you and to recognize your maturity to allow you to leave home. Your
fathers were ready to get rid of you when your mothers were probably
weeping daily as the time approached to head to Washington.
But in all sincerity, I am going to stop soon, because I see some of
you crying already; and I will start too, because I am sad. But knowing
you are going off a better person makes me all the more happy.
In conclusion, let us make sure that we thank some people here that
have also made your experience both memorable and wonderful, and I am
sure Jim is going to do that; but Ms. Sampson, Harroun and all the
staff, for their stewardship, guidance and leadership of this class, we
should salute them as well.
God bless you, kids. You are great, you are fabulous, and I love you.
Thank you.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his very kind
remarks. If I might, just in conclusion, make a few of my own.
About 3 weeks ago, we held a reunion here in Washington, it was the
40th page school reunion for my class. Among those in that class are
two that are known to most of these pages here. One, of course, is one
of the most beloved former pages, Donn Anderson, who served this House
as the Clerk of the House for many years and has been the staunchest
supporter of the page program. Also in that same class was Mr. Ron
Lasch who serves as a floor assistant for the Republican majority here
and has been a stalwart person for a number of years on behalf of our
party in the House of Representatives. Both of them believe so strongly
in this institution, and I hope that is part of what you will take away
from here.
There is no doubt, as I had that reunion, while I know what you are
thinking; you are thinking, certainly I could never look that old some
day, but maybe some of you will, although most of you will probably be
in much better shape 40 years from now. But what I remember, what I
think was evident at that reunion for all of us is this was a very
life-changing experience. Several people have talked about the
friendships that you will make and that you will have for a lifetime,
and you will. It is incredible how bonded our class has become over the
years. For all of us, this was very much a life-changing experience. It
has brought us closer to each other through the trials and
tribulations; and yes, I am sad to say we have lost 4 members of our
class now. But it has brought us closer together. And as we watched our
families grow, we have shared those experiences with each other. That
is very much the human part of what this program is all about.
I am often asked as a member of the page board, why do we need a page
program? Why do we not just hire messengers? It would be so much easier
to do that than to maintain a staff and a place for the pages to live
and a school and all of that. There is no question there are easier
ways to handle the invaluable services that you provide for us. But I
do not think there are very many Members of this House of
Representatives that have ever wanted to give up this program, because
we all understand that it is an opportunity every year to give a
handful, a small handful, but a wonderful handful of young people an
opportunity to understand their government in a way that their friends
and classmates and others across this country will never, ever be able
to have.
But you can share that experience with them. That is really the
message that I want to leave with you today as you go forward from this
experience. You go forward as ambassadors, really,
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for our government, for the institutions of democracy that make this
country such a great place. Your responsibility, having completed this
year as pages, is not to be elected to office, though there will be
some of you that will be elected. I will guarantee somebody in this
class that will be serving some day in the House of Representatives or
the United States Senate, and others of you will serve in State
legislatures and city councils and school boards, other kinds of
equally important tasks in life. Your job is not to be elected and your
job is not to make as much money as Bill Gates; very few of us could
ever hope to accomplish that. But your job is to serve, to serve your
community, your country, your family in the best way possible. You have
been given a great opportunity, and I know that each and every one of
you will make the very most of this opportunity.
So I hope that you will go out from here and help others understand
what our government is about, and how wonderful it is, because these
institutions of democracy, for all of their failings, is still the very
best that we have been able to devise. You have done us a great service
during this last year. Sometimes we do not even realize how the work of
the House of Representatives depends on what you are doing every day,
and it becomes a part of us, and yet you are so important to the
operation of this House. So we will miss you. On Monday there will be a
new batch of pages in here, and we will all be busy trying to orient
them and get to know them. But we will miss you, and we hope that you
will stay in touch with us and with others that you have gotten to know
back here; and we look forward to the great service that you will be
providing for your country in whatever capacity that might be, and
there will be very many different kinds of things.
At this point, Mr. Speaker, I will enter into the Record a list of
all of the pages.
Max Abbott
Dominic Adams
Sarah Baca
Thomas Bazan
Christopher Bower
Geoffrey Brown
Diane Bruner
Michael Buck
Eric Cercone
Adam Cheatham
Christopher Clark
David Cook
Andrew D'Anna
Ashley Daugherty
Ashley Foster
Katherine Fortune
Kara Frank
Amy Gaddis
Adam Gellman
Dana Hall
Kristopher Hart
Laura Heaton
Androni Henry
Rebecca Hoffman
William Hooper
Jay Kanterman
James Kelley
Stevens Kelly
Susanna Khalil
Jule Kolbe
Julia Koplewski
David Kroontje and
Adam Kwasman
Ray LaHoud
Andrew Lerch
Yun Hsin (Amy) Leung
Brad Lyman
Alison Lowery
Renee Mack
Megan Marshburn
Jeffrey Mannion
Marcella Martinez
Lindsay Moon
Clinton Morris
Nancy Nicolas
Casey Osterkamp
Parker Payne
Ashley Percy
Christopher Perr
Jessica Porras
Tessa Powell
Lindsey Ransdell
Jennifer Reed
Moriah Reed
A.J. Rosenfeld
Chase Rowan
Danielle Ruse
David Schweinfurth
Samuel Sinkin
Megan Smith
Nouvelle Stubbs
Erin Sweeney
Christine Tancinco
Anika Tank
Margaret Theobald
Lindsay Thomson
Amber Walker
Lauren Weeth
Julie Wise and
Jessica Wood.
Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I would, in conclusion, also just like to
mention my own page, as others have done, Adam Cheatham from Tucson. He
has been a great page this last year and has become a great friend of
mine, but each and every one of you have become great friends of mine.
Some I have gotten to know, obviously, better than others. But I admire
what you have done, we appreciate the service, we thank you for that,
and we wish you Godspeed. Thank you.
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