[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 22 (Thursday, February 15, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1453-S1455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  JOHN JOSEPH MOAKLEY U.S. COURTHOUSE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 559 just received from 
the House.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 559) to designate the United States courthouse 
     located at 1 Courthouse Way in Boston, Massachusetts, as the 
     John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be laid 
upon the table with no intervening action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 559) was read the third time and passed.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I should note that Senators Kennedy and 
Kerry, I believe, will be prepared to speak on this resolution. This is 
a resolution designating the U.S. Courthouse in Boston after 
Congressman John Joseph Moakley. He is an outstanding individual. 
Senator Dodd and I both had the privilege of serving on the Rules 
Committee in the House with him the famous Rules Committee--and have 
known him for, I guess, 25 years.
  I am delighted and pleased that this bill will name this courthouse 
after Congressman Moakley.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for taking such 
swift action to pass the legislation for the naming of the Federal 
courthouse in Boston after my very good friend and beloved figure in 
Boston, MA, Congressman Joe Moakley, to rename the Federal courthouse 
in Boston after him. This measure is a fitting tribute to a wonderful 
friend, and an outstanding leader, for his long and brilliant career in 
public service.
  Earlier this week, Joe Moakley announced his decision not to seek 
reelection next year because of a serious illness that has just been 
diagnosed. In the brief time since his announcement, the outpouring of 
support and affection for Joe has been extraordinary. The reason is 
obvious, Joe Moakley is one of the most beloved political leaders of 
our time. All of us in Massachusetts are especially fond of him. We 
admire his strength, his wisdom, his leadership, and his dedication to 
the people of Boston, our State, and our Nation.
  Joe and his wife Evelyn made a wonderful team together, and we 
admired and loved them both very much. Vicki and I have such wonderful 
memories of the dinners we had together with them.
  In addition to this well-deserved tribute today, I hope in the coming 
months we can return some of the loyalty, the affection, spirit, and 
support that Joe has given to so many of us throughout the years.
  Joe Moakley has always been a fighter. He was a boxer in college and 
a football star in high school. At the age of 13, he was with his 
father who was driving through south Boston, when they saw a 
neighborhood bully beating up a local child. Joe's father pulled the 
car over to the side of the road and asked his son what he was going to 
do about that situation. Joe jumped out of the car and went to the aid 
of the child and stopped the bully.
  In all the years we have worked with him in Congress, that is the Joe 
Moakley we know and love--always fighting for the underdog and all of 
those who need our help the most--fighting to provide better jobs, 
better education, better health care, better lives, better 
opportunities for the people of south Boston, and Massachusetts, and 
the Nation. The whole world knows of his magnificent leadership in 
protecting democracy in El Salvador.
  The naming of the Federal courthouse in Boston for Joe is an 
especially fitting tribute because no one has done more to revitalize 
the area of south Boston than Joe Moakley. As a child, Joe was a 
budding entrepreneur. I heard him tell the story about how he and his 
friends from south Boston used to race down to the railyard, where the 
courthouse now stands, to meet the trains that delivered farm products 
to the city. They collected the fruit that fell off the trains and then 
would sell it in the neighborhood. Their favorite fruit was watermelon 
because it had the highest resale value.
  In half a century, and more, since then, Joe never lost his touch or 
his commitment to economic development in south Boston. As a 
Congressman, he has fought vigorously to revitalize the entire 
community and its neighborhoods for the past 30 years; and what an 
outstanding job he has done. Thanks to Joe Moakley, the watermelons 
have long since made way for a beautiful new Federal courthouse, a 
convention center, the World Trade Center, and several new hotels. 
South Boston is booming today thanks to Joe Moakley.
  When he was not working to revitalize south Boston's economy or clean 
up Boston Harbor, Joe Moakley was teaching his pride and joy--his 
french poodle named Twiggy--to sing. I understand Joe and Twiggy used 
to sing a famous duet to the tune of ``Everybody Loves Redheads.'' Joe 
sang and Twiggy howled, and everyone loved them both.
  When I think about all Joe Moakley has done for Boston and 
Massachusetts, I also recall how long and hard and well he fought for 
funds to rebuild the Central Artery, to build the South Boston Piers 
Transitway, to clean up Boston Harbor, to modernize the Port of Boston, 
and to preserve Massachusetts's many historic sites--the Old State 
House, the Old South Meeting House, the U.S.S. Constitution, Dorchester 
Heights, and our famed historic marketplace, Faneuil Hall. Joe Moakley' 
efforts to protect and preserve these extraordinary parts of our 
heritage guarantee they will be part of our State's history for 
generations to come.
  In Congress, no one is more effective on the front lines or behind 
the scenes than Joe. The dean of our delegation has touched the hearts 
of all our people, and he has made a remarkable difference in their 
lives and hopes.
  He is a voice for the voiceless, and an inspiration to all of us who 
know him. He champions the cause of hard-working families and the 
middle class. And all of us are proud to stand with him in all these 
battles.

[[Page S1454]]

  The poet Yeats said it well:

       Think where man's glory most begins and ends, and say my 
     glory was I had such friends.

  We love you, Joe, and we are very proud of you.
  Mr. KERRY addressed the Chair.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts, Mr. 
Kerry.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank you and express my gratitude to 
Senators Lott, Dodd, and Kennedy for their courtesy and their 
assistance in helping to bring us to the point where this important 
resolution has been adopted by this Congress with respect to Joe 
Moakley.
  I thank my colleague for his comments with respect to Joe that we 
just shared.
  In these last hours since Joe Moakley announced his retirement from 
Congress, we have had the opportunity in our State--and I think many 
people down here in Washington--to share in a unique outpouring of 
support and emotion, all surrounding our friend and our colleague, the 
dean of the Massachusetts congressional delegation.
  Today, with this resolution in Congress, we have had the opportunity 
not only to forever honor Joe, through the John Joseph Moakley United 
States Courthouse, but to also share our affection and our perceptions 
of this very special public servant, public person, this special 
representative of the people of Boston. We have been able to share that 
with all of our colleagues in the Congress and, indeed, with our fellow 
citizens in this country.
  On Monday, as Senator Kennedy just described, Joe shared with his 
constituents--with all of our State--that he has been diagnosed with an 
incurable form of leukemia, and that he will retire after he serves his 
current term in the House of Representatives.
  Joe made this announcement together with friends and supporters at 
the courthouse that he helped to build in Boston, and he made it with a 
remarkable level of candor, of courage, and with a great, great sense 
of humor.

  When Joe told us of the severity of the illness--and people learned 
of the severity of that illness--and the nature of the battle that 
still lies ahead for Joe, I think it reminded all of us of all of the 
battles that he has fought and, indeed, of the degree to which Joe 
Moakley is a fighter, a special kind of fighter for the things he 
believes, and which, most of all, is doing what is right for his fellow 
citizens.
  In all of the endeavors he has undertaken, all the years he has been 
in Congress, all the important people he has met, and all the important 
things he has done, this is a man who has never lost his sense of 
direction, his compass, if you will, which in his case is a special one 
with a unique sense of direction.
  Joe has--I think everyone will agree--come out on the winning side of 
almost every fight he has ever fought.
  He was born and raised--and living a lifetime--in south Boston, MA. 
Joe is not just from south Boston; he is of south Boston.
  He wears those roots proudly as a badge of honor, never shy to admit 
that, in the end, this is a man who still knows how to settle an 
argument.
  He is a member of a group of citizens we have proudly called our 
Greatest Generation. He earned his stripes as a member of that 
generation in a way that was not completely atypical but which I think 
sort of demonstrates the special nature of his patriotism and his sense 
of duty.
  When he was 15 years old, Joe rose to the call of service to his 
country by falsifying his birth certificate so he could enlist in the 
U.S. Navy. He fought for his country, with honor, in World War II.
  When he returned home from the South Pacific, he received his 
education at the University of Miami in Florida, but believe me, south 
Boston was never far from his heart or his consciousness. He returned 
home and went to law school at night at Suffolk University. Then he 
went to work for the people of Massachusetts.
  He began his career in public life in the Massachusetts State 
Legislature at the age of 25, and then, before his election to the 
House of Representatives in 1972, he served in the State senate and on 
the Boston City Council. In both his approach and his effectiveness, 
Joe followed the path that was laid down by his great mentor in the 
Congress, former Speaker Tip O'Neill, a man who knew himself, who knew 
what he believed, and who knew there were things worth fighting for 
every single day.
  That is what Joe has done the entire time he has served in Congress. 
As chairman of the Rules Committee, he did more than steward the course 
of important legislation and the operation of the House. He fought for 
an agenda, and he secured its passage into law. He built a reputation 
as a tough and effective legislator with a real ability to work across 
party lines and achieve consensus on so many issues. He put many of his 
opponents in the unenviable position of having to explain themselves to 
the gentleman from south Boston, a fight that people soon learned they 
were smarter to avoid.
  Joe made it clear there were no borders, no limits that would apply 
to the fights he would embrace, and he insisted--and I think this is 
one of the most interesting things about Joe Moakley--that foreign 
policy was not something foreign, even to the work of a bread-and-
butter Democrat from south Boston, but an extension of the ideals he 
brought to work for his own constituents.
  In 1983, Joe was among the first in the Congress to understand the 
simmering injustice in El Salvador. When he gathered with a small group 
of refugees from the brutal fighting in that country and listened to 
their stories, he was moved again to service. Those refugees told Joe 
they were in danger of being deported to El Salvador. That lit a fire 
under Joe Moakley. He understood that being deported back to that 
country for those people, given their history, would mean death.
  A Congressman from south Boston wasted no time in helping people from 
the southern part of our hemisphere. He sent his top aide, Jim 
McGovern, to find answers. And, as always, Joe, himself, personally 
followed through, traveling again and again to El Salvador, heading up 
the Moakley commission and working to make it possible not just for 
those refugees to stay in the United States but also to address the 
broader questions of human rights abuses in Central America.
  For more than a decade, Joe kept at it. For 10 long years plus, when 
a lot of people turned their attention elsewhere, Joe Moakley continued 
to understand the difference between right and wrong. He fought against 
hundreds upon hundreds of deportations and, finally, he won an 
amendment barring them altogether in 1989.
  Later that year, when six Jesuit priests were murdered in El 
Salvador, he led an investigation that pointed to elements of the U.S.-
backed military as the murderers. It was quite fascinating, when we 
listened to Joe at the courthouse in Boston announcing the end of his 
career within the U.S. Congress--it was fascinating that even as he 
described himself as a bread-and- butter Democrat and a person who 
cared always about the issues of all of his constituents in his home 
city as well as in the rest of his constituency, measured against all 
the things he had done, he thought he was proudest of what he had done 
in El Salvador. He thought it so because it was a reflection of the 
kinds of things he learned from his constituents and from his home, and 
it reflected the depth of who he was as a citizen of south Boston.

  Joe has been delivering for south Boston and the Nation for almost 
half a century, and he has done it the only way he knows--with hard 
work, with a smile, and with a special brand of humor. Whether it has 
been finding money for the ``Big Dig,'' project after project, or for a 
whole host of other projects in Boston, he has been a national leader 
on issues from Central America to our relationship with Cuba.
  Joe will tell you his secret, whether it is in a senior center in 
south Boston or when meeting with the heads of state around the world. 
It is his ability to listen and to remember who he is and from where he 
comes. And when he completes his 15th term in the House and retires, we 
will miss his service, his friendship, and his passion, but we will 
also know that until his last day in office, Joe Moakley will continue 
to be a giant, caring first and foremost for the people he represents, 
living by Tip O'Neill's old adage--all politics is local--and with a 
special Moakley corollary that certain values and commitments are 
global as well.

[[Page S1455]]

  He has used his remarkable clout to do what is right for 
Massachusetts and the Nation. And knowing Joe, having watched him and 
learned from him, as so many of us have, I know that in these next 2 
years this courthouse will not be the only way he will be honored. The 
fights he will continue to wage for all that he believes, for working 
people, for jobs, for social and economic justice, will be the ultimate 
testimony to the full measure of the man whom we pause to honor today, 
and it will be the real measurement of those values by which Joe 
Moakley has served.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

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