[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H451-H453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JAMES C. CORMAN FEDERAL BUILDING

  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 621) to designate the Federal building located at 6230 Van 
Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys, California, as the ``James C. Corman 
Federal Building.''
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                H.R. 621

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The Federal building located at 6230 Van Nuys Boulevard in 
     Van Nuys, California, shall be known and designated as the 
     ``James C. Corman Federal Building''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the Federal building 
     referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to 
     the ``James C. Corman Federal Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Costello) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette).
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 621 designates the Federal building in Van Nuys, 
California, as the James C. Corman Federal building. Congressman Corman 
was born in Galena, Kansas, and was a graduate of Belmont High School. 
He earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA, his juris doctor from 
USC, and his LLD from the University of San Fernando Valley School of 
Law. He was appointed to the California bar in 1949.
  Congressman Corman first served his country in the United States 
Marine Corps during the Second World War and later as a colonel in the 
Marine Corps Reserves. In 1957, Congressman Corman was elected to the 
Los Angeles City Council. He served on the council until being elected 
to the 87th Congress in 1960 and was reelected to the House of 
Representatives for 10 succeeding terms.
  He served on the Committee on the Judiciary, where he was 
instrumental in fighting for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 
and on the Committee on Ways and Means, where he was a leading advocate 
for the poor and the disadvantaged working on tax and welfare reform.
  Congressman Corman was also proud to serve on President Johnson's 
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to investigate the 
causes of multi-city rioting in 1967. As many of us are aware, former 
Congressman Corman passed away at the age of 80 last January.
  I support this bill, and I encourage my colleagues to support it as 
well.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 621, a bill to 
designate the Federal building located at 6230 Van Nuys Boulevard in 
Van Nuys, California, as the James C. Corman Federal building.
  Congressman Jim Corman represented the 21st Congressional District in 
California for 20 years, from 1961 until 1981, the years which saw the 
Vietnam War, urban riots, Watergate, and the first manned flight to the 
Moon.
  Jim Corman was born on October 20, 1920, in Galena, Kansas. In 1933, 
after his father died, he and his mother moved to the Los Angeles area.
  During World War II, Congressman Corman served in the Marines. After 
the war, he worked his way through UCLA and USC Law School. He began 
his public career in 1957 when he was elected to serve on the Los 
Angeles City Council.
  In 1961, he was elected to Congress and was named to the Committee on 
the Judiciary. In addition, he served on the House Committee on Ways 
and Means.
  Congressman Corman was named by President Johnson as one of the 10 
people named to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 
formerly known as the Kerner Commission. During his tenure on the 
commission, he was optimistic about finding the causes and developing 
solutions for racism in America.
  In 1968, he became President Johnson's point man on welfare reform. 
Having been close to poverty as he was growing up, Corman displayed a 
particular energy and devotion to solving welfare problems.

                              {time}  1045

  During his 20 years of service, his concern for senior citizens and 
the poorest members of our society became his trademark and part of his 
legacy. Jim Corman saw the fruition of his efforts in the enactment of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he considered the greatest 
accomplishment of his political career. Jim was well liked, a hard 
worker, a first-rate legislator. It is fitting and proper to honor 
Congressman James Corman with this designation.
  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the ranking member of the full 
committee.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank our ranking member for yielding me 
this time and compliment the gentleman from Illinois on managing his 
first two bills as our new ranking member of the Subcommittee on 
Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management and our 
new chairman, the gentleman from Ohio, on his new and fitting 
chairmanship which I know he will discharge with great distinction as 
he has always done in all of his service in the Congress.
  It is really with a full heart that I come to the floor with this 
legislation to name the Federal building for Jim Corman.
  Congressman Corman was my friend and in a way a mentor on decency and 
civility and dignity from the time I began my service in the House as a 
member of the staff of my predecessor, John Blatnik, with whom Jim 
Corman was very close. And through work on the Democratic Study Group, 
through work on civil rights, especially the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 
which largely was shaped in the office of John Blatnik, who with the 
then Kennedy administration staffers and Justice Department, Jim Corman 
was a solid, unyielding, unbending voice for the strongest possible 
language and the most comprehensive framing of that legislation to 
address the wrongs of our society.
  Jim Corman was born in poverty, raised without a father, whom he lost 
while Jim was still very young, his father also young, and resolved to 
overcome poverty and distress. He like so many of his generation served 
voluntarily in World War II as a member of the United States Marine 
Corps. He came out battle hardened, tough, but still filled with 
compassion for the greatest needs in society. He constantly referred to 
those memories while speaking on legislation considered in this Chamber 
known as the Great Society programs for which he was a passionate 
advocate. His service on what was popularly known as the Kerner 
Commission, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, was 
along with his advocacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 surely one of 
the highlights of his career. He embodied civility, decency, dignity of 
bearing, respect for the institution, appreciation for the traditions 
of the House and for the civility that is necessary in floor debate. He 
was the very model of decorum.
  But it is also fitting that at this time we take up the naming of a 
public building and Federal building in his

[[Page H452]]

memory that we do so at a time when election reform is at the forefront 
of everyone's agenda. Jim Corman, I think, had only one regret about 
public service, and that was that the election was called too early. 
Television reports from exit polls on the East Coast were flashed 
across the country to California. President Carter's own early 
concession caused people standing in line, waiting to vote, to turn 
around and leave. And Jim Corman always felt and I think studies later 
confirmed that those were largely votes that would have returned him to 
office.
  As we designate this Federal building, let us also redouble our 
efforts at election reform to cure the ills of the past as Jim Corman 
worked so hard to cure the ills of racial divide and divisiveness in 
America, to restore dignity to the election process as he worked so 
hard to restore dignity to African Americans and to others who were 
neglected and left aside in the prosperity of our great country. I urge 
the adoption of this legislation.
  To his devoted wife, Nancy, their two sons, Adam and Brian, I offer 
my profound sympathy as well as my congratulations on the designation 
of the James C. Corman Federal Building.
  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), the sponsor of this 
legislation.
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this 
time, and I thank the committee for so quickly allowing this 
legislation to be discharged and brought to the floor. I introduced 
this legislation to honor the memory of James C. Corman, our former 
colleague, who passed away last January. Jim dedicated a quarter of his 
life to this institution and he made his mark here in many ways, on 
issues great and small.
  He was first elected to Congress in 1960, where he served on the 
committee on which I now serve, the Committee on the Judiciary, through 
1968. I think for any young person just getting interested in 
government, public affairs and politics at that time, probably the 
hallmark piece of legislation that passed in those early 1960s was the 
famous Civil Rights Act of 1964. Jim as a second-term Member of this 
body by virtue of his deep and abiding commitment to equal justice and 
to civil rights and by virtue of his skill and talent as a legislator 
became one of the chief architects and the floor manager for title VII 
of that act, that portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which 
prohibited discrimination based on race, creed, religion or gender in 
the employment practices of this country, private sector as well as 
public.
  In fact, Jim's commitment to the work of the Committee on the 
Judiciary caused him to call me soon after I won election to a district 
which by virtue of the vagaries of reapportionment now has my district 
representing essentially every part of what Jim represented during 
those 20 years. He called me and urged me to seek membership on that 
committee because of the great constitutional and civil rights issues 
that were before the Committee on the Judiciary.
  From 1968 to 1980, Jim moved from the Committee on the Judiciary to 
the Committee on Ways and Means, where he worked diligently on many 
important issues, taxes, trade, Social Security and welfare reform. It 
was particularly in the hard, nitty-gritty work, work with very little 
reward, in the area of welfare law and Social Security law that Jim 
developed a new second reputation for expertise and skill. Jim's 
abiding interest was to secure justice and a better life for the less 
fortunate in our society. He was certainly one of the most effective 
advocates this body has ever had for senior citizens and the poor.
  He was always a courtly man, kind and considerate, and he left a 
legacy of integrity and honor and service to others rarely matched in 
public life today, or then. Politics was different in those days. Now 
you have the slick TV commercials and the specialized direct mail and 
so much of it is a tactician's and strategist's effort. Jim's politics 
was a very personal politics. He was not interested in the latest and 
fanciest political techniques. Perhaps that helped to create the 
conditions by which he finally lost that bitter election of 1980. But 
everywhere I have gone, and this is now 20 years since his service to 
the San Fernando Valley ended in this Congress, people always ask me, 
``How is Jim doing?'' ``Boy, I loved Jim Corman.'' ``Jim Corman's 
office did this for me.'' ``Jim Corman was always there when we needed 
him.'' ``I remember Jim Corman cleaning, washing, hosing off the street 
in front of his district office every weekend.''
  Jim had a special commitment on a human level and on a person-to-
person level to the constituents that he represented. One of the very 
valuable things for the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles that 
Jim did was to get the funds to build the Federal building, the first 
Federal building in the San Fernando Valley, and it is only fitting 
that this building be named after him. I have been blessed to have the 
opportunity to know and to learn from and to be inspired by Jim Corman. 
My memories of him will always be a great joy to me. I thank this body 
for bringing so quickly at the early part of this session this 
legislation to honor him to the floor.
  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui), who is a cosponsor of the 
legislation.
  Mr. MATSUI. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Costello) for 
yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues before me, the gentleman from Minnesota 
(Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), have 
said, we have all been inspired by Jim Corman. I was a freshman Member 
in 1979, when Jim actually was serving his last term in office and he 
and his wife Nancy opened their hearts up to the freshman Members and 
hosted us at their home and made sure that we were comfortable and 
really understood this town. I have to say that my relationship with 
him, my wife Doris' relationship with Nancy, was one of the finest that 
we have had in our years in Washington, D.C. Jim had two children from 
his first marriage, Mary Anne and Chuck Corman, had two sons with his 
wife Nancy, Adam and Brian, who are now, one is in college and the 
other one is, I believe, in high school.
  From a professional level, I just want to tell one anecdote about Jim 
Corman, and I guess it says a lot about him as a person and as a human 
being. In 1980, when he was up for reelection, he knew he was going to 
have a very, very difficult race because the antibusing leader in the 
San Fernando Valley which he represented decided to run against him for 
Congress in the Republican Party. Jim had always been an advocate of 
allowing busing to occur. There was a constitutional amendment on the 
floor of the House, I believe it was in the spring of 1980, some months 
before the general election. Many of us new Members, who perhaps were a 
little more attuned to our congressional districts, went to Jim and 
said, ``Jim, vote in favor of this constitutional amendment. You can 
take this. This is not a big deal. Why should you stick your neck 
out?''
  Jim thought about it for a minute while he was looking at the three 
or four of us that were talking to him on the floor of the House, and 
he said, ``I feel very strongly that everyone should have equal 
opportunities in school.'' You may agree or disagree with the concept 
of busing that was going on in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Jim 
Corman happened to believe that busing was a tool to use in order to 
make sure that we had diversity obviously in our communities and in our 
Nation.
  He said that he could not work against his beliefs for political 
purposes, and he took that hard vote and a press conference was held 
against him. He went out later and talked to the press and defended his 
position in a way that was very, very strong, very, very sensitive. I 
would say that many Members at that time perhaps would have capitulated 
and basically have said, yeah, why not just take a pass on this one 
here.
  Jim Corman lost that election, partly because President Carter had 
announced the election was over and conceded defeat very early, it was 
5 o'clock in California, but also because he was a principled 
individual. Many of us over the years, the next 20 years of his life, 
talked to him about that vote and his legacy. He said, ``You know, that 
was the hardest vote but it was the finest vote I ever had in this 
institution.'' I have to say that if all of us would act as Jim Corman 
acts, this

[[Page H453]]

country and this institution would be a better place.

                              {time}  1100

  Let me just conclude by making one other observation, Mr. Speaker. 
From a personal level, Corman was really one of the finest gentlemen 
that I have ever had the opportunity to meet. When he passed away and 
his obituary appeared in the Los Angeles Times, before I had a chance 
to call my son Brian, my son called me when he saw the obituary and he 
said, I saw that Mr. Corman passed away. Brian was 6 or 7 years old 
when Jim was still a Member of the House. And he said, Dad, I cannot 
tell you how much Mr. Corman means to me or meant to me.
  Jim loved children. Jim would spend hours and hours with children of 
the Members of Congress, and I have to say that Jim Corman's legacy 
will be this post office but his legacy also will be the many, many 
Americans who will be thinking about him as long as they live.
  I cannot think of a greater tribute than to name a post office after 
Jim Corman and to pay tribute to him on the floor of this institution.
  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I wish today to support H.R. 621, designating 
the James C. Corman Federal Building.
  Jim Corman was a true statesman who served his constituents in 
California, and indeed, the people of the United States, with great 
distinction. Jim cared passionately for the poor and worked to see that 
their interests were heard in Washington. He was one of the great 
leaders in the Congress seeking health insurance for all and he worked 
hard to enact a decent, humane social policy for the disadvantaged.
  Jim rejected the voices in Congress who seek to help those already 
blessed with wealth while neglecting those who cannot put food on their 
tables. ``I don't think there is anything uplifting about hunger,'' he 
once said. Jim was a tireless advocate for the uninsured and he passed 
on his sense of passion to his colleagues, including me. When I was 
first assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee, Jim taught me 
``how things were done.'' I am grateful to have served with Jim Corman 
and I know his constituents were grateful for his service.
  Naming this Federal building after Jim Corman is a proper tribute to 
a man who dedicated his life to public service. Jim will be best 
remembered, however, for his tireless work on behalf of those who are 
less fortunate.
  Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this legislation, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of Florida). The question is on 
the motion offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette) that the 
House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 621.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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