[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E498-E499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   TRIBUTE TO THE LATE BRUCE F. VENTO

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BETTY McCOLLUM

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2001

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I submit to the Record my tribute to a 
wonderful man; an outstanding Member of this body for 24 years; my 
Congressman, my teacher, my mentor, and my dear friend--the late Bruce 
F. Vento.
  Because of his leadership the working families of Minnesota--of 
America--are stronger. Our land and our lakes, our rivers and our 
streams are cleaner; our air is better. He gave us, our children, and 
future generations the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and the Minnesota 
National Wildlife Refuge--thousands and thousands of acres of pristine 
environment that will fill our lives with weekends where the only 
sounds we hear will be ``the sounds of the canoe paddle dipping, the 
winds wafting, and the birds singing . . .''
  Bruce Vento gave a voice to those without one; a shelter for those 
without a home, at a time when it was not the popular thing to do so--
homeless people, after all, rarely vote. But because of the McKinney-
Vento Homeless Assistance Act, families down on their luck, are given a 
second chance.
  Bruce welcomed and worked tenaciously to bring our newest neighbors 
fully into our community--the Lao-Hmong. Because he did so, St. Paul 
and our State is a richer, more tolerant, and more prosperous 
community.
  Bruce Vento was the very embodiment of public service; a civics 
lesson personified. Each day he rose without fanfare, ``to make 
people's lives better, to provide opportunity--to give them hope.''
  When I first met Bruce, he was my Congressman. He quickly became a 
friend and a mentor to a young Mom who sought to make a difference in 
her community. Bruce taught by example, and his example was always to 
do the right thing. We shared a belief that strong communities begin 
with our families. The essence of Bruce Vento began with his family. 
His parents, Frank and Anne, to this day speak to their children, 
grandchildren, and the great grandchildren with the boundless love, 
caring, and compassion--of their Minnesota family values. Values that 
helped them raise their eight children to work hard and care deeply.
  Bruce always put our families, children, and seniors first. Those of 
us he represented weren't his constituents--we were his friends and 
neighbors. A weekend couldn't pass that you didn't run into him having 
morning coffee at Serlin's, or getting his hair cut at Falzone's--or 
maybe join him for lunch at Yarusso's. He always had time to listen, 
and--if you had the time--he would offer some friendly advice, or give 
some historical perspective. He was, always first, the teacher.
  As our career paths crossed, Bruce continued to teach and to mentor 
all he came in contact with. Even as his days grew shorter, he still 
chose to teach. He taught all of us what it means to be a truly good 
and decent man. It would have been so easy, and so understandable, for 
Bruce to turn inward and treasure his remaining time with his family. 
Bruce would have none of it. Instead, he recognized his challenge was 
but another lesson to be taught--this time in the lessons in living his 
final days with dignity and grace.
  As the accolades poured in for a life committed to public service, 
you could see the pride his son's, Michael, Peter, and John took in the 
adulation an appreciative community and country had for their father. 
The renaming of his boyhood Eastside school to the Bruce F. Vento 
Elementary School teaches our newest Eastsiders the value of public 
service. The Vento Trail, which meanders through the natural creekbed 
of a St. Paul gone by, affords all of us from the city and the suburbs 
a respite from our everyday lives. A scholarship fund established by 
Bruce, himself, will enable our young aspiring science teachers to 
realize their dreams--and share their knowledge with our future: our 
children.
  Perhaps the most meaningful tribute to this ``great man,'' who 
``being a true Eastsider never told us he was,'' were the phone calls 
to the radio call-in shows that brought wishes of good health from his 
former students of thirty years ago. Each began, ``Mr. Vento, you may 
not remember me--but I was a student of yours, and I just want to tell 
you what a difference you made in my life . . .'' Those touched his 
heart, and told him to teach one more time the joys, the value, the 
necessity of giving of one's self--the essence of Bruce Vento, the 
public servant.
  I am deeply honored and humbled to stand here today as Bruce's 
successor. I am committed to represent as ably as this great man did 
the constituents of Minnesota's Fourth Congressional District. As I 
cast my votes here in this august Chamber, I do so with a clear and 
present knowledge that I do indeed have a guardian angel always and 
forever guiding me with his compassion, his wisdom and his strength. 
Forever teaching. Thank you, Bruce.
  I submit to you, Mr. Speaker, four items that capture the essence of 
Congressman Bruce F. Vento; a man who represented all of us from the 
Eastside of life who believe that hard work, family values, educational 
opportunity, and a commitment to a greater community are the keys to a 
happy and successful life.

           [From the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, June 30, 2000]

Bruce Vento Just Another Guy From the East Side Who Went on To Do Great 
                                 Things

                          (By Garrison Kellor)

       There was a dinner in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night to 
     honor a guy from St. Paul's East Side.
       The president dropped by and dozens of U.S. 
     representatives, Republicans and Democrats. And at the end, 
     when the guy from the East Side stood up to say his piece, he 
     got a long, long standing ovation. You could have gone around 
     the room and stolen everyone's dessert, they were so busy 
     applauding him.
       U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento, a modest man and a hard worker, is 
     stepping down after 24 years representing the 4th 
     Congressional District, and I must admit I voted for him all 
     these years because I'm a yellow-dog Democrat and he's a 
     Democrat. So now I'm a little taken aback to see what a good 
     man he is who I unthinkingly supported all these years.
       This isn't how our civics teachers taught us to exercise 
     the franchise, but a person doesn't have oceans of time to 
     study up on candidates. I sure don't. I heard Mr. Vento speak 
     once years ago, speak very movingly about the problem of 
     homelessness and about the importance of wilderness, and that 
     was good enough for me. But if he had stood on his hind legs 
     and barked, I still would have voted for him.
       Wilderness preservation and the plight of the homeless are 
     not issues that pay a big political bonus. You become a 
     wilderness advocate and you're going to be hung in effigy and 
     yelled at by large men in plaid shirts. Homeless people tend 
     not to turn out in numbers at the polls.
       But Mr. Vento applied himself to the issues he cared about, 
     did his homework, made the round of his colleagues, carried 
     the water, dug the ditches, fought the good fights, made the 
     compromises, and wrote landmark legislation that became law 
     and that made a real difference in the world. And I'm not 
     sure how many of us in St. Paul are aware of this.
       There have been only three congressmen from St. Paul in my 
     memory, and that covers 50 years. Gene McCarthy, Joe Karth, 
     Bruce Vento--all DFLers, all good men and all of them got to 
     Congress on the strength of yellow-dog Democrats like me. 
     They got re-elected simply by doing their job, representing 
     working people, speaking the conscience of the Democratic 
     Party, and applying themselves to the nuts and bolts of 
     Congress.
       A political party serves a big function that TV or 
     newspapers can't. It pulls in idealistic young people, puts 
     them to work in the cause, trains them, seasons them, and 
     gives the talented and the diligent a chance to rise. If it 
     can produce a Bruce Vento, then a party has reason to exist, 
     and if it can't, then it doesn't. Simple as that. Then it 
     fades, as the DFL has.
       People say it's inevitable for political parties to fade, 
     part of the loss of the sense of community, blah blah blah, 
     that people are cynical about politics and more interested in 
     lifestyle and media and so forth, but we are poorer for the 
     loss of parties and the devaluation of endorsement.
       Bruce Vento never could've gotten elected in a media-driven 
     campaign, the sort in which high-priced consultants and media 
     buyers spend 15 million bucks to make the candidate into a 
     beautiful illusion.
       Mr. Vento is the wrong man for that kind of politics. His 
     eyebrows are too big; he isn't cool enough. He is a modest 
     and principled and hard-working guy, but you couldn't put 
     this over in a 30-second commercial. He managed to get to 
     Congress because there was a strong DFL Party that endorsed 
     him, and so voters like me pulled the lever and gave Mr. 
     Vento the wherewithal to be a great congressman. Which he, 
     being a true East Sider, never told us he was. But which I 
     now think he was.
       Unknowingly, we did something great in sending him there. 
     And our partisan loyalty gave him the freedom to take on 
     thankless tasks, like protecting wilderness and dealing with 
     the homeless.
       I sat in the back at Mr. Vento's dinner and thought what a 
     shock it is when you realize that the country is in the hands 
     of people your own age. You go along for years thinking it's 
     being run by jowly old guys in baggy suits and then you see 
     that the jowly old guys are people you went to school with.
       Mr. Vento is about my age, and I feel for him. He is 
     fighting lung cancer and it has taken its toll on him. He 
     looks haggard but game. His three boys were at the dinner in 
     Washington, and their wives, and the event felt like a real 
     valedictory. If Mr. Vento had wanted to make us all cry into 
     our pudding, it wouldn't have taken much.
       But he was upbeat and talking about the future and about 
     national parks and the decoding of the human genome and 
     saying, ``All we need to do is take this new knowledge and 
     apply it to public policy,'' and

[[Page E499]]

     thanking everybody and grinning, and you had to admire him 
     for his command of the occasion.
       A man who is desperately ill and on his way out of public 
     life stages a dinner that raises money for a scholarship fund 
     for teachers. Bruce Vento is a man of great bravery and 
     devotion and foresight who represented us nobly in Congress, 
     whether we knew it or not.

                                  ____
                                  

           [From the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Oct. 11, 2000]

                 He Wore a Blue Collar and a White Hat

       Rep. Bruce F. Vento's last Christmas card pictures a 
     smiling, healthy appearing grandfather at a baseball outing 
     with the little folks. There's no hint of his lofty position 
     as a member of Congress from Minnesota's 4th District. The 
     card is an ordinary photo holiday greeting hand-signed simply 
     with ``Bruce.'' The image is a wonderful one for remembering 
     Vento, who died Tuesday at age 60 of lung cancer.
       Vento was a straightforward man, rooted in St. Paul from 
     first to last. He was a talker and a fighter, a partisan and 
     a patriot, a union man and sophisticated scientist. Vento was 
     the only congressman a generation of 4th District residents 
     has ever known. He was first elected in 1976 and served 12 
     terms.
       In the majority and as a powerful chair of the Natural 
     Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public 
     Lands for more than 10 years, Vento reached the peak of his 
     national influence on the future of the country's wild 
     places. His work there resulted in protection of hundreds of 
     thousands of acres of public land--ranging from the Boundary 
     Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the Minnesota National 
     Wildlife Refuge--and the enactment of more than 300 laws 
     preserving the environment.
       He served as chair of the House Task Force during the 
     savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Vento was a champion 
     for programs to shelter the homeless, for human stewardship 
     in the natural world. Vento's last major legislative 
     accomplishment was the special Hmong citizenship law signed 
     by President Clinton this year.
       When Vento announced in February that he was ill with 
     mesothelioma, the bread he had cast on the waters started 
     coming back. The cards and prayers, the honors and affection, 
     Vento said, were at first surprising and overwhelming. From 
     personal cards, much like his simple Christmas greetings, to 
     the renaming of East Consolidated as Bruce F. Vento 
     Elementary School, the community Vento served hoped to 
     express respect and gratitude. That respect will live on 
     through a scholarship fund established in Vento's honor for 
     college students who intend to become science teachers. It 
     also will live on in a trail named for him in recognition of 
     his enthusiasm for bicycling.
       He accepted the affection with grace and dignity, while 
     never losing the trace of whimsy that accompanied Vento the 
     Substantial Man. He was given to dark business suits 
     lightened by ties that said not all of life is serious. 
     During the height of the Snoopy on Parade frenzy in St. Paul 
     this summer, for instance, the congressman appeared at the 
     Minnesota AFL-CIO Convention wearing a Snoopy tie.
       Vento's public career began as a teacher, extended into 
     service in the Minnesota Legislature and then nearly 24 years 
     in Congress.
       Although Vento was a technical master of the art of 
     lawmaking in such arcane specialities as banking reform, he 
     remained deeply committed to the kind of public service where 
     working for ordinary families' dreams and hopes was more than 
     a biennial campaign slogan. It was a high calling, well-
     answered by Bruce Vento.

                                  ____
                                  

           [From the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Feb. 3, 2000]

      A Man of the People--Bruce Vento's Legacy Etched by Service

       As U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento of St. Paul takes on the 
     challenges of treatment for lung cancer caused by asbestos, 
     the affection of the people he has served in the East Metro 
     area is sure to be returned. Ours included.
       May the best of medical care and the best of wishes from 
     the many people he has supported in tough times help Vento 
     prevail in this campaign to regain his health.
       Vento, who has been commuting to work in Washington since 
     1977, announced Wednesday he will retire at year's end and is 
     undergoing cancer treatment.
       Vento has served the Fourth Congressional District of 
     Minnesota, the natural world, the hard-pressed communities of 
     the homeless, the young and the needy with a personal passion 
     to improve the quality of life. He has gone about his work 
     always with great heart and mastery of the arcane art of 
     legislating.
       Vento is an Old Democrat in a New Democrat era. His 
     reliable fidelity to ideals and to people who get their hands 
     dirty at work will be missed. To this day, his resume always 
     notes that he worked as a laborer, a mail-room clerk for this 
     newspaper, a shop steward and a teacher before getting a job 
     that put him in charge of more vast stewardships. Those 
     include oversight of all America's public lands and helping 
     to rescue the financial system from the ruin of the savings 
     and loan debacles.
       Vento's career in Congress, and before that in the 
     Minnesota Legislature, represent an old-fashioned sense of 
     public service in a new-fashioned and too-slick political 
     era. He knew what private-public partnerships were before the 
     concept became a sound bite for the ambitious. And he has 
     never been afraid of a fight when the issue and the people 
     matter deeply.
       The Reagan and Bush administrations were the source of 
     frustration for the man from the Fourth. When the Democrats 
     were thrown into the congressional minority in 1994, Vento 
     found new rules but always kept his eye on the prize of 
     Democrats retaking the reins. He noted with each election how 
     much the Republican majority had narrowed. This year, Vento 
     will not be in the equation for a Democratic House. Larger 
     things have taken over. But his mark will stand fast.
       An afternoon with only the sounds of the paddle dipping, 
     the wind wafting and the birds singing in the Boundary Waters 
     Canoe Area is the melody Bruce Vento makes in the woods of a 
     public policy. So is the animated, personal Vento chatting 
     with all comers at the Labor Day picnic.
       Godspeed, Congressman Vento.

                                  ____
                                  

                     [From the Hill, Feb. 8, 2000]

                      Godspeed, Congressman Vento

       The premature departure from Congress of Rep. Bruce Vento 
     (D-Minn.) because he has been diagnosed with lung cancer will 
     deprive the House of Representatives of one of its most 
     dedicated, effective and popular members.
       Vento, who is retiring in December after 24 years in 
     Congress, stunned and saddended his colleagues and his St. 
     Paul district when he disclosed last week that he has a type 
     of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. His doctors at 
     Minnesota's famed Mayo Clinic have recommended an aggressive 
     course of treatment that will make it impossible for him to 
     run for a 13th term.
       The 59-year-old St. Paul lawmaker's announcement that he 
     will end a 30-year public service career, which began when he 
     was elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 1971, triggered 
     an outpouring of tributes and prayerful concern form 
     lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. President Clinton and 
     Vice President Gore, who came to Congress the same year as 
     Vento, also issued statements of praise and concern.
       None was more poignant than that from his fellow Minnesota 
     Democrat, Jim Oberstar, who noted, ``I lost my wife, Jo, to 
     breast cancer, so Bruce's disclosure that he too is fighting 
     cancer hits close to home. Bruce has spent the past 24 years 
     in Congress fighting for working people, and now he is in a 
     fight for his life.''
       Even though they often clashed over the issue of federal 
     control of northern Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters 
     Canoe Area Wilderness, Oberstar called Vento ``a dear friend 
     of mine'' and ``an exceptional public servant.''
       Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), chairman of the Banking and 
     Financial Services Committee on which Vento serves, praised 
     him for his leadership on federal banking policy. He called 
     the former high school science teacher and union shop steward 
     ``a citizen/legislator: an educator who came to Capitol Hill 
     and gave Congress a civics lesson.''
       But Vento's greatest legislative achievements have been 
     those he made as chairman and later ranking member of the 
     Resources Committee's Parks and Public Lands Subcommittee. 
     ``I cannot think of another person who has done more to 
     protect America's national parks,'' said the Sierra Club's 
     executive director, Carl Pope. ``Protecting our nation's 
     natural heritage is a passionate love for him.''
       Vento's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press-
     Dispatch--where he once worked as a mailroom clerk--called 
     him ``an Old Democrat in a New Democrat era'' who exemplified 
     ``an old-fashioned sense of public service in a new-fashioned 
     and too-slick political era.''
       Noting that Vento will not be part of the Democrats' fight 
     to regain the House, the newspaper added a poetic tribute: 
     ``Larger things have taken over. But his mark will stand 
     fast. An afternoon with only the sounds of the paddle 
     dipping, the wind wafting, and the birds singing in the 
     Boundary Waters Canoe Area is the melody Bruce Vento makes in 
     the woods of public policy. . . . Godspeed, Congressman 
     Vento.''

     

                          ____________________