[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 41 (Monday, April 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E526-E527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ``MAYOR'' MICO MICONI

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES H. TAYLOR

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 15, 2002

  Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, on April first, the Washington Post carried 
the sad news that Mico Miconi will retire after more than three decades 
as the Clerk of the District of Columbia Subcommittee of the 
Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately, for the Congress, and the 
people of Washington, DC, the announcement was no April Fool's joke. I 
had the honor of working with, and some might say working for, Mico 
during my two year stint as Chairman of the DC Appropriations 
Subcommittee. Mico's broad and deep knowledge of the District's 
government provided a steady hand as we attempted to chart a course 
though the city's fiscal crisis, the school construction crisis, and 
the final two years of Mayor Barry's term. Mico and the citizens of 
Washington can be proud that our landmark legislation established true 
fiscal responsibility for the District.
  I know my colleagues and the people of our National Capital will join 
me in thanking Mio Miconi for his three decades of service. I commend 
the following appreciation which appeared in the April 1, 2002 
Washington Post.

                D.C. ``Mayor'' Retires From Capitol Hill

                          (By Spencer S. Hsu)

       On Capitol Hill, he is known simply as ``Mr. Mayor.''
       After 31 years as an unseen power behind congressional 
     members in charge of the District's finances, Americo S. 
     ``Mico'' Miconi retired Friday as clerk of the House 
     Appropriations subcommittee on the District.
       ``Clerk'' is deceptive. From his corner office in the U.S. 
     Capitol, the 60-year-old son of Italian immigrants has been 
     one of the most influential anonymous figures in District 
     life since Congress granted home rule in 1974.
       A telephone call from Miconi to the right city bureaucrat 
     was known to help resolve, say, the circumstances around a 
     pesky $20 parking ticket. His legislative handiwork helped 
     when the federal government bailed out the District's $2 
     billion unfunded pension liability in 1997.
       ``Daniel Patrick Moynihan [D-N.Y.] used to say: Everyone is 
     entitled to their own opinions--but they are not entitled to 
     their own set of facts,'' said Miconi, who bade an upbeat 
     farewell to the District as he packed up his small, 
     chandeliered suite last week. As chief investigator and 
     briefer to the representatives who hold the city's purse 
     strings, Miconi determined which facts made it to members.
       Miconi, a tall man whose craggy features strike friends as 
     Lincolnesque and detractors as more like Ichabod Crane, was 
     praised for his dedication and vigilance.
       ``He was much more demanding of the city government and how 
     the agencies operated, sometimes, than many of the elected 
     leaders. He seemed to care more,'' said John C. Allbaugh, 
     chief aide to Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), chairman 
     of the subcommittee from 1998 to 2000. ``I think every 
     agency, from secretary to budget officer, knew his name.''
       Tom Forhan, minority clerk on the panel and aide to the 
     ranking Democrat, Rep. Chaka Fattah (Pa.), said, ``He plays 
     his cards very close to the chest, but I always believe he 
     was working in the best interests of the District.''
       Miconi, whose father was a West Virginia coal miner who 
     named his son Americo in tribute to his adopted land, said 
     his hardscrabble background shaped a career spent combating 
     bureaucratic waste and political featherbedding.
       He was recruited to federal service just before graduation 
     in 1963 from Fairmont (W.Va.) State College, near his native 
     Caroline (population 500). He came to Congress on temporary 
     assignment from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Accounts 
     in 1971 and never left. After seven years as an assistant to 
     Earl Silsby, budget chief to longtime D.C. subcommittee 
     Chairman William H. Natcher (D-Ky.), he became chief clerk in 
     1978.
       In a reflection of his standing among both parties, as well 
     as his mastery of a small, arcane segment of the federal 
     budget, Miconi was one of only two out of 13 senior House 
     Appropriations staff members who were asked to stay on after 
     the Republican House takeover in 1994.
       Miconi, who lives with his wife in Alexandria, has had many 
     run-ins with city officials. Over the years, some leaders of 
     the majority-black city have chafed at congressional rule, 
     sensing an undercurrent of racism in what they considered 
     meddling inquiries from white, suburban aides to white, 
     nonresident bosses.
       That raw antagonism has moderated over time. Miconi has 
     become a quiet patron and constituent to the current 
     generation of District leaders.
       ``Mico Miconi is an outstanding public servant who 
     represents institutional history. He will be missed,'' said 
     the District's chief financial officer, Natwar M. Gandhi, 
     whose independent financial watchdog agency Miconi says is 
     his proudest legislative achievement.

[[Page E527]]

       ``He knows more about the District's relationship with 
     Congress than any other living human,'' said Tony Bullock, a 
     spokesman for Anthony A. Williams (D), a former chief 
     financial officer who became mayor.
       Miconi's legacy includes the mundane and the landmark, both 
     shaped by his tenacity in the face of bureaucratic 
     resistance. After a 20-year battle with federal deadbeats, 
     most notoriously the Pentagon, Miconi drafted a law a decade 
     ago to force agencies to pay water bills on time through the 
     Treasury, a measure that sends $25 million a year to the D.C. 
     Water and Sewer Authority.
       After District police dismantled their helicopter unit in a 
     cost-cutting move, Miconi helped find $8.5 million in 1998 
     for the Interior Department's U.S. Park Police in Washington. 
     He crusaded for district courts to use $30 million as it was 
     intended, for legal services for the indigent, before the 
     courts were transferred to federal control in 1997.
       He has done so while remaining in the background.
       ``The amazing thing about Mico Miconi is, you can spend 
     2\1/2\ hours in a meeting with him and not know what his 
     position is. If he played poker, he'd be a millionaire many 
     times over,'' Bullock said. ``He doesn't forget anything, and 
     he's very, very shrewd.''
       Miconi's departure follows the retirement of his longtime 
     aide and sidekick, Mary Porter, a 40-year veteran of D.C. 
     government and the Hill. Miconi said he plans to help with 
     the transition to a new House staff before leaving. With a 
     parting word of caution, he is optimistic about the District.
       ``As long as there's an independent chief financial 
     officer, you won't have a control board come back,'' Miconi 
     said. ``I think the future is very bright.''

     

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