[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 57 (Wednesday, May 8, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4056-S4057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVY DUBROW

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it is rare that I get to extend a birthday 
greeting to someone older than I. It is even more uncommon for me to 
extend such a greeting to someone who has been working the halls of the 
U.S. Senate longer than I. Today, I do both. With delight, I want to 
take a few minutes to extend a very warm and sincere, if a little 
belated, birthday greeting to a dear friend, Ms. Evelyn Dubrow, whose 
birthday was May 6.
  Affectionately, as well as professionally, known throughout Congress, 
Washington, D.C., and the labor unions around the country as ``Evy,'' 
she has been involved in the American labor movement for more than 
sixty years, most of the time as a labor lobbyist. She was with the 
International Ladies Garment Workers Union, ILGWU, for more than forty 
years. More recently, she has been vice president and legislative 
director of the Union of Needles Trades, Industrial and Textile 
Employees, UNITE.
  Today, women lobbyists are quite common on Capitol Hill. According to 
the Hill newspaper, women now account for about one-third of the 
Capital's more than 11,000 registered lobbyists. When Evy first arrived 
as a lobbyist in 1956, women lobbyists were rare, and the U.S. Senate 
was still overwhelmingly a men's club.
  Evy was not deterred. She had come with a determination and a cause--
to improve the living and working conditions of American workers--and 
she was not to be denied. Her very first fight was opposing a proposal 
to outlaw secondary boycotts. For this effort, she enlisted none other 
than Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy, who sponsored her 
amendment.
  Her next issue was seeking an increase in the minimum wage to an 
unheard of level of one dollar an hour!
  Since then, she has had a tireless and active role in helping to 
bring about most of the important laws on economic and social justice 
since the 1960s. She has worked on civil rights legislation, the 
establishment of Medicare, minimum wage, pension protection, and 
occupational safety and health rules. She stands for everything that is 
good and best about the American labor movement. As my good friend and 
colleague, Senator Ernest Hollings said of her, ``She is the union 
label.''
  Although Evy stands less than five feet tall, I have seen her stand 
eye-ball-to-eye-ball with the likes of the 6 foot 5 inch Senator Bill 
Bradley, the 6 foot 6 inch Senator Jay Rockefeller, and 6 foot 7 inch 
Senator Alan Simpson.
  And that is exactly the way she has always lobbied, eye-ball-to-eye-
ball. It is not through the fax machine, or over the cell phone, or 
from e-mail. This little workhorse walks right into your office, meets 
you person-to-person, and makes her case.
  Evy is never heavy-handed. Good lobbying, she says, is ``presenting 
your case and proving it,'' and that is what she does.
  As a liberal labor lobbyist, her heros have tended to be liberal 
Democrats, including Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Hubert 
Humphrey. But on her list of heros, she also includes Senator Barry 
Goldwater, hardly a liberal Democrat. When asked why she did so, Evy 
replied, ``He was completely honest and didn't mince words.''
  That is a perfect description of Evy, she is ``completely honest'' 
and does not ``mince words.''
  As a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for more than four decades, Evy has 
become more than an institution, she has become a fixture in the U.S. 
Congress. She has known almost every member of the Congress from the 
first day she arrived, and today she is as well known, and just as 
equally at home in Congress, than many members.
  In addition to the Members of Congress, she has befriended 
doorkeepers, receptionists, Capitol Hill police, and many others who 
work here. She always has a kind word and a smile for anyone and 
everyone.
  Her credentials are as long as they are impressive. She worked a 
decade for the legendary president of the ILGWU, David Dubinsky. With 
but a single exception, she has attended every Democratic Convention 
since 1948. She has met with every President from Eisenhower to 
Clinton. She has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 
Nation's highest civilian honor. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment 
came years ago when she served as a babysitter for the likes of Al Gore 
and Chris Dodd when their fathers were Senators.
  But I want to make it clear, to most, if not all Members of Congress, 
she is more than a lobbyist. She is more than a friend. She is ``Evy!''
  At any rally, any party, or any gathering in Washington, you will 
eventually hear someone say, ``Evy is here,'' and everyone knows 
exactly what is meant, and nearly everyone smiles. As I have heard it 
said many a time: ``Everyone loves Evy.''
  Indeed we do. Her admirers are many. Her friends are legion.
  God bless you Evy and happy birthday!

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