[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 14, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H2404-H2406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1530
     RECOGNIZING AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS ON ITS 150TH 
                              ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 387) recognizing the 
American Society of Civil Engineers for reaching its 150th Anniversary 
and for the many vital contributions of civil engineers to the quality 
of life of our Nation's people including the research and development 
projects that have led to the physical infrastructure of modern 
America.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 387

       Whereas, founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil 
     Engineers is the Nation's oldest national engineering 
     society;
       Whereas civil engineers work to constantly improve 
     buildings, water systems, and other civil engineering works 
     through research, demonstration projects, and the technical 
     codes and standards developed by the American Society of 
     Civil Engineers;
       Whereas the American Society of Civil Engineers 
     incorporates educational, scientific, and charitable efforts 
     to advance the science of engineering, improve engineering 
     education, maintain the highest standards of excellence in 
     the practice of civil engineering, and ensure the public 
     health, safety, and welfare;
       Whereas the American Society of Civil Engineers represents 
     the profession primarily responsible for the design, 
     construction, and maintenance of the Nation's roads, bridges, 
     airports, railroads, public buildings, mass transit systems, 
     resource recovery systems, water systems, waste disposal and 
     treatment facilities, dams, ports and waterways and other 
     public facilities that are the foundation on which the 
     Nation's economy stands and grows; and
       Whereas the Nation's civil engineers, through innovation 
     and the highest professional standards in the practice of 
     civil engineering, protect the public health and safety and 
     ensure the high quality of life enjoyed by the Nation's 
     citizens: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That the Congress--
       (1) acknowledges the American Society of Civil Engineers 
     for its 150th Anniversary;
       (2) commends the many achievements of the Nation's civil 
     engineers; and
       (3) encourages the American Society of Civil Engineers to 
     continue its tradition of excellence in service to the 
     profession of civil engineering and to the public.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) and the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. 
Moore) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).


                             General Leave

  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on House Concurrent 
Resolution 387.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to commend our 
distinguished chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), and 
our distinguished ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall), 
for their excellent work on this resolution that was reported on a 
bipartisan basis from the Committee on Science. I also want to thank 
the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore), my good friend, for his 
excellent work and for serving as an original cosponsor with myself on 
this bill.
  Before I get into my prepared remarks, I want to say a special ``get 
well soon'' to young Lindsay Taylor, who is 12 years old down in Round 
Rock, Texas. She is the President of her National Junior Honor Society. 
She is a budding civil engineer, although I think she wants to go to 
the University of Texas instead of Texas A&M, where I went to 
engineering school. She is home sick today and we need all of our young 
engineers to get

[[Page H2405]]

well quick, so I hope that she does so very soon.
  Our first great civil engineer in this country was the man that we 
now know as the Father of our country, George Washington. George 
Washington was a surveyor who made his living in between serving as a 
military commander in the militia, the British forces before the 
Revolutionary War, surveying and doing engineering work in what is now 
Virginia and going west, west from Virginia.
  In 1852, we founded what is now called the American Society of Civil 
Engineers. If we had been alive at that point in time, the first great 
project that civil engineers would have worked on for this Nation would 
have been the Transcontinental Railroad. Can we imagine, if people came 
to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) and myself, or the gentleman 
from New York (Mr. Boehlert) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) 
today and said, we want you to build a transcontinental railroad, could 
we do it? I doubt it. But the civil engineers of that time said, not a 
problem, and even as the Civil War was going on, they were racing to 
build what we now call the Transcontinental Railroad, and they hammered 
in the golden spike in 1869 and bound our great Nation together.
  What would we have done if around the turn of the century, President 
Roosevelt, not Franklin Roosevelt, but Teddy Roosevelt had come and 
said, I want you to build the Panama Canal to bring together for the 
first time the Isthmus of Panama, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I do 
not think many of us could have worked on that project either 
successfully, but the civil engineers of that era did that. What about 
during World War II, if President Franklin Roosevelt had come and said, 
we need to build a great port infrastructure and we need to improve our 
highways and we need to build great pipelines, could we have done that? 
I do not think many of us could, but the civil engineers of that time 
could. What if in the 1950s President Eisenhower had come and said, 
Congressman Barton, I want you to build an interstate highway system. I 
do not think many of us could have done that, but the civil engineers 
of the 1950s did that.
  I could go on and on. But as we begin to move into the 21st century, 
there are still great civil engineering projects to be done, and 
luckily for us today in the United States, we have over 125,000 members 
of the American Society for Civil Engineers, registered, professional 
engineers who have made it their life's work to build a better America.
  We tend to think of engineers as kind of nerdy people with pencils 
behind their ears and slide rules in their pockets. Nothing could be 
further from the truth. They are people helping people. They are 
building the projects that bind this great Nation together and, more 
and more, binding this great world together.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I am delighted, along with the gentleman from Kansas 
(Mr. Moore), my good friend, to sponsor this resolution honoring the 
150th anniversary of the American Society for Professional Engineers, 
because they have truly helped to build a better America.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) for his good work on 
this bill. I also want to join my colleague from Texas in thanking the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the chairman of the committee, 
and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall), the ranking member.
  I am very, very pleased to be here today with the gentleman from 
Texas to honor 150 years of service by the American Society of Civil 
Engineers to their profession, our country, and the world. ASCE is the 
oldest of engineering societies and clearly one of the best in the 
whole world.
  Civil engineers literally have built America. One hundred and fifty 
years ago, there were no skyscrapers. There were wooden bridges and no 
one would have dreamed of spanning the Chesapeake Bay or the San 
Francisco Bay. Railroads were just beginning. Roads were at most two 
lanes and perhaps were even built of planks. Manned flights came over 
50 years later.
  Now, we have an interstate highway system, an intercontinental 
railroad system, and a network of local and international airports that 
are the backbone of United States commerce. Small dams have been 
replaced, Mr. Speaker, with huge ones that provide large volumes of 
electricity. Human health has been enhanced by improved sanitation with 
sanitary landfills, waste water treatment facilities, and distribution 
systems for clean water.
  How much of this would have been possible without the American 
Society of Civil engineers? Well, we cannot know for sure, but they 
certainly deserve much of the credit. ASCE has encouraged generations 
of bright Americans to enter the profession. It has helped develop 
educational standards and continuing education opportunities for civil 
engineers, and it has established a series of institutes and a research 
foundation to advance the knowledge base of the profession.
  ASCE is the largest publisher of civil engineering information in the 
world, much of which is at the fingertips of the ASCE membership 
through its website. The American Society of Civil Engineers has even 
gone international and has formal relationships with professional 
organizations of civil engineers in almost 50 countries.
  The small group of engineers who banded together in 1852 would not 
recognize today's organization. ASCE now has around 125,000 members, 
over half of the civil engineers in this country, organized in 
sections, branches, and student chapters and clubs.
  ASCE is not resting on its laurels, though. It is aggressively adding 
new services for its members. It has ambitious programs for working 
with the Congress, the government at all levels, and the public at 
large to place the programs and policies needed to improve our built 
environment. Priority areas for 2002 include clean water, 
infrastructure financing, math and science education, natural hazards 
impact reduction, and smart growth.
  I ask my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to join with me in approving House 
Concurrent Resolution 387 that congratulates and honors the American 
Society of Civil Engineers on 150 years of service. This is a 
spectacular beginning and I will bet we have not seen anything yet.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, let me say that several years ago the American Society 
for Civil Engineers made me one of their engineering fellows. It is a 
distinguished achievement award that they really give to engineers who 
have made a lifetime in civil engineering and have done outstanding 
feats. They gave it to me primarily because I am one of the few 
registered professional engineers in the Congress, but it is one of the 
high honors that I have received as a Member of the House, and the 
certificate is on my wall in the entry way to my office, and I am very, 
very proud of that.
  For that and many, many reasons I think this is a resolution that is 
very worthwhile passing for this body because of the fine work that 
civil engineers have done for the last 150 years. So I hope that when 
the time comes to vote, we can pass it with unanimous consent.
  Mr. Speaker, I would simply say that this resolution we hope to pass 
by unanimous consent today and send to the other body and pass it over 
there so that it actually can be signed by the President and presented 
to the leadership of the American Society for Civil Engineers sometime 
this fall when the actual calendar anniversary occurs for the 150th 
anniversary. It is very, very worth doing, and I hope that we can do it 
in a very bipartisan fashion.
  Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for the opportunity to 
join my colleagues in commending the American Society of Civil 
Engineers (ASCE) for their 150 years of service to our country. I also 
want to thank the Gentleman from Texas, Mr. Barton, and the Gentleman 
from Kansas, Mr. Moore, for introducing this resolution.
  It is difficult to imagine an area of our lives that has not been 
touched by civil engineers. They ensure that when we turn on the tap, 
we have clean water to drink. Civil engineers designed the massive 
transportation systems that make it possible for us to move freely and 
efficiently across this vast country. Moreover, civil engineers design 
technologies and practices to help clean up polluted water and to 
ensure that our natural resources are preserved for future generations.

[[Page H2406]]

  Americans benefit from the expertise and hard work of engineers 
everyday, but rarely acknowledge or recognize our debt to them. I am 
lucky enough, however, to have a different experience with engineers. 
During my time on the Science Committee and especially as Chairman, I 
have come to rely on ASCE as a valuable resource. I may not be making 
headlines here, but we in government do not know everything all the 
time.
  After the tragedy of September 11, we immediately began to look for 
lessons we could learn from this horrible event. FEMA put together a 
team, led by ASCE, to investigate the World Trade Center collapse. The 
team set out to discover exactly why the building collapsed, if the 
buildings could have stood for longer, and if more lives could have 
been saved. I cannot even begin to fathom the work this team did, but 
in eight months they delivered an important report to Congress 
detailing the sequence of events that led to the buildings' collapse. 
This work will go a long way toward saving lives. Now, we are working 
closely with ASCE with legislation that will hopefully make their jobs, 
on further building investigations, easier.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the work that civil engineers do for 
our country and I am ever grateful for the service that ASCE provides 
to this Congress and to me personally. I congratulate ASCE on 150 years 
and I look forward to many more.
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton) that the House suspend the rules and 
agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 387.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the concurrent resolution was 
agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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