[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 119 (Thursday, September 19, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6409-H6410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PAYING TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN JOE EARLY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Platts). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FRANK. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week my colleague, the gentleman 
from Worcester, Massachusetts, sponsored and the House passed and I 
voted for a resolution naming a post office in Worcester for a former 
colleague of many of us in the House, my colleague from Worcester's 
predecessor, former Representative Joseph D. Early.
  I first met Joe Early in 1972 when I, along with two of my current 
Massachusetts colleagues (Mr. Markey and Mr. Delahunt), was elected to 
the Massachusetts House. Joe Early was by then an established leader in 
the Massachusetts House. Two years later, he came here. I was proud to 
support him in his campaign to come here in 1974, and 6 years later I 
became a member of the House and so worked with him for the ensuing 12 
years.
  I was very pleased to have a chance to join in naming that post 
office for him. I regretted the fact that I was not able to participate 
in the debate. I was tied up at a committee meeting. I thought I was 
going to be notified in time but to my error I came too late to make 
the debate so I am taking this special opportunity now because of my 
enormous respect for Joe Early and in particular for his 
extraordinarily strong understanding of what the role of government 
ought to be in our society.
  Joe Early, during his time in the Massachusetts legislature, during 
his time here, showed that you could be compassionate, that you should 
be concerned about the needs of people who would otherwise be left 
behind without in any way being soft on waste, without in any way being 
tolerant of sloppiness or unnecessary expenditure. Joe Early was a 
tough fiscal watchdog. On the Ways and Means Committee in the 
Massachusetts House and here on the Appropriations Committee, he was a 
man who paid a lot of attention to the specifics and was very, very 
tough on those who would waste public money. But he also understood 
that there were important values for the quality of our life that had 
to be met with public money. Time and again when it would be unpopular, 
when demagogic amendments would be offered on the floor of this House 
to make cuts of various sorts, Joe Early would be one of the few 
courageous enough to point out how damaging they would be, how 
irresponsible it was to take that easy approach as opposed to doing the 
kind of tough, ongoing work that he did of familiarizing himself with 
the programs for which he had legislative responsibility and fighting 
hard to make sure that they took effect.
  Those of us who knew Joe Early also were stimulated by his company. 
He was not, as people will remember who served with him, an unfailing 
dispenser of good cheer. If something was bothering you and you were 
looking for a smiley face, Joe was probably the last person on the 
continent that you wanted to encounter. But if you wanted serious 
conversation about our responsibility as an elected official, if you 
wanted to talk about both the strengths and the limitations of 
government, if you wanted to talk about

[[Page H6410]]

how you actually use the machinery of government and public funds to 
try and accomplish important goals, then Joe Early would be very, very 
high on your list of people to consult.
  He was, in particular, interested in medical care. He was very proud 
of the first-rate complex at the University of Massachusetts Medical 
School that he represented, and the hospitals. He took on, to some 
extent, from Tip O'Neill, the great leader of the Massachusetts 
delegation, an interest in and an advocacy for the National Institutes 
of Health. Joe Early did as much as any man who served during that 
period to help America establish the position of leadership in health 
research, in providing the kind of resources that has done so much to 
improve the quality of human life.
  So now that Joe is in retirement, I want to just take this 
opportunity to express my appreciation to my colleague from Worcester 
(Mr. McGovern), Joe Early's successor, for taking the initiative in 
naming that post office after Joe Early because it is as much as we can 
do to pay tribute to a man who understood as well as anyone what the 
job of being a Member of the United States House of Representatives 
entailed and who used to the fullest the powers of this job to make 
life better for the people of this country.

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