[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 15, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9426-S9427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LIEBERMAN (for himself and Mr. Dodd):

  S. 1415. A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal 

Service located at 141 Weston Street in Hartford, Connecticut, as the 

``Barbara B. Kennelly Post Office Building'', to the Committee on 

Governmental Affairs.

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise today proudly to introduce 

legislation to rename the postal facility at 141 Weston Street in 

Hartford, CT, as the ``Barbara B. Kennelly Post Office Building.'' 

Barbara Kennelly is a dear friend, a former member of the House of 

Representatives, and an outstanding citizen of Connecticut who has 

dedicated her life to public service on behalf of the citizens of our 

great State. It is long past time, and the very least that we can do to 

pay tribute to her in this small but lasting way.

  Barbara's life of public service came as no surprise to those of us 

who knew her and her family--the first family of Connecticut politics, 

I might add. Her father, John M. Bailey, was one of the all time great 

political legends of our State--a powerful political leader, confidante 

of John F. Kennedy, and Democratic Party chairman under Presidents 

Kennedy and Johnson. I devoted the better half of my senior year at 

Yale to the study of Bailey and wrote my senior thesis, later turned 

into a book, on his brilliant and sophisticated use of political power. 

Barbara's mother was active in Democratic politics long after the death 

of her husband in 1975, her brother Jack served as the chief state 

attorney in Connecticut, and her late husband Jim was a Speaker of the 

Connecticut House. Politics has been in Barbara's bones practically 

from the time she was born.

  She once told a newspaper that politics didn't ``come naturally, but 

certainly it's a lot easier when you see members of your family doing 

it. Obviously I was watching my father all the time and learning 

through osmosis.''

  She had good instructors and she learned well. After serving on the 

Hartford City Council and as Connecticut's Secretary of State, Barbara 

was elected to Congress in 1982 and served with distinction until 1999, 

when she answered her party's call to run for governor.

  Like her father, she was a hard-driving and skilled tactician in the 

House, working the back corridors of politics and shunning the bright 

lights of the modern media ever in search of a nine-second sound bite.

  She was an insider, a loyal Member of the House leadership, and a 

golf partner to the likes of Danny Rostenkowski. She rose in through 

the party ranks making few enemies, seeking consensus, playing fair, 

and gathering strength one vote at a time.

  Through the 1980s and 1990s, she was one of the more powerful women 

in the Congress--part feminist hero, part backroom pol. She had a knack 

for getting along with the good old boys even as she pushed the 

boundaries for women's rights.

  In 1984, she was thrilled to be chosen to nominate Geraldine Ferraro 

as the first woman Vice Presidential candidate on a Democratic ticket. 

Years





[[Page S9427]]



afterward, Barbara said that moment was one of the high points of her 

career. But there would be many others. In her second term, House 

Speaker Tip O'Neill recognized her ability and appointed her to serve 

on the prestigious tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, a committee 

most members wait years to join. She also became the first woman member 

of the House Intelligence Committee. And in 1991, she became the first 

woman to join the House leadership as a chief deputy whip.

  We miss her strong presence and her wise counsel here in Congress but 

are grateful for her continuing work on behalf of seniors as the 

President of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and 

Medicare. I appreciate the opportunity to help honor a great woman in 

this way. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed 

in the  Record.

  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 

Record, as follows:



                                S. 1415



       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

     the United States of America in Congress assembled,



     SECTION 1. BARBARA B. KENNELLY POST OFFICE BUILDING.



       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 

     Service located at 141 Weston Street in Hartford, 

     Connecticut, shall be known and designated as the ``Barbara 

     B. Kennelly Post Office Building''.

       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 

     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 

     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 

     a reference to the Barbara B. Kennelly Post Office Building.



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