[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 50 (Friday, April 22, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN TOM BEVILL

                                 ______
                                 

                    HON. ROBERT E. (BUD) CRAMER, JR.

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 21, 2005

  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. Speaker, with profound sadness, I rise today to honor 
the life of my good friend and mentor, former U.S. Representative Tom 
Bevill. He passed away on March 30, 2005, one day after his 84th 
birthday.
  Congressman Bevill served in this Chamber for the State of Alabama 
for 30 years. He was the Chairman of the House Energy and Water 
Appropriations Subcommittee. He was a powerful Congressman, who always 
remembered the people of Alabama who elected him. Under his 
chairmanship, he helped ensure that the State received funding for 
vital programs and projects and did a tremendous amount to improve the 
overall quality of life for his constituents.
  Mr. Speaker, to honor the life and accomplishments of Tom Bevill, we 
must talk about the person he was. He was a devoted husband and father, 
a patriot and a statesman.
  Mr. Bevill inherited me when I was elected to Congress in 1990. 
Actually, I had first met him in 1980 when he was getting off of Air 
Force One with President Carter in Huntsville. What a distinguished man 
he was coming down those steps, and I am talking about Tom Bevill. I 
had just been elected District Attorney of Madison County and I was 
meeting the man I had heard so much about, Tom Bevill. A powerful 
member of Congress and the Chairman of the House Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Energy and Water.
  In 1991, I was a dangerous creature, a freshman Member of the U.S. 
House of Representatives. Mr. Bevill and his entire office became like 
family to me. He went out of his way to teach me everything he could 
and he let other members know that I was his partner, though I knew I 
was a very junior one.
  One of the first legislative battles we fought together was over 
funding for NASA's Space Station. I had thousands of jobs at NASA's 
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville connected to the space 
station. A Michigan Member was offering an amendment to an 
appropriations bill to kill the whole program, ending my jobs. So a 
number of us, including Mr. Bevill, organized to defeat the amendment. 
Mr. Bevill, like a good teacher, sent me to talk to this Michigan 
Member.
  Now Chairman Bevill didn't do all this work ``for'' me, he always did 
it ``with'' me. In this case, he sent me to talk to the man, alone. I 
did not know this man, but off I went, and I talked to him, or tried 
to, and it did not go well at all.
  This man from Michigan put his hand on my shoulder, grinned and said, 
``You might as well kiss those jobs goodbye.'' He was crude and rude. 
So I reported this back to Chairman Bevill and he said, ``You don't 
say? Well, truth be known the man is practically a communist. But, 
we'll beat him.'' And we did. Chairman Bevill was brilliant on the 
floor during the debate. We saved those jobs and probably mine too. And 
the Space Station is out there in Space. But, I sure learned a lot from 
Tom Bevill.
  I can see him now. Always neatly dressed, hard at work for his 
Alabama and his Country. Chairman Bevill was from a different, and I 
have to say better era. A time in the U.S. House when members were 
civil and even courteous to one another. They might disagree and often 
did, but they walked away as friends. And they did it with dignity.
  Tom Bevill was always at the Thursday morning prayer breakfast. He 
sat in the same place every week with his friends. He took me with him 
the first time I went and I was and am a better person for it. He 
showed me where members of Congress could eat lunch in the Capitol. As 
often as I could I would eat there, watching and listening to Tom 
Bevill and his friends. Members were always trying to talk to Tom 
Bevill, to ask him for something, and he was always kind and courteous.
  The Alabama delegation, seven of us, would tend to gather at every 
vote in the same area of the House Floor. Mr. Bevill would watch our 
votes and every now and then he would make a comment. A careful 
comment--``Bud, are `we' being a politician today or a statesmen?'' or 
``I find that `our' people in Alabama don't see this issue the way some 
do . . .'' Offering wonderful, helpful, wise advice, that was the kind 
of man he was.
  And so, every now and then some, not many, will say to me in my 
district in North Alabama, ``You are going to be another Tom Bevill,'' 
or at least that's the way I hear it in my mind. They probably actually 
say, ``You keep this up and you `might' be another Tom Bevill.'' Then I 
know, that after 15 years, I have heard the best compliment one could 
pay . . . To be compared to Tom Bevill
  He gave us so much and I will miss him dearly.
  To his children, Susan, Don, and Patty, thank you for letting us 
share him with you and your families.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of everyone in North Alabama, to 
show my thanks to Congressman Bevill and honor him as a true American 
leader. There won't be another one like Tom Bevill.

                          ____________________