[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 10, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN HONOR OF CHARLOTTE FRAAS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 10, 2005

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, it is with the deepest 
sorrow that I rise to honor a woman who gave so much to the Congress, 
to children and students in America, to her family and friends, and to 
me as a trusted aide and friend.
  Charlotte Fraas died today after a long battle with brain cancer. She 
leaves behind her loving and devoted husband Phil, her two beautiful 
and smart teenage children, Paul and Katie, her dogs, and many close 
friends at the Congressional Research Service and across the country.
  Charlotte, full of grace and beauty, has left us her spirit to keep. 
In the pain and sorrow of her untimely death, we have the memory of her 
wonderful life to hold.
  Charlotte was my legislative director for two years, between 1993 and 
1995. And she was a class act.
  There are many important skills a good congressional aide must 
possess--being smart, well-informed, good at writing and speaking, and 
so forth. But there is another quality that is rarer but especially 
important--being able to tell your boss that he or she might be wrong. 
Charlotte could do that. With a quick glance she could let me know 
whether I was on track, or off, and would be ready with an alternative.
  Charlotte was instrumental in my work on so many issues, including 
Social Security, higher education, education for children with 
disabilities, but most importantly on the reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Her knowledge of the history of 
the law and the details of the issues involved in the reauthorization 
was outstanding. She was dedicated to getting it right. And she did so 
with such grace and class.
  She was really a star.
  After she left my office, Charlotte worked briefly for the Department 
of Education under President Clinton and then became the head of 
government affairs for the American Federation of Teachers where I 
continued to appreciate Charlotte's professionalism.
  But the bulk of her career--more than 20 years--was spent at the 
Congressional Research Service at the U.S. Library of Congress, 
providing expert analysis and assistance to Members of Congress from 
both sides of the aisle and to their committees and personal staff.
  Charlotte had a distinguished career of active engagement in and in 
support of the legislative process while at the Congressional Research 
Service. She received numerous ``outstanding'' performance ratings, 
very infrequently awarded in the Service. Charlotte was unusually 
productive during her career at CRS. The CRS archives contain over 200 
reports and substantive, confidential memoranda that she prepared over 
the period of 1970 to 1993. Her CRS reports were not only numerous but 
also of the highest quality. For example, Section management used 
Charlotte's work as a model for other analysts. She was also highly 
respected by her colleagues and was frequently chosen by her peers, as 
well as by management, to lead team efforts.

  Charlotte worked in a wide variety of issue areas, beginning her 
career with responsibilities in the topics of veterans and the G.I. 
Bill, immigration and refugees, and crime, especially juvenile justice/
delinquency. She was the lead CRS analyst supporting congressional 
consideration of the Refugee Act of 1980. However, during most of her 
career at CRS, Charlotte was a specialist in education policy, serving 
as CRS' lead analyst on two of the largest, most complicated, and 
significant education assistance programs.
  For many years Charlotte was the lead CRS analyst in the major and 
complex area of education for students with disabilities. This 
legislation--then called the Education of the Handicapped Act and now 
known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act--has myriad 
complex, and sometimes controversial, provisions aimed at improving 
educational opportunities for all students with disabilities. Charlotte 
was the lead analyst in this area during the 1980s, supporting 
congressional consideration of the Education of the Handicapped Act 
amendments of 1983 (P.L. 98-199) and the Education of the Handicapped 
Act Amendments of 1986 (P.L. 99-457). Her work was especially helpful 
to Congress as it considered legislation to expand assistance to 
include infants and toddlers with disabilities.
  For the last several years of her service at CRS, Charlotte was the 
lead analyst on major programs of the Higher Education Act, the primary 
source of federal aid to postsecondary education. In the mid-1980s, she 
lead a CRS team that prepared a groundbreaking series of analyses of 
the relationships between federal aid programs and the growing for-
profit sector of postsecondary education. She was responsible for and 
especially productive in preparing high quality analyses of the 
increasingly important higher education student loan programs. These 
are the most wide-ranging and complex forms of federal aid to education 
at any level. In particular, she lead the Service's support of 
congressional debates on student loans during consideration of the 
Higher Education Amendments of 1986 (P.L. 99-498) and the Higher 
Education Amendments of 1992 (P.L. 102-325). In the early 1990s she 
prepared ground-breaking analyses of the highly charged issues 
associated with the Administration proposal to replace or supplement 
federally guaranteed loans with direct loans.
  Charlotte also supported congressional deliberations in a number of 
other education-related policy areas. For example, she was the lead CRS 
analyst on aid to libraries from late 1970s to mid-1980s and 
particularly supported congressional consideration of the Library 
Services and Construction Act amendments of 1983.
  In addition to her numerous written analyses, during her CRS career 
Charlotte communicated her policy analyses through multiple 
consultations, briefings, and testimony in committee hearings; for 
example, she testified before the House Budget Committee on student 
loan issues before the House Budget Committee in 1991. Charlotte was 
one of the most articulate analysts that CRS has had. Other analysts 
sought her advice about how to approach any number of issues, even 
those outside her immediate areas of expertise. She understood the 
impact that analysis could bring to bear on social issues and enabled 
congressional committees to understand the policy dimensions involved 
in decisions that came before them.
  In all of her work, Charlotte exhibited the highest level of 
professionalism in serving the Congress on some of the most politically 
charged issues in education policy. In her career at CRS, she 
exemplified the best that CRS has to offer the Congress, a consummate 
professional analyst doing work of the highest caliber on sensitive, 
difficult issues critical to the Nation's well-being.
  Her great achievements at CRS were certainly supported and encouraged 
by close friends and colleagues, including Angela Evans, Wayne Riddle, 
Carol O'Shaughnessy, Karen Spar, Joe Richardson, Richard Price, Jim 
Stedman and Margot Schenet.
  In the end, the cancer was too great for even Charlotte's power. But 
as a testament to the rich life she led, she spent the last weeks of 
her life in a hospice in Alexandria, Virginia, being visited by one 
friend and family member after another. The staff at the hospice 
remarked at how many friends Charlotte had.
  To her family, I offer my thanks for giving us Charlotte for the time 
we had her. The members of my staff in Washington and California and at 
the Committee on Education and the Workforce join me in sending our 
deep condolences to her family and friends. We will keep you in our 
thoughts, just as we will hold Charlotte in our prayers and memories at 
this saddest of times and forever.




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