[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3559-H3586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECEPTION OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
The Speaker of the House presided.
The SPEAKER. First of all, I want to say good morning. On behalf of
the House of Representatives, I am very pleased to welcome you all
back. Some of you served before the time I was here; some of you were
colleagues that I had the great honor to serve with.
Meetings like this present a unique opportunity. We get to tell you
everything that we are doing here, and you get to tell us everything we
are doing wrong. You become more seasoned as former Members, and we
certainly appreciate that. Seriously though, I am always glad to see
this group and hear about all the great things that each of you
continues to do for our Nation.
My good friend from the Midwest, Dan Coats, somebody who I attended
college with deep in the Midwest, is one of those people. He started
his career representing Indiana in the House of Representatives. Dan
then moved on to the Senate, where he served for 10 years until 1999,
and then served as ambassador to Germany from 2001 until February of
this year. Dan is certainly a worthy choice to receive the
Distinguished Service Award, and I would like to extend to him my
sincere congratulations.
This organization serves a valuable purpose. From your work on
college campuses teaching young people about the value of public
service, to your work abroad in places like Germany and Japan, you
spread the good news about the importance of our democratic government
and our institutions.
I had the opportunity last week to meet with a delegation of former
Members who spent a great deal of the time around their holiday and
before in the Ukraine trying to make a difference, trying to help a
fledgling nation really bring about the birth of democracy. They were
successful.
Just yesterday here in the House we announced Members to serve on the
House Democracy Assistance Commission. These are Members who are going
to go out and work with emerging democracies. They are going to provide
expert advice to parliaments and to parliamentarians in selected
countries, and one day they can bring those experiences and that
expertise to your organization as well. It is our vision that your
experience, your expertise begin to meld and blend with what these
Members of Congress are trying to do. So you see, our goals really do
mirror one another.
I want to thank you once again for your continuing work on behalf of
the American people.
Before requesting that the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Slattery, vice
president of the Former Members Association take the chair, the Chair
recognizes the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Texas
(Mr. DeLay).
Mr. DeLAY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the words that you
just spoke in honoring our former Members that are here today, and some
that are here in spirit.
Friends and honored guests, I want to welcome you back home. It is an
honor to have back again the Association of Former Members of Congress,
a very esteemed organization. I have to tell you, Ms. Pelosi has been
encouraging me to join your organization for some time now.
Former Members Day is always a treat for me, because when you put 2
decades of your life into an institution, it is always reinvigorating
to see so many friendly faces from days and battles gone by. As I look
at both sides of
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the aisle, Beryl Anthony is here, who showed me kindness. As a freshman
I walked in, and he as a Democrat actually wanted to meet me and wanted
to work with me.
Jim Slattery and Dan Coats had a great deal to do in changing my
heart; Leader Michel, who tried to teach me patience; Bill Alexander
really taught me a lot about the legislative process; and Ron Mazzoli
sent a grandchild to my district, which I greatly appreciate. He is not
voting yet, but we are working on him.
We did not always agree on everything back then, and I suppose we
still do not; but the fact is we are all part of the same heritage of
service to this body and to this Nation. No matter how long you have
served or when, if you have sat in this Chamber, you helped write at
least a bit of America's history. Much more importantly, by staying
active in the Association of Former Members, you are still serving your
country and still helping to make history.
In your post-congressional careers, many of you have gone on to
bigger and better things. There is life after Congress, and we
understand that. Many of you have stayed in Washington and served here,
and others have returned home to do the same. But regardless of where
you are and how you are spending your time, everyone left behind here
in Congress still feels your presence and still builds on the legacies
that you have left here.
So, I, for one Member, thank you all for staying involved, for the
work you do around the world, and for your continued service to this
House and to this Nation.
Thank you all, and God bless you.
The SPEAKER. I now recognize the gentleman from Kansas.
Mr. SLATTERY (presiding). Mr. Speaker, thank you very much, and, Mr.
Leader, thank you also for your kind words. It is great to see both of
you. We deeply appreciate the leadership and the support that you have
given our association as we move forward with the work that we are
attempting to do around the world and here in the United States with
the Congress to Campus Program. So thank you very much for also helping
coordinate this event here today. It is good to see you.
At this time, I would like to recognize the Clerk of the House for
the purpose of calling the role.
The Clerk called the roll of the former Members of the Congress, and
the following former Members answered to their names:
former members of congress participating in 35th annual spring meeting
thursday, may 19, 2005
Bill Alexander (Arkansas)
Beryl Anthony (Arkansas)
Jim Bates (Ohio)
J. Glenn Beall (Maryland)
Jim Broyhill (North Carolina)
John Buchanan (Alabama)
Jack Buechner (Missouri)
Beverly Byron (Maryland)
Rod Chandler (Washington)
Dan Coats (Indiana)
John Conlan (Arizona)
Larry DeNardis (Connecticut)
Joe Dioguardi (New York)
Tom Ewing (Illinois)
Lou Frey (Florida)
Martin Frost (Texas)
Don Fuqua (Florida)
Bob Hanrahan (Illinois)
Margaret Heckler (Massachusetts)
George Hochbrueckner (New York)
Marjorie Holt (Maryland)
Bill Hughes (New Jersey)
David King (Utah)
Herb Klein (New Jersey)
Ernest Konnyu (California)
Ken Kramer (Colorado)
Peter Kyros (Maine)
John LaFalce (New York)
Jim Lloyd (California)
Ken Lucas (Kentucky)
Andrew Maguire (New Jersey)
Romano Mazzoli (Kentucky)
Matt McHugh (New York)
Bob Michel (Illinois)
Clarence Miller (Ohio)
Stan Parris (Viginia)
Howard Pollock (Alaska)
Will Ratchford (Connecticut)
Jay Rhodes (Arizona)
George Sangmeiser (Illnois)
Ron Sarasin (Connecticut)
Jim Flattery (Kansas)
Steve Symms (Idaho)
Lindsay Thomas (Georgia)
Wes Watkins (Oklahoma)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair is pleased to announce that 37
former Members of Congress have responded to their names.
At this time the Chair would like to recognize the distinguished
gentleman from Missouri, Jack Buechner, who is president of our
association.
General Leave
Mr. BUECHNER. 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 the subject of this meeting.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman?
There was no objection.
Mr. BUECHNER. I thank the Chair, and I want to join with the majority
leader and the Speaker in welcoming all of my colleagues of the Former
Members Association and for our visiting guests who are here from North
America and also from Europe, former parliamentarians and
administrative staff all. Thank you. I want to thank all of you for
being here with me this morning. We are especially grateful to Speaker
Hastert for taking time from his busy schedule to greet us and for his
warm welcome. It is always an honor and privilege to return to this
magnificent institution which we revere and in which we shared so many
memorable experiences.
Service in Congress and public service in general is both a joy and a
heavy responsibility. Service in Congress creates an attitude amongst
your families and your friends that some days the burden of the Nation
is greater than what besets most human beings in their lives. We want
to thank you all again for the service that you have rendered and that
you continue to render as you serve as members of the Association of
Former Members of Congress.
This is our 35th annual report to Congress. Our association is
nonpartisan. It has been chartered by Congress, but receives absolutely
no funding from the Congress. We have a wide variety of domestic and
international programs which several members and I will discuss
briefly.
Our membership numbers approximately 570. Our purpose is to continue
in some small measure the service to country which began during our
terms in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Our finances are sound. We support all of our activities via three
income sources: membership dues, program grants, and our annual fund-
raising dinner. In addition, we have had the good fortune of a bequest
by the widow of a former Member of Congress, Frieda G. James, who was
married to Benjamin Franklin James, a five-term Republican from
Pennsylvania, who has generously endowed much of what we do.
During the presidency of my esteemed colleague, Larry LaRocco of
Idaho, the association established an endowment fund. The goal of this
fund is to ensure the financial viability of the Former Members
Association for many years to come. We envision a time when investment
earnings of this endowment fund can be used to supplement the
association's budget during lean years, a safety net to guarantee that
tough economic times will not shut down the work of the association.
Several of our Members have already made contributions to this fund,
and association staff is in the process of creating some new marketing
materials to solicit further donations. Again, many thanks to my
predecessor Larry LaRocco for his leadership in this area.
Mr. Speaker, our association has had an incredibly active and
successful year. We have expanded many of the programs that are
traditionally associated with our organization, and we have created
several new ventures. I am therefore very pleased to now report on this
program work of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.
The Congress to Campus Program is our most significant domestic
undertaking. This is a bipartisan effort to share with college students
throughout first this country and now the world our unique insight on
the work of the Congress and the political process more generally.
Our colleague from Colorado, David Skaggs, has been managing this
program for the association for the last 3
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years. This is a project of his Center For Democracy and Citizenship,
which is centered at the Council For Excellence in Government. He has
partnered this organization with the Stennis Center For Public Service.
David is not able to be with us this morning. I submit for the Record
his report on the accomplishments of the program over the 2004-2005
academic year.
Congress to Campus Program--Report to the Annual Meeting of the U.S.
Association of Former Members of Congress, May 19, 2005
Introduction
The Congress to Campus Program addresses a significant
shortfall in civic learning and engagement among the
country's young people of college age. It combines
traditional educational content about American government and
politics (especially Congress) with a strong message about
public service, all delivered by men and women who have
walked the walk. The Program sends bipartisan pairs of former
Members of Congress--one Democrat and one Republican--to
visit college, university and community college campuses
around the country. During each visit, the Members conduct
classes, hold community forums, meet informally with students
and faculty, visit high schools and civic organizations, and
do interviews and talk show appearances with local press and
media.
In the summer of 2002, the Board of Directors of the U. S.
Association of Former Members of Congress (Association)
engaged the Center for Democracy & Citizenship (CDC) at the
Council for Excellence in Government to help manage the
Congress to Campus Program (Program) in partnership with the
Stennis Center for Public Service (Stennis). CDC and Stennis,
with the blessing of the Association, have worked together
since to increase the number of campuses hosting Program
visits each year, to expand the pool of former Members of
Congress available for campus visits, to develop new sources
of funding, to raise the profile of the Program and its
message in the public and academic community, and to devise
methods of measuring the impact of the program at host
institutions.
Increased Quantity and Quality of Program Visits
This is the third year of the program's expansion. In the
2004-2005 academic year, the Program sponsored thirty-two
visits involving forty-three colleges and universities around
the country and the world--about a 25% increase in visits
over the 2003-2004 academic year. [See Attachment 1--Roster
of '04-'05 Academic Year Visits & Participants.] These visits
took former Members to universities, service academies,
colleges and community colleges in twenty-two different
States and five countries. While the total fell short of the
goal of forty for the year, it should be noted that seven
additional scheduled visits were cancelled or rescheduled due
to factors beyond the control of the program staff.
In addition to an increasing the number of visits, we
continue to fine-tune the content and substance of Program
visits based on feedback from Members and host professors.
The Program asks visiting Members and host professors to
complete an evaluation of each visit. This year those
evaluations have prompted us to encourage host schools to
include nearby colleges and universities in Congress to
Campus visits and to broaden the scope of classes
and activities scheduled for the former Members. We will
continue to make changes in response to the suggestions of
participating former Members and host faculty.
The Program asks host schools to insure contact with at
least 250 students over the course of a visit, and that
number is often exceeded. For the past academic year,
approximately 13,000 students heard Members' unique story
about representative democracy and their special call to
public service.
A draft schedule of events is prepared in advance of each
campus visit and reviewed by staff to assure variety as well
as substance. There is a conference call before each trip
with Members and the responsible campus contact person to
review the revised schedule and iron out any remaining
problems. Members also receive CRS briefing materials on
current issues and background information on government
service opportunities prior to each visit.
Recruiting Member Volunteers for Campus Visits
The success of the Program obviously depends on Members'
participation. With travel back and forth, Members end up
devoting about three days to each campus visit. This is a
priceless contribution of an extremely valuable resource.
Members of the Association were surveyed again last summer
to solicit information regarding their availability for and
interest in a Program campus visit. Using responses to these
surveys and direct contact with a number of former Members,
CDC developed a pool of just over one hundred available
former Members, and some fifty-four participated in visits
this year. A ``bench'' of one hundred was deep enough to fill
the openings during the current academic year, but more will
be needed to meet the demands of future academic years.
Association Members are encouraged to complete and return the
survey they will receive this summer and then to be ready to
accept assignments to one of the fine institutions of higher
education the program will serve next year.
Funding Sources
In addition to the generous contribution of money and staff
time made each year by the Stennis Center for Public Service,
the Association, with the assistance of the American
Association of Retired Persons, has substantially increased
its support of the Program. Other organizations have also
provided funding to help with the expansion of the Congress
to Campus Program for this academic year including the Boeing
Company, the German Marshall Fund (visit specific) and the
Ford Foundation (visit specific). While Stennis' commitment
to the Program is ongoing, funding from the other
organizations is being provided on a year by year basis. The
effort to find new sources of funding for Congress to Campus
is a continuing challenge.
Host schools are expected to cover the cost of Members' on-
site accommodations and local travel and to make a
contribution to cover a portion of the cost of administering
the Program. A suggested amount of contribution is determined
according to a sliding-scale based on an institution's
expenditures per pupil [see Attachment 2--Application Form];
a waiver is available to schools that are not able to pay the
scale amount. Several schools received a full or partial
waiver in 2004-2005. Still, school contributions produced
several thousand dollars in support of the program.
Additional funding sources will be necessary if the
expansion of the Program--clearly justified by the interest
expressed by schools seeking to host a first or a repeat
visit and by the assessment of its positive effects (see
below)--is to be maintained.
International Initiative
Congress to Campus made its first international visit in
October 2003 to the United Kingdom. An earlier Association
study tour had laid the groundwork for the visit and had
established a relationship with Philip John Davies, Director,
Eccles Centre for American Studies at The British Library and
Dennis Spencer Wolf, Cultural Attache at the U.S. Embassy.
The success of the 2003 visit led to a second visit in the
fall of 2004 and a planned third visit in November 2005.
This academic year Congress to Campus broadened its
international reach by sponsoring visits to Canada
(University of Toronto), Germany (University of Bonn,
University of Cologne and European University Viadrina), and
China (Fudan University and Sun Yat-Sen University). The
visit to Germany was made possible through the support of the
German Marshall Fund. The Ford Foundation is providing
support for the visit to China.
Program Outreach and Publicity
The increased number of institutions hosting and applying
to host a Congress to Campus visit is the result of a multi-
faceted outreach effort. Association leadership and numerous
former Members, as well as staff at CDC and Stennis, have
made many personal contacts on behalf of the Program. In
addition, CDC Executive Director and former Member David
Skaggs has made several public presentations in behalf of
Congress to Campus and informational material has been e-
mailed directly to all members of the APSA Legislative
Studies Section, as well as to many other college and
university organizational contacts.
Campus press and media at host institutions are offered
access to visiting Members. Each host institution is also
encouraged to make commercial print and broadcast media
interviews a part of each Congress to Campus visit's
schedule.
Measuring the Program's Impact
Over the years, anecdotal information has tended to
validate the basic premise of the Congress the Campus
Program--that these visits by former Members of Congress
positively affect students' views of public service and
government officials. In an effort to confirm this anecdotal
information, during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 academic
years, the Program asked host schools to have students
complete one-page surveys. The surveys elicited students'
views on public service careers and feelings about different
categories of public officials; they were completed by a
group of students who attended sessions with the former
Members and by a control group of similar students who did
not have contact with the former Members.
While all schools hosting a visit did not return the
surveys, the data that was generated for the 2002-2003 and
2003-2004 academic years shows that the underlying goals of
the Congress to Campus program are sound. Those students who
have contact with former Members during their Congress to
Campus visits have a measurably more favorable view of
public servants and of public service as a career option
than similar students who do not have the opportunity to
interact with the visiting former Members.
In previous years, we have reported preliminary findings of
these student surveys. The data collected over the full two-
year study has now been analyzed by the Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
(CIRCLE) at the University of Maryland. Their final report
[see Attachment 3] confirms our preliminary finding and found
that the Congress to Campus Program had a statistically
significant positive impact on student's attitudes towards
public service and public servants.
As noted above, the Program requests the principal contact
at each host school to submit an evaluation. We receive
valuable feedback on various aspects of each visit and try
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to incorporate lessons learned and helpful suggestions in the
on-going effort to improve the Program. The best indication
of satisfaction with the Program is the fact that every
school visited this year has said it would like to host a
Congress to Campus Program visit again.
Conclusion
The Program has made significant progress toward achieving
its new goals. The number of campus visits has increased
significantly each of the past three academic years to a
level this academic year that represents a 350% increase over
2001-2002 levels. However, Program funding remains a matter
requiring attention. There is continuing success in efforts
to raise the public profile of the Program, but more needs to
be done. Finally, objective data, as represented in our two-
year study, supports the basic premise of the Congress to
Campus Program: That campus visits by Members are effective
in raising interest in public service careers and in
improving attitudes about public officials among the students
who participate in Program events.
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I would now like to yield to Bev Byron of Maryland and Ron Sarasin of
Connecticut for their reports on the Congress to Campus Program.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Maryland is recognized.
Ms. BYRON. Mr. Speaker, I have not forgotten what side I belong on.
Let me, first of all, say I am delighted to share with some of our
members who have not participated in the Congress to College Program
some of the things they have done. I made a commitment to myself
several years ago that I would give back at least one visit a year to a
college campus, and I started saying I am giving it back. Actually, I
have gained so much from each and every one of those visits.
The program has grown 350 percent since 2002. There is no question
that it is making an impact on college campuses. We are now finding
campuses that are saying can we get former Members to come. It is a
commitment of basically 2 days.
Last fall, Barry Goldwater, on my note here it says from California,
although Barry is living in Arizona right now, and I went to central
Michigan. Well, I have a husband from Michigan, and I was not familiar
with where central Michigan is. It is a wonderful, wonderful school, a
very large school, a very exciting school. We spent 2 days interacting
with the students, the faculty, the local community, a senior citizen
center, and the media.
One of the things that I like to stress with the college students,
not only is Congress the ultimate for many people in the political
arena, but government service is a wonderful thing for them to be
involved in. And as I looked around the room, they kind of were glazing
over a little. I said, you know, government service is not just
Congress; it is not putting your name on a ballot. It is participating
in your PTA, on your school board, in the zoning commission hearings.
It is your local legislative bodies. So it is serving in a government
capacity to your community across the board.
So as we finished our 2 days of activities, I think both Barry and I
left with a great sense of some contribution, and hopefully out of the
group that we spoke to we will find one or two of those members that
will be in this body one day.
My colleague Ron Sarasin is going to talk a little bit about his
experiences. But for those of you that have not had an opportunity, it
is a wonderful opportunity.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. SARASIN. I thank the gentlewoman from Maryland for yielding, and
I would like to explore with you some of my own experiences with the
program. I have been fairly active with it. It is not only an
opportunity to continue to give back in a way, but it is a very
rewarding personal opportunity. You get more out of it than you give.
In April, I had the opportunity to spend 2 days at Colby College in
Waterville, Maine, with our colleague Judge David Minge from Minnesota.
These visits always provide an opportunity for students and faculty
to see that Republican and Democrat former Members of Congress are in
fact real people, that we can enjoy each other's company, that we
probably agree on more issues than we disagree, and if we disagree, we
will do it without being disagreeable. I think that in itself is a
lesson to students and faculty, and I think they come away with a great
deal from it.
As Ms. Byron pointed out, part of our mission is to encourage people
to get involved in public service, to encourage them to look at the
political aspect and the supportive aspects of the Congress and
government in general.
The experience for us is a rewarding one. It is good for our own egos
to have someone ask us our opinion and seem to value it when we give it
to them. As we know, one of the things you learn very quickly after you
leave the Congress is that your views just do not seem to carry as much
weight as they used to, and the thing you really learn is that your
jokes just do not generate as much laughter as they did when you were a
sitting Member of Congress.
Our very gracious host at Colby was a professor named Sandy Maisel,
who himself had run for Congress some years ago, unsuccessfully; and
then he wrote a book about his experience, and the title of the book is
``From Obscurity to Oblivion.'' Is that not a wonderful title for a
book, for a politician especially?
All in all, it was a very great experience for everyone involved. I
would encourage every Member here and every former Member out across
the country to get involved in this program, because it is fun, it is a
couple of days on a college campus, and it is a great experience
personally. I know that all of you who have participated have enjoyed
it and come away with a feeling that you got more out of it than you
gave.
Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. SARASIN. I yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. McHUGH. Thank you for that explanation. It really is a marvelous
program that many of us have experienced. I wanted to mention briefly
that the German Marshall Fund this year for the first time sponsored a
bipartisan team to go to Germany and spend a week visiting campuses in
Germany. John Anderson and I went just a few weeks ago and had a great
experience meeting with the students and faculty, and indeed others as
well.
I think it is a particularly important time to promote these kinds of
exchanges, because, as you know, there are some differences these days
between our friends in Europe and the United States; and I think the
exchange of views was very useful, both for us and hopefully for the
students as well. I hope that the Marshall Fund will sponsor additional
teams, and I would certainly encourage my colleagues to take advantage
of that if they do.
Thank you very much.
Mr. SARASIN. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
Mr. BUECHNER. I thank the gentlewoman and the gentleman for
describing those wonderful efforts on the Congress to Campus Program.
To sort of amplify what the gentleman from New York just brought
forward, we also have for 2 years now sent a team to England to speak
to different universities and to the Eccles American Study Center at
the British Library. I was there the week before the U.S. election, and
I got a lot of questions. I was sort of a stand-in for George Bush, and
it was one of the most interesting things that I have ever done.
One outgrowth of the Congress to College Program was an interest in
producing a book that would take an inside look at Congress from
different views. Under the leadership of our colleague Lou Frey of
Florida, the association published a compilation of essays written by
former Members of Congress describing their experiences before, during,
and after serving on Capitol Hill.
The result was ``Inside the House: Former Members Reveal How Congress
Really Works.'' Probably not as catchy a title as the one the gentleman
from Maine had, but it has been a great success. It is being used by
several political science departments in universities and colleges
across the country. Lou is now soliciting submissions for another book,
and I am sure he will talk about that when he has the floor to report
on our annual fund-raising dinner.
Another domestic program the association undertakes is a cooperative
project with the Library of Congress. Through a generous grant from the
American Association of Retired Persons, the association is working to
involve former Members of Congress in the Library's Veterans History
Project.
This program honors our Nation's war veterans and those who served in
support of them. It creates a lasting legacy of recorded interviews and
other documents chronicling veterans' and other citizens' wartime
experiences and how those experiences affected their lives and America
itself. We have been able to connect numerous former Members who served
in World War II with this wonderful program, and soon our attention
will focus on the veterans of the Korean War.
Mr. Speaker, beyond the programs we administer dealing with domestic
issues, the association is very active in overseeing international
programs. These involve both former Members of Congress and current
Members of Congress. The association has played an important role in
fostering dialogue between the leaders of other nations and the United
States.
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We have arranged almost 500 special events at the U.S. Capitol for
international delegations from over 80 countries and the European
Parliament. We have hosted meetings for individual members of
parliaments and parliament staff, and organized more than 50 foreign
policy seminars in over a dozen countries involving more than 1,500
former and current parliamentarians, and conducted over 20 study visits
abroad for former Members of Congress.
The association serves as the secretariat for the Congressional Study
Group on Germany. This is the largest and most active exchange program
between the U.S. Congress and the parliament of another country. It is
the flagship international program of the association, and it is a
bipartisan organization with approximately one-third of the sitting
Members of Congress participating.
The Congressional Study Group on Germany serves as a model for the
other study groups under the umbrella of the Former Members
Association. Again, none of these programs operate with Federal money
or support.
For over 20 years, the Congressional Study Group on Germany has been
a forum for lawmakers from Germany and the United States to communicate
on issues of mutual concern. The study group was founded in 1983 as an
informal group and was established as a formal organization in 1987.
The primary goal of the study group is to establish a forum for
communication between Members of Congress and their counterparts in the
German Bundestag. Ongoing study group activities include conducting a
Distinguished Visitors Program at the U.S. Capitol for guests from
Germany, sponsoring annual seminars involving Members of Congress and
the Bundestag, and organizing a Senior Congressional Staff Study Tour
to Germany each year.
The Congressional Study Group on Germany is funded primarily by the
German Marshall Fund. That is the premier non-governmental organization
with a transatlantic mission. Additional funding to assist with
administrative expenses has been received from 12 corporations whose
representatives now serve on a Business Advisory Council to the study
group. The business group is chaired by former Member of Congress Tom
Coleman, who as a Member from Missouri served as the chairman of the
study group in 1989.
The study group has established itself as the most productive means
of communication between the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag.
The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the most important allies
that we have in the United States, and the study group has been
instrumental in helping to cement transatlantic ties over the years.
The most visible activity of the group is the Distinguished Visitors
Program, which enables Members of Congress to meet personally with
high-ranking German elected officials, such as Minister Joschka
Fischer, Germany's Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, or President of the
German Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse.
The highlights of each programming year is the Congressional Study
Group on Germany's annual seminar. Every year the study group brings
Members of Congress together with German legislators for several days
of focused discussion on a predetermined agenda. The parliamentarians
usually are joined by several former Members, officials of the two
federal governments, think-tank and foundation representatives and
members of the German-American business community.
This year's seminar was held in Berlin, Brussels, and Frankfort from
March 18 to March 24. A delegation of six sitting Members of Congress
had the opportunity to meet during this week with about a dozen members
of the Bundestag. In addition, we had a meeting with Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and his foreign policy advisor, as well as Germany's
President, Horst Koehler.
In Brussels, in addition to several other meetings, we had the chance
to discuss trade relations with EU Commissioner for External Trade, Mr.
Peter Mandelson.
The last leg of the annual seminar took place in Frankfort,
headquarters of the European Central Bank. The President of the bank,
Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, met with the group to talk about the European
Union's monetary policies.
We ended our visited to Germany by visiting the Landstuhl Military
Hospital, where the Members of Congress spent time visiting with
wounded U.S. servicemen and -women returning from Iraq.
During our meetings, we focused the discussion on solidifying the
U.S.-German relationship in the spirit of President Bush's visit to
Europe this past February. We also exchanged views on the role of NATO,
cooperation in the war on terrorism, and transatlantic trade and
investment questions.
A reoccurring topic was the EU's proposal to lift its arms embargo
with China. Our delegation unanimously manifested its disagreement with
this measure, and certainly sent a message to the German legislators to
rethink this proposal.
A report about the activities of the Congressional Study Group on
Germany would be incomplete without thanking its financial supporters.
First and foremost, one needs to thank Craig Kennedy and the German
Marshall Fund of the United States, since without him and his
foundation the study group could not function at its present level of
activity.
We also cannot forget Tom Coleman, a member of our organization who
chairs the Business Advisory Council. His tremendous dedication in
raising much-needed funds to support the administrative side of the
study group has been essential. He has put together a group of
companies that deserve our gratitude for giving their aid and support
to cover the overhead of the program. They are Allianz, BASF,
DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom, DHL, EDS, Lockheed Martin, RGIT,
RWE, SAP, Siemens, and Volkswagen.
The Congressional Study Group on Germany is an example of how the
Former Members Association provides an educational service to current
Members and aids in the foreign relations efforts of this country. I
think we can be very proud of the work we do to make this group
possible, and I look forward to being an active participant in the
activities of the Congressional Study Group on Germany for many years
to come.
Modeled after the Congressional Study Group on Germany, the
association established a Congressional Study Group on Turkey at the
beginning of this year. Turkey, one of our strategic allies, is
situated at the crossroads of many important challenges of the 21st
century. Peace in the greater Middle East, expansion of the European
Union, and the transformation of NATO are all definitely issues that
this study group will entertain.
Mr. BUECHNER (presiding). I now yield to our Speaker pro tem, Mr.
Slattery of Kansas, to comment on this exciting new endeavor of the
Association.
Mr. SLATTERY. I guess it is permissible for me to speak from this
side, right?
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to report on this new project
that the association is undertaking. At the beginning of this year, the
association established the Congressional Study Group on Turkey. The
study group is modeled after our flagship international program, the
Congressional Study Group on Germany.
The study group on Turkey brings former and current Members of
Congress together with their legislative peers, government officials
and business representatives in Turkey and serves as a platform for all
participants to learn about U.S.-Turkey relationships firsthand.
Thanks to funding from the Economic Policy Research Institute, a new
think-tank established by the Turkish business association TOBB, the
study group has started a Distinguished Visitors Program in Washington.
This program involves events for Members of Congress such as roundtable
discussions or breakfast-luncheon panels featuring visiting dignitaries
from Turkey. The events take place every 6 to 8 weeks on Capitol Hill
and focus on critical issues relating to the bilateral relationship
between Turkey and the United States.
Additional support from the German Marshall Fund of the United States
has allowed the study group to initiate the first U.S.-Turkey seminar,
which we hope will become a yearly event.
[[Page H3582]]
The seminar is a week-long conference for U.S. Members of Congress to
discuss areas of mutual concern with their legislative counterparts in
Turkey. The 2005 U.S.-Turkey seminar will take place in Ankara,
Istanbul and Cyprus at the end of this month. This year, participants
will examine topics such as democratization in the Middle East, the war
on terror, and Turkey's membership negotiations with the European
Union.
The U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress is very pleased to
add this study group to its portfolio of international programs. It is
certain to attract great interest in Washington and in Ankara.
Let me just add to this that I want to encourage all of you that are
here today and those that may be watching this on C-SPAN to be aware
that this association is really undertaking greater responsibilities in
this international work. I am very excited about the opportunity that
members of this association have to contribute to democracy-building
efforts around the world. I think it is going to present a very, very
rewarding opportunity for former Members to continue their service to
this country in a very worthwhile international endeavor.
I want to bring that to your attention, and I hope that all of you
will take a greater interest in the work of the association as we
expand this international work.
Mr. SLATTERY (presiding). Mr. Buechner.
Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Staff has notes here: ``Do not
trip during exchange of places.''
Thank you for your report, Jim. We are all very excited about this
new undertaking.
Mr. Speaker, the association also serves as the Secretariat for the
Congressional Study Group on Japan and the Congressional Study Group on
Mexico.
Founded in 1993 in cooperation with the East-West Center in Hawaii,
the Congressional Study Group on Japan is a bipartisan group of 71
sitting Members of the House and Senate, with an additional 36 Members
having asked to be kept informed of study group activities. The
Congressional Study Group on Japan arranges opportunities for Members
of Congress to meet with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet, in
addition to organizing discussions for Members to hear from American
and Japanese experts. The Congressional Study Group on Japan is funded
via a generous grant from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission.
Last, but not least, the association administers the Congressional
Study Group on Mexico. U.S-Mexican relations are a priority, and not
solely defined by the issue of immigration. The Congressional Study
Group on Mexico is a unique organization in that it serves as a
bipartisan forum for U.S. legislators from both the House and Senate to
engage on issue-specific dialogue with Mexican elected officials and
government representatives.
The goal of the group is for the two countries' political
decisionmakers to receive a comprehensive picture of the issues
revolving around U.S.-Mexico relations. The study group also replicates
this forum for senior congressional staff. Topics such as border
security, trade and narcotics trafficking are just a sample of the
subjects pertinent to the bilateral relationship with Mexico.
In addition to these exciting programs involving sitting Members of
Congress, the association is extremely pleased to have created this
year a new international program exclusively for the former Members of
Congress, the Former Members Committee on France.
The goal of this project is to involve former Members of Congress in
the transatlantic dialogue, a little bit frayed around the edges in the
last few years, between Washington and Paris. We believe that our
membership can contribute greatly to bringing about a better
understanding of the issues governing U.S.-French relations to both the
U.S. Congress and the French National Assembly. We have had several
panel discussions and meetings involving visiting French dignitaries,
such as current French senators serving on their International
Relations Committee.
In addition, our Members have had the opportunity to hold small group
discussions on issues such as lifting the weapons ban on China; and we
have had those discussions not just with staff and embassy personnel,
but also with current members of the French Parliament.
We are working closely with France's ambassador to the United States,
Jean-David Levitte, and are currently looking forward to many more
opportunities to contribute to this important relationship.
Mr. Speaker, as you can see, there have been many thrilling new
developments in 2004 and 2005 for our association, such as the
Congressional Study Group on Turkey or the Former Members Committee on
France. But few undertakings have energized and excited our membership
as our foray into election monitoring.
During 2004, the U.S. Association of Former Members sent almost 60 of
our Members on campaign monitoring and election observation missions
abroad. The association has a long history of participating in
legislative-strengthening programs, for example in Hungary, Macedonia
or Slovakia; but we have never utilized the unique experience and
knowledge of our members in an election-monitoring project until now.
I will first yield to one of our officers, Jay Rhodes of Arizona, to
reported on our activities in Ukraine, and then to association member
Andy Maguire to our election-monitoring mission to Cameroon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Rhodes.
Mr. RHODES. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to report to you
on one of the, I think, most important undertakings this association
has ever participated in. We were involved in a non-violent and
peaceful revolution that changed a nation, hopefully for the better,
hopefully permanently.
Through a partnership with the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and a grant
from the United States Agency for International Development, your
association sent six separate bipartisan teams of six to 10 persons
each to Ukraine, pardon me. Four of the teams monitored pre-election
activities and two observed the actual elections, the first fraud-
ridden November runoff, and the final historic runoff on December 26.
In fact, we sent a team of approximately 30 former Members to that
December 26 election, each of them obviously giving up their Christmas
holidays.
Our members were each and all certified as international election
observers by the Ukraine Government. We all scrupulously avoided any
intimation that we were anything but neutral, supporting no candidate,
no party, no election bloc. Each team was in the country for a week,
and each team went far into the field, away from the major urban areas.
Each had extensive meetings with representatives of political parties,
government officials, election officials, candidates, the press, and
the public.
We also met, of course, with U.S. officials from our embassy and from
USAID. Our teams were joined by former Members of the European Union
Parliament. We all experienced inconsistencies between what we were
told by government and election officials and what we heard from
candidates and from citizens.
After our time in the field, the teams returned to Kiev for
debriefing and then departed for the States. Each team independently
prepared a report on its experiences, and those reports were widely
distributed among political, diplomatic, and media interests here, in
Europe and in Ukraine.
Each team independently and drawing from its own experiences
concluded that the election as currently being conducted was not, not,
going to be free and fair; that the government-supported candidate was
being given a wide advantage at the expense of the other candidates;
that other candidates had little or no access to the media; that
government resources were being used to support one candidacy; that
government-organized efforts were used to disrupt campaign efforts and
events for other candidates; and that the election was going to be
stolen. Virtually every ``ordinary citizen'' with whom we met,
individually or in groups, fully expected that their election was going
to be stolen.
Our team that returned for the November 21 election found numerous
irregularities in the voting process and the counting procedures. Many
of us witnessed events of multiple voting by
[[Page H3583]]
persons brought in to a particular area from other parts of the country
by bus and by train. These events and problems were also witnessed by
our European partners and other NGOs.
That evening, the evening of the election, or, more accurately, the
morning after, at about 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning, after observing
not just the voting but the vote counting process, we returned to Kiev
to the hotel we were staying in, which happened to be just about half a
block away from Independence Square in downtown Kiev. We arrived to the
sound of voices, lots of voices.
We walked that half block down to Independence Square and witnessed
the start of the Orange Revolution. There were easily at 2 o'clock in
the morning after the elections 100,000 people in Independence Square.
This was the start. No announcements had been made about any votes at
that point. Those people were there because they knew that their
election had been stolen from them. This was the start of what was
called the Orange Revolution, which resulted ultimately in the November
21 election being declared invalid and in the December 26 runoff
election, which resulted in the ultimate inauguration of Victor
Yushchenko as President of Ukraine.
There is no doubt that our effort had an impact and that we played a
role in a historic event. None of us will say that we did this all by
ourselves. There were a lot of people involved. But we were there, and
I have no doubt that we made a difference.
We have unique perspectives, and we can play an important role in
democracy building and strengthening and election monitoring; and this
project has set a precedent for our association for future missions. In
fact, your association is in the process of creating a new Institute
For Election Monitoring in partnership with colleagues who are former
members of Parliament from Canada and former members of the Parliament
of the European Union. You will hear more about this effort later on.
In addition, we have discussed with Speaker Hastert and will discuss
next week with Leader Pelosi the effort that the Speaker announced to
you just a moment ago, where we may be joining in an effort for
democracy strengthening which had been launched by the House of
Representatives yesterday. These efforts are very exciting, and they
bode well for the future of your association.
I would like to say to you as a personal matter that witnessing the
things that we saw in Ukraine and witnessing the will of people who are
determined to express themselves and to have their expression felt and
to make an impact on their government and on their country was for me
one of the most moving experiences I have had in my life, and I am very
grateful for having had that opportunity.
I am now pleased to yield to our colleague from New Jersey, Mr.
Maguire, who will report on our election-monitoring delegation to
Cameroon.
Mr. MAGUIRE. Thank you very much, Jay. I was honored also to be a
member of one of the missions to Ukraine, which Jay has just described
so eloquently.
Mr. President, I would refer now to another election-monitoring
project that the association participated in during 2004, the
monitoring of the October presidential election in Cameroon.
From October 8 through 12, the association sent a delegation of six
former Members, three Republicans and three Democrats, to Cameroon to
serve as official election observers for the presidential election on
October 11. The delegation received certification as official election
observers from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and
Decentralization in Cameroon in order to enable the delegation to
travel and observe freely.
According to the constitution and laws of Cameroon, the people of
Cameroon are entitled to express their views on candidates and parties
at the ballot box freely and without interference from any source. The
mission focused exclusively on the fairness of the election process and
did not advocate for any particular candidate or party.
In Cameroon, the delegation split into three groups of two and
traveled within the two major cities: Yaounde, the capital; and Douala,
the financial center; and also in the English-speaking southwest
province. In the days prior to the election, each group traveled
extensively in their respective areas, meeting with political party
members, government officials and opposition representatives, attending
pro-government and opposition-party events, visiting regional and
district offices in charge of organizing materials for election day,
and scouting out polling stations.
On election day, the delegates visited a number of polling stations
throughout the day in their respective areas. The delegates were
present for the opening and closing of the polls and the counting of
ballots after the polls closed at locations selected by the delegates.
We evaluated a number of factors, including but not limited to the
presence or absence of confusion or intimidation at the polls, the
posting and availability of voter registration lists and cards, and the
mechanics and transparency of the voting process.
After observing the polls on election day, the full delegation
reconvened in Yaounde for a series of meetings and a brief press
conference before returning to the United States. The delegation issued
a report following its return that was widely distributed in diplomatic
and political communities in the United States and Cameroon.
The delegation reported that it did not witness enough irregularities
to disapprove of the balloting process itself, which, for the most
part, proceeded in an orderly and transparent manner at the sites
visited for those voters whose names did appear on the registration
lists. But the delegation also concluded that structural,
administrative, and equity issues must be examined and addressed to
assure a free, open, and fair electoral process in Cameroon.
Violations witnessed by the delegation included confusion at polling
stations, individuals denied the opportunity to vote because they were
unable to find their name on the lists of registered voters, temporary
police checkpoints set up between provinces that could contribute to
voter intimidation, and media coverage heavily slanted to favor the
incumbent.
Like most other credible observer groups that were in Cameroon, the
delegation concluded that there was significant room for improvement in
the administrative performance and technical competence required for
full and fair operations of the voter registration process, the timely
publishing nationally and in each locality of voter registration lists
prior to election day, the delivery of voter registration cards, the
training of polling commissions, representatives of the National
Election Observatory, the training of political party representatives
and other observers of the balloting process and also in the management
and adjudication of any claims or charges of irregularities in
connection with voter registration, campaigning, balloting and the
electoral process overall.
As with our missions to Ukraine, it became apparent quickly how
important a role former Members can play in this democracy-building
field. I am thrilled that our association has commenced these types of
activities, and I hope to be able to participate in future election-
monitoring delegations.
Let me add that there are some spin-offs that are important that go
beyond the monitoring of the election on election day. Let me mention
three.
Our colleague, Robin Beard of Tennessee, who participated, I think,
in four of the Ukraine missions, recently returned as a consultant on
legislative strengthening, setting up a truly democratic process in the
Parliament of Ukraine, and met with President Yushchenko and his top
aides in that connection.
Another example, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Affairs,
headed by our colleague Lee Hamilton, recently put together a half-day
program focused on what you do after the election: how do you continue
to be involved in the process of reform after the election has taken
place when there are serious problems that need to be addressed, as is
the case in many countries today. That session was led by former
Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark, and I think it really does set us
forward in a very useful way now on what Joe Clark referred to as the
practice of follow-on to elections.
[[Page H3584]]
Our colleague Robin Beard and I have also had the great pleasure of
joining together at the National Defense University on two occasions to
talk with senior people from the military community, the security
community, and the foreign policy community of 20 Near East and South
Asian nations, again talking about the election process, about politics
in this country, about the way the world is changing in a democratic
direction.
So, Mr. President, I am delighted to present this report on behalf of
the association, and I thank you very much for your acknowledging me.
{time} 1000
Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you Jay and Andy.
Mr. Speaker, there are several other activities of the U.S.
Association of Former Members of Congress which deserve to be
highlighted today. One certainly is our Annual Statesmanship Award
Dinner, chaired so exceptionally by Lou Frey of Florida. I would like
to yield to Mr. Frey to report on the dinner we just held in March.
Mr. FREY. Thank you, Mr. President. Senator Coats, Ambassador Coats
leaned over to me about all this good we are doing and how we are
involved with democratization, and wondered if we would be available on
the other side of the Capitol.
Sometimes a good idea is not a good idea. But about 8 years ago we
had no source of fundraising outside of our dues. And I was president,
and proposed that we have an Annual Statesmanship Award Dinner. And
everybody thought it was a good idea. The only bad side is we did not
have a chairman. And so 8 years later, I have had the privilege of
chairing this dinner, and it has really becomes an institution in
Washington now. We have had over 400 people at each and every dinner.
We not only have the dinner itself, but we have a wonderful
congressional and presidential auction, which our colleague, Jimmy
Hayes, works all year on doing, and it has been an event that has been
really memorable in a lot of ways.
Just for your memory, the past recipients are Dan Glickman, Lee
Hamilton, Lynn Martin, Norm Mineta, Vice President Cheney, Secretary
Rumsfeld. And one of, I think, the highlights was the World War II
generation represented by our own Bob Michel, by Bob Dole, by Sam
Gibbons, by John Glenn and by George McGovern.
For any who missed that dinner, you just missed an incredibly
touching and wonderful evening. And the stories they told were great.
Sam Gibbons, jumping out of his airplane with a six pack of beer. And
just wonderful. And I believe our records show that we had over 161 men
and women who served in some capacity in World War II as Members of
Congress.
Our last honoree was John Breaux of Louisiana. And of course John is
noted for working with people on both sides of the aisle. And again, it
was a good evening.
We did have a highlight on our trip to France in that we had run into
a French Count whose family goes back to William the Conqueror. And he
had a beautiful chalet over there, and we auctioned it off, and he got
carried away. He was going to give a weekend, but he ended up giving a
week. He had had probably a few glasses of milk or something along the
line. And we ended up with a very nice amount for it for a week. And it
was one of the live auction items.
One of the other things we have tried to do, we mentioned the
``Congress to Campus'' program, is the fact that every time we are out
there people have said, look, this is interesting, it really is, but
this is not textbook. I mean, what is it really like? You people are
talking about that. Why do you not write it down? So we decided we
would do that. And we had 38 former Members of the House and Senate
write chapters for the book called ``Inside the House''. It is used on
a number of campuses. It is used in the War College out in Monterey.
And it is a good book. It is an interesting book. And we are going to
update it a little bit. And we are going to write another book which
some of you, I hope, have, I know some of you have responded. Some of
you have responded, and it is called ``The Rules of the Road''.
Barber Conable, you know, had one of the rules, just a wonderful guy
who is not with us anymore. But his rule was, ``Never act on an
economic policy that you can put on a bumper sticker.'' You know, mine
were pretty simple. ``Do not fight with the press''. ``If you have to
explain, you are in trouble.'' And ``never retreat; attack in a
different direction.''
What we are trying to do is to get from each and every one of you
what your rules are, a little explanation of it. The University Press
is willing to publish it again, and it will be a lot easier if you
write me back than if I have to call you. So I would appreciate you
doing it. Everybody will be in the book. I hope to get about 250 or at
least 300 of these to the book. And I am enjoying getting the answers
back.
Mr. MAZZOLI. Will the gentleman yield briefly?
Mr. FREY. Yes. The gentleman from Kentucky, my good friend.
Mr. MAZZOLI. I want to commend the gentleman for his great leadership
in the organization and chairmanship of the dinner, and I would like to
remind the gentleman that he was almost like a drill sergeant,
ferreting out information from those of us who contributed to ``Inside
the House''. And I did not want to have to suffer the same kind of
challenge this time, so I have here my contribution to ``Rules of the
Road''. I just did not want Lou Frey on my case for the next 6 months,
so here it is, Lou.
Mr. FREY. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. President. I
appreciate the opportunity to make the report.
Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, Lou. And again, your invaluable leadership
has made the Annual Statesmanship Award Dinner the tremendous success
it has been each year.
Mr. Speaker, allow me to just briefly highlight the other activities
of our Association during 2004. In December of last year the
Association hosted its Life After Congress Seminar. The purpose of that
conference was to ease the transition away from Capitol Hill for those
sitting Members who would not return for the next Congress. We
assembled a panel of Congressional support staff to outline the
services available to retiring Members, as well as a panel of former
Members who have pursued careers in a variety of different fields.
In addition, Dana Martin, the Chair of the Association's Auxiliary,
spoke about some of the opportunities available to spouses of former
Members, a very informative and worthwhile session.
The Association also organizes Study Tours for its members and their
spouses who, at their own expense, have participated in education and
cultural visits to places such as Australia, Canada, China, Vietnam,
the former Soviet Union, Mexico and Western and Eastern Europe. In
2004, the 60th anniversary of D-Day was the occasion to bring a group
of 20 former Members and spouses to France. They spent 3 days in Paris,
met with the Ambassador, French legislators, French Foreign Ministry.
Our colleague, Connie Morella, who serves currently as the U.S.
Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development, hosted a meeting.
Following that, they went to Normandy and spent several days touring
D-Day sites. It was a momentous occasion to participate in a wreath-
laying ceremony, and former Members were involved in the lowering of
the flag of the United States as Taps was played; unbelievable
experiences that will stay with them for a lifetime.
Those are just some of the other activities we have. We have an
annual golf tournament at Andrews Air Force Base, and the Association's
Auxiliary has other functions.
Mr. Speaker, the Association benefits tremendously from the efforts
and leadership of many people. I would like to, as the president, thank
the other officers of the Association, you, Jim Slattery, Jay Rhodes,
Dennis Hertel and Larry LaRocco, the members of our Board of Directors
and our counselors for providing excellent guidance and support through
the year.
I would like to also recognize the work our staff has done. Rebecca
Zylberman and Michael Taylor are two tremendous assets that we have.
Sudha David-Wilp is a young woman who has taken over international
programming, and I think you can just hear in what we have talked about
for the study
[[Page H3585]]
groups, she has done a magnificent job. But especially I need to point
out that Peter Weichlein, who was the head of our international
programs until Linda Reed retired, and he is now Executive Director, he
has done just a magnificent job on the interrelationship, both with the
sitting Members of Congress, with all the study group participants and
keeping our membership aware of what was going on in the world.
Mr. Speaker, we are also pleased today to have with us several
representatives of former parliamentarian associations abroad. From the
Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians, we are joined by, and
would you please stand when I say your name, Doug Rowland, Derrek
Konrad, and Walter Van der Walle. From the Association of Former
Members of the European Parliament, we are thrilled to have with us
Lord Henry Plumb, James Moorhouse, Richard Balfe and Fearghas O'Beara.
And from the Association of the Former Members of the Parliament of New
Zealand, we are delighted to welcome Maurice McTigue. And from the
Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians, we are joined by the
Reverend Canon Derwyn Shea and Mr. John Parker.
Mr. Speaker, this is the largest number of foreign dignitaries we
have ever had join us. I cannot call a Canadian a foreign dignitary. I
am sorry. But friends to the north, okay?
And we are truly honored that you all have made the journey to
Washington so that we can continue working with each other and learning
from each other.
Mr. Speaker, this is my sad part of my presentation, is to inform the
House of those persons who served in Congress and have passed away
since our report last year. They are, Brock Adams of Washington,
Alphonzo Bell of California, Tom Bevil of Alabama, Don Brotzman of
Colorado, Shirley Chisholm of New York, Tom Foglietta of Pennsylvania,
Hiram Fong of Hawaii, William Ford of Michigan, Tillie Fowler of
Florida, Ronald ``Bo'' Ginn of Georgia, Lamar Gudger of North Carolina,
Edwin Arthur Hall of New York, Howell Heflin of Alabama, Frank
Jefferson Horton of New York, Tom Kindness of Ohio, William Lehman of
Florida, James Armstrong MacKay of Georgia, Robert Matsui of
California, Catherine Dean May of Washington, Robert Price of Texas,
Peter Rodino of New Jersey, Pierre Salinger of California and James
Patrick Sutton of Tennessee.
I ask all of you, including the visitors in the gallery, would you
please rise for a moment of silence as we pay our respects to the
memory of these fallen elected representatives. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, each year the Association presents a
distinguished service award to an outstanding public servant and former
Member of Congress. The award rotates between parties, as do our
officers. Last year we presented the award to an extraordinary
Democrat, Sam Nunn. This year we are pleased to be honoring a
remarkable Republican, former Representative, Senator and Ambassador
Dan Coats of Indiana.
Dan commenced his long service to the Nation when he joined the Army
in 1966, serving until 1968. After some years in private law practice
and as a district representative for then Congressman Dan Quayle, Dan
Coats was elected to the House of Representatives in 1981. He served in
the House until being sworn in as Senator in January 1989, where he
represented Indiana until 1999.
While in Congress, Dan Coats was a member of several high profile
committees, including the Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
He was also a member of the Senate leadership, serving as Midwest
Regional Whip.
He continued his long and distinguished service to the country when
he represented the United States as its Ambassador to Germany, from
August 2001 until February 2005. As we all well know, the recent strain
on U.S.-German relations required a diplomat of the highest skill set,
and we applaud our former colleague for the exceptional way in which he
conducted the business of the United States of America.
On behalf of the Association of Former Members of Congress, I am
delighted to present our Distinguished Service Award to the Honorable
Dan Coats. I am going to read what it says on the plaque: Presented by
the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress to Ambassador Daniel
Ray Coats for over 20 years of commendable public service to his
beloved State of Indiana and to the Nation.
Dan Coats served from 1981 to 1989 in the U.S. House, and from 1989
to 1999 as a United States Senator. As a legislator he comfortably
worked with his colleagues from both sides of the aisle, especially if
he could benefit America's families and children. He continued his
exemplary service to country by acting as U.S. Ambassador to Germany
from 2001 until 2005, representing the United States with skill and
distinction during the often challenging post-September 11 period. His
former colleagues applaud and recognize his distinguished career in
public service, Washington, DC, May 19, 2005.
And Dan, I am also pleased to present you with a scrapbook of letters
from colleagues offering their congratulations for this well-deserved
symbol of our respect, appreciation and affection. We would be pleased
to receive some comments from you.
Mr. COATS. President Jack and Vice President Jim, Leader Bob, and my
chairman, Jim Broyhill and friends who I had the very distinct
privilege of serving with in this place, it occurs to me that there are
more people listening to me speak now than I ever had when I spoke in
the House of Representatives or in the Senate.
It also occurs to me that, as someone who did serve in that other
body, I could go on for an interminable amount of time. But I am now
back in the House of Representatives, and so I am conscious of the
gavel coming down behind me within a 5-minute period. So I will be
very, very brief.
It is a great honor to be honored by your peers. I suspect that this
had something to do with my Ambassadorship to Germany, although I
cannot quite figure out why I was given this award since, under my
watch, we took relations all the way back to the Spring of 1945. It was
a challenging time, as Jack said. And I think that one thing I learned
for sure was, given the very significant political tensions that
existed between our President and the Chancellor of Germany, between
our countries, the very rightful sense of disappointment, to say the
least, over the lack of support from a friend that we had lent
incredible amount of support, including the lives of many, many
Americans to liberate that country from the scourge of Naziism. It was
a difficult time for Americans to understand how that could happen.
One of the things that sustained us was, and I believe the most
important thing that sustained us were the relationships that had been
forged since those postwar times by the more than 13 million American
troops that had served in Germany and their relationships with German
townspeople and people in political office and just every day,
ordinary, on the street Germans, the business ties that exist between
our two countries, and just, as perhaps more importantly than any of
those were the relationships that had been forged through the
connections between Members and particularly former Members, the study
group and others, between German parliamentarians and Germans in office
and in high places. Those relationships maintained our special
relationship with Germany that has existed since 1945, and saw us
through all those difficult times.
The study group we were privileged to host over there, to have
Members come over. We were privileged to have others come and speak to
parliamentarians, to share breakfast, lunch and dinner, share thoughts,
business groups exchanging, all of those sustained us through that, and
I can report, on leaving there in February of 2005, relations had
dramatically improved with our new Secretary of State's visit, which
was an astounding success, followed by the President's visit 2 weeks
later. And so we are back on the track where we should be. Still some
work to do, but certainly on the uptick rather than where we were in
2002, 2003. So, for whatever I was able to contribute to that, I am
appreciative of the opportunity of having, being able to serve there.
[[Page H3586]]
I am most appreciative of the time that I have had in this august
Chamber. I walked in and saw Billy Pitts and Bob Michel, and friends
who served with me during that time, and it was a real throwback and
took me back to some great memories. I felt like running up to Billy
and saying, how long is this going to last? When are we going to catch
the plane back home?
So thank you very much for honoring me. I join a distinguished list
of people that were named in receiving this honor and I am greatly
honored, and will display this plaque in a very prominent place in my
office and remember fondly my days here in this House of
Representatives and my association with so many of you. Thank you.
Mr. BUECHNER. Again, Dan, thank you for your service and your
leadership during some challenging times.
Mr. Speaker, the Members of the association were honored and proud to
serve in the United States Congress. We are continuing our service to
the Nation in other ways now, but hopefully, ones that are equally
effective. Again, thank you for letting us return today to this Chamber
that means so much to us.
This concludes our 35th annual report by the U.S. Association of
former Members of Congress.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Slattery.) The gentleman from Maryland
would like to be recognized (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. I asked my dear, dear friend of a long time, Speaker
Michel, glad to have you here. You former Members, I want you to know
that at one point in time I went up to Ray LaHood in 1995. I would
particularly like my Republican friends to hear this. I went up to Ray
LaHood, who was presiding in 1995. I went up to him and I said, look,
we have got 197 Democrats, and if you could just get 20 Republicans, we
will elect Bob Michel speaker. But LaHood could not deliver, Bob. I do
not know what happened.
But I always like the opportunity to come and visit with those of you
who have served so well in this Congress and provided for us such an
outstanding institution in which to serve. It is a little more
acrimonious than when most of you served here. Perhaps that will, at
some point in time, get better. But in any event, on behalf of all of
us who still serve here and who have benefited by what you have done
through the years, thank you very much. And I hope that you have had a
great visit back.
We see you often. I see Bob on a very regular basis, but I hope that
all of you are doing well. Thank you for your assistance through the
years. Thank you very much.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Thank you, Mr. President. The Chair again
wishes to thank the former Members of Congress for their presence here
today. And for those of you who have not had an opportunity to record
your presence with the Clerk, I would invite you to do so at this time.
Good luck to all of you.
The Chair would advise that the House will reconvene at approximately
10:35.
Accordingly (at 10 o'clock and 20 minutes a.m.), the House continued
in recess.
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