[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

[[Page H3562]]

     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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[[Page H3580]]

  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.

[[Page H3581]]

  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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