[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 15, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6649-S6650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CHUCK LUDLAM

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise to express my gratitude and, 
truly, this country's gratitude, to Chuck Ludlam of my staff, for his 
33-year career in government service and public policy. He's retiring 
on June 24, 40 years to the month after his first job on Capitol Hill 
as a ``Stanford in Government'' intern in the House of Representatives.
  Thomas Jefferson once asked the question: What duty does a citizen 
owe to the government that secures the society in which he lives?
  Answering his own question, Jefferson said: ``A nation that rests on 
the will of the people must also depend on individuals to support its 
institutions if it is to flourish. Persons qualified for public service 
should feel an obligation to make that contribution.''
  Chuck has answered that call--a call as old as our Republic--with 
dedicated service to our Nation and continued service to our world.
  Chuck began his public service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in 
1968-1970. After his Senate retirement, he and his wife, Paula 
Hirschoff, also a 1960's Peace Corps volunteer, in Kenya, will serve 
again as Peace Corps volunteers, in Senegal. This full circle expresses 
well their commitment to service.
  The professionalism and accomplishments of congressional staff are 
often unsung and even unappreciated. While it is difficult to summarize 
a career as varied and distinguished as Chuck's, let me touch on a few 
highlights.
  I have known Chuck since I arrived in the Senate in 1989, and he has 
served as my economic counsel since 2001. Following the anthrax attack 
on the Senate in October 2001, Chuck went to work on biodefense and 
infectious disease policy issues. BioShield I, enacted last July, was 
in significant part due to his work, and he has now helped Senator 
Hatch, Senator Brownback, and me fashion BioShield II, S. 975, a 
visionary tour de force on the full range of issues we must address to 
prepare for a bioterror attack or infectious disease outbreak. This 
bill provides a prescription for how to prepare ourselves for these 
threats to our national health and well being. Now it is incumbent on 
us to enact it. It is hard to describe the importance to our country of 
moving this legislation. It is an area of extreme future risk not only 
for ourselves but for all nations. Chuck developed a profound view of 
what must be done to deter this nightmare, a nightmare not only of bio 
attacks but of infectious disease in general, and has been relentlessly 
pressing this problem and its solutions onto our national policy agenda 
since 2001. It has been an exceptionally dedicated and unique 
legislative effort and it underscores the kind of remarkable role 
talented and driven Senate staff like Chuck can play assisting Senator 
policymakers.
  Chuck had a long and very special working education that has enabled 
him to serve in this Senate policy-developer role. Before his service 
in my office, Chuck served as chief tax counsel on the Senate Small 
Business Committee, 1985-1993, with Senator Dale Bumpers; as legal 
counsel on the Joint Economic Committee, 1982-1985, with Congressman 
Gillis Long; as legal counsel on the Carter White House Domestic Policy 
Staff, 1979-1981, working with Si Lazarus and Stu Eizenstat; as counsel 
to the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Subcommittee on 
Separation of Powers of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1975-1979, with 
Senator James Abourezk; and as a trial attorney in the Bureau of 
Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, 1972-1975. In 
addition, he served as vice president for Government Relations, 
Biotechnology Industry Organization, 1993-2000, and Counsel, Musick, 
Peeler and Garrett, 1981-1982).

  During his long career on Capitol Hill, Chuck has brought his strong 
talents to bear on a wide range of legislative issues. While on my 
staff, these ranged from Federal fiscal responsibility and honest 
government accounting, S. 1915; to building assets for the poor, S. 
476; to promoting U.S.-China educational and cultural engagement; S. 
1117; to U.S. economic competitiveness policy, S. 2747; and, as I 
mentioned, to enacting Project BioShield, Public Law 108-276.
  Long before joining me, Chuck worked to establish the Office of 
Senate Legal Counsel, Public Law 95-521; to defeat problematic Airline 
Noise legislation in 1978; to enact the first law on the subject of 
organizational conflict of interest, Public Law 95-70; to enact the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act, Public law 96-354; to save the tax 
exemption for the bonds for non-profit hospitals and schools, Public 
Law 97-248; enact the Patent Reform Act of 1999, Public Law 106-113; to 
enact the first law banning genetic discrimination, Public Law 104-191; 
to make permanent the Orphan Drug Tax Credit, Public Law 104-188 and 
105-34; and to

[[Page S6650]]

defeat attempts to criminalize some stem cell research in 1997-1998.
  We know Chuck to be a passionate and tenacious advocate, a dedicated 
mentor to the talented legislative fellows who have worked for him, an 
adventurer who continues to trek over some of the most forbidding and 
fascinating parts of the planet, a loyal friend to many in our office, 
someone who is always searching for the ``big idea-big picture'' as a 
visionary policy developer, and a generous human being with a sense of 
humor. As a Congressional Staffer, he has always kept his focus on the 
public interest, undistracted by partisan concerns, and I found I could 
always count on hearing his frank and perceptive perspective on what 
would be the right policy for the country.
  Chuck is completing an oral history of his unusual and remarkable 
Senate career, based on interviews with the Office of the Senate 
Historian, which has been transcribed and will be available on line. 
This history describes the challenges, skills and tactics of a Capitol 
Hill staffer who has fought in the political trenches over forty years.
  Chuck hopes that this history will encourage young people to consider 
careers in public service. He's served as the principal advisor and 
mentor for 25 years to the ``Stanford in Government'' program. He was 
one of 100 alumni awarded medallions to honor their service to Stanford 
University during centennial celebrations of the University's founding 
in 1991; the headquarters for ``Stanford in Government'' at the Haas 
Center for Public Service is named after him.
  We wish Chuck and Paula well in their venture in Africa. We will miss 
Chuck in the office but we know that he's following one of his great 
dreams, and starting on a remarkable and courageous new round of public 
service. My office and I are grateful for his dedicated service to our 
office, to the Senate, and to our Nation, as well as for his 
friendship.
  Somewhere right now Jefferson and our Founding Fathers are looking 
down and smiling proud that our Nation still produces men and women 
like Chuck and Paula.
  Congratulations Chuck. Keep in touch and keep teaching us. We eagerly 
await your reports from Africa.

                          ____________________