[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 79 (Monday, June 19, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H4193-H4195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  LARRY WINN, JR. POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 5504) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 6029 Broadmoor Street in Mission, Kansas, as the 
``Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office Building''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 5504

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. LARRY WINN, JR. POST OFFICE BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 6029

[[Page H4194]]

     Broadmoor Street in Mission, Kansas, shall be known and 
     designated as the ``Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) and the gentlewoman from the District of 
Columbia (Ms. Norton) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from North Carolina.


                             General Leave

  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5504, offered by the distinguished gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Moore), would designate the post office building at 6029 
Broadmoor Street in Mission, Kansas, as the Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office 
Building.
  Larry Winn was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 22, 1919. He 
attended the public schools in Kansas City and in 1941 graduated with a 
bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas.
  Before becoming a Member of Congress, Winn spent 2 years as a private 
home builder and 14 years as director of the National Association of 
Home Builders.
  He was elected as a Republican to the 90th Congress and to the eight 
succeeding Congresses. Winn served 18 years on the Space Science and 
Applications Subcommittee, 4 years on the District of Columbia 
Committee and 14 years on the Foreign Relations Committee.
  After his retirement from Congress in 1985, Winn continued to serve 
Prairie Village, Kansas, as one of the elected members of the board of 
directors of the Kansas City Life Insurance Company.
  I urge all Members to come together to honor a man who truly promoted 
excellence in community and government by passing H.R. 5504.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I am pleased to join my colleague in consideration of H.R. 5504, a 
measure sponsored by Representative Dennis Moore. H.R. 5504 names a 
postal facility in Mission, Kansas, after Larry Winn, Jr. A native of 
Kansas City, Missouri, Mr. Winn was elected to the U.S. House of 
Representatives and served from 1967 to 1985. He is currently a 
resident of Prairie Village, Kansas.
  This measure has the support and sponsorship of the entire Kansas 
delegation and was unanimously reported by the Government Reform 
Committee on June 8, 2006. I urge Members to support this bill.
  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, joined by my Kansas delegation 
colleagues--Representatives Tiahrt, Ryun and Moran--I recently 
introduced legislation to designate the United States Postal Service 
facility located at 6029 Broadmoor Street in Mission, Kansas, as the 
``Larry Winn, Jr. Post Office Building.'' I am pleased that the House 
is considering it today and I thank House Government Reform Committee 
Chairman Tom Davis and Ranking Democratic Member Henry Waxman and their 
staffs for moving this measure so rapidly through their committee.
  Edward Lawrence ``Larry'' Winn, Jr., represented Kansas' Third 
Congressional District in the U.S. House from 1967 to 1985. Born in 
Kansas City, Missouri, in 1919, he was an Eagle Scout who attended 
public schools and received a B.A. from the University of Kansas in 
1941. Becoming an announcer for WHB radio, he later served as public 
relations director for the local branch of the American Red Cross. 
Returning to Kansas, he established and became vice president of Winn-
Rau Corporation, a private home builder. For 14 years, he served as 
National Director of the National Association of Home Builders, and 
also served as President of the Home Builders Association of Kansas 
City.
  In 1962, the incumbent U.S. Representative in the Third District, 
Robert Ellsworth, asked Winn, who had served as Republican Party 
chairman in that district, to be his campaign manager; he fulfilled 
that role in the 1962 and 1964 campaigns. In 1966, when Ellsworth 
unsuccessfully challenged incumbent U.S. Senator Jim Pearson in the 
Republican primary, Winn won election as his successor, defeating 
Overland Park Mayor Marvin Rainey. In later contests, among eight 
successful re-elections, Winn would defeat Lieutenant Governor James 
DeCoursey and Dan Watkins, the former chief of staff to Governor John 
Carlin.
  Initially appointed to the House Committees on Space and Aeronautics 
(later renamed Science and Technology) and the District of Columbia, 
Winn later was appointed to the Select Committee on Crime, the 
Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the International Relations Committee, 
which was later renamed the Foreign Affairs Committee. Described by 
Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America, 1982 as a ``quiet, 
unassuming man,'' Winn eventually rose to the ranking Republican seat 
on the Science and Technology Committee, where he was an active 
supporter of America's space exploration program. As Politics in 
America, 1982 noted, he also advocated research into alternative energy 
sources such as gasohol and solar and wind power, and tax credits for 
energy efficiency and conservation.
  Winn was appointed by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate to 
serve as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations in 1979. 
He also was a member of the Canadian Interparliamentary Group and was 
ranking Republican member of the U.S.-European Interparliamentary 
Group. Domestically, Winn was a leading advocate of ``value 
engineering,'' a cost-saving government management system that was 
implemented in the early 1970s. He also was a leading advocate of a 
successful proposal maintaining 10 regional Federal office centers in 
the United States, which preserved Kansas City as a Federal regional 
office center, rather than transferring those functions to Denver.
  Winn also is remembered for his advocacy of a proposed Tallgrass 
National Prairie Park in Kansas; as a result of his initial efforts, 
the Kansas Flint Hills are now home to the Tallgrass Prairie National 
Preserve, a unit of the National Park System managed in partnership 
with the private National Park Trust dedicated to the rich natural and 
cultural history of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
  In their 1972 analysis of Winn's career, the Ralph Nader Congress 
Project's Citizens Look at Congress review of Winn's activities 
concluded that: ``Legislatively, Winn shows a good feel for Third 
District needs and interests. . . . Although Winn has had considerable 
experience in public speaking and writing, his style is more folksy 
than polished.'' During his tenure, he taped a weekly radio program on 
current congressional issues that was distributed to local 
broadcasters, as well as drafting and circulating weekly newspaper 
columns and twice-yearly congressional questionnaires that were sent to 
all in-district postal patrons. He estimated that over 2,000 Third 
District residents visited his Washington, D.C., office during the 
first 4 years of his tenure, and bumper stickers proclaiming: ``I 
visited Congressman Larry Winn in Washington'' were seen frequently 
across the Kansas City area.
  Upon announcing his retirement from the U.S. House in 1984, 
Representative Winn published a column in the Christian Science Monitor 
decrying the increase in congressional partisan rancor. Twenty two 
years later, his words are even more relevant: ``It is important now 
for both Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives to 
recognize that a continuation of this rancor will undercut the 
legislative process. Most Americans are neither Republicans nor 
Democrats but are independents. This expresses a desire for pragmatism 
over ideology. Members of the House, without abandoning their 
individual philosophical approaches, should also approach problems 
pragmatically.''
  Mr. Speaker, Larry Winn, Jr., served the Third District of Kansas as 
its Representative with diligence and decency for eighteen years. It is 
fitting that we now name a major postal facility in the Third District 
after him, and I hope the House and the Senate will move swiftly to 
approve this measure.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5504, 
which designates the facility of the United States Postal Service 
located at 6029 Broadmoor Street in Mission, KS, as the ``Larry Winn, 
Jr. Post Office Building.''
  Edward Lawrence ``Larry'' Winn, Jr. represented Kansas's Third 
Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 
to 1985. He was born in Kansas City, MO, on August 22, 1919. He was an 
Eagle Scout who attended public schools and graduated with a B.A. from 
the University of Kansas in 1941.
  Before his election to Congress, Winn spent 2 years with a radio 
station in Kansas City, 2 years with North American Aviation, and 2 
years as a private home builder. From 1950 to 1966 he served as vice 
president of Winn-Rau Corp. Winn also spent 14 years as national 
director of the National Association of Home

[[Page H4195]]

Builders and is a past president of the Home Builder's Association of 
Kansas City. Winn was elected as a Republican to the 90th and to the 
eight succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1967-January 3, 1985) and did 
not seek reelection to the 99th Congress.
  In Congress, Winn served 18 years on the Space Science and 
Applications Subcommittee and served on the Technology Assessment Board 
of the Office of Technology Assessment. He also spent 4 years on the 
District of Columbia Committee and 14 years on the Foreign Relations 
Committee. Winn served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United 
Nations in 1979 and served as ranking Republican on the European and 
Middle East Subcommittee.
  Winn also served as a member of Canadian Interparliamentary Group and 
as a member of U.S.-European Interparliamentary Group. He was the first 
congressional spokesman for Value Analysis Engineering and a strong 
supporter of Peace Corps and Agency for International Development. Winn 
received the Treasury Department's ``Bulldog Award'' for fiscal 
responsibility all 18 years.
  Winn was the original sponsor of the legislation for the Tallgrass 
Prairie National Park in Kansas and after his retirement, the bill was 
managed by Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum and Representatives Pat 
Roberts and Dan Glickman. The bill was passed, and today the park is a 
reality. He also is a recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship Award for 
Rotary International.
  After retirement from Congress, Winn was elected to the Board of 
Directors of Kansas City Life Insurance Company. He married Joan 
Elliott in 1942 and has five children.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring Larry Winn and his 18 
years of service to the Third Congressional District of Kansas by 
voting for H.R. 5504.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5504.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

                          ____________________