[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 133 (Wednesday, December 6, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H8876-H8882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE TRIBUTE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McHenry). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, before he leaves the floor I would echo the
sentiment of my gratitude for the friendship, the public service and
the example of integrity of the gentleman from
[[Page H8877]]
New York, and his leadership and his kindness will be greatly missed
here as well as his passion for public service. Mr. Boehlert, I
congratulate you and thank you.
We gather today in a caucus known as the Republican Study Committee
in this leadership hour to do what my colleagues from New York have
just completed doing, Mr. Speaker, and that is really taking a moment
to both speak of and hear from some of our cherished colleagues who
will be moving on to other careers, some voluntarily, some
involuntarily, but all of them ending time, short and long, here on
Capitol Hill that have been marked by a commitment to principle and a
commitment to integrity.
I sometimes will say, Mr. Speaker, that my ambition in Congress is to
get out of this place with my family and my reputation for commitment
to principle intact, and all of those that we will hear from tonight
have accomplished that.
I served as the chair of the Republican Study Committee in this
Congress and will be joined this evening with an assist from the newly-
elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Jeb Hensarling from
Texas, who will be helping me introduce and also extol the careers of
those individuals who will be leaving the employ of the people of the
United States of America at the end of the 109th Congress this week.
I want to begin by introducing for a few remarks the gentleman from
Minnesota's 1st Congressional District. Gil Gutknecht represents the
peak of the baby boom generation in his career in public service. After
serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives for 12 years, Gil
Gutknecht was elected to Congress in 1994, part of a storied class that
brought a new majority to Capitol Hill. He has served as the chairman
of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Operations, Oversight,
Nutrition and Forestry, but more than that he has earned a reputation
nationally as a deficit hawk for his service while on the House Budget
Committee.
He has also throughout his career earned many awards as a friend of
the farmer, a friend of the taxpayer, and if I may say so, as I yield
time to the gentleman from Minnesota, one of simply the most plain
spoken, eloquent Members of the House of Representatives.
Gil Gutknecht has often said that he believes, ``Words have meaning,
ideas matter and actions have consequences,'' and he set an example of
that throughout his 12 years here on Capitol Hill. It is with great
pleasure that I recognize a colleague and a friend and inspiration for
the Republican Study Committee, Minnesota's 1st Congressional, Gil
Gutknecht.
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from
Indiana for having this Special Order.
Woody Allen once observed that he was not afraid of death. He just
did not want to be there when it happened, and it was a little like
that on Tuesday night about 10 o'clock for some of us. We were there
when it happened.
But I did want to reflect, I have been so blessed to serve in this
great body for the last 12 years. I wanted to reflect a little bit
about what it was like when I first ran for Congress, what it was like
during those heady days, some of the highs and lows, some of the
accomplishments.
The Congress itself is a living, breathing organism, and every 2
years we have an election, and in some respects every 2 years we have
an entirely different Congress. A lot of the faces stay the same, but
the dynamic is different. There will be different leaders. There will
be different issues, and I was so fortunate and I really do mean
blessed that, first of all, I had a chance to serve in the Minnesota
State Legislature.
In that capacity, I served as what we would probably call here the
whip. I was the floor leader, and every day it was my job to help
organize the debate. I made sure that, and the years that I was in the
position we were in the minority, but every year, every day I made sure
that the other side was held accountable for what they said and what
they did and what they proposed and how they voted. I really enjoyed
that job. We had real debates in the legislature, unlike the Congress.
But it was really time for me to move on, and so I decided to run for
the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 and I was very fortunate. I
picked a good year. The issues favored us. The wind was at our back.
I will never forget. It was kind of a cloudy day, and Members
probably remember that as well, but it was a cloudy day when we all
gathered here in Washington that fall to sign the Contract with
America, and just as we went on the western steps of the U.S. Capitol
Building here, just as we walked out there, the clouds parted and the
sun came out. It was almost like it was a divine message that the sun
was going to shine on the Republican Party that year and it did.
Most of us that day believed we were going to win, and most of us
did. I came here with one of the largest freshman classes in the
history of Republican Party, and I will never forget, when we came here
we were the toast of the town. The Republican freshmen that year, we
spent our days at orientation and looking for apartments and doing all
the other things that freshmen have to do when they come here, but the
evenings we were wined and dined by almost everyone.
I will also never forget one particular story. We were waiting
outside the hotel, some of us, and a sweet little lady came by. I guess
it is not politically correct to say a sweet little old lady, but she
had kind of blue hair, and anyway, she looked at us and sort of gave a
double take. Perhaps she recognized Sonny Bono, and she said, You are
the Republican freshmen, aren't you? And we said, yes, and we started
to introduce ourselves. Then almost with a tear in her eye, she said,
you know, I have been waiting 40 years for you because it had been 40
years since the Republicans had been in the majority in this House of
Representatives.
In fact, going back just a little bit before that, one of the first
trips I made to Washington as a candidate for Congress, I was invited
to a leadership meeting. I was star struck. Pretty soon Henry Hyde came
into the meeting room. I sat in the corner, and there was a big pile of
the best cookies I had ever since, and they had flasks of coffee, and
so I sat in the corner and thought I am just going to watch this like a
fly on the wall and drink coffee and eat these cookies. Pretty soon
Henry Hyde comes bouncing in and those who remember Henry in his
earlier days had quite a bounce to his step. I was in awe of Henry
Hyde. I had watched him on C-SPAN. I had heard his speeches. I was a
big fan of all that he had done to protect the unborn.
I am sitting in the back of the room and Dick Armey comes in, and
pretty soon Newt Gingrich comes in, and I am just sitting there, my
eyes are big, and I am watching all this. And then Bill Paxon walked
into the room and he spotted me. He said, oh, hey, we have got Gil
Gutknecht over here, he is going to win that seat back in the 1st
Congressional District back in Minnesota; stand up and say a few words,
Gil.
I was like a deer in the headlight for longer than I want to admit.
Finally, when I gained my senses I said, you know, I was born in 1951,
and when I was a child, a very small child, a baby, Republicans were in
the majority in this House. I said I believe like Haley's Comet our
time is coming again, and you know, I have been to auction college. One
of the things they teach you in auction college is to read people's
eyes. As I looked around the room at the leaders of the Republican
Caucus that day, I could read their eyes. Some of them were saying,
yeah, right, kid, but one of them, and I will never forget, Newt
Gingrich, his eyes said, yes, we are going to be in the majority.
Ultimately, Newt was right.
So we came to Washington. I think about that little lady who had been
waiting 40 years for us, and I thought about her often. I hope we have
not let her down too much. I think maybe in the last couple of years,
maybe we did, but those were heady days, and we made enormous progress.
I remember coming down to the floor of the House with one of my
colleagues, Congressman Mark Neumann from Wisconsin's 1st Congressional
District, and Mark came to town with charts. He was the first person
that I know that actually used charts on the Special Orders. Part of
the reason he used charts is there had been a study done at the
University of Wisconsin that said you are 40 percent more believable if
you
[[Page H8878]]
use charts, and so we all started using charts. But it started I think
with Mark Neumann.
He had this simple chart about what it was going to take to balance
the Federal budget and it was not complicated. You have to slow the
rate of the growth of spending, so that the Federal budget does not
grow at a faster rate than the average family budget. Now, that is not
rocket science, but you know what, we did it and it worked.
I remember in, and Ernie will remember this, too, when we locked
horns with former President Clinton, and in December of 1995 we shut
the government down. I remember also when it was all over, when we
finally, and if I can say this, when Bob Dole capitulated and ended the
government shutdown, I remember what Newt said to me. He said, you
know, it was a dumb fight dumbly fought, and I think a lot of people
thought that, but it was an important turning point because we sent a
message not only to the President and the administration but to the
American people that we were deadly serious about controlling Federal
spending, the growth in Federal spending and, more importantly,
allowing Americans to keep more of what they earned.
We did a lot of important things. It was not just about the Contract
with America. We marched through those in the first 100 days, and I
remember something that Henry Hyde said when it was all over. He said,
you know, it was not a 100 days that was so tough, it was the hundred
nights.
We literally were in session almost from Monday morning early,
working most evenings till 8, 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night, but it was a
wonderful time. We reformed the welfare system. We cut the welfare
rolls in half, and we reinforced those time-tested values that I think
have made America the special place that it is.
So I was so privileged to have been here as part of that, and we did
make some enormous progress on so many fronts, and we literally went
from a $250 billion deficit, and deficits for as far as the eye could
see, to something people had even forgotten and that is by September
11, 2001, when we had a Budget Committee meeting that morning on
September 11, 2001, the issue we were talking about was what are we
going to do with this big surplus. We were looking at surpluses of
trillions of dollars.
So it has been a very special time to be here. I really do think we
lost our way a bit once we got into the surplus situation, but as I
think about all of the areas where we were able to have an influence on
the course of events, yes, we made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of
mistakes, but this has been a very special time in American history.
I never thought when I ran for Congress that I would vote in effect
to declare war. I never thought that I would be called to vote on
articles of impeachment. I did believe that we would have a chance to
vote for a balanced budget agreement.
The high point perhaps, during my entire tenure here in Congress, was
when the President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton,
joined us and he issued those immortal words that the era of big
government is over. It may have been a bit premature because the empire
has struck back in the last number of years, and as I say, we have made
a lot of mistakes on the way.
I hope we have not let people down, but it has been a wonderful
privilege for me to serve in this very special place. This is the
people's House, and you know, sometimes when the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune, of electoral ups and downs do not necessarily break
our way, it is easy for us to blame the voters, but in the end I
believe that the voters have a right to be wrong, even if they are
wrong, but I also believe for the most part the voters are right. I
think we lost our way in the last several years, and so they began to
wonder were we still the party of reform, were we still the party that
battled big government or that defended big government?
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Were we the party that was trying to change Washington or had
Washington changed us? And my only wish for all of you and particularly
the Members of the Republican Study Committee is that you return to
those time-tested principles and values, because in the end that is
what this is all about. Government will either reinforce time-tested
principles and values or it will undermine them. When government grows,
freedom declines.
And I am sorry, I should remember who said it, and now I have even
forgotten the quote. But I think our founders really understood that
those who would trade liberty for security will lose both and deserve
neither. Those words were true 220 years ago and they are true today.
And I know that we had an interesting debate this afternoon about the
rights of the unborn. If you look at what our founders said and what
they wrote, even Thomas Jefferson, who was not necessarily considered a
religious man in the sense that a lot of our folks who were our
founders, but he was a deeply religious man. And he said that the same
God who gave us life gave us freedom.
Those rights and those inalienable rights that were talked about so
much in the early days of our Republic need to be talked about again.
And I think it really falls upon the Republican Study Committee and the
people who are here, regardless of what the numbers are, regardless of
what the polls may say today, those time-tested values and principles
will win out.
And I don't believe the American voters voted against our values, I
don't think the voters voted against our principles. There were other
cross-currents. And even if they did, we simply need to do a much
better job of telling our story.
I was privileged to come to Washington with J.D. Hayworth and that
freshman class, and so as I leave I will have both some sad memories
about how things ended, or at least they ended for me, but I will have
mostly incredibly fond memories of golden days and golden nights and
ways that we made a difference.
I will close by saying this. When I go to high schools and visit with
students, I tell them a couple things. First of all, I always tell them
I am one of the luckiest people that they will meet that day, and I say
that because every day I felt like I made a little difference in
somebody's life. And it didn't necessarily make the papers. A lot of
times people talk about, well, what is said in the Washington Post and
did it make the CBS News and did Fox News do something about it. A lot
of the things that we do every day don't make the news.
It may be a woman who calls and her daughter is stuck at a New Jersey
airport and she has lost her passport, and she is frantic and she says,
``Congressman, my daughter is stuck at this airport. Can you help get
her passport?'' And that is a true story. And we were able to get that
young lady a passport through the State Department in a matter of about
3 hours and get her on the next plane. Now, to this day that mother
thinks I am the greatest guy who ever lived. And there are a lot of
other things, whether it is a veteran's benefit, to helping people plug
into the right administrative issue. There all kinds of things that
people in Congress do every day that don't make the news but we are
making a difference in people's lives.
And I do believe in that expression that you used earlier: If you
want to change the world, you have got to first change your
neighborhood. And if you can't change your neighborhood, at least be a
good example. And I think the responsibility of the Republican Study
Committee is to be that beacon of light, but most importantly, to be a
good example. Because both America and I think many Members of Congress
want to follow it, and they are looking for leadership.
So thank you very much for having this little event tonight and thank
you for giving me one last chance to visit with the folks here in the
House Chamber. As I say, it has been a wonderful experience. I want to
thank all the folks who I worked with through the years, including, and
especially, Mark Newman from Wisconsin's First Congressional District
for getting us started using charts. Thank you very much.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume, as we
see other outgoing Members arriving, to the newly elected chairman of
the Republican Study Committee for the 110th Congress, Jim Hensarling
from Texas.
[[Page H8879]]
Mr. HENSARLING. I certainly thank my friend for yielding time, and I
did not want to let my dear friend and colleague from Minnesota depart
without at least adding my thoughts as well.
I did a little homework this evening to discover that, even though my
own heritage is German, I know little about it, that Gutknecht means
good hired hand in that language. And we have a good hired hand amongst
us, Mr. Speaker.
I had the honor and privilege of first meeting this man back in 1996
when we were both involved in the Phil Graham for President Campaign.
Senator Phil Graham is my dear friend and mentor; and although that
battle perhaps did not end well, for me it cemented an admiration for
the gentleman from Minnesota. And although, as you can see and the
American people can see, he certainly has a folksy Midwestern way about
him that really belies the fact that I believe him to be one of the
deepest thinkers that we have in this United States Congress, and I
know that his principle compass always points in one direction. And I
have seen this man take many, many tough votes, and I have seen this
man go against his own party when he thought he was right. He is a man
who puts country above career, and I have seen him do it time and time
again.
I believe, Mr. Speaker, that his departure from this body is not only
a loss to him, but as I have the great honor and privilege in the
future to follow my dear friend from Indiana and chair the conservative
caucus of the House, the Republican Study Committee, that certainly his
wisdom, his insight, his leadership will be sorely missed. He is a
great leader. He has done great for the people of Minnesota, he has
done great for the people of America, and I am proud to always call him
my friend.
Mr. PENCE. Ernest Istook began his career in Congress in November of
1992, serving as a distinguished Member of the House Appropriations
Committee where he served as the chairman of the Transportation and
Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee.
Before arriving in Congress, he served as a city councilman in
Oklahoma City, and during that time also sat on the board of many local
interests. He also served in the State legislature there in the Sooner
State, beginning in 1986. Ernest Istook leaves us after 14 years of
service in the United States House of Representatives, and he takes
with him not only an optimistic, cheerful conservatism that was the
source of mentoring to me and other conservatives in the Republican
Study Committee for many years, but he really takes his greatest asset,
which is his wife Judy, who, while she did not become the first lady of
Oklahoma this year, she was I think the first lady of the Republican
Study Committee for many years and will always be so in our hearts.
I recognize the gentleman from the Fifth Congressional District,
Ernest Istook, for such time as he may consume, with the deepest
gratitude and admiration of his junior colleagues in the Republican
Study Committee, an organization, I might add, Mr. Speaker, that
Congressman Ernest Istook founded during his 14-year tenure in the
United States House of Representatives, the largest caucus in the
Congress of the United States today. I yield such time as he may
consume.
Mr. ISTOOK. I thank my friend from Indiana, and I thank everybody for
having a little bit of time this evening to talk about the importance
of the Republican Study Committee, the importance of conservative
principles. And I really enjoyed hearing my friend Gil Gutknecht
recount some of the things during his years here. Myself, I don't
choose to try to talk about the things that have happened during the 14
years, because really I don't think service in the Congress is about
me, and it is not about us as individuals; it is about what do we do to
carry on the principles upon which this country was founded, the self-
government, the ideal, the understanding that God made us as people
able and capable to govern ourselves; and not only that, to live our
lives without having to be controlled by government.
So I would like to spend my time this evening talking a little bit
about what I believe, as a principled conservative, as somebody who
believes, yes, in economic conservatism and social conservatism. But it
is really based upon the premise that God made each of us as capable
individuals, and that we have the free agency to make decisions for
ourselves. And conservative principles enable us, enable us, to fulfill
that destiny rather than having our lives dictated to us by government.
I fear, of course, that the pendulum has gone too far in the United
States. Government is too big, it spends too much. And, of course, any
government that is big enough to give you everything that you want is
powerful enough to take everything that you have got. And I know the
year that I was born, which was 1950, the typical American family, in
Federal income taxes, paid something like 2 or 2\1/2\ percent of their
annual income in Federal income taxes. Today, on average, it is closer
to 10 times that amount. Now, that tells you something about what is
going on.
And when you look at what has happened here in Washington, D.C., and
the voters sent a message if people here will just listen to it. And
what is the common factor, whether you are talking about the level of
spending, the amount of earmarks, the bridge to nowhere, whether you
are talking about campaign finance issues, ethics issues, lobbying
issues, it all happens because big government creates big problems, big
government creates big lobbying, big government creates a big need to
defend yourself against it. So everything that we have that I think has
caught the attention in a negative way of the voters this year traces
back to the fact that we haven't controlled the size of government.
Now, I was really happy when we had some years during my time in
Congress when we actually balanced the budget. Boy, that was important.
But you know, when 9/11 happened it became an excuse not just to spend
more money on defense and homeland security to meet the security needs,
but it was, what is the old adage, ``in for a dime, in for a dollar.''
And we saw that. I remember back during the Vietnam era the catch
phrase was ``guns and butter.'' If you are going to pay for guns, you
don't have enough money to pay for butter. You can't be expanding
social programs at the time that you are trying to take care of the
defense and the security needs of the country.
Well, we saw that some people said even though 9/11 created some
spending requirements to take care of the security of Americans, we
still spent too much in other ways, and we are paying the price, the
consequences.
I was asked when I was first elected to Congress, if there is one
thing, one thing that you could accomplish, what would it be? And I
said the adoption of a balanced budget amendment, because I think that
is what constricts and controls the size of government. You know, we
haven't even had a vote on a balanced budget amendment here in this
House in 11\1/2\ years. I have become the principal author of the
balanced budget amendment, but unfortunately the people in charge of
bringing things through committee and to the floor haven't brought it
here in 11\1/2\ years.
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I think that is one of the reasons that we have the difficulties that
we do: We don't require government to live within its means as all of
us have to do when we sit around the kitchen table and try to balance
the family budget. Maybe we need to install a kitchen table here in the
Congress so we can sit around it and actually have to balance things.
I certainly hope that if the people that are here in the 110th
Congress don't do anything else, bring back the balanced budget
amendment. It was the number one item in the Contract With America in
1994, and it is a sad travesty that it hasn't even been voted on in
this body in some 11 and a half years.
We have been entrusted with the power to govern, and where much is
given, much is expected. We have to be more in tune with the American
people, and we have to talk to the American people about correct
principles.
Too often we hear there is a problem; therefore, government needs to
step in and be the solver of problems rather than the creator of
problems. What was the Ronald Reagan line, too many people that if
something moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops
moving, subsidize it. We have seen that too much.
[[Page H8880]]
We need to stress personal responsibility more than government
programs. That is what we have gotten away from.
The most important thing that each of us will do happens with our
families. I am so grateful for my wife, Judy, and for my five children,
Amy, Butch, Chad, Diana, and Emily, and what they mean to me. But no
wife could have been more supportive than my wife Judy has been. I am
eternally grateful to her, and want her to know how very much I love
her.
You see, I believe the most important work I ever do, or any of us
will ever do does not happen within the halls of Congress but within
the walls of our own home. We need that principle. We need to remind
Americans that they are given God-given blessings.
As was stated in the Declaration of Independence, we hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these
rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men.
What did they say: Government exists to protect the rights that were
given to us as a gift from God. We need to remember that truth. We need
to follow that principle. We need to abide by that as the Founding
Fathers taught us to do.
So I am grateful for the people in this body who hold true to those
beliefs, who believe in the capabilities, the dynamic abilities of the
American people. I believe America rests upon four pillars that we must
keep strong and solid: Freedom, free enterprise, faith, and family. It
is my prayer that we will each strengthen each and every one of those
pillars. Thank you for letting me speak this evening.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma's Fifth Congressional
District for his service, his founding service to the Republican Study
Committee, and would recognize our nearly elected chairman for a few
brief remarks.
Mr. HENSARLING. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I wish to add
my own meager voice to those who celebrate the career of Ernest Istook,
truly one of the great leaders in the conservative movement in the last
decade.
Certainly his vision, his forethought, his courage to help found the
modern Republican Study Committee has been critical to any progress
that the conservative movement has achieved in this House. And, Mr.
Speaker, it has been much. It has been much.
So as a Texan, I will certainly miss my colleague from north of the
Red River. Again, as the incoming chairman of the Republican Study
Committee, I will certainly miss the wisdom and leadership that he has
to provide. But I know that he hopefully will not go far and be
available to us at all times.
I want to say again how proud I am to know this man and celebrate his
work to try to balance the Federal budget as families have to balance
their budget every single day.
And even more importantly, Mr. Speaker, for the work that he has done
to ensure that in this Nation that it is truly one Nation under God
because we know that our unalienable rights are granted to us by our
creator, and that unless we champion the cause of public affirmation of
faith, we cannot preserve liberty unless we know and allow people to
affirm their faith in public that these rights are given by God
himself, and that is the work of Ernest Istook, and I am proud to know
him.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. Speaker, this was a time of transition in particular for my home
State, the Hoosier State. Indiana this year will bid farewell to the
extraordinary service of Congressman John Hostettler of southwestern
Indiana and to a two-term congressman from the land of Notre Dame in
South Bend, Indiana, Congressman Chris Chocola.
Throughout both of their careers, they have been men of integrity,
commitment to their families, and in the case of Congressman Hostettler
and Congressman Chocola, they are both men who throughout their career
in Congress were active members of the Republican Study Committee and
they brought the principles of their conservative values day in and day
out to committees and to this floor.
Another example of that is Congressman Mike Sodrel who joins us on
the floor today. Mike and his wife, Keta, who most members of the
Republican Study Committee have come to know well since he was sworn in
as the congressman for the Ninth District of Indiana in January of
2005, have made an extraordinary impression on the heart of our caucus
and the heart of this Congress in a relatively short period of time.
Mike Sodrel served in the Army National Guard from 1966 to 1973. In
1976, Congressman Mike Sodrel and his wife Keta scraped together a few
dollars and bought a truck and turned it into one of the most prolific
and successful transportation companies in the Midwest.
A veteran Indiana political reporter called Mike Sodrel, upon his
election Congress, ``the closest thing to Mr. Smith goes to Washington
as I think you will find in Congress.''
Mike Sodrel and I come dialectically from a very different part of
our State. Pronunciation of words is a little different farther south
of Highway 40. I hope however long the Lord permits to serve the people
of Indiana in this place, that I will serve with the integrity every
day to principles and family and to conservative values that the
gentleman from Indiana served.
I yield to the congressman from the Ninth Congressional District of
Indiana.
Mr. SODREL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those kind words,
and for his commitment to the Republican Study Committee. I will be
short. In fact, a reporter accused me when I first arrived here of
being laconic. I have to admit I had to go look that up. It means being
relatively stingy with your words. He asked me two questions, and I
said ``yes'' and ``yes,'' not realizing it was the job of a Member of
Congress to elaborate on all of these things.
As I listened to the previous speakers, if you want to know what
happened in this election, you can walk over to the Science Committee.
In the hearing room one of the first things I noticed in the wood
paneling behind Members in gold-leaf lettering was Proverbs 29:18:
Where there is no vision, the people perish. We failed to give the
people vision; not the fault of the Republican Study Committee, but it
was our fault generally, failure to give the people vision.
I know the RSC has a vision, and I encourage you to not only keep the
vision, communicate the vision, and insist that others listen to the
vision.
It has been my distinct honor to serve in this body, serve my
district and my State and my country for the last 2 years. I had the
privilege of visiting my former unit, the 151st Infantry when they were
deployed in Afghanistan. They are fine people and represented our State
and country well, and acquitted themselves well in the field.
And in typical Hoosier fashion, and I would like to recognize them
here tonight, their mission, according to the military was security and
training. They couldn't go home in the evenings, so they took on a
third mission which was humanitarian. In partnership with Graceland
Baptist Church in New Albany, they provided money and classrooms and
blankets and virtually anything that the people of Afghanistan needed
that they could supply.
They also had a skill set that you don't find in a typical infantry
battalion. The commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Grube, was a 6th
grade schoolteacher. Sergeant First Class Scott Hamm was manager of the
Silver Creek Water Company. So it didn't matter what the locals needed,
if you needed water, you called the 151st. If you needed a classroom
built, you called the 151st. They had carpenters, electricians, they
had all of these civilian skill sets. And being just one step out of
civilian life and being of a higher average age than a normal infantry
unit, and a lot of them being married with children, they related well
to the local folks. So I had the privilege to visit them in Afghanistan
and see what kind of job they did and how they represented the State of
Indiana in that theater.
I really have nothing else to add other than it has been my honor and
privilege not only to serve in this institution, but to serve with
people like
[[Page H8881]]
my colleague from Indiana, Mr. Pence, and I appreciate your service as
chairman of the Republican Study Committee and I appreciate your
integrity and hard work and I hope that you will certainly carry on.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for his gracious words. I know that
I speak on behalf of all of the people of Indiana when I express my
gratitude for your career of service that we know will be ongoing. Just
the hours will be better, but we are grateful for your participation in
allowing us to embarrass you tonight.
I want to yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I want to add my voice to say that
Congressman Sodrel will be missed. His cheerful countenance will be
missed. In getting to know him, I got to know a man of courage who
would always vote on principle, who knew what needed to be done and
would do the right thing regardless of the consequences, a man who has
served his Nation well, and like the other gentleman from Indiana has
said, will serve his Nation well again in the future.
Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, before we bring a Member of Congress who is the
appropriate clean-up batter tonight in this Special Order celebrating
the life and career of members of the Republican Study Committee, I
cannot help but feel that we have loaded the bases and the Babe is
about to come to bat. At the risk of having to interrupt him, which I
have not done in my 6 years in Congress and would not have the courage
to do tonight, allow me to do a little housekeeping before that and
mention the names of Bob Beauprez of Colorado's Seventh Congressional
District, a dairy farmer, community banker, a United States Congressman
and a member of the Study Committee.
Mark Green of Wisconsin served his fourth term in the United States
House of Representatives with impressive, populist leadership.
We have heard from Gil Gutknecht tonight.
Melissa Hart, a cherished member of the Republican Study Committee
from Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, was elected in the year
2000. Her district included southwestern Pennsylvania, and she rose
swiftly in this institution to some of its most important committees
and most powerful positions in the national party. She is a voice that
we will hear and see again soon.
We heard of John Hostettler tonight from Indiana's Eighth
Congressional District, and from Ernest Istook of Oklahoma's Fifth.
Anne Northup, a feisty, strong, principled conservative who served
the Third Congressional District in Kentucky since 1996 is retiring,
and she and her tenacity will be missed.
From California's 11th District, finishing his seventh term in the
United States House of Representatives, a man who brought principled
conservative reform to American environmental policy, Richard Pombo,
will be receiving the Congress and our caucus this year.
And a man I might lastly add, Jim Ryun of the Second Congressional
District of Kansas, a five-term Member of Congress, a budget hawk, but
a man who along with his wife, Anne, have simply been in the business
of ministering to families in this institution every day they have been
here. Jim Ryun came to global fame as the world record holder in the
high school mile, a record that he held for 36 years until one day when
we walked from the Capitol together and he received word of a young
Virginia teenager who had bested him.
{time} 2200
And Jim Ryun in his typical style jumped in the car, drove to meet
with that high schooler, and congratulated him. Jim's faith, his
integrity, his character, his voice will be missed in this place as
will the charm and ebullience of his wife, Anne.
Lastly I would just mention the staff of the Republican Study
Committee. During my term as chairman of the Republican Study
Committee, we have had not one but two extraordinary executive
directors. Sheila Cole served as the executive director during the
first year of my tenure, a tumultuous time where the winds of change
and circumstances buffeted House conservatives, and our staff led by
Sheila Cole, a courageous woman who has gone on to be an at-home mom,
we simply would not have been able to achieve what we achieved in
impacting the policy of this Nation for fiscal discipline and
conservative pro-life values had Sheila Cole not been at the helm.
And if I might also add Dr. Paul Teller, who stepped into her stead
and served and led the staff of the Republican Study Committee with
equal distinction. Whether it be his passion and guidance on fiscal
issues, whether it be his capacity to build coalitions within the
Congress or his professionalism in informing Members in a timely way of
the issues that we confronted as a caucus, Dr. Paul Teller has provided
exceptional leadership to this organization. And I know that his future
is so bright that he has got to wear shades, and we thank Dr. Paul
Teller.
To Russ Vought, to Joelle, to Derek, to the balance, Mr. Speaker, I
would just add to the Record tonight my humble and heartfelt gratitude.
Anything that we have accomplished as a caucus, we have accomplished
because of an extraordinary staff.
With that said, allow me to yield to our last speaker of the evening,
Mr. Speaker. He is the gentleman from the Fifth Congressional District
of Arizona. J.D. Hayworth represented Arizona's Fifth District, which
includes Scottsdale, Tempe, and its environs. First elected in 1994. He
was the first Arizonian ever to serve on the House Ways and Means
Committee, which is one of the most powerful legislative panels in
Congress. J.D. also added another key subcommittee assignment to his
duties for the 109th session of Congress. He served on the Ways and
Means Subcommittee on Health during a particularly crucial time, the
debate over the Medicare prescription drug entitlement. He was a key
voice in ensuring that there were free market reforms included in that
legislation as it moved through the Congress. He also, being a
westerner, served on the Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction
over public lands, water, Indian affairs. He has been a powerful voice
for reform and private property and humanity in the development of
those policies.
Since coming to Washington, DC, Mr. Speaker, as anyone looking in
tonight might also know, he has become simply the most prominent
Republican on the airwaves of the Nation. Whether it was radio talk
shows, whether it was television programs on every single network,
there has been no more compelling voice for conservative values, no
more compelling voice for a strong stand on immigration in America.
There has been a no more passionate voice for conservative fiscal and
social policies than the gentleman from Arizona.
I yield to Mr. J.D. Hayworth.
Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Indiana for an
overly generous introduction and one that I will cherish and agree with
wholeheartedly.
I would also be remiss, as I was listening to his statements earlier
and as he very generously offered a sports analogy and spoke of the
``Sultan of Swat,'' the great bambino, George Herman Ruth, for purposes
of full disclosure, at least I have lost the Ruthian dimensions here in
my midsection, although I have maintained the skinny legs but, alas,
not the ability to hit the long ball besides in a metaphorical fashion
here on the floor. Mr. Speaker, despite that generous introduction, for
purposes of full disclosure, we should point out that to put it
delicately, I was involuntarily retired from this body. One who served
here before, a great gentleman, Stan Parris of Virginia, when I first
met him, he said, ``J.D., I retired from the Congress because of ill
health.
I said, ``Oh, really?''
He said, ``Yeah. The voters of my district got sick of me.''
So perhaps, again, to be perfectly candid, there was some of that at
work as well.
And my friend from Minnesota who preceded me here in the well, along
with my friends from Indiana and from Oklahoma, offered varying
perspectives, but they are variations on the same theme: What a great
honor it is to serve in the people's House. And many take their leave
in different fashion.
History notes that the great Davy Crockett of Tennessee, when
informed
[[Page H8882]]
of his election loss by members of the press, invited those gentlemen
from the fourth estate to visit a ``nether region'' as he instead would
head for Texas, as the gentleman from Texas remembers.
And again to be perfectly candid, Mr. Speaker, we would be less than
human, we would be less than honest if at times during this difficult
period of transition we were not tempted to offer the recommendations
of Mr. Crockett to those, although I hasten to add to my friends from
the Lone Star State I shan't be following them to Texas. And hopefully
should I return to the media, Mr. Speaker, I won't be sent to those
other nether regions, come to think of it.
There is a saying, Mr. Speaker, that we laugh to keep from crying,
and it is not my intent to launch into an overly maudlin remembrance
tonight in this valedictory. And while I appreciated my friend from
Oklahoma talk about the principles of self-government, I fear that some
will hear these remarks and say, well, you have got the first part
right because it turns out being about self. Not entirely, but, again,
it should be noted that those of us who come here and serve,
Republican, Democrat or independent, from across this country do share
one basic characteristic: None of us suffer from a shortage of self-
esteem.
And during my time here, Mr. Speaker, I have seen incredible things.
Yes, I will talk policy. I will get to that, but given my reputation
according to Washingtonian Magazine as only the second biggest windbag
in Congress, I am bucking tonight to go a little further afield. Now,
in all sincerity, Mr. Speaker, I have seen on this floor and in this
institution acts of incredible kindness. I have also seen acts of
unspeakable pettiness. I have seen policies embraced with foresight and
vision, and I have seen actions taken that have wreaked of the
expedience of the nanosecond. I have seen the great and good. I have
seen the bad and ugly. In short, Mr. Speaker, I have seen here in the
people's House the full range of the human experience. Mr. Speaker, my
colleagues, that again reaffirms the genius of our Founders in naming
this institution the House of Representatives, because just as so many
have come from so many different walks of life, we have seen
representative behavior that has been of incredibly high standards, and
to be candid, we have seen other less desirable traits. But stop and
think about what our Founders have wrought. Understanding, as my
colleague from Oklahoma talked about, what separated this new
experiment in this new world from the monarchies of Europe, from other
governments instituted among men, the notion that our Creator endowed
us with rights and we the people voluntarily conferred power, political
power, on the government; that first God, through the freedoms granted
us, gave us that ability to voluntarily confer power on this
government.
And in this constitutional republic, Article I, Section 1, ``All
legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the
United States.'' And in the initial inception of this particular
institution, in the inception of our founders, one constitutional
office directly accountable to the people, decided by popular vote, and
given the fact that events could change a mechanism through a fairly
short term of 2 years so that the body politic could make those changes
representative of their change in priorities and their change in
outlook. And despite all the flaws and the foibles and the pitfalls and
pratfalls of the human experience, it has worked remarkably well.
Whether the disappointment voiced by one Davy Crockett and others in
other ways finishing second in elections, again, a euphemism for losing
elections, we have put aside personal disappointment to give thanks
that here we settle questions with balance, not bullets.
And as we reflect on all the talk that we have heard during the
course of the campaign that there should be a new bipartisanship, a new
nonpartisanship, for purposes of full disclosure, let us understand
that many items and many actions pass through this institution through
unanimous consent, but on major questions, it is inevitable that free
people will have different perspectives. And it is well and it is good
and it is proper for a free people to freely debate and discuss and
advocate different positions, and here with this marvelous mechanism of
representation, the people decide.
My friend from Oklahoma spoke of bringing the kitchen table in. Mr.
Speaker, I would offer another room in the house. Mr. Speaker, in
essence, this hallowed Chamber is America's living room. And here we
gather to discuss the challenges we face as a people. And we have our
arguments and we have our times of agreement, and despite many
challenges and many disappointments, somehow we get it done.
Mr. Speaker, one word in closing. I would be remiss if I did not
thank my family. My wife, Mary; my kids, Nicole, Hannah, and John
Micah; my parents; so many who have given me much such support. My
colleagues who join me here in this Congress with the new majority. But
most of all, the people of Arizona, who for 12 years gave me the
opportunity to represent them in the Congress of the United States.
I do not know what is next, but I do appreciate the words of the
Prophet Jeremiah: ``For I have plans for you,'' sayeth the Lord,
``plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a
future.''
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, public service is not always defined by
public office. And for all the American people, let us join in a prayer
that the future of our republic will forever remain bright.
{time} 2215
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dent). The gentleman from Indiana has 30
seconds remaining.
Mr. PENCE. I would like to yield the balance of that to the new
chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Mr. Hensarling of Texas.
Mr. HENSARLING. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
All I can say, Mr. Speaker, is that God only made one J.D. Hayworth.
And right now he is saying, ``Well done, good and faithful servant.''
What a powerful orator.
Mr. Speaker, tonight we celebrated the congressional careers of proud
sons and daughters of the Republican Study Committee, proud sons and
daughters of the Republican Party, proud Members of this body who have
served their Nation well.
We thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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