[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1299-H1300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  GERALD W. HEANEY FEDERAL BUILDING AND UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE AND 
                              CUSTOMHOUSE

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 187) to designate the Federal building and United States 
courthouse and customhouse located at 515 West First Street in Duluth, 
Minnesota, as the ``Gerald W. Heaney Federal Building and United States 
Courthouse and Customhouse''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                H.R. 187

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

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The Federal building and United States courthouse and 
     customhouse located at 515 West First Street in Duluth, 
     Minnesota, shall be known and designated as the ``Gerald W. 
     Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse and 
     Customhouse''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the Federal building 
     and United States courthouse and customhouse referred to in 
     section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Gerald 
     W. Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse and 
     Customhouse''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
  For me, today is a very fulfilling, as well as nostalgic, moment to 
move this bill to designate the Federal building and the U.S. 
courthouse and customhouse in Duluth for Judge Gerald W. Heaney.
  He was appointed judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 
Eighth Circuit on November 3, 1966. He took senior status in December 
31, 1988; finally retired last August after 40 years on the bench. But 
that is only part of the story.
  Gerald Heaney was born January 29, 1918, in Goodhue, a rural 
community in southeastern Minnesota. He grew up in a farming community, 
learned the values of rural America, went to my college which I 
attended many years later, College of St. Thomas, where he graduated 
and went on to the University of Minnesota where he got his law degree 
in 1941, but then started a new chapter in the life of Gerald Heaney.
  He enlisted in the Army in World War II. He was trained as a United 
States Army Ranger, and he was on the landing craft at 6:30 in the 
morning on Omaha Beach in Normandy.
  I interviewed Judge Heaney for the Library of Congress project on 
World War II veterans. They are attempting at the Library to get the 
personal views of those who participated in World War II, and he told 
this story:
  ``We were all herded into the landing craft. At 6:30 we arrived close 
to the beach. We could not quite get into the beach because of the 
obstacles that the Germans had placed under water and also had 
proximity bombs that would blow up ships. They were having trouble 
getting the vessels in, so they could not get to the beach, but they 
got into relatively shallow water. And the door went down on the 
landing craft, and the captain stood up and said, everyone ashore, and 
he was cut down by gunfire. And the first lieutenant stood up and said, 
everyone ashore, and he was cut down by gunfire. And then,'' said Judge 
Heaney, ``that left me, Second Lieutenant Gerald Heaney, in charge, and 
I looked up and said, we are not going out that door; everybody over 
the side.''
  How many lives he saved we will never know, but they got into water 
that was too deep for them to touch the bottom. They tried to swim. 
They were sinking. They all cut off their backpacks loaded with their 
food and supplemental ammunition and made it to the shore.
  I was privileged to be in the group of Speaker Hastert on the 60th 
anniversary of D-Day and stood at that beach, at that shoreline, and 
looked up at where the German gun implacements were located. It is an 
awesome crossfire site, fearsome.
  Men were cut down right and left as they crawled and inched their way 
up. By 3:30 in the afternoon, they had made progress of just about a 
mile, circled around the German guns, which was their objective, and 
with hand grenades and other explosives, explosive packs, took out the 
German gun implacements, making that segment of the beach safer for 
more landings.
  By then they were out of ammunition. Judge Heaney said, I said to my 
men, and there were only a few of us left, we will go back to the 
beach; they will have landed supplies, and we can be replenished. So 
they turned around, and he stopped and choked and said, and that is 
when I saw the carnage, thousands killed.
  But they returned, got supplemental ammunition, went back up that 
beachhead, and their job was to then circle around La Pointe du Hoc, 
which is a straight, rocky cliff. Rangers are going to scale La Pointe 
du Hoc from below, and Heaney and his Ranger group were to distract the 
Germans, take out the gunnery and make it safe, and they did. They 
attacked. They took out powerful German machine gun implacements and 
long-range artillery.
  For that heroism at La Pointe du Hoc, Judge Heaney was awarded the 
Silver Star, the second highest award our Government gives to our 
military personnel, but that was not the end. They continued all across 
France and into Germany.
  By 1945, they had gotten to the Elbe, and there the British units, 
Russian units and American units met, but they postponed the formal 
meeting until the following morning where they would have a flag-
raising ceremony. And as Judge Heaney said, he looked over, and the 
Russians had a flag, the British had a flag; he said, where is ours? 
They did not have a flag. No one had thought to bring a flag. They just 
fought their way courageously across Europe.
  So Judge Heaney, Gerald Heaney, by then Captain Heaney, went into the 
village nearby and bought red, white and blue cloth and found 
seamstresses in the village who could sew that into an American flag 
with 48 stars at the time. He still has that flag. He brought it with 
him for the Labor Day celebration this year at Park Point in Duluth, 
and there was not a dry eye in the crowd.
  That is the man, that is the courage, that is the strength. He went 
on to be appointed a U.S. circuit court judge by Lyndon Johnson, and 
displaying the same courage that he showed for his country in defense 
of liberty and freedom, he presided over the case to desegregate the 
St. Louis school system. He wrote the opinion and has written a book 
about not only the opinion, but the 20 years that he presided over the 
continuing desegregation of the St. Louis schools in his capacity as 
circuit court judge. It is entitled, ``Unending Struggle. The Long Road 
to an Equal Education in St. Louis,'' with Dr. Susan Uchitelle, who was 
a law clerk for Judge Heaney.
  He writes, Our involvement in the St. Louis public school case over a 
period of 18 years convinced us that, after

[[Page H1300]]

having recused ourselves from further participation in the case, that 
we should write a history of education in St. Louis. Much has been 
written about education during the slave years, 1820 to 1865. No one 
has attempted to pull together the rich material written over the 
period from 1820 to the 1980s.
  It is all compiled in this remarkable document of how one court case 
changed the lives of children, of generations of children, of an entire 
community, made life better for not only African Americans but all 
citizens living in St. Louis.

                              {time}  1345

  I know that as I have traveled to that city from time to time to meet 
people, Gerald Heaney is nearly revered. He is enormously respected. 
His courage and standing and his steadfastness, just as he pursued the 
German forces across France and Germany, he pursued justice in the name 
of all of our fellow citizens as a sitting judge.
  It is most fitting that we should designate the courthouse where he 
spent a great deal of his office hours. Although his cases were heard 
in St. Louis, in the courthouse there, his office hours were in the 
Federal building and the courthouse and customhouse in Duluth, a 
venerable facility that was built during the Depression years and, like 
Judge Heaney's work, will withstand the test of time for generations to 
come.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GRAVES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Though many have made light of the schedule we have had for the past 
few weeks, the grueling schedule of naming a lot of Federal buildings, 
it doesn't mean that any of these individuals are any less deserving or 
should not be honored.
  Today in committee in the Transportation Committee, we named a 
courthouse in Missouri, my home State, after Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr., 
who practiced law in the State of Missouri for over 80 years and was 
highly revered. Today on the floor, we are honoring somebody that, 
going through his accomplishments and what he has done in life, is 
somebody that truly should be recognized.
  H.R. 187, which was introduced by Representative Oberstar of 
Minnesota, chairman of the Transportation Committee, designates the 
Federal building and the United States courthouse and customhouse at 
515 West First Street in Duluth, Minnesota, as the Gerald W. Heaney 
Federal Building and United States Courthouse and Customhouse. The 
building honors Judge Heaney's dedication to public service.
  As the gentleman from Minnesota pointed out, he served with great 
distinction during the Army in World War II and acquired a law degree 
from the University of Minnesota law school after his time. Judge 
Gerald W. Heaney engaged in private practice then just after the war, 
from 1946 to 1966.
  Judge Heaney's career as a judge began then in 1966 with an 
appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit by 
President Lyndon B. Johnson. Judge Heaney had a reputation for 
championing equal justice for underprivileged and vulnerable citizens. 
Judge Heaney retired after 40 years of service on August 31, 2006.
  I support this legislation, Mr. Speaker, and I urge my colleagues to 
do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. I want to say, once again, what a great privilege this 
is to author this legislation, bring it from the Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure, which I have the honor to chair, and 
bring it to the House floor and pay tribute to a truly great heroic 
American who served his country in war, in peace, on the bench and in 
the hearts of our fellow citizens.
  In addition to my statement on the Floor today, I want to include in 
the Congressional Record this passage from ``Unending Struggle: The 
Long Road to an Equal Education in St. Louis'' by Judge Gerald W. 
Heaney and Dr. Susan Uchitelle:

       Unless additional resources are provided to the St. Louis 
     public schools, they will fail, leading to a demand by some 
     parents for alternative educational opportunities. . .
       Excellent public schools are essential in a democracy. 
     Experience has demonstrated that urban city schools educate 
     and will continue to educate most school-age children. 
     Moreover, public schools have an obligation to educate all 
     children--rich and poor, black, brown, and white, gifted or 
     special. Unless children are well educated and well trained, 
     they will be unable to take their place as full participants 
     in our vibrant democracy.
       Segregated housing, a long history of discrimination in 
     education and employment, and the historic lack of 
     opportunity for African Americans to participate fully and 
     equally in all aspects of life make the task ahead a 
     challenging one.

  This is but one simple passage from the works of Judge Heaney. I urge 
my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 187.
  H.R. 187 is a bill to designate the federal building and United 
States Courthouse located at 515 West First St., Duluth, Minnesota as 
Judge ``Gerald W. Heaney Federal Building and United States Courthouse 
and Customhouse.'' Gerald Heaney was appointed Judge of the United 
States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on November 3, 1966. He 
took senior status on December 31, 1988, and retired on August 31, 
2006, after over 40 years of distinguished service to his country and 
the citizens of Minnesota. I rise in strong support of this bill.
  Judge Heaney was born on January 29, 1918 in Goodhue, a rural 
community in the southeastern part of Minnesota. As a child growing up 
in a farming community Judge Heaney learned the value of a close 
family, honesty, and hard work. These qualities have marked not only 
his personal life but also his life as a public servant. He was 
educated at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, and received his law 
degree from the University of Minnesota in 1941.
  Gerry Heaney is a decorated WorId War II veteran. He was a member of 
the distinguished Army Ranger Battalion and participated in the 
historic D-Day landing at Normandy. He was awarded the Silver Star for 
extraordinary bravery in the battle of La Pointe du Hoc in Normandy. He 
also received a Bronze Star and five battle stars.
  At the end of the war Judge Heaney returned home and entered private 
practice in Duluth. During that time he was instrumental in improving 
the state education system, and served on the board of regents for the 
University of Minnesota. He was instrumental in helping develop for the 
Duluth school system the same pay scale for both men and women.
  In 1966 he was appointed by President Johnson to the Eight Circuit 
Court of Appeals. In that capacity he has been a champion in protecting 
the rights of the disadvantaged. He was devoted to making sure that 
every person had an equal opportunity for an education, a job, and a 
home. He firmly believes the poor, the less educated, and less 
advantaged deserve the protection of the Constitution.
  As a hard working, well prepared, and fair minded jurist he left his 
legal imprimatur on school desegregation cases, bankruptcy law, 
prisoner treatment, and social security law.
  His public service is discerned by industry, brilliance, and 
scholarly excellence. His compassion and dedication to those of us who 
are the most disadvantaged is unparalled.
  Judge Heaney is most deserving of this honor. I ask my colleagues to 
join me in supporting this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 187.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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