[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2659-E2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING THE LIFE OF BILL STRAUSS
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HON. TOM DAVIS
of virginia
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Mr. DAVIS of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life
of the late Mr. William Arthur Strauss.
I first met Bill Strauss in 1963 when we were both pages here in
Washington. Bill served at the Supreme Court; I served in the Senate.
Our respective careers continued to revolve around the Nation's
capital--mine in Congress, Bill's in the executive branch.
Bill boasted an education few can match: an undergraduate degree from
Harvard University in 1969, a law degree from Harvard, and a master's
degree from Harvard's venerable John F. Kennedy School of Government.
He returned to Washington with his young bride in 1973, joining the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human
Services) as a policy aide. He quickly moved up to the Presidential
Clemency Board, directing a report on the impact of the Vietnam War on
draft-eligible youth.
Bill Strauss continued his work for the Federal Government, moving to
the Department of Energy in 1977. Subsequently, in 1980 Mr. Strauss
became chief counsel and staff director of the Subcommittee on Energy,
Nuclear Proliferation, and Government Processes.
Despite his long service in the Federal Government--or, possibly more
aptly, as a result of it--Mr. Strauss discovered at a Memorial Day
party in 1981 that he was blessed with the gift of improvisational
comedy. Having performed successfully to a receptive audience of
friends, Mr. Strauss realized he could make a living satirizing the
goings-on within the Beltway.
During his office's Christmas party in 1981, Mr. Strauss, along with
a group later christened the Capitol Steps, performed his first musical
parody. Senator Charles Percy (R-Ill), his employer, and the rest of
the staff knew instantly that Bill Strauss had a gift. The group grew
steadily over the years, blossoming into the now $3-million-a-year
industry with performances across the country.
Despite these notable achievements, Bill will probably be best
remembered for founding the Critics and Awards Program, otherwise known
as the Cappies. Bill was inspired to institute this regional
institution, which honors exceptional high school dramatic and musical
performances throughout the Washington, DC, metro area, after being
diagnosed with an aggressive strain of pancreatic cancer. Every year,
high school students gather at the Kennedy Center for a ceremony not
unlike the Tony Awards in New York. I look forward to the Cappies every
year, and hope this tradition continues for years to come.
I was saddened to hear Bill succumbed to cancer at his home in
McLean, VA, on December 18, 2007. His legacy of both the Capitol Steps
and the Cappies will keep his memory alive within the Capitol Beltway
for many years to come. May the elected officials in this body never
cease to give Mr. Strauss' company a plethora of material to keep the
country laughing.
Madam Speaker, in closing, I would like to pay tribute to the life
and accomplishments of Mr. William Arthur Strauss, and express my
deepest condolences to all who knew and loved him.
[From the Washington Post, Dec. 19, 2007]
Bill Strauss, 60; Political Insider Who Stepped Over Into Comedy
(By Joe Holley)
Capitol Steps founder Bill Strauss was a Harvard-trained
lawyer and Senate subcommittee staffer when he broke through
the chrysalis of Capitol Hill conventionality to become a
musical satirist.
Mr. Strauss, who died Dec. 18 of pancreatic cancer at his
home in McLean, recalled the breakthrough in a phone
interview shortly before his death at age 60.
It was Memorial Day 1981, he said, and he was hosting a
party that ended with a jam session around the piano. Party-
goers riffed on parodies of Reagan-era news makers.
Mr. Strauss discovered that night that he had a facility
for impromptu silliness and satire. He began to wonder
whether, at age 34, he might be able to make a living at it,
even though his only musical training was a stint in his
elementary school orchestra.
During the next several months, when not worrying about
nuclear proliferation and other weighty matters, he wrote
musical parodies. Enlisting other musically gifted Senate
staffers, he scheduled the group's debut at the annual office
Christmas party of Sen. Charles Percy (R-Ill.), Mr. Strauss's
employer.
The group christened itself the Capitol Steps, an allusion
to the location of a late-night amorous moment enjoyed by
Rep. John W. Jenrette (D-S.C.) and his wife, Rita.
Capitol Steps was a hit from the beginning. For the next
few years, the group performed regularly for free at parties
and in church basements. ``We were clinging to our day
jobs,'' co-founder Elaina Newport said. ``Frankly, we were
trying not to get in trouble.''
Today, Capitol Steps is still performing, although not in
church basements. It's a $3 million-a-year industry with more
than 40 employees who sing and satirize at venues across the
country.
The group's success was ``totally out of the blue,'' Mr.
Strauss said. ``Neither I nor anyone else was expecting it.''
Mr. Strauss's more serious side found expression in six
books he co-authored about
[[Page E2660]]
American generations and as co-founder of Cappies, a high
school critics and awards program. He also wrote three
musicals--``MaKiddo,'' ``Stopscandal.com.'' and ``Anasazi''--
and co-wrote with Newport two books of satire, ``Fools on the
Hill'' (1992) and ``Sixteen Scandals'' (2002).
``He packed several lifetimes into his 60 years,'' Newport
said.
William Arthur Strauss was born in Chicago and spent most
of his childhood in Burlingame, Calif., in the San Francisco
area. He was a Capitol page in 1963, during his junior
year in high school, and graduated from Harvard University
in 1969. He received a law degree from Harvard Law School
and a master's degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy
School of Government, both in 1973, but knew from his
first semester in law school that he did not want to
practice law. The summer his classmates took the bar exam,
he and his wife were on a 40-day honeymoon trip across
Africa.
The couple moved to Washington in 1973, and Mr. Strauss
took a position as a policy aide for the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human
Services). He moved the next year to the Presidential
Clemency Board, where he directed a research team writing a
report on the impact of the Vietnam War on the draft-eligible
generation.
A year later, he and Larry Baskir co-wrote ``Chance and
Circumstance'' (1978), a book about the Vietnam-era draft.
Their second book, ``Reconciliation After Vietnam'' (1987),
was said to have influenced President Jimmy Carter to issue a
blanket pardon to draft resisters.
Mr. Strauss worked at the Department of Energy from 1977 to
1979 and then was offered the position of general counsel of
the Selective Service System. Political objections derailed
the offer: Someone pointed out that in the preface to
``Chance and Circumstance,'' he had admitted helping a
classmate eat enough to be too heavy for the draft.
The day Mr. Strauss heard about his rejection, he learned
of an opening as a committee staffer with Percy. When
Republicans took control of the Senate a year later, in 1980,
Mr. Strauss became chief counsel and staff director of the
Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation and Government
Processes.
He had grown up listening to political satirists Tom Lehrer
and Stan Freberg and had written a few political poems in
college, but making a living with Capitol Steps was, in Mr.
Strauss's words, ``a big entrepreneurial leap.''
He would never lack for material, however--from Sen. Gary
Hart and ``Monkey Business'' to Vice President Dick Cheney
(``The Angina Monologues''). In the late 1980s, he perfected
his backwards talk routine, ``Lirty Dies,'' just in time for
President Bill Clinton (``Clinton's Libido Loco'') and Monica
Lewinsky (``My Mama Told Me: You'd Better Sleep Around'').
Made up mostly of Republicans, with a few Democrats and
independents--``to spread the blame a bit,'' Newport said--
the troupe, at Mr. Strauss's insistence, has always tried to
be equal-opportunity satirists. ``Generally people wanted to
be in the show,'' he said, even when they were the ones being
spoofed.
As Capitol Steps was taking up more of his time, Mr.
Strauss was exploring American history through the cycle of
generations. With co-author Neil Howe, he wrote
``Generations'' (1991), ``13th Gen'' (1993), ``The Fourth
Turning: An American Prophecy'' (1998), ``Millennials
Rising'' (1999), ``Millennials Go to College'' (2003) and
``Millennials and the Pop Culture'' (2005).
In 1999, Mr. Strauss received a diagnosis of an aggressive
strain of pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis prompted him to
form the high school Critics and Awards Program, known as
Cappies. ``I decided this would be my calling, performing
less and concentrating on starting this program,'' he said.
Cappies arranges for high school students to attend and
review each other's shows, with top reviews published in
local newspapers. Sixty Washington-area schools are involved
with the program, as well as 17 additional schools in the
United States and Canada. Top Cappies winners perform shows
at the Kennedy Center, and student creative teams, under Mr.
Strauss's oversight, have written two musicals. The most
recent, ``Senioritis,'' has been made into a movie that is
to be released in March.
``He had so many different projects in the air,'' said Judy
Bowns, his Cappies colleague for nine years, ``and the
amazing thing is that they were completed with a standard of
excellence that was mind-boggling.''
Survivors include his wife of 34 years, Janie Strauss of
McLean; four children, Melanie Yee and Rebecca Strauss of
McLean, Victoria Hays of Fairfax County and Eric Strauss of
Reston; and one granddaughter.
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