[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

                                 ______
                                 

                             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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