[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 105 (Tuesday, July 14, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EXPRESSING THE GRATITUDE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FOR THE 
                     SERVICE OF M. POPE BARROW, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 13, 2009

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, there are many people who 
work very hard behind the scenes to enable the House to fulfill its 
legislative responsibilities, and Pope Barrow is unsurpassed in his 
craft. As ``the'' House Legislative Counsel for the past dozen years, 
and as ``a'' legislative counsel for 28 years before that, Barrow has 
helped me and every Member to prepare and perfect our legislation, that 
is, the actual words on the papers that Congress enacts into the law of 
the land. He is a gruff yet genial fellow who takes great pride in his 
work, and rightly so. He has much to be proud of over the course of his 
career, as many of my colleagues have already described.
  I frankly don't know about Barrow's other genres, but as Legislative 
Counsel his professional work product here can be indecipherable. Even 
Shakespeare's prose makes lighter reading. With the Bard one needs only 
an English-language dictionary nearby. For Barrow's works, one needs, 
at a minimum, not only Webster's but Black's Law Dictionary, the 
Revised Statutes of the United States, the Statutes-at-Large, the 
United States Code, and a pot of strong coffee.
  Writing federal legislation is obviously a unique skill and a 
decorative art form. Pope Barrow and his office colleagues have 
mastered it. As a practical matter, all of us Members untrained as 
lawyers in our former lives would always find ourselves at a 
disadvantage in any legislature, so we owe Pope Barrow and his 
colleagues an extraordinary debt of gratitude. He evens the playing 
field so a carpenter like me can compete with any other Member in this 
place.
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of myself and my own staff, and on behalf of 
the staff of the House Administration Committee, I wish Pope well in 
his next endeavors, whatever they may be. May Pope Barrow always look 
back over his 40 years here as fondly as will his office colleagues and 
every Member of this House.

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