[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 125 (Tuesday, September 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE EFFORTS OF FORMER PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESIDENT JOAN 
                               CLAYBROOK

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 8, 2009

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure I rise to 
recognize and show my appreciation for Joan Claybrook, the former 
president of Public Citizen, who recently stepped down after a long 
career of fighting for consumer safety and social change.
  Joan has been an inspiration to me and to countless others on the 
Hill and around Washington. As a private citizen, as head of the 
National Highway Traffic Safety Association, and as president of Public 
Citizen for 27 years, she has been a fearless advocate for American 
consumers. Every life saved by a shoulder belt or air bag in this 
country is indebted to Joan's decades of commitment to the issue of 
auto safety.
  Indeed, Joan has been fighting this fight since the beginning. Even 
before a full career dedicated to protecting American consumers, Joan 
had worked as a research analyst, congressional fellow, and legislative 
aide to Sen. Walter Mondale. Then, in 1966, she and Ralph Nader 
successfully pushed for passage of the nation's first motor safety 
laws--the Highway Safety Act and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle 
Safety Act. Four years later, she began work for Public Citizen, 
running the organization's Congress Watch division by 1972. After 
serving as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Association 
during the Carter administration, Claybrook returned to Public Citizen. 
She became president of the organization in 1982, and commenced an 
impressive 27-year tenure in the post that would be the envy of any 
advocate or administrator.
  Thanks to Joan's efforts, airbags are now standard equipment in all 
cars sold in the United States, and our government now issues vehicle 
safety standards that save thousands of lives a year. But safer cars 
are just the beginning of Joan's contributions to our civic life. Over 
the years, she has dedicated herself to countless issues of consumer 
advocacy, public health, and social justice. Day after day, week after 
week, in good times and bad, Joan has kept unrelenting pressure on 
companies and elected officials to live up to their public 
responsibilities. She has strived to make our government more 
responsive to the needs and aspirations of its citizens. In short, this 
nation is a safer, fairer, better place because of her efforts.
  Although Joan has left Public Citizen, her work and her inspiration 
goes on. Generations of leaders and activists have looked to her 
perseverance, her toughness, her smarts, and her compassion as a model 
for how to get things changed here in Washington. From Ralph Nader to 
Robert Redford and Jimmy Carter to John McCain, Joan has taught us all 
so much about what it takes to effect real change.
  She has taught us to keep an unyielding idealism about the way things 
can and should be, and to combine it with an unblinking, no-nonsense 
understanding of the foibles of Washington and a tough-as-nails 
approach to pragmatic, consumer-oriented policy-making. And she has 
always reminded the powerful that the people come first.
  Joan has been a model of courage, conviction, independence and 
ingenuity, one to which we all aspire. I am so proud of all she has 
accomplished, which is why I rise to thank her.

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