[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          HONORING THE FEDERAL RETIREMENT OF MR. JIM BERGDAHL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 15, 2012

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of my constituents, 
Jim Bergdahl, on his retirement from the federal government after 52 
years of service.
  Jim Bergdahl was born and raised in Chicago, was educated at 
Northwestern, and served in the Air National Guard while attending 
college.
  In 1959, during his senior year at Northwestern, Jim began his 
federal civil service career as an appraiser with the Army Corps of 
Engineers in Chicago. Six years later, he joined the General Services 
Administration in the San Francisco regional office as an appraiser in 
the Real Property Division.
  Jim's work quickly caught the attention of his supervisors. He was 
soon nominated for and received a ``Career Education Award'', sponsored 
by the National Institute of Public Affairs and the Civil Service 
Commission. The prize for receiving this prestigious award was one year 
of free graduate study at the University of Virginia.
  Following graduation, Jim relocated to the Office of Real Property in 
Washington, D.C. where he was in charge of reviewing the fast growing 
Federal property holdings, which had literally doubled between 1954 and 
1969. The government was on pace to own the whole country by the year 
2000. Jim was asked to determine the cause of this tremendous 
expansion.
  As he quickly discovered, while U.S. federal land holdings had 
doubled, the phenomenon was directly related to the increase in the 
number of States in the U.S. between 1954 and 1969. Jim determined that 
the newest state, Alaska, had the distinction of having more 
government-owned land within its borders than all of the other 49 
States combined. Case closed.
  In 1974, Jim transferred to the Federal Buildings Fund Management 
Division to help get the new division up and running. Here he again was 
tapped for a special project, working to develop critical information 
to persuade the Department of Defense to correct congressional 
testimony as to the total amount they were spending on rent. In short 
order, the record was corrected.
  Following that daunting yet successful challenge, Jim returned to the 
Office of Real Property as Program Policy Advisor to the Assistant 
Commissioner in 1976. He played a major role in the establishment of 
the Federal Property Resources Service, where he became Director of 
Special Projects. One project involved the sale to the public of a 
large number of Carson City Silver Dollars minted in the 1800s that 
were found in a vault. The sale began just as the Hunt brothers were 
trying to corner the silver market and the price of silver skyrocketed. 
Suddenly, the coins were worth more for the silver they contained than 
their value to coin collectors. To avoid delaying or postponing sales 
of the coins, toll free phone lines were set up for buyers to obtain 
the price of the coins based on the price of silver each day. This fast 
action by Jim and his office was fortuitous. Shortly after the sales 
were completed, the Hunt brothers failed in their attempt to corner the 
market and silver prices collapsed.
  The curtain rose on Jim's final act as a civil servant when the new 
Public Building Service was rolled out in 1995. Jim was part of the 
Courthouse Management Group, formed to provide oversight, program 
management and budgeting for the largest federal courthouse 
construction program in the nation's history. As a senior member of the 
Group, Jim provided extensive knowledge and expertise in many aspects 
of the federal courthouse program, working with Congress, the Office of 
Management and Budget, and the federal Judiciary, as well as regional 
GSA offices to see that the ambitious program succeeded. When he 
retired this year, he was the last charter member still remaining with 
the agency.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to ask my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating Mr. Bergdahl on his retirement from the federal service. 
During Jim's successful 52 year career, he was a model employee, 
consistently recognized by his peers and his congressional colleagues 
as providing the highest level of professionalism, superior subject 
knowledge, and willingness to take on and solve even the toughest 
problems. I wish him only the very best as he continues tackling new 
endeavors and conquering even greater challenges in the years ahead.

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