[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 151 (Thursday, November 29, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1846-E1847]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       MICHAEL LEMOV'S PEOPLE'S WARRIOR: THE LEGACY OF JOHN MOSS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 29, 2012

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, December 5 will mark the 
fifteenth anniversary of the death of John Moss of California, one of 
the most important members to serve in this body in the last century. 
Moss's life and landmark achievements have recently been recounted in 
People's Warrior by Michael Lemov, who served as his chief counsel for 
eight years, and I want to direct colleagues' attention to this 
important book.
  Moss's landmark achievements have endured, warranting the insightful 
accounts Lemov has given of their sometimes tortuous paths to passage: 
the Freedom of Information Act, legislation establishing the Consumer 
Product Safety Commission, and the Magnuson-Moss Act which rejuvenated 
the Federal Trade Commission.

[[Page E1847]]

  John Moss was first elected to the House in 1952 and was appointed to 
what was then called the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee four 
years later. In the 1960s, as the Senate Commerce Committee under Sen. 
Warren Magnuson undertook major consumer protection initiatives, Moss 
fought to overcome resistance to such measures on the House Committee 
and then, as Chairman of the Commerce and Finance Subcommittee, to make 
the House a full partner in their development.
  Moss, alongside his close friend John Dingell, was also a key figure 
in House reform. The two of them fought for years to give Commerce 
subcommittees more autonomy and resources as a means of opening the 
Committee to member initiatives and making it more hospitable to 
progressive legislation. In the mid-1970s, as reform came to both the 
Committee and the House, Moss gained election as Chairman of the 
Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He took full 
advantage of loosened full committee control and enhanced resources to 
greatly step up subcommittee activity. By the time Moss retired in 
1979, Ward Sinclair of the Washington Post described him as ``the man 
who perfected oversight.''
  As a young political scientist studying Congress, and the Commerce 
Committees in particular, in the 1970s, I recognized the significance 
of Moss's role. Mike Lemov's insights were indispensable as I sought to 
understand the movement toward decentralization and reform on the 
Committee and then the impact of reform on the performance of 
oversight. Mike talked with me for hours and opened many doors. In a 
chapter I contributed to Legislative Reform (edited by Leroy 
Rieselbach, 1978), I concluded that, while reform had provided the 
conditions for an invigorated, more independent oversight role for the 
Commerce Committee, the most important factor by far was the selection 
of a chairman with the energy, determination, and vision to seize the 
opportunities the situation offered: John Moss. And one of Moss's 
greatest assets was the entrepreneurial Chief Counsel who came with him 
from the Commerce and Finance Subcommittee, Michael Lemov.
  As a North Carolinian, I was particularly struck by Lemov's 
appreciative treatment of Jim Broyhill, a Republican member from our 
state who served as ranking member of the Commerce and Finance 
Subcommittee during Moss's chairmanship. Broyhill's role serves as a 
reminder of an era when partisan disagreements were no less strongly 
felt, but members nonetheless often found a way to work through them to 
constructive outcomes.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, and on behalf of colleagues, I want to thank 
Mike Lemov for his own effective public service, which he has extended 
with this inspiring and instructive account of one of the giants in our 
institution's history.

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