[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 151 (Thursday, December 11, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S6584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JAMES FRANSEN

  Mr. REID. Today's generation goes to Google for answers to questions 
they have about geography, about politics, famous people, or any 
subject. Any subject, you name it, and we all go to Google as quickly 
as we can. But long before Google, we had to use books, encyclopedias, 
volumes of books containing all sorts of facts on topics, and they were 
all in alphabetic order. For almost the last 40 years--39 to be exact--
the Senate has had its own encyclopedia--legislative counsel Jim 
Fransen.
  Jim began his Senate career in 1975, just after graduating from law 
school--from the University of Wisconsin--where he also studied as an 
undergraduate. That year he joined the Office of Legislative Counsel as 
assistant counsel. Over the years, Jim Fransen gradually moved up the 
ranks until he was named legislative counsel, a position he has held 
for 15 years.
  He is a noted expert on a lot of things, but especially the United 
States Tax Code. We have heard speeches on this floor about the 
complexity of the Tax Code. That is a monumental assignment, to 
understand the Tax Code. Jim certainly does, perhaps better than anyone 
in Washington. Jim actually wrote the Tax Reform Act of 1986. That was 
the famous Bradley-Gephardt legislation.
  For four decades, he has played a role in every important piece of 
tax legislation that has become law in our country. The Office of 
Legislative Counsel does the work for the Senate--not Democrats, not 
Republicans, but all of us, including our staffs. They write bills to 
create programs while also drafting amendments that will have some 
effect on these programs, sometimes wiping out these programs. This 
impartiality is the key to the success of the Senate and something we 
don't often consider--how we get to the point where we are.
  This massive bill we are going to deal with today has legislative 
counsel's imprint on it. The same can be said of the bill they are 
going to work on today in the House, the omnibus; the tax extenders, 
the same thing. These are the must-do's we have to do before we leave 
here.
  Another key to the success of Jim Fransen is the excellent team he 
has put together in the Office of Legislative Counsel. The staff, under 
his watchful eye, receives about 15,000 legislative inquiries every 
year--15,000--well more than 1,000 a month, and they are responsible 
for drafting 98 percent of all the legislation we do.
  (Mr. WALSH assumed the Chair.)
  It is rare to find someone like former Senator Jim Webb, who was a 
freshman Senator who came in and drafted his own bill that would give 
educational benefits to the military. Senator Webb came to me and said: 
I am going to write my own bill. Now that doesn't happen very often, 
but it was extremely important to him that he did that, and it had to 
be done because it was a significant piece to the new GI bill of 
rights, which the Presiding Officer--the General--would certainly 
understand. But 98 percent of the work we do here is not stamped by Jim 
Webb. We depend upon Jim Fransen's office to do this. So his job is not 
an easy job, but he has excelled because of his knowledge of the law, 
his experience of the legislative process, his patience, and his 
impeccable character.
  Jim Fransen is a man of integrity and one who considers everyone's 
views, whether he personally agrees with them or not. It is no wonder 
Jim is the second longest serving legislative counsel in the history of 
the Senate. One of his admirers once told me: Jim always plays it way 
up here, while the rest of us are down here. His phone rings at all 
hours of the day and night with random requests, and Jim handles it all 
with class and dignity.
  Jim is retiring from the Senate at the end of this month. He will be 
missed, and that is an understatement, but he leaves with us an Office 
of Legislative Counsel that has never performed better. I thank him for 
his service, and I do this on behalf of the entire Senate family. I 
thank his family for the untold hours he has spent away from home. I 
appreciate the work his wife Margaret Ann has done in supporting him, 
and, of course, he will spend more time with his three daughters and 
two grandsons. So thanks very much for sharing this good man with us.
  I wish Jim the very best in his retirement, and I repeat, I thank him 
on behalf of the Senate family for all the work he has done.

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