[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 174 (Friday, October 26, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1452-E1453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DOUGLASS BELLIS

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. BOB GOODLATTE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 26, 2018

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, today, I recognize Douglass Bellis, 
Senior Counsel at the Office of Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of 
Representatives.
  Doug passed on Monday, October 15, 2018. He was born in Penn Yan, New 
York, on March 25, 1947. He graduated with Honors from Cornell 
University in 1968 with a double major in Government and Greek and 
Latin Classics, Language and Literature, and received his Juris Doctor 
degree from the Duke University School of Law in 1971. Since then, Doug 
worked at the Office of Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of 
Representatives, in Washington, D.C., rising from Assistant Counsel to 
Deputy Legislative Counsel and then Senior Counsel. He was universally 
recognized by legislative experts for his intellectually rigorous 
approach to legislative drafting and for his encyclopedic knowledge of 
court cases related to the Congress and its powers.
  For almost 30 years, Doug also served as advisor to the Commonwealth 
Association of Legislative Counsel, consulting with foreign 
parliamentary bodies regarding the strengthening of their parliamentary 
institutions in the context of increased democratic participation in 
government. Since 2008, Doug also served as an Adjunct Professor at 
George Washington University. Throughout his life, he pursued his 
passionate intellectual curiosity about science, religion, philosophy, 
law, history and music. Doug is survived by his beloved wife Suzanne 
Bellis, his brother Vincent Bellis (wife Ann), his daughters Margaret 
English and Elizabeth Wolfe, Andrew English, Matthew English and 
Bradley English, and six grandchildren.
  Among too many achievements to recount, Doug was responsible for 
codifying Title 11 of the U.S. Code consisting of the nation's 
bankruptcy laws, the first and only title of the U.S. Code not to 
originate in or go through the Law Revision Counsel's Office. Doug also 
worked extensively on the Federal Rules of Evidence and drafted 
numerous bills amending, restructuring, and improving the criminal 
statutes of the United States, including an ambitious, multi-year 
project to overhaul the federal criminal code. He drafted many articles 
of impeachment. Doug trained many counsels at the House Office of 
Legislative Counsel as well as countless Committee staff.
  As Judge Robert A. Katzmann, Chief Judge U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the Second Circuit wrote, Doug ``was a firm believer in the importance 
of dialogue between the courts and Congress, someone who believed that 
with improved communication, understanding and proper care, that 
government could be made to work better.'' Judge Katzmann came to know 
Doug through their work on a Governance Institute project whereby 
statutory opinions of the courts of appeals, identifying issues of 
possible interest to Congress, were sent to Congress for its 
information and consideration. Doug was a champion for the project for 
the last quarter century and he outlined his views in an essay 
published in 1997 in the Georgetown Law Journal entitled ``A View from 
the House of Representatives.'' In 2008, Doug wrote an article on 
Congressional drafting conventions for the Federal Judicial Center 
entitled ``Statutory Structure and Legislative Drafting Conventions: A 
Primer for Judges,'' a guide to be used by judges for clarification of 
intent, which is still used today. In 2011, Doug authored ``The Role 
and Efficacy of Legislative Drafting in the United States: An Update on 
the American Drafting Process'' for the Commonwealth Association of 
Legislative Counsel. In it, he wrote ``Like the classic Puritan, the 
legislative counsel must be in this world, that is the world of 
politics, and yet not of it, in order to be effective. . . . So the 
legislative counsel is outside of the political process, and as 
scrupulously neutral as humanly possible, yet acutely aware of the 
political concerns of the politicians the legislative counsel works 
with.''
  Doug, describing the more day-to-day details of his professional 
role, wrote a few years ago, ``With the Judiciary Committee, I 
continued to do criminal law and procedure and civil procedure, 
bankruptcy, civil and constitutional rights (including various hot 
button topics like abortion and guns), judgeships, some grant programs, 
and a miscellany of things like resolutions of inquiry and committee 
subpoenas . . . I also had the Railroad Retirement and Railroad 
Unemployment acts, which were under the jurisdiction of the Commerce 
Committee and were heating up, leading eventually to a total rewrite of 
the Railroad Retirement Act and the addition of a somewhat complex 
experience rating scheme for `contributions' under the Railroad 
Unemployment Act. I worked on a number of Voting Rights bill extensions 
and other civil rights matters starting in the mid to late 70's.''
  For decades, Doug worked with, or was familiar to, virtually the 
entire House Judiciary Committee staff, many of whom he could count as 
friends. Paul Taylor, the Chief Counsel of the House Subcommittee on 
the Constitution and Civil Justice, said the following of Doug: ``In 
his career, Doug was a spirited polymath. He had an opinion on 
everything, and it was an educated opinion. He was fluent in history, 
philosophy, law, and religion. He was a master of grammar who knew how 
to corral the most unwieldy legal concepts in the clearest and most 
concise terms. Doug worked wonderfully with a wide range of 
personalities. His calm, professorial manner was a solid rudder that 
kept the text of legislation on technical course through all manner of 
seas and crew. In his friendships, Doug was a consummate host, serving 
time-tested advice and ideas along with classic cocktails at

[[Page E1453]]

his wonderful dinners, which were more like Enlightenment-inspired 
salons. When he spoke of life, he often used the examples of his 
wonderful children who have led such eclectic lives, and of his loving 
wife Suzanne, a gifted and celebrated nurse whose devoted care so eased 
his passing. And when he spoke of law, he cited Samuel von Pufendorf as 
much as John Marshall. He was familiar with legal giants who may be 
unfamiliar to many today, but whose legal principles breathe life into 
law. And Doug loved the law. He understood its history and structure, 
and its role in shaping the duties of both legislators drafting 
statutes and citizens living under them. He kept with him the spirit 
that governed when he first joined the House Legislative Counsel's 
Office, a time when legislative counsels worked more directly with 
Members, away from the cameras, to engage in robust debates that 
plumbed fathoms deeper and miles wider than today's media often 
allows.''
  Doug lived a full, appreciative life, with the understanding that the 
good life is a moral one. He was also a devout poet. He penned these 
lines, which were printed for his memorial service:

     What good God gives to us we dimly know
     While guile besets our fates and tempests brood
     While ignorance still reigns and harsh winds blow;
     Where envy breeds in brackish waters' flood,
     We sink beneath the waves and gasp for air.
     Yet unseen pipers dart upon the sand,
     And still bright Sun illuminates Ocean's lair
     And bold strong waves still seek th'untested land.
     For grace that knows no limits us pursues,
     And gathers us within God's loving arms,
     Surprises us with what we cannot lose,
     And brings us strange but not uncertain charms.
     What love God has for us we can but feel,
     So too our love by loving prints its seal.
                                                 --Douglass Bellis

  It is with the utmost respect, and on behalf of generations of 
committee Members and staff, that we include in the Record this tribute 
in memory of Douglass Bellis.

                          ____________________