[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 22, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H4072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING ALICE RIVLIN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Shalala) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of one of the 
greatest public servants of any age, the indomitable Alice Rivlin, who 
died of cancer last week.
  An intellectual giant with Midwestern sensibilities, she had a resume 
that would never be matched: Assistant Secretary for Policy and 
Evaluation at HEW, founding Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, president of 
the American Economic Association, and Vice Chair of the Federal 
Reserve.
  In between her government service, she sat on a high perch at the 
Brookings Institution, producing rigorous, centrist, and insightful 
books and articles on a wide range of Federal policies.
  In her spare time, she was credited with saving D.C. from bankruptcy. 
She never forgot her responsibility to her adopted hometown.
  Alice was deeply respected and beloved by her peers and politicians 
of both parties. She was one of the first recipients of a MacArthur 
Foundation genius award, a tribute to her skill in building one of the 
most important public institutions of our lifetime, the CBO.
  Her sustained contributions to public policy analysis have 
fundamentally shaped our thinking about the impact of public programs 
and the budget.

                              {time}  1030

  She also constantly reminded us that when we refuse to use evidence 
in making policy decisions, we do so at our country's peril.
  Alice Rivlin was my dear friend. I met her here in D.C. as a newly 
minted Ph.D. She was already famous for her classic book, ``Systematic 
Thinking for Social Action.''
  She was funny, warm, generous, and welcoming. She wanted all of us 
newcomers to love her adopted city as much as she did.
  When I returned to Washington to join the Clinton Cabinet, Alice, 
along with her friend Meg Greenfield, the powerhouse editorial page 
editor of the Post, and Post publisher Katherine Graham, formed the 
Smart Women's Club. They invited me to join them in hilarious dinners 
with interesting guests, a high point in my career.
  One of my fondest memories of Alice took place on a day in the 1980s 
when I was still in New York. She called me and asked if I could take a 
month off to go to Kashmir to trek in the Himalayas. What an adventure, 
the beginning of decades of trekking in some of the most interesting 
places on Earth with friends and her patient husband, Sid Winter, 
himself a world-class economist.
  You learn a lot about people when you share a narrow ledge in a 
rainstorm on some of the highest mountains in the world. Alice was 
tenacious, brave, cheerful, and the kindest and nicest person I have 
ever known.
  She was a legend, renowned for mentoring younger colleagues and 
helping people of all walks of life with their challenges.
  Hers was more than a life well lived. She was a patriot who loved her 
country and her city, and she served both with extraordinary skill and 
passion.

                          ____________________