[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 24 (Monday, February 6, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E96-E97]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING THE RIPON SOCIETY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL C. BURGESS

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 6, 2023

  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an important 
milestone in the history of The Ripon Society--the organization turned 
60 this past year.
  For those not familiar with the group, The Ripon Society is a public 
policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from 
the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854--Ripon, Wisconsin.

[[Page E97]]

  One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas 
and principles that have made America great and contributed to the 
GOP's success. These ideas include keeping our Nation secure, keeping 
taxes low, and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter, 
and more accountable to the people.
  For 60 years now, The Ripon Society has been promoting common sense 
policies and principles. Today, The Ripon Society tries to promote 
these policies and principles in several ways. Six times a year, for 
instance, the Society publishes a journal called The Ripon Forum, which 
has been called ``reform-minded'' by the Washington Post and is the 
longest running Republican journal of thought and opinion in the 
country.
  The Ripon Society also holds a regular series of events geared around 
the issues of the day and the challenges facing our nation. These 
events include its Symposium on Leadership for senior Congressional 
staff members, that has been held at George Washington's historic 
estate at Mount Vernon since 2011.
  Along with its partner organization, The Franklin Center for Global 
Policy Exchange, The Ripon Society also holds a dinner each year at one 
of our Nation's Presidential Libraries, where they present Members of 
Congress with the Roosevelt Leadership Award. This award honors those 
lawmakers who embody the qualities that Theodore Roosevelt spoke of 
when he said: ``The credit belongs to those who are in the arena, who 
strive valiantly . . . who at best know the triumph of high 
achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring 
greatly.
  The Ripon Society and Franklin Center also hold a bipartisan luncheon 
at the end of each year to honor the ``Unsung Heroes of Capitol 
Hill''--that is the schedulers and executive assistants who quietly and 
faithfully work behind the scenes to keep the trains running on time in 
both the House and the Senate.
  Finally, The Ripon Society and Franklin Center also hold an 
international policy conference each year in a foreign capital. Called 
the TransAtlantic Capital to Capital Exchange, the policy conference 
brings Republican and Democratic lawmakers together with their 
legislative counterparts overseas to discuss and learn more about the 
challenges facing America and her allies around the world.
  At a time when so many groups and organizations seem to come and go 
in American politics, The Ripon Society has been a fixture for 60 
years. I congratulate them on this achievement and wish them all the 
best in the years ahead.

                          ____________________