[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14639-14640]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         TRIBUTE TO JAMES C. HALL, OAK RIDGE OPERATIONS MANAGER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sununu). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, on July 2, James C. ``Jim'' Hall will retire 
as manager of Oak Ridge Operations for the U.S. Department of Energy. 
His departure will mark the end of a 31-year career in government that 
stands out as a bright and shining example of dedicated service to the 
United States Department of Energy and the people of the United States.
  Beginning in 1968 as an intern for the Atomic Energy Commission, one 
of the agencies that was eventually folded into the Energy Department, 
Jim Hall rose steadily through the ranks until he was promoted to his 
present position in 1995.
  Perhaps Jim Hall's greatest achievement in Oak Ridge is his 
commitment to the reindustrialization program which is an innovative 
``swords to plowshares'' effort that stands out as a model for the 
whole Nation. Facilities such as the old K-25 gaseous diffusion plant 
at the Oak Ridge complex are being cleaned up and made available for 
use by the private sector. The plant, now called the East Tennessee 
Technology Park, is already generating the kind of jobs the east 
Tennessee region needs for the 21st century. This effort saves the 
government and the taxpayers $800 million in maintenance and other 
costs. More importantly, the program is attracting to Oak Ridge exactly 
the kinds of family wage jobs east Tennessee will need as we begin the 
21st century. In May of 1998, Mr. Hall received a Presidential 
Meritorious Rank Award for his efforts to develop the environmental 
cleanup and reindustrialization program.
  Jim Hall has brought extraordinary energy, ability and vision to his 
work at the Oak Ridge operations office, and we in the Third District 
of Tennessee and at the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge can count 
ourselves extremely fortunate that we benefited from his public 
service.
  He is the type of executive who makes the term ``government 
official'' sound like the noble and honorable calling it should be. 
During the years I have known Jim, he has shown himself to be a risk 
taker who is willing to push the envelope for needed reforms.

[[Page 14640]]

He is also not in the least bit afraid to challenge the status quo and 
to stand up to the bureaucracy when the need arises.
  Jim Hall's pioneering work on reindustrialization is typical of his 
career. Many managers at Jim's stage in their careers would have been 
content to just run out the clock and just do what they had to as their 
retirement neared. But as a skilled manager and dedicated resident of 
east Tennessee, Jim was determined that the great reservoir of human 
and technological capital assembled in Oak Ridge to help us win World 
War II and the Cold War should be parlayed into economic opportunity 
for generations to come. So he pioneered the reindustrialization 
program and skillfully managed the national security and scientific 
missions of the Department of Energy in a way that makes me proud as 
the representative of the Oak Ridge and east Tennessee region.
  On behalf of the thousands of citizens that Jim Hall served so well, 
I thank him for his service to his community and to his Nation and we 
wish him happiness and success as he begins a new chapter in his life.

                          ____________________