[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 21157]]

  AMY ISAACS: THIRTY YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE TO PROGRESSIVE IDEALS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 8, 1999

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Amy Isaacs on her 30th 
anniversary with Americans for Democratic Action--the nation's oldest 
independent liberal organization that has worked tirelessly to improve 
American society. Her contribution to ADA has been enormous!
  She began her career as an intern in 1969 and moved through the ranks 
as Director of Organization, Executive Assistant to the Director, 
Deputy National Director--and she has served as the National Director 
for the past ten years.
  Her fellow staff members at ADA, unanimously agree on Army's most 
admirable quality: humility. In spite of all she has done and all she 
has accomplished, she would never admit to her critical role in setting 
and pursuing the ideals and agenda of ADA. She is a dedicated servant 
to these ideals and, thus, to ADA. She has seen the organization 
through both good times and bad, and she has never thought of giving up 
the fight.
  Amy and her fellow ADA members are dedicated to a better world with 
rising standards of living for all, to basic human rights at home and 
abroad, to the end of all forms of discrimination, and to a more 
equitable distribution of our resources.
  These values are just as relevant today as when ADA was founded over 
50 years ago. And such policy goals as the increase in the minimum 
wage, preservation of Medicare, universal and quality health care, 
comprehensive campaign finance reform, a safe and healthy environment, 
full access to a quality education owe much to Amy Isaacs and her 
fellow members of ADA.
  Amy's commitment equals that of ADA's founders: Eleanor Roosevelt, 
John Kenneth Galbraith, Walter Reuther, David Dubinsky, Arthur 
Schlesinger, Jr., Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hubert Humphrey. Because I had 
the opportunity to work for Senator Humphrey as a Congressional Fellow 
in the 1970s, I learned from him, first-hand, about the importance of 
the role of ADA and the importance of the work of its members and of 
Amy Isaacs.
  In addition to her work at ADA, Amy has worked at Planned Parenthood 
Federation of America and in political campaigns. She has spent time 
abroad, as a student at the University of Cologne in Germany, as a 
delegate to the Young Leaders Conference for the American Council on 
Germany, and as a member of a bi-partisan observer delegation to the 
Liberal International Party Congress in Stockholm, Sweden.
  A graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., Amy also 
earned an M.A. certificate in International Administration from the 
School for International Training in Brattlesboro, Vermont.
  I am pleased to take this opportunity to recognize and sincerely 
thank Amy Isaacs on the 30th anniversary of her service to ADA. What 
keeps her going is her idealism and dedication to the basic principle 
that government has a positive role to play in promoting individual 
liberty and economic justice.

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