[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 29313]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   IN HONOR OF THE LATE GEORGE BROWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Walden of Oregon). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join with my colleagues in 
extending this time of special orders in honor of our great friend, 
George Brown. I have not had the opportunity to hear any of the 
statements other than the very eloquent one by the gentleman from Long 
Beach, California (Mr. Horn).
  I will say scholarship and decency, which is what the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Horn) just raised, obviously are two words that come to 
mind. George Brown was also one of the kindest and warmest human beings 
I have ever known.
  He regularly was on this side and stood there and would make 
interesting observations about the institution because, as we all know, 
he served longer than any other Californian here in the Congress. We 
were very pleased that he set that record, even though many of us, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and I for a decade and a half 
tried to cut that short. In many ways, I am glad that we were not able 
to cut that short because he did so much for our State and the country.
  I suspect that, during the hour, people talked about his involvement 
in the space program. I will tell my colleagues that, representing 
Pasadena, California, the home of the jet propulsion laboratory, along 
with the gentleman from California (Mr. Rogan) is a very important 
thing. George Brown regularly provided the kind of inspiration that was 
needed by our constituents at the jet propulsion lab.
  He often was the beneficiary, and I know that his widow Marta is 
following this so I should not raise it, but she may not have known he 
occasionally smoked a cigar. He would often take cigars from all of us 
here. I was pleased whenever I could to pass one to him, even though I 
know Marta was never pleased with the fact that we did pass our cigars 
to George. I know it did provide him with a great deal of pleasure.
  I also want to say, as the gentleman from California (Mr. Horn) did, 
that, in the California delegation, he spent a great deal of time 
working to bring our delegation together. He had a very healthy view of 
his role in public service. I know there are many people who were 
always wringing their hands about this place at the prospect of maybe 
losing the next election.
  One time Karen Tumulty, who is now a very prominent reporter with 
Time Magazine, in her early days with the Los Angeles Times in the 
1980's, I remember her telling me she had gone up to Mr. Brown and 
talked about the fact that the Republicans were putting together this 
huge campaign against him. He was sitting behind us in the Speaker's 
Lobby, and she posed the question to him, why it was that he was not 
that concerned. He looked up and said, ``Gosh, the absolute worst thing 
that could happen is I could lose the election.'' Meaning that he had a 
very healthy perspective on this place, what representative government 
was all about, and what public service was about.

                              {time}  2130

  I will tell my colleagues that it is still, to this day, with a great 
deal of sadness that I think about the fact that we are no longer going 
to be seeing him in this chamber.
  So I would like to say that I will miss him greatly, and my 
condolences go, as I know my colleagues have extended them, to his 
tremendously huge and wonderful family, the members we got to meet when 
we went to the service for George out in California and saw a number of 
them back here.

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