[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE

  (Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am saddened by this day because 
we are saying an official farewell to a very dear friend and a very 
distinguished Member of this House, and the gentleman from Louisiana 
(Mr. Livingston) and I have served together on the Committee on 
Appropriations for many years. We served on the same subcommittee and 
sat side-by-side. And I can tell my colleagues that here is a man who 
is totally honest. What you see is what he is. When he says something, 
we can depend on it. He is not afraid to buck the tide of public 
opinion, if that need be the case on a given occasion, in order to 
stand for what his conscience tells him is right, for what his 
convictions tell him is right.
  Mr. Speaker, he is an example for people in public life to follow 
through his dedication to the constituents that he represented, his 
dedication to the country, the entire United States of America and his 
willingness to stand up and take whatever heat was necessary to do what 
he felt was right for America.
  Personally, I will miss Bob Livingston, and I hope that he will feel 
free to stay in touch with this Member and, I think, with all of us, 
because he has been a good friend, and he has been an outstanding 
Member. And he became Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations when 
many of us had never ever served in the majority before, and we were 
wondering:
  What do we do next?
  Mr. Speaker, of all the things that have to be done in a Congress, 
appropriations bills have to pass. Those are the things that have to be 
done. And Bob Livingston, as the new chairman and the first Republican 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in 40 years, had a major, 
major task and a major responsibility, and he had problems not only in 
the House within his own party on occasion. But he stood tall, and he 
stood strong, and he guided this appropriations process for those 4 
years in such a way that most of us thought never would work.
  To the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Livingston) I say:
  Congratulations on a job well done. Your friends will miss you 
dearly, and that comes from our heart.

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