[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13802-13803]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4169) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 2000 Vassar Street in Reno, Nevada, as the ``Barbara 
F. Vucanovich Post Office Building.''
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4169

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH POST OFFICE BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 2000 Vassar Street in Reno, Nevada, shall 
     be known and designated as the ``Barbara F. Vucanovich Post 
     Office Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Barbara F. Vucanovich Post Office 
     Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. McHugh) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh).
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as we just heard in the bill previous to H.R. 4169, we 
had the opportunity to recognize the contributions of a gentleman who 
focused his very considerable talents and dedicated his many, many 
contributions to the great community of Fayetteville.
  Mr. Speaker, on this piece of legislation, we have an opportunity to 
single out an individual who served in a somewhat broader arena, who 
also contributed and sacrificed. I want to thank the gentleman from the 
great State of Nevada (Mr. Gibbons), my friend and colleague, for his 
sponsorship of this bill that seeks to honor the former Member of this 
House, Barbara Vucanovich by naming the facility located at 2000 Vassar 
Street in Reno, Nevada as the Barbara F. Vucanovich Post Office 
Building.
  As with the previous initiative, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. 
Gibbons) has struck out and had each Member of the State delegation of 
Nevada become cosponsors of this, and by struck out, of course, I meant 
to seek out and to successfully achieve that objective.
  Mrs. Vucanovich's achievements are well-known to many of us in this 
House. Those of us from New York have some perhaps additional reasons 
for pride, because, indeed, she grew up, spent many of her formative 
years in our great State capitol, in Albany, but clearly to many of us, 
her finest hours were upon this floor and in our committee rooms where 
she served from 1983 until 1997.
  Mr. Speaker, her achievements, her dedication, particularly to 
Nevadans is well-known. She spent a great deal of effort trying to work 
on issues involving such issues as Federal wilderness, national park 
policy, public land use and nuclear waste disposal, to name just a few. 
Her retirement left this House somewhat poorer in that we no longer had 
her here as an everyday presence to help this great body in its 
deliberations. But clearly we can this afternoon, and I would hope we 
would, in fact, honor those contributions that she so selflessly 
extended through her service on the Committees of Interior and Insular 
Affairs, the Committee on House Administration and certainly amongst 
the more important efforts as

[[Page 13803]]

chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.
  It is always a special moment when we can extend this kind of honor 
to a former colleague. I, again, want to thank the gentleman from 
Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) for his efforts and certainly urge all of our 
colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4169 and would join in the 
remarks made by the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh). This is an 
appropriate honor for a former colleague.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned the gentleman who did so much 
good work on this legislation. We are pleased that the gentleman is 
able to be with us here at this moment, and I happily yield such time 
as he may consume to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons).
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to thank my colleagues 
and friends, both the chairman of the Subcommittee on Postal Service, 
the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh), and the ranking member, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) for their hard work on, and 
continued dedication in bringing this important bill to the floor of 
the House of Representatives today.
  Mr. Speaker, on April 4, I introduced H.R. 4169 to designate the post 
office located at 2000 Vassar Street in Reno, Nevada as the Barbara G. 
Vucanovich Post Office Building.
  As the current congressman, Mr. Speaker, representing the Second 
Congressional District of Nevada, I have the distinct honor and, may I 
say, great challenge of following Barbara Vucanovich in Congress.
  Mrs. Vucanovich retired from Congress after serving 14 years as the 
representative of one of the most diverse and vast congressional 
districts in this country.
  As Nevada's very first female representative in Congress, she focused 
on a variety of issues important to Nevadans, including Federal 
wilderness and national park policy, as we have heard earlier, public 
land use and nuclear waste policy issues that affected the State of 
Nevada.
  In 1997, Mrs. Vucanovich retired as a senior Member of Congress, 
having served on the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the 
Committee on House Administration and the chairman of the very powerful 
Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction.
  The designation of the U.S. post office in Mrs. Vucanovich's hometown 
of Reno, Nevada would be a wonderful tribute to her tireless work and 
unfailing dedication to the citizens of the great State of Nevada.
  Mr. Speaker, echoing the remarks of Nevada's Governor Kenny Guinn, 
``I can think of few individuals who have devoted their lives to the 
people of Nevada in the manner that Barbara Vucanovich has over her 
many years of public service. She has served her community as a 
volunteer, government worker, and elected official. She has always 
fought hard for the people she represented.''
  Mrs. Vucanovich's dedicated service to her Nation is well-known 
throughout the halls of Congress. Mrs. Vucanovich's long history in 
this body as represented by the many colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle who still today call Barbara their friend. Many of my colleagues 
here today served alongside of Barbara Vucanovich and still remember 
with great fondness her distinguished career and outstanding 
achievements here in this body.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been my pleasure to lead this effort to recognize 
my predecessor, former Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, for her 
distinguished service in Congress and longstanding commitment to the 
citizens of the State of Nevada, as well as to our Nation as a whole.
  I would like to encourage all of my colleagues to join with me today 
to honor former Congressman Vucanovich and pass H.R. 4169.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to again thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
McHugh), my colleague and friend, for yielding me the time.

                              {time}  1700

  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield such time as she may 
consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
this bill to designate a post office in Reno, Nevada as the ``Barbara 
F. Vucanovich Post Office Building''.
  Barbara was the very first woman elected to Congress from the great 
State of Nevada, and she blazed a trail for women during her seven 
terms of Congress. She once lived in the congressional district that I 
have the honor of representing when she attended Manhattan College of 
Sacred Heart in New York City from 1938 through 1939, long before many 
women were routinely attending college.
  I have very fond memories of working with Barbara Vucanovich on many 
bills before this Congress. In fact, one of the first bills when I came 
to Congress was one that we worked on together which would provide for 
annual mammograms in Medicare. We circulated a letter together and got, 
I think, probably every Member of this body to sign onto it.
  At that time, when a woman was 65, mammograms were covered only every 
other year, which put many women at risk. It is early detection that is 
now saving women's lives, and it was an honor to work with her.
  She cared very deeply about this issue for many reasons, one of which 
she was herself a breast cancer survivor. She often spoke about her 
experiences and really was instrumental in supporting research for 
breast cancer.
  The bill that we worked on later became part of the balanced budget 
amendment and is now law. So I always think about Barbara when I read 
about this bill and when I think about all the breakthroughs that we 
are having now in breast cancer research, because she truly was a great 
leader in many areas. But on the Women's Caucus, I would say she was 
the leader on breast cancer research. Really, every woman in this 
country owes a great deal of gratitude for her service, for her 
leadership, and for her example.
  So I thank very deeply the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) for 
introducing this bill, and I certainly urge a yes vote. It is long 
overdue.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I join in the remarks that have been made. I have not 
served with the gentlewoman from Nevada. I would add just that I think 
it is entirely appropriate that this legislation receive a unanimous 
support here in the House.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4169.
  The question was taken.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8, rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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