[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13811]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    TRIBUTE TO RONALD LASCH, FAITHFUL SERVANT TO THE U.S. HOUSE OF 
                            REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bateman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BATEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for arranging the 
switching of the order. It is very gracious of him.
  The Congressional Record of course will duly note whatever I say on 
the floor tonight, although perhaps few others will. But I feel 
compelled to come to the floor and share with my colleagues a deep 
sense of loss that I feel and that I think most every Member of this 
body will feel that our friend and our very faithful colleague or 
servant, Ronald Lasch, has chosen to enter retirement.
  Ron was a great friend of all of us in this body, a great helpmate to 
all of us in this body. There are few that I have served with or worked 
with as a Member of the Congress who have been more effective in 
allowing me to do my job better than I would otherwise have been able 
to do it than Ron Lasch.
  I remember Ron Lasch also as someone who was an ad hoc, but very, 
very effective and important, staff person or advisor to the members of 
the North Atlantic Parliamentary Group who represent this country in 
the meetings of the North Atlantic Assembly of NATO. His advice, his 
wisdom, his breadth of knowledge on the issues that we were debating 
and discussing was always something that we could look to and learn 
from. He was, indeed, a remarkable part of how this institution works 
and works better; and he will be very definitely and sincerely missed 
by so many of us.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Coble).
  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Bateman) for yielding to me. I came to the floor for another purpose. 
Not only did I not know that Ron Lasch was retiring, I did not know we 
were having this Special Order, and my friend from Michigan asked if I 
would like to insert my oars into these waters lauding Ron Lasch.
  Mr. Speaker, some call him the floor manager, some call him the Great 
Poobah or the Great Mogul. Oftentimes, Mr. Speaker, I would go to Ron, 
I would come in here perhaps from a committee hearing and I would be 
running late and I would go to him and I would say Ron, what is this 
vote, my dear friend? And he would instinctively grab his wallet. When 
you are calling me ``dear friend'' you are up to no good. But I never 
saw him in any way become impatient with us, and that is the same, Mr. 
Speaker, for the staff generally.
  Last month I was at an event in the intellectual property community 
in this town with Orrin Hatch, Senator Hatch, the gentleman from the 
other body, from Utah. At that hearing I said to those people, 
oftentimes we take staff for granted. Mr. Speaker, we have talked about 
it before. Staff is very essential to the well being and to the 
efficient functioning of this body. Sometimes we think it does not 
function efficiently; but I think, on balance, it does, and Ron Lasch 
is the epitome of that role. I know he will be missed, as the gentleman 
from Virginia just said. He will be sorely missed here.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) for 
inviting me to share these few thoughts.
  Mr. BATEMAN. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, we are all delighted to 
be here and wish for Ron the very best in his retirement, but we want 
him to know how very much we will miss him.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Taylor of North Carolina). The 
gentleman's comments are well taken.

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