[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20528-20529]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    TRIBUTE TO HON. WILLIAM GOODLING ON HIS RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 19, 
1999, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) is recognized during 
morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, this morning I want to make some very 
complimentary remarks about the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Goodling). He is certainly the type of individual, if I had been in his 
class or in his school, I would have known exactly where he stood. He 
defends the system of education. He supported education, and he 
supported the ideals of education: local control and strong discipline.
  Bill Goodling is one of the finest experts in education in the entire 
Nation. No individual has had more of an impact on educational systems 
in this Nation than Bill Goodling. He sometimes gets in trouble because 
he says what he thinks. He believes very strongly about local control 
of education, and there are people who believe differently, and they 
disagree strongly with his opinion. But on the other hand, we know 
where he stands. I think in politics that is the thing that is 
absolutely imperative to our system, that somebody that knows what they 
are talking about, has had experience in the field, can work hard at 
those kinds of things.
  Education obviously is one of the most important issues we take up in 
the House. Normally, I do not talk very long on issues of defense 
because we work things out. And I see the distinguished gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lewis), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense 
Appropriations, here; and he and I do not take a lot of time on the 
floor. But it is hard not to speak for a long period of time for the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling).
  He has been in the forefront of many, many battles; and he has won 
most of those battles. Even when he was in the minority, he worked hard 
for local control of schools, for adequate funding of schools to make 
sure that the Members of Congress understood the system from a 
classroom, from a superintendent, from a principal's standpoint, and 
from a Member of Congress' standpoint.
  So we are going to miss Bill Goodling. Bill Goodling has had a 
phenomenal impact on our system itself.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Holden).
  Mr. HOLDEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Murtha) for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to be here as we pay tribute to our 
retiring colleague, Bill Goodling. The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Murtha) did a great job in elaborating on how Bill Goodling has been a 
leader in education fights in this House as chairman for the past 6 
years, and serving on that committee for 20-plus years.
  But I want to say that Bill Goodling has done much more than that. He 
cares so deeply about all of his constituents. I have the privilege of 
being the only Pennsylvanian on the Committee on Agriculture. 
Agriculture is the number one industry in the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania and Bill Goodling's district is rich with an agricultural 
history. I drive by it every week on my drive to Washington. Bill 
Goodling has been a strong fighter for his agriculture constituents, 
whether it be for fairer dairy prices for his dairy farmers or whether 
it be the ability for all of our farmers to have access to crop 
insurance, because we have such diverse agriculture in Pennsylvania, or
recently because of his fight against plum pox virus. So many of his 
fruit growers were affected by that disease and he fought long and hard 
to see that his fruit growers were protected.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to come forth and pay 
tribute to our retiring Member who has done such an outstanding job, 
Mr. Goodling.
  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I do not mean to say 
that he was only interested in education, because the park that was in 
his district was absolutely essential to the district and he handled 
that, with a lot of divisions, he handled that so well. And the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gekas) knows that and I now yield to 
him.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, Congressman Goodling helped me in my first baby steps in 
the world of government and politics. In fact, Congressman Goodling 
introduced President Eisenhower, then retired President, General 
Eisenhower, to me at a rally in Harrisburg. So I have always been 
grateful to Congressman Goodling.
  Mr. Speaker, I am talking about George Goodling. Now, George Goodling 
was a role model for our incumbent. Our incumbent took the best 
qualities of his own father and transferred them to Washington as he 
represented his constituents, as everyone in the world knows by now.
  But one thing that is less known, except by the veterans on this 
floor like the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), that he loved 
his dad. And he did, in a wonderful way, emulate some of the qualities 
of George Goodling.
  I remember, for instance, that the first time I met the ``Baby 
Goodling,'' the one we are honoring today, was at one of the first 
picnics to which he went as a candidate. There everyone knew that they 
were going to vote for Bill Goodling, not just because of his eminent 
qualifications as an educator but because of the educator, George 
Goodling, the Congressman who preceded Bill Goodling.
  We love Bill Goodling.
  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, again reclaiming my time, I am pleased to 
yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. McCarthy).
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am probably one of the 
youngest Members that got to know the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Goodling) 4 years ago when I first came on the Committee on Education 
and the Workforce. He and I would always be the first ones down there. 
If the meeting was at 9:30, he and I were there at 9:30.
  This went on for a couple of committee hearings, and I finally said 
to Mr. Goodling, ``Mr. Goodling, how come you and I are the only ones 
here, when you say that the committee hearings are going to be at 
9:30?'' He said, ``Carolyn, around here we have congressional time and 
real time, and everyone comes late.'' And I said, ``Why should you and 
I be punished on that?'' Ever since then, at 9:30 that meeting starts 
and I appreciate that.

[[Page 20529]]

  Mr. Goodling has a tremendous sense of humor, and I do not know if 
people know that. Probably I like it so much because it reminds me of 
my sense of humor. Sometimes it is dry. Sometimes he is throwing out a 
sense of humor, and people do not even know what the laugh line is, but 
we do.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say that my respect for him over the years has 
been tremendous. He has spent his whole entire life in public service. 
He was a school teacher. He was a principal. He was a superintendent. 
He was on the school board. He was in the PTA.
  To me, that is public service. All of our teachers are in public 
service. But even though we sat on the committee and sometimes we 
disagreed, he was always a gentleman. Always a gentleman, and I have 
always appreciated that.
  I do not want anyone to think that this guy is retiring. He is not. 
There is a lot of good years that he is going to be out there, and I am 
sure he is going to be knocking on our doors certainly advocating for 
what he wants to advocate. So this is not a retirement. It is not. It 
is another new journey for Mr. Goodling, and we are going to miss him. 
I am going to miss him. And I thank him for everything that he taught 
me.
  When I did not understand something, he continued to be a teacher 
because he explained things to me, and I will always appreciate that. 
Mr. Speaker, I wish the gentleman a good journey; and I know we are 
still going to see him around.

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