[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21855-21856]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        CONGRESSMAN BRUCE VENTO

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I was just informed by the Sergeant at Arms 
that Bruce Vento, a Member of the House of Representatives, died today, 
just a short time ago.
  I served in the House with Bruce. After I left the House, I saw him 
virtually every day; he and I worked out in the House gym every 
morning. He was very faithful. We had a very warm relationship.
  When I served in the House, I can remember one of the first 
conversations we had was about a national park in Nevada. I had never 
contemplated a national park in Nevada. We did not have one. I, 
frankly, did not know the history of Nevada as it related to the area 
around Mt. Wheeler. I did not realize that Key Pittman, a longtime 
Senator from Nevada, had sent President Reagan's Director of the Park 
Service, William Penn Mott, there when he was a park ranger in the 
1930s to find a site in Nevada for a national park, and this is the 
spot that he found and gave this information to President Roosevelt.
  Over the years, many political battles ensued and the park never came 
into being. I did some wilderness legislation for Nevada. It was 
extremely controversial. But based on my conversations with Bruce 
Vento, I decided to peel off some of what we were doing in wilderness 
and go for a national park. It was one of the best things I ever did; 
we now have a national park in Nevada, Great Basin National Park, which 
is really a world wonder. It has a mountain peak over 13,000 feet high; 
it has Nevada's only glacier; it has the oldest living thing in the 
world, the bristlecone pine--over 5,000 years old. They were there 
before Christ came to Earth; they were there during the time the 
pyramids were built. In addition, Lehman Caves is located inside the 
park boundary.
  Without talking more about the park itself, just the inception of 
that idea came to me as a result of a conversation I had with Bruce 
Vento as a new Member of the House of Representatives. He was very 
interested in things related to the environment.
  Bruce Vento being dead now is hard to contemplate because he worked 
so hard on his physical body. A few years ago, while here at his home 
in Washington, he fell off the roof while doing some work and was 
broken up very badly. But it only kept him from his gym work for a 
short period of time, even though he had broken bones.
  Bruce Vento died as a result of asbestosis which he contracted as a 
young man while working with asbestos. Out of nowhere he developed a 
lung problem. Last year he had a lung removed. They were hoping that 
they got it. They didn't. And a few weeks ago it was announced they did 
not. I am sure his family and those close to him knew that his life was 
not going to be long, but I didn't know.
  I am really saddened at the death of Bruce Vento. He is somebody who 
I will always remember. I will always remember him for his smile and 
his love for the environment and, on a personal basis, for what he did 
to quicken my mind about the possibility of having a national park in 
Nevada.
  Our country is less today than it was yesterday as a result of the 
passing of Bruce Vento. I expressed to his family the great affection 
that I and many Members, those who work with me in the Congress, have 
for Bruce. I wish them, no I don't wish them--I give them the knowledge 
that the passage of time will lessen the anguish they now feel. 
Hopefully, as the months pass by, only memories of their love and loss 
will be in their minds, and not the

[[Page 21856]]

fact of their loss; the fact of the many things he contributed to this 
country will be paramount in their minds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I heard the remarks of our colleague from 
Nevada about our good friend, Bruce Vento. I also express my deepest 
sympathies to his family at their loss. It is a loss to them and it is 
a loss to America. Bruce Vento was a man who educated many of us, 
including myself, as to the great value of our national parks; that in 
many ways they are the repositories of America's dream, of what kind of 
a country we were and what kind of an America we wish to leave for 
future generations.
  I had the opportunity to talk to Congressman Vento just a few weeks 
ago on behalf of a national park that I feel very deeply about, 
Everglades National Park. As always, he was extremely solicitous of 
information and forthcoming in his willingness to be of assistance.
  I am saddened today at the news of Bruce Vento's passing. America, 
and particularly our great natural treasures, have lost a tremendous 
friend and articulate advocate on their behalf.

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