[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15] [Senate] [Pages 21865-21867] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN BRUCE VENTO Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I come to the floor of the Senate to speak about Congressman Bruce Vento from Minnesota, the Fourth Congressional District, who passed away today. Bruce Vento was a fierce advocate for justice and a true representative, in the best sense of that word, of the people of the 4th District. He was generous and good-humored, with a seriousness of purpose that energized his work and inspired others. A gentle teacher and great friend, we were all ennobled, challenged and made greater by his presence among us, and will be less for his absence. The model he offered, of a life of public service for the common good, beckons us forward, toward the light, and for that we are grateful. From working to protect our nation's vulnerable homeless, to fighting to protect and preserve earth's natural treasures from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to South American Rain Forests, Bruce's legacy will last many generations. His leadership resulted in enactment of hundreds of conservation-related measures through the years, and protected millions of acres of our nation's parks, forests and wilderness areas. Close to home, when we look at a map of Minnesota we literally are looking at an image created in part by Bruce Vento. Our state's parks and green spaces are as healthy as they are in large part because of Bruce's work over these many years. Sheila and I will miss him terribly, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an AP story by Frederic Frommer from today, a piece in the Minnesota Star Tribune by Greg Gordon, and a piece from Tom Webb from the Pioneer Press. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [From the Associated Press] Minnesota Rep. Bruce Vento dead at 60 (By Frederic J. Frommer) Washington (AP).--Minnesota Rep. Bruce Vento, a 12-term liberal Democrat who championed environmental and homeless causes, died Tuesday after a bout with lung cancer. Vento, who was diagnosed in February, died at 12:20 p.m. at his home in St. Paul, Minn., surrounded by his family, spokesman Rick Jauert said. He had malignant mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer caused by inhaling asbestos fibers. Vento, who was 60, announced in February that he had cancer and would not seek re-election. His treatment included the removal of one lung, chemotherapy and radiation, but doctors discovered more cancer last month. As a young man, Vento worked as a state-paid laborer in several St. Paul-area facilities that he claimed exposed him to asbestos fibers. Two weeks ago he filed a lawsuit against 11 companies that allegedly supplied or installed asbestos products at those job sites. Vento made his most significant legislative contributions on environmental issues, which he called his ``true passion.'' ``I have been a member of Congress for the past 24 years, dedicated to making the federal government work for the people, to do for our community and state--and, yes, even internationally--that which we cannot do for ourselves,'' Vento said in February. ``The federal government can and should make a difference.'' When Democrats controlled the House, Vento was chairman of the Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and lands for 10 years, pushing for more [[Page 21866]] money for national parks and other environmental priorities. ``I think Bruce Vento has been one of the most impressive and effective congressmen in modern Minnesota history,'' said former Vice President Walter Mondale. ``It's hard to think of an environmental issue where his leadership has not been found.'' Vento worked on efforts to ban oil drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on preserving tropical rain forests. The Wilderness Society recognized Vento's work in 1994 with the Ansel Adams Conservation Award. ``He's been a hero,'' said Debbie Sease, legislative director for the Sierra Club. ``He's done more for parks than anyone I know.'' Vento also helped establish the emergency shelter grants program and preserve the Federal Housing Authority. President Clinton paid tribute to Vento at a dinner in June for his environmental record and work on behalf of the homeless. ``He has steered into law more than 300 bills to protect our natural resources,'' Clinton said. ``The thing I like even more about Bruce Vento is he cares about people, especially people without a voice--the homeless.'' Vento was born Oct. 7, 1940, in St. Paul and attended the University of Minnesota and Wisconsin State University. He worked as a science and social studies teacher before winning a seat to the state House in 1970. He was first elected to Congress in 1976. For the last decade, Vento pushed a bill to make it easier for the Hmong--an ethnic group in Laos--who fought with U.S. forces during the Vietnam War to become U.S. citizens by waiving the English-language requirement for them. After he was diagnosed with cancer, Vento made passage of the bill a top priority. His effort ended successfully when Congress approved the measure in May. ``This bill would have never been conceived or passed if it had not been for Bruce Vento,'' said Philip Smith, Washington director of Lao Veterans of America, which lobbied on behalf of the legislation. ``He reached across the aisle and worked and persevered to make this happen. He is our hero. He is a champion of the Hmong people.'' Vento is survived by his wife, Susan Lynch Vento, whom he married in August, and three sons. ____ [From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct. 10, 2000] Rep. Vento Dies in St. Paul (By Greg Gordon) Washington, D.C.--Rep. Bruce Vento, D-Minn., died at his St. Paul home this morning after an eight-month battle with mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer usually associated with asbestos exposure. Vento, a longtime environmental champion who planned to retire when his 12th term in office ends in January, celebrated his 60th birthday on Saturday. Rick Jauert, Vento's press secretary, said the congressman died at 11:20 a.m. Twin Cities time at his home in St. Paul with his family by his side. He said he had no further details, and that Vento's chief of staff, Larry Romans, was flying to Minnesota, apparently to be with Vento's family and help with funeral arrangements. Vento underwent surgery at Rochester's Mayo Clinic last February for removal of his left lung and diaphragm shortly after the fast-moving disease was discovered. But despite months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, a person familiar with Vento's condition said in late September that the cancer had spread to his remaining lung. Doctors had drained fluid from Vento's remaining lung on at least two occasions. ``It's too bad he died so fast,'' former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who held the same Fourth District congressional seat as Vento from 1948-58, said this afternoon. ``It's too bad to lose him. He was such an established person in the Congress, but cancer is pretty impartial.'' The former school teacher and state legislator leaves behind one of the most tangible legacies of any Congress member: He shepherded more than 300 laws that preserved natural lands from the Florida Everglades to the Alaska wilderness. Since February 2000, Vento had been treated for malignant mesothelioma, a virulent form of cancer usually caused by asbestos exposure. Yet his final year in office included some of his most important legislative accomplishments, including easing citizenship requirements for Hmong veterans living in the United States. Vento approached his ailment and last months in office with a graceful determination that won him the admiration of political friends and foes in Washington. President Clinton hailed his fellow Democrat at a testimonial in June as a man who ``never stops being a teacher. As he fights a disease that has not yet yielded all it secrets to science, he's our teacher again. He's shown us all a lot about courage.'' Clinton made the comments at a bipartisan tribute dinner that Vento helped turn into a fund-raiser for scholarships to train future high school science teachers. Vento was like that. As a legislator he was known for using every opportunity to pursue causes he held dear: Directing more resources to poor city neighborhoods, helping Hmong veterans, promoting public schools, raising the minimum wage and, always, protecting the environment. Throughout the Reagan, Bush and Clinton years in Washington, he never gave up his belief in activist government. saving wilderness In his first year in Congress he worked with others for the establishment of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In every one of his 23 years in Congress, his name was associated with wilderness preservation legislation. He was best known in Minnesota as a defender of the ban on the use of motorized vehicles in the BWCA. At the beginning of his last term in Congress he ended up having to embrace a painful compromise that allowed two motorized portages there. Vento was at the center of similar fights in dozens of other states because, before the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, he was chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. In relentlessly pushing that legislation, Vento became better known in some parts of the West than he was in Minnesota. ``He spends all of his waking hours working against our interests,'' complained Charles Cushman, president of an organization of private property owners in Washington state in 1993. ``The name Bruce Vento is without a doubt a very dirty word in many communities in the West,'' Cushman said in an interview. ``Any place there's a national park, they fear Mr. Vento with a passion.'' Indeed, the Sierra Club credits him in part for preserving and protecting 5 million acres of wild lands during the decade he was chairman of the subcommittee. In addition, he tended the designation of 76 ``wild and scenic'' rivers. His passion for parks came to him through personal experience. His father, a Machinists union officer, was not wealthy and couldn't afford fancy holidays or a lake cabin. ``We depended on the parks along the St. Croix River,'' Vento recalled in an interview a few years ago. ``That was our Sunday picnic, our vacation.'' high rankings If Vento received poor marks from conservative property rights groups, he was generally adored by environmentalists, though his occasional willingness to compromise--as on the motorized portages in the BWCA--cost him support from a few die-hards. At the June testimonial dinner, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt called him ``a hero of the nation's parks'' and said Vento coached him on how to handle the Republican takeover of Congress, which threatened continued investment in some national parks. ``Bruce said to me, `Don't panic. Don't make a deal with these guys,'' Babbitt recalled. The interior secretary said the GOP threat to cut parks funding evaporated after Vento advised him to draw a chart of national parks units in the districts of congressional opponents, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich. It wasn't just the environmentalists who considered Vento a hero. He also received 100 percent rankings most years from labor and liberal interest groups, while getting extremely low ratings from conservative and Christian fundamentalist organizations. In 1992, Vento, a Catholic, shifted his position on abortion legislation, saying his views had ``evolved'' to the point that he would support abortion rights while remaining personally opposed to abortion. That shift brought him fully in line with the dominant views of the DFL in Minnesota and the liberal wing of the Democratic party nationally. From his seat on the House Banking and Urban Affairs Committee, Vento in 1982 became one of the first members of Congress to urge action to deal with homelessness. His proposal that year to provide $50 million to repair derelict buildings for temporary shelter was never brought to a vote by the full House. Vento persevered, however, and eight years later he was the prime sponsor of the $1.3 billion McKinney homeless aid bill, which won approval and was signed into law. Vento's work on low-income housing was enhanced when he became chairman and later ranking member of the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee. On the Banking Committee he was an advocate for smaller banks and credit unions and for community reinvestment requirements for major financial institutions. Before coming to Washington, Vento served several terms in the Minnesota House, where he was assistant majority leader under Speaker Martin Sabo, who would later be Vento's close colleague in Congress. The two Twin Cities congressmen were twins only in voting record. In demeanor they couldn't have been more different. While the Scandinavian Sabo was reticent and disinclined to give speeches, Vento was known as a ceaseless orator who didn't seem to know how to end a sentence. When St. Paul's nine-term congressman Joseph Karth decided to retire in 1976, he endorsed the voluble Vento for his seat. That and strong labor support got Vento the party endorsement despite opposition in the primary from St. Paul attorney John Connolly [[Page 21867]] and State Auditor Robert Mattson. Vento won that year with 52 percent of the vote, and would win reelection 11 more times. fighting for hmong After St. Paul became one of the major centers of Hmong immigration in the 1980s, Vento embraced the needs of the former Laotian hill tribespeople who had fought for the CIA's Secret Army during the Vietnam War. He pushed for federal housing and educational assistance and to waive the English- language requirement for citizenship for those who had fought with the United States in Laos. In the 1990s, Vento's office became an informal Washington headquarters for this new group of Americans. His office wall was decorated with an enormous Hmong tapestry given in appreciation. And, on occasion, his inner and outer offices were lined with former Hmong soldiers in fatigues using his phones and desks to plan their lobbying assault on Washington. After years of persistent advocacy by Vento and others, the bill easing citizenship requirements of Hmong veterans was passed by both Houses and signed into law in 2000 by President Clinton. Lee Pao Xiong, a Hmong member of the Metropolitan Council, called Vento's decision to leave Congress at the end of his 12th term ``a great loss to our community. Bruce Vento was a strong advocate for the Hmong community, always willing to bear our concerns.'' The advocacy of the latest immigrant group by a man who was himself the descendent of immigrants was in the tradition of St. Paul, said Garrison Keillor, Minnesota's homegrown humorist. He said at the testimonial dinner that Vento never seemed like a slick Washington pol. ``Bruce is like St. Paul,'' he said, later describing Vento as a man of ``modesty and courage and passion.'' personal life Vento's final year in Washington was not filled with funereal sentiment. In August he married a fellow educator, Susan Lynch of Chatfield, Minn. It was the first wedding for Lynch but not for Vento, who has three adult sons from his first marriage, Michael, Peter and John. A week before the nuptials, Vento, smiling but wan, attended the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, appearing with former Vice President Mondale and Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton as the Minnesota delegation cast its ballots for Vento's friend from their first days together in the House, Vice President Al Gore. Vento's energy astonished his colleagues. After his cancer was diagnosed in February, he underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic for removal of his left lung and diaphragm. He lost 25 pounds and some of his hair as he completed a draining regimen of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. ``I'm looking forward to fishing,'' Vento told reporters and supporters who asked what he planned to do next. ``That's the ulterior motive in all the environmental protections I've fought for.'' His longtime colleague and partner in liberal Democratic legislative ventures, Sabo, seemed stunned by Vento's news, saying over and again, ``I can't imagine this place without Bruce around.'' In the weeks after Vento announced his illness and his plans to retire, Republicans--from former Rep. Vin Weber to Sen. Rod Grams--acknowledged his 24 years of service. ``Put the partisan differences aside,'' said St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman. ``He delivered a lot for this community, and his passion will be missed.'' ____ [From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Oct. 10, 2000] U.S. Rep. Vento Dies (By Tom Webb) U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento, St. Paul's unwavering voice in Congress for 24 years, died Tuesday morning at his home in St. Paul after a long bout with cancer. He was 60. A native of St. Paul's East Side, Vento was famed as a champion for wilderness, consumers, working people and the homeless, who never forgot the everyday struggles of average folks fighting to build a better life. Vento died at 11:20 a.m., with his family at his bedside, his staff announced. Vento was elected to Congress in 1976 from the Fourth Congressional District, covering Ramsey County and a sliver of Dakota County. He was the longest serving of a trio of notable DFLers who for a half-century have served the Fourth District in Congress, a group including Eugene McCarthy and Joseph Karth. He was suffering from mesothelioma, a form of cancer usually linked with exposure to asbestos. He is survived by his wife, Susan Lynch; his three sons, John, Peter and Michael; their spouses, four grandchildren; his parents, Frank and Anne Vento; and seven brothers and sisters and their families. Funeral arrangements are pending. Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, Bruce was elected to the State legislature in 1970 and to the House of Representatives in 1977. Before that, he had been a science teacher on the lower east side of St. Paul. He is a true product of the lower east side. His family is wonderful. Sheila and I have had the chance to spend a lot of time with his family. It is a wonderful, caring, Italian Catholic family. I believe Frank and Annie had eight children; Bruce was the second oldest. I want to say two or three things if I may. One, I want to say to Bruce's family and to his wife Sue: Sue, you have been a gift from Heaven for Bruce and his family. I talked to Bruce Saturday. He turned 60. Today he passed away. When he passed away, all of his family were with him. All of them said: You can let go. What a beautiful, caring, loving, wonderful family. And what a beautiful, loving, caring man. Bruce has done so much for so many people. He was so committed to public service. But most important of all, to me, he was a friend whom I will miss. I remember once he was going to come over to our home in St. Paul to talk about a big dispute over the Boundary Water Wilderness Area. We were supposed to meet early in the morning, but there was a huge snowstorm and all the weather reports were that all the schools were closed. People weren't going to be able to go to work. Everything was shut down. It was impossible to get around. We were supposed to meet at 8 o'clock in the morning. At 5 minutes to 8 o'clock, there was a knock on the door. There was Bruce. He was in seventh heaven. This was like the outdoors, this was snow, this was Minnesota, and he was there. He loved the environment and did so much for our State and our country. I say to Bruce's family, what a great Congressman. It is easy to say that when someone has passed away, but he truly was. People in Minnesota loved this man. They always will. They will never forget him, will never forget all he has done for our Fourth Congressional District and for our State. Sheila and I will never forget Bruce. Bruce is like my friend, Mike Epstein, about whom I spoke. Mike was here for all these years, so committed to public service. Two men, they died too young, from the horrible disease of cancer, two men who were so committed to public service, so committed to people. From this day on, my belief is I have two friends who are looking down from heaven. I will be talking to them every day. I know Bruce's children and grandchildren will be talking to him every day. I yield the floor. Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I certainly commend the Senator on his moving tribute to Bruce Vento. Certainly we can tell how emotionally attached the Senator was to that gentleman. I knew him also. I served with him on the Resource Committee in the House. Certainly he was a fine gentleman. The Senator has described him well. We are all very sad at this loss. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming ____________________