[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 25067-25068]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE JOHN KASICH ON HIS RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle) is recognized for 
half the time until midnight as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, we are hopefully coming to the end of our 
legislative session for the year and for the 106th Congress. That will 
be a happy time for a lot of people because it means we get to go home 
to our families, to our districts for the election, but there are some 
people who are not going to be returning, and the subject of my special 
order involves one of my colleagues and very good friends who will no 
longer be a Member of this body after this session closes. He shares a 
distinction with a number of Members who came to the United States 
Congress to work on deficit issues, on budget issues. He came from the 
great State of Ohio with a mission, and that was even if he was the 
only one standing in the well to balance the budget all by himself, he 
was going to get that job done. That man's name was John Kasich.
  Tonight, the subject of this special order is to pay tribute to John 
Kasich, the representative from Ohio, as well as the distinguished 
Budget chairman for the last 6 years.


                             General Leave

  Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the subject of my special order 
involving Chairman John Kasich.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Iowa?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, there are a number of Members who would have 
liked to have been here tonight to express their gratitude, maybe even 
a few remembrances, a couple of stories, but there just is not time 
and, of course, with this late hour it probably seems even less 
appropriate. It is something that ought to be done in, quote-unquote, 
prime time for someone as important as John Kasich, but let me just 
give a couple of quick points and then I will conclude.
  Number one, there are going to be a lot of people including the very 
distinguished Speaker pro tem who is sitting here today who will also 
share the distinction of no longer being here after this session. We 
bid him at the end of this session farewell. He has been a true 
champion on many of the issues that John Kasich has been fighting for. 
But there will be a lot of Members, Mr. Speaker, a lot of politicians, 
a lot of candidates in the future that say I balanced the budget, or I 
was there to help get it done, but there will be one person who will 
probably, above all other people, and my guess is that that will be 
shared in a bipartisan way from both sides of the aisle, who stood just 
a little bit taller than the rest of the politicians and 
Representatives and Senators and Presidents, and that is John Kasich.

[[Page 25068]]

  He wrote his first budget in 1989. Now, you have got to remember back 
to what this was like. Here he is a junior Member of Congress coming in 
and having the audacity to say, I can write my own budget. This is 
something that was reserved for the President of the United States, for 
the majority party only, maybe for the Budget Committee but certainly 
not a junior member to come in and say, ``I can do it better than you 
can.'' And almost like the movie ``Dave'' that maybe some Members have 
seen, he went through line item by line item and outlined exactly what 
that budget ought to look like.
  Well, I was not here in 1989. Maybe I would have helped support him. 
My guess is the Speaker pro tem would have as well. He only got about 
30 votes for his first budget. But from that seed grew a very mighty 
vision for the future. He took that seed and not only became a leader, 
took over the Budget Committee and then with the rest of us in 1995, 
1996 and 1997 worked as hard as he could to bring that vision to a 
reality. My daughter Sarah and my son Mark are the recipients of his 
leadership in a number of different ways but probably most importantly 
because as we have balanced the budget, we have been able to now reduce 
by putting 90 percent of that surplus toward the national debt, we are 
going to be able to let them know that by the end of this year we have 
reduced the national debt by $354 billion.
  Can we do better? You bet we can. We are going to continue that work 
if we have the honor and the ability in the majority to go on next 
year, and there is more work we need to do, even though John Kasich 
will not be here. But he has laid a foundation that is second to none. 
The Members of the Budget Committee as well as the Members of the Ohio 
delegation led by Ralph Regula, the dean of the delegation, wish to 
express our gratitude on behalf of all of us in Congress for the great 
leadership that John Kasich has provided. He will go on with his two 
twin daughters and his wife Karen to bigger and better things, we have 
no doubt. As the old adage around here goes that only Members seem 
know, that as soon as you are a former Member, you are forgotten. That 
may be true for some, but my guess is that John Kasich's legacy will 
ring true in this House of Representatives for many years to come. I 
count him as one of my friends. I count him as a mentor. He will be 
sorely missed. We respect his tenure.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to add my accolades for my Ohio 
colleague, John Kasich. John has been a member of the Ohio delegation 
of this body for the past 18 years. As dean of the Ohio delegation, I 
have worked with John on numerous issues of importance to the State of 
Ohio. He always brought his determination to help people with his 
unfailing enthusiasm to the task at hand.
  Throughout this time he has played an important role in leading this 
nation toward sound budgeting and fiscal responsibility. When John 
assumed the chairmanship of the Budget Committee, he was determined to 
reduce the size, scope and intrusiveness of government in people's 
lives. To do this required skillful use of the reconciliation feature 
of the Budget Act.
  As John's fellow Budget Committee members have attested, he brought a 
single-mindedness of purpose of the job. His was not a reactive 
approach, but proactive one, annually proposing his own budget 
alternatives to those of the White House. While he presided over the 
Committee, our budgets have gone from perennial deficits to annual 
surpluses.
  His steadfast leadership of the House Budget Committee has educated 
many of our constituents across the country on the budget process and 
its effects on us all. We owe a great debt of appreciation to John for 
his dedication to this effort and for the positive outcome which has 
resulted. The impacts a balanced federal budget have on our economy and 
our ability to prosper individually and as a nation are truly the 
result of this dedication.
  And John has accomplished this with his own special flair. Who else 
could negotiate budget numbers with the White House one day and start a 
book signing tour the next, run for President, and hang out with rock 
stars.
  Now John embarks on a new phase of his life. I am certain that it 
will be as rewarding as his congressional career has been. As a husband 
and father of twins, John will have many important projects of both a 
personal and professional nature.
  John, as you leave this institution for other endeavors, we wish much 
success and happiness to you, your wife Karen, and your beautiful twin 
daughters, Reece and Emma.

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