[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7] [House] [Pages 9574-9576] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]MATTHEW F. McHUGH POST OFFICE Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3030) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 757 Warren Road in Ithaca, New York, as the ``Matthew F. McHugh Post Office''. The Clerk read as follows: H.R. 3030 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. DESIGNATION. (a) In General.--The facility of the United States Postal Service located at 757 Warren Road in Ithaca, New York, shall be known and designated as the ``Matthew F. McHugh Post Office''. (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Matthew F. McHugh Post Office''. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) each will control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella). General Leave Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 3030. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Maryland? There was no objection. Mrs. MORELLA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey), has introduced the bill before us, H.R. 3030. Pursuant to the policy of the Committee on Government Reform, the entire House delegation of the State of New York has cosponsored this legislation. The bill designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 757 Warren Road in Ithaca, New York, as the Matthew F. McHugh Post Office. The Congressional Budget Office has reviewed H.R. 3030 and estimates that the enactment of the bill would have no significant impact on the Federal budget. Spending by the Postal Service is classified as off- budget, and thus is not subject to pay-as-you-go procedures. Mr. McHugh studied at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the State that I represent. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1960 and was the President of the student body. He then received his Juris Doctor from Villanova Law School, where he was the editor of the Law Review. He was city prosecutor in Ithaca, practiced law in Ithaca, New York, and was district attorney in Tompkins County, New York. Matthew McHugh was the predecessor of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) to Congress, and represented the 27th and 28th Congressional Districts of New York. Representative McHugh was elected to Congress in 1975 and he served until 1992. He served on the Committee on Appropriations, the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs, and the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture and Related Agencies from 1978 to 1992. He served on numerous other committees and organizations while in the House, such as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he was chairman of the Subcommittee on Legislation. He was acting chairman of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, and he served on the Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families; the Committee on Veterans Affairs; the Committee on Agriculture; the Committee on the Interior; the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus; and as the chairman of the Democratic Study Group. After leaving the House, Mr. McHugh continued his participation in improving our Nation and the world. He is [[Page 9575]] presently the counselor to the president of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., a position he assumed in 1993. Prior to that, he was vice president, university counsel, and secretary to the Corporation of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He continues to serve in various capacities in organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Central and East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association, the International Crisis Group. He is president of the Association of Former Members of Congress, Bread for the World, New York State Regents Commission on Higher Education, the Board of Consulters of the Villanova School of Law, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mount St. Mary's College. I had the pleasure of serving with Mr. McHugh and traveling with him internationally in pursuit of the best interests of our country with foreign affairs, and it is a great pleasure to be able to speak on behalf of this bill to name the post office the Matthew F. McHugh Post Office. I urge our colleagues to support H.R. 3030, honoring our former colleague by naming that postal facility at 757 Warren Road in Ithaca, New York, as the Matthew F. McHugh Post Office. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) will control the time of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah). There was no objection. Mr. HINCHEY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to speak on behalf of this initiative, which will name the postal facility in Ithaca, New York, after my dear friend, colleague, and predecessor, the Honorable Matthew F. McHugh. It gives me particular pleasure to do so following the statements that have been just made by the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella), whose service with Mr. McHugh overlapped. I know that Matt holds the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) in great respect and affection, as do I, and I know very well that he would be very pleased if he were in this room now to have just heard the very lovely and kind and warm remarks that she made about him, as I was just a moment ago. {time} 1300 I want to thank the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) very much for what she has just said. Also, I want to say that I too am honored to stand before you today to urge our support, the support of all the Members of the House, for H.R. 3030, which would rename the new post office building in Ithaca, New York, in honor of former Representative Matthew F. McHugh. Matt was my predecessor in the House, and I know many people here who served with him. He served with distinction for nine terms as a member of the Committee on Appropriations for 14 years. Matt championed issues like hunger in Africa that brought him no particular glory and no attention. He was a passionate advocate for those who could not adequately defend themselves and a voice for meeting our international responsibilities in a humane way. In his present position at the World Bank, and his many volunteer efforts, he remains a strong, dedicated leader in securing human rights for all. Matt's road to Congress began like many Members, with a career in law. He first moved to Ithaca, New York, in 1968 to join a law firm in that city. Just 1 year later, he was elected as Tompkins County's district attorney, making him the first Democrat to hold a county-wide elected office there in decades. In 1974, he was enlisted to run for the House seat which was then being vacated by former Representative Howard Robison, a very distinguished Republican who held that seat for a good many years and who was retiring at that moment. Matt McHugh won that seat and served the district admirably and well for 18 years. When he retired from the House, he was widely praised by Members of both parties as well as in the press for his thoughtfulness, his fairness, and his integrity. A national columnist, upon the news of his retirement, wrote that Matt McHugh was an example of ``the best the House can offer.'' Our ranking member, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) said, and I quote, ``In my view, there is no Member of this House who more aptly sums up what public service ought to be all about than does Matt McHugh.'' Throughout his years in Congress, he made Ithaca his home. Ithacans continue to take pride in having sent a man of such distinction to the House of Representatives, and community leaders there have told me that they welcome such a permanent commemoration of Matt and his years of public service. Although he was never the kind of man to seek such honors, I know that he deserves recognition and this permanent commemoration of the service he gave will remind people of the fine example he set. Naming the new Ithaca post office in his honor is one small way in which we can acknowledge his years of hard work, dedication, and commitment to the people of New York's 26th Congressional District. I owe a special thanks also to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), our friend and colleague, in whose district the post office lies, as well as to the gentleman from New York (Chairman McHugh) for his assistance in bringing this bill to the House. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) served with Matt here for a number of years. They were, during that service, good friends; and they continue to be good friends to this day. Matt still provides service for the country, as the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) has said, in his position as vice president and counsel to the president of the World Bank. He was, in fact, a distinguished Member of this House; indeed, as many people referred to him during his service here, a man of the House. And he continues to be a strong, dedicated, faithful citizen of the United States. We all owe him a great thanks for his service to the country. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce). Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, I probably knew Matt McHugh for longer than anybody in this body, because I first met him at Villanova Law School in the early 1960s when we were both students there. Above and beyond being students together, we were counselors at that time to the undergraduate students at Villanova University. I also came to know his lovely wife, Alanna, then. They were dating at that time. And when we talk about a great human being, we have to think of two human beings, both Matt and his wonderful wife, Alanna. From the very first day I knew him, through all of our 18 years in Congress together to today, there is no one I have ever respected more, both professionally and personally. Matt was the type of individual at law school who never had a bad word to say about anyone. If he had a bad thought, he kept it to himself. He only spoke well of others. He was a kind man, a gentle man as a law student. Mr. Speaker, I remember the tremendous job he did when he was the district attorney in Tompkins County at the time of the uprisings at Cornell, and he handled it so judiciously, so appropriately. He was elected to Congress in the great Watergate year, 1974. He was one of the ``Watergate Babies,'' and so was I. We were elected at the same time, and we came to Congress on the same day. As Members, we always like to double check ourselves. Are we doing something right? Are we doing something wrong? And I always wanted to know how Matt McHugh was going to vote on an issue, because if his inclinations were the same as mine, I felt pretty secure in my conviction. And if his inclinations differed from mine, that would give me pause and concern, because I trusted his judgment and [[Page 9576]] knew that he was, perhaps more than anything else, an intellectually honest person. He was not a partisan. Sure, he was a Democrat more than Republican; he labeled himself as such. But he was not a partisan Democrat. He approached each and every issue on its merits. There are not too many individuals we can say that of. He did not try to fool others. He tried to give the total truth, not just a half-truth that would serve his own purposes. But perhaps most importantly, he never attempted to fool himself. And the most difficult thing in the world is being honest with yourself. So when we honor Matt McHugh, we are honoring one of the best persons who has ever served in this House. I am just grateful that he has continued to perform public service since he retired as a Member. When he and I first knew each other, we were counselors to students. Now he is the counselor to the president of the World Bank. And in that sense, he is not just affecting millions of people in the world, or billions, as we in Congress do, but virtually every person in the world in his position as counselor to the president of the World Bank. Matt would be the first to say that having one's name carved in stone is not a true measure of the person or of his impact on the world. But I and many others will take considerable pleasure in knowing that high above Cayuga's waters for decades to come, Matt's name will be seen by millions of Ithacans and other New Yorkers. And parents will tell their children, Matt McHugh? Oh, he is probably the best public servant this town, this county, this State has ever known. Mr. Speaker, I hope you and all our colleagues will join me in supporting this honor for one of the best Members of Congress our institution has ever known, Matt McHugh. Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from San Diego, California (Mr. Filner). Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding me this time, and I thank him for introducing this motion for a great former Member of our body. I thank also the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) for their support of this issue. Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of rising in support of this measure to name the post office in Ithaca after Matthew McHugh. We have heard a lot about his legislative accomplishments, his work in the Committee on Appropriations, his work at the World Bank. I had the privilege of meeting Matt McHugh before he held any of those offices, a little after the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) knew him. I was a student at Cornell in 1968 when Matt McHugh was the Ithaca city prosecutor. ``Town and gown'' relations between Cornell and Ithaca were never very good, but in 1968 at the height of tensions around this country and at the Cornell campus, literally uprisings, the tensions were even worse. And yet the Ithaca city prosecutor was respected by students at Cornell, and he respected us as students. It was that mutual respect and that mutual sense of good feeling which has characterized the career of Matt McHugh ever since that day. At 30 years old, he was elected the first Democratic district attorney for Tompkins County, New York. Many students at Cornell, including myself, worked in that first campaign for Matt McHugh. The respect that he earned in that job, as the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) intimated earlier, led to his election to Congress in 1974, again, as the first Democrat from that area in a very, very long time. Now, Matt McHugh was the kind of man who kept up his relationships. He was never a man who was unfriendly; always a gracious, sharing, caring individual. I kept my relations with him as a Hill staffer in the 1970s and 80's. And what we are saying today, those who knew him and those who served with him, is that Matt McHugh saw politics as a noble profession. Everybody who knows Matt McHugh, and knew him as an elected official, learned that, in fact, politicians, elected officials, could be noble; that elected officials had not only intelligence and insight, but they had integrity and ethics, fairness, and in the case of Matt McHugh, grace. His wife, Alanna, and his wonderful daughters, played a key role in all of his life. He was proud of them and they were proud of him, and he showed what a family in politics could do together. Mr. Speaker, having lived in Ithaca for 10 years, and I think the only Cornell alumnus in this body at the present time, I know that all Ithacans will be proud that a post office in their city will be named after Matt McHugh. Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank our friends, the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Filner), for their words about our dear friend, Matt McHugh. I also want to express my deep appreciation to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) for the wonderful and very thoughtful things that she said about our friend and colleague, Matt McHugh, as well. Having followed him here to the House, I can say also without hesitation or fear of conviction that he set, while he was here, a very high standard indeed and he continues to set a high standard in his continuing public service at the World Bank. We in New York are very, very proud of this man and the service that he has rendered to our State and to the country. It is with a great deal of pride that I offer this measure to the other Members of the House. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) has introduced this resolution to name this post office. During my time with Matt McHugh here in the House of Representatives, I will also say that I found him to be fair, open-minded, warm, bipartisan, and a very committed professional. I am pleased that he is continuing with his work with the World Bank, because he is helping those who are oppressed and those who need the Bank's services in other countries. So, Mr. Speaker, I urge this body to vote for H.R. 3030, to name the post office the ``Matthew F. McHugh Post Office.'' Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The question is on the motion offered by the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3030. The question was taken. Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. ____________________ {time} 1315