[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 28001-28002]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  IN HONOR OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FINANCIAL 
       RESPONSIBILITY AND MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE AUTHORITY MEMBERS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 20, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, as Congress prepares to end this session, 
unique in our history, I ask the House to recognize the work of nine 
Washingtonians who have just completed a uniquely important public 
service for our nation's capital, and therefore for our nation. The 
nine served the District of Columbia on the District of Columbia 
Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority. They are 
the two chairs, Andrew Brimmer and Alice Rivlin, the vice chairs, 
Stephen Harlan and Constance Berry Newman, and the members, Eugene 
Kinlow, Darius Mans, Joyce Ladner, Edward Singletary, and Robert 
Watkins. They are very distinguished Americans and among the most 
distinguished and most accomplished residents of the District of 
Columbia.
  This year, the Authority completed six years that have brought the 
District of Columbia out of the worst financial crisis in a century. To 
cope with this crisis, Congress passed the District of Columbia 
Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority Act in 
1995. The city had followed several others--Philadelphia, New York, and 
Cleveland among them--to junk bond status indicating an inability to 
borrow, or insolvency. As with the cities that preceded them, the 
District required a ``control board'' or Authority in order to continue 
to borrow the necessary money to function. Unlike other cities, 
however, the nation's capital reached this point not only because of 
local mismanagement, but also because it is a city without a state and 
a city that carried the full complement of state functions and costs. 
To the credit of the prior administration of President Bill Clinton, 
which designed a package relieving the city of the most costly state 
functions and of the Congress, which approved it, the District has had 
a remarkable recovery.
  Working countless hours with the Mayor and the City Council, the 
Authority helped the District achieve investment grade bond status by 
the third year of the control period, rather than in four years; create 
a budget reserve of $150 million and left the city well on its way to 
creating a 7-percent cash reserve three years ahead of schedule; repay 
all borrowings from the U.S. Treasury; eliminate the accumulated 
deficit; and post four years of balanced budgets with surpluses, two 
years ahead of the congressional mandate to do so.
  Elected officials, who continued to run the city throughout, deserve 
credit for this improvement. However, they would doubtlessly agree that 
more than any single group or individuals, the Financial Authority 
deserves the credit for the four-year rapid recovery of the District. 
It was the credibility of the individuals on the Authority and the 
extraordinary job they did that enabled the District to borrow in its 
own name. The city never had to have the Authority borrow for the 
District. It was the Authority that worked hand in glove with D.C. 
elected officials to assure that the finances and the management of the 
D.C. government would proceed apace to improve. And it was the 
Authority that gave Congress the confidence that the city would be 
ready for the sunset of the Authority on September 30, 2001.
  It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of these 
Washingtonians to the recovery of the city or the difficulty of the 
work they were called upon to do--and did. The District could never 
have purchased from experts of their special competence what each gave 
to the city as a contribution of unique expertise, endless hours, 
extraordinary effort, and plain, priceless wisdom.
  The city the Authority found had been wracked with many years of 
overspending and an accumulated deficit as well as a dysfunctional 
government of city agencies. The city they have left has had four 
straight years of balanced budgets plus surpluses and a much improved 
fully functioning city government. At the end of the last fiscal year, 
the District had a larger surplus than Maryland and larger than 
Virginia, which had no surplus. The bottom

[[Page 28002]]

line that is expected of every jurisdiction of living within its 
budget, credit to assure borrowing and clean audits has been achieved. 
The huge task of restructuring and reforming each city agency is 
proceeding with many notable improvements. The Authority, working with 
elected officials has improved the most critical agencies, including 
public safety and education, where resident concern was pronounced. 
These financial and management improvements are among the many rich 
features of the Authority's legacy,
  However, the Authority also left an important warning not only for 
the city but for Congress about the future of the city. Despite 
remarkable city improvements and the Revitalization Act's assumption of 
$5 billion in pension liability and some state functions, the Authority 
warned of a structural deficit not of the city's making that urgently 
needs congressional attention. Next session, I will introduce a bill to 
meet the structural problem the Authority has left Congress to remedy.
  Today, however, let us be grateful that the most difficult part of 
the job of revitalizing the nation's capital has not been left to 
Congress. It has been done by nine extraordinary citizens who asked 
nothing from Congress, not pay, and not even praise. Yet, considerable 
praise is the least they are due from the Congress of the United 
States. It is praise and honor that I ask this House to give to these 
nine Washingtonians today from a grateful Congress and a grateful 
nation.

 The District of Columbia Financial Management and Assistance Authority


                            First Authority

     Andrew Brimmer (Chair)
       Dr. Andrew Brimmer served as the first chair of the 
     Authority. Mr. Brimmer, the first African American to serve 
     on the Federal Reserve Board, has long been recognized as a 
     distinguished economist. Among his many posts and 
     achievements is service as an economist at the Federal 
     Reserve Bank of New York and posts teaching economics at 
     Michigan State University, the Wharton School, the University 
     of Pennsylvania, and other colleges and universities. Dr. 
     Brimmer is the President of Brimmer and Company.
       Dr. Brimmer became the chair of the Authority when the city 
     was at its lowest point of financial and management 
     disrepair. He led the Authority as it took on very large and 
     intractable fiscal and operational problems and managed them 
     with skill and determination.
     Stephen Harlan (Vice Chair)
       Stephen Harlan served as vice chair for the first term of 
     the Authority. He was the chair of H.G. Smithy Company, a 
     specialized real estate firm providing mortgage banking, 
     finance and investment, and multi-family property management 
     services. He previously served as vice chairman of KPMG Peat 
     Marwick.
       Mr. Harlan successfully led the Authority's public safety 
     revitalization at a time when crime was the primary concern 
     of District residents and officials.
     Joyce Ladner
       Dr. Joyce Ladner has served as Interim President of Howard 
     University, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and 
     professor of sociology at the Howard University School of 
     Social Work. She is currently a Senior Fellow of Government 
     Studies at the Brookings Institution.
       Dr. Ladner successfully concentrated on improving public 
     schools when education was the primary concern of the 
     Authority.
     Constance Berry Newman
       Constance Berry Newman, one of the most versatile officials 
     in the public life of the country, served as vice chair 
     during the second term of the Authority and is the only 
     member that served both terms. She has been appointed by 
     Presidents of the United States four times to major federal 
     posts and has been a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, and a 
     member of the adjunct faculty at the Kennedy School at 
     Harvard University and a trustee of the Brookings 
     Institution. Ms. Newman has served as Undersecretary of the 
     Smithsonian Institution, Director of the Office of Personnel 
     Management, and consultant to foreign governments and 
     international organizations, among other posts. Ms. Newman is 
     currently the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for 
     Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
       Ms. Newman successfully led a number of areas for the 
     Authority, ranging from public schools to procurement.
     Edward Singletary
       Edward Singletary is a retired business executive with 
     experience in accounting, budgeting, financial planning, 
     finance operations and telecommunication. He worked in the 
     telecommunications industry for nearly 30 years. During his 
     business career, he served the city as chair of the 
     Washington Convention Center, a member of the D.C. Retirement 
     Board, and President of the Washington Convention and 
     Visitors Association.
       While on the Authority, Mr. Singletary successfully worked 
     on government-wide administrative issues for the city, 
     including technology and procurement.


                            Second Authority

     Alice Rivlin (Chair)
       Dr. Alice Rivlin, one of the country's most respected 
     economists, served as chair of the Financial Authority for 
     its second term. She has had one of the most distinguished 
     public service careers in the nation as Vice Chair of the 
     Board of Governors to the Federal Reserve, Deputy Director, 
     then Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as 
     the first director of the Congressional Budget Office, among 
     others. Dr. Rivlin is currently a Senior Fellow in Economic 
     Studies at the Brookings Institution.
       Dr. Rivlin was the chair of a landmark commission on the 
     District government and its finances that bears her name and 
     that predicted the problems of the city years considerably 
     before they resulted in the crisis that brought on the need 
     for the Authority she led. When Dr. Rivlin became chair of 
     the Authority in September 1998, she led the detailed 
     financial work on government operations necessary to manage a 
     careful transition of control of the District to the Mayor 
     and City Council.
     Constance Berry Newman (Vice Chair--see above)
     Eugene Kinlow
       Eugene Kinlow is a native Washingtonian with exceptionally 
     strong community ties, including service as a former chair of 
     the D.C. Board of Education. He is a retired Deputy Assistant 
     Secretary for Human Resources in the Department of Health and 
     Human Services and a recipient of the highest award for 
     federal executives, the Presidential Distinguished Rank 
     Award. He previously served as a staff statistician at the 
     U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and worked as the Housing 
     Research Director. Mr. Kinlow's 30 years of community service 
     in the Anacostia area led to his determined work as the 
     Authority's lead member on revising health care for the 
     District.
     Darius Mans
       Dr. Darius Mans was a manager for compensation policy and 
     administration at the World Bank. Prior to his work at the 
     World Bank, Dr. Mans was an economist for the Federal Reserve 
     System Board of Governors. He is currently Country Director 
     at the World Bank for several large African nations.
       Dr. Mans' strong institutional and academic financial 
     background was very useful to the Authority's work on D.C.'s 
     finances.
     Robert Watkins, III
       Robert Watkins, a distinguished lawyer, has been a partner 
     at Williams and Connolly since 1977. His background includes 
     leadership posts in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the 
     District of Columbia when he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney 
     and work in the Civil Rights Division of Justice Department.
       Mr. Watkins successfully worked on justice issues and the 
     Metropolitan Police Department during a period when the 
     Department underwent substantial reform and crime was 
     reduced.

     

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