[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6053-6054]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         HONORING BILL BRADLEY

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today we celebrate the long career 
of dedicated public service rendered by Mr. Bill Bradley of Ware, MA. 
His deep love of policy and politics has inspired me and many others, 
and I am fortunate to have Bill's friendship and counsel in my life.
  This weekend, Bill's friends and colleagues will gather to look back 
on 25 years of service to two United States Senators, a Congressman, 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the people of Massachusetts. 
Bill retires from a distinguished career of government service, most 
recently having held the post of Regional Director for the Department 
of Agriculture's Rural Development Program and today I join his 
extended political family in this celebration.
  The same interest and passion that Bill brought to his USDA service 
can be found in earlier chapters of his life. As a freshman in high 
school, he pursued an early interest in politics by working as a 
congressional page in Washington D.C. in 1962, and his sponsor was a 
son of Dorchester who went on to become the great Speaker of the U.S. 
House of Representatives, John W. McCormack. Bill was a page through 
the next two years, and capped his early Washington experience by 
witnessing Lyndon Johnson's inauguration in 1965. After graduating from 
the University of California and serving a brief stint with the U.S. 
Forest Service in Alaska, Bill got his first job on Capitol Hill as a 
Legislative Aide for Congressman Dale Milford of Texas during the 
Carter Administration. Soon he moved closer to his Massachusetts up 
north to run a mobile office for my predecessor in this chamber, the 
late Paul Tsongas. From 1979 to 1983, Bill traveled in this capacity 
through the same towns he would later serve through the USDA. Once 
established in Western Massachusetts with Senator Tsongas, Bill dug 
deeper into the issues closest to the heart of those communities, and 
soon his knowledge and understanding of the region and its needs was 
exemplary. Even greater was his passion to serve them.
  Bill coordinated these cities and towns in my first Senate campaign 
in 1984 and later became the Director of Constituent Services for my 
whole state-wide operation. Throughout the nine years he spent on my 
staff, he held positions that ranged from Director of Western 
Massachusetts to Director of Local Relations. In each position, Bill 
demonstrated the same tenacity and dedication to improving people's 
lives he carries to this day.
  It came as no surprise to those who worked with and knew Bill that 
President Clinton would recognize and embrace these same qualities as 
he assumed office in 1993. The President appointed Bill to the position 
of Regional Director for the Department of Agriculture's Rural 
Development Program, and the success of his tenure is well known to 
everyone in the three-state region he served. He oversaw more than 65 
employees in six offices throughout three states. The program's 
successes throughout this time are numerous; he worked with other 
agencies

[[Page 6054]]

and officials to obtain new fire trucks for the Palmer Fire Department, 
and worked with Congressman Neal and the Ware Selectmen to help move 
the police station to its current location. During his eight years of 
directing this agency, Bill coordinated the distribution of over $870 
million dollars in rural housing programs that helped rural towns 
foster and maintain economic development. Concurrent with this service, 
Bill was a Member of the Electoral College for the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, and I congratulated him along with his friends and 
colleagues as he cast his vote for the re-election of Bill Clinton and 
Al Gore.
  Throughout all of these national and State-wide efforts, Bill Bradley 
has maintained an iron-clad commitment to community and his neighbors. 
He has served as Director of the Ware Cooperative Bank, and mobilized 
State and Federal money through the Ware Community Development 
Authority. His love of politics is surpassed only by music and his 
devotion to his wife, Linda, and I congratulate both of them as they 
begin this new chapter in their lives. I have been very fortunate to 
have some of the best people I have ever known be involved in my 
campaigns and on my staff. Bill Bradley is a credit to his community 
and the State of Massachusetts. He has performed 25 years of public 
service with a professionalism and dedication that is increasingly 
rare, and it is with great pride, respect and affection that I 
celebrate his contributions to the lives of people throughout 
Massachusetts and the United States of America.

                          ____________________