[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23150]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CONGRESSMAN JOSEPH R. SKEEN

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, when this session of Congress ends, one 
member of New Mexico's congressional delegation will be retiring, and I 
rise to acknowledge his departure from public life and to express 
appreciation for his loyal service to our state and this nation.
  Joe Skeen has been involved in Republican politics in New Mexico for 
more than forty years, most of them as an elected official. He was in 
the State Senate for ten years, and while his two campaigns for 
governor in the 1970's were unsuccessful, he is one of the very few in 
the history of our country elected to the Congress as a write-in 
candidate. That occurred in 1980, and he has served his district in the 
House of Representatives for eleven terms, longer than any New Mexico 
House Member.
  It cannot be said that Joe and I agree on even every fourth issue 
that comes down the pike, but we have worked well together on so much 
that matters to New Mexico. I have never doubted for a moment his 
devotion to what he thinks is right, nor have I doubted his ability to 
get the job done.
  New Mexico is a small town in many ways, and while Joe and I were 
acquainted before either of us came to Washington, it was when I came 
here that we really got to know one another. I consider him, and his 
wife, Mary, to be friends, and am honored that they think the same of 
me.
  They raise sheep on their ranch in Lincoln County, and I know Joe 
will be glad to get back home after having distinguished himself in the 
Congress, and representing his District so well.
  We'll miss him.

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