[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20912]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DAVID ACKERMAN

  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I wish to take this opportunity to 
recognize a fine public servant who just retired this past August from 
the Congressional Research Service. David Ackerman is a sterling 
example of the expertise we in the Congress can call upon to assist us 
in our legislative responsibilities. I know Senator Biden joins me 
recognizing Mr. Ackerman for his splendid accomplishments during his 
career at CRS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a summary of 
Mr. Ackerman's career be included in the record as part of my remarks. 
Mr. Ackerman devoted nearly 30 years to supporting Congress in his role 
as legislative attorney for the American Law Division of CRS. His areas 
of expertise were international law, foreign affairs and first 
amendment church-state issues and he applied a keen legal mind and 
sensitivity for balance and nonpartisanship in providing Congress with 
the informed and objective analysis we need. Dave Ackerman joined CRS 
in 1974 after graduating with distinction from Georgetown University 
Law School. Prior to his legal career, after graduating magna cum laude 
from Knox College, he worked on Capitol Hill in the Washington office 
of the National Council of Churches. At CRS, Dave quickly established 
himself as an attorney with the legal analytical skills necessary to 
provide Members and committees of Congress with high level support on 
some of the most complex questions facing them in their legislative and 
oversight roles. He did this with the professionalism, objectivity, and 
devotion to client support that we in the Congress value in CRS. Dave's 
career saw numerous awards and recognition for outstanding performance 
by CRS as well as expressions of commendation by congressional clients. 
His work was referred to and reprinted widely during congressional 
deliberations and in a variety of congressional publications. Among the 
most notable of the latter, are his contributions over the years to the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Print, ``Treaties and Other 
International Agreements: The Role of the United States Senate,'' a 
seminal work and invaluable reference resource on this important topic. 
Mr. Ackerman's work ranged over many of the controversial issues faced 
by the Congress and the country over the last 30 years. In the 
international/foreign affairs law area, Dave wrote extensively on the 
respective roles of Congress and the executive in waging war and 
conducting foreign affairs. Both Gulf wars and the Somalia, Kosovo and 
Afghanistan conflicts raised their own issues of presidential power and 
congressional prerogatives and Dave was an invaluable source of legal 
analysis for the Congress, assisting it in understanding this complex 
interplay. Mr. Ackerman also provided Congress with sophisticated 
analyses of such issues as the legal implications for treaties of the 
break-up of the Soviet Union, the termination of the ABM treaty, NATO 
enlargement, the Kyoto protocol and the International Criminal Court. 
Recently, Mr. Ackerman has written extensively on the legally--and 
politically--complex issue of suits over terrorist acts in United 
States courts. Both the courts and Congress have struggled to develop 
solutions to this problem, balancing justice for victims with delicate 
foreign policy concerns. A remarkable aspect of Mr. Ackerman's career 
with CRS was his ability to range over a number of areas of law. Dave 
was also a recognized expert on the separation of church and state. The 
first amendment's commands regarding the establishment of religion and 
the free exercise of religion have produced some of the most heated 
debates in the courts and Congress, whether it be prayer or the Pledge 
of Allegiance in the schools or government aid to religious 
institutions. Dave was able to write on these issues with a clarity and 
acumen that enabled Congress to understand the ever-changing law of 
church and state in its legislative deliberations. In the finest 
traditions of CRS, Mr. Ackerman brought objectivity and even-handedness 
to an area that invariably elicited strong emotions and heated 
argument. Congress and CRS will miss the expertise of David Ackerman. 
He represented the best of what we have come to expect from CRS. 
Fortunately, a body of work remains that will inform the Congress for 
years to come. We wish Dave and his family all the best in his future 
endeavors.

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