[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIP BURTON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 11, 2003

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, for those of us who 
served in this House with the late Phillip Burton, who remember his 
vibrant, unrelenting and passionate leadership, and who share his 
dreams for an America where every resident enjoys dignity and 
equality--for those of us fortunate enough to have known and 
collaborated with him, today is a day of rededication.
  It is almost impossible to believe that 20 years have passed since 
Phil Burton departed this scene, far too early and, I am sure he would 
admit, with far too much work left undone. He served with distinction 
in this Chamber from 1964 to the day he died, 20 years ago today. They 
simply do not make politicians like Phil Burton anymore, or at least, 
not enough of them, and this House and the country are much the worse 
for the shortage.
  Those who worked with Phil never forgot the experience, for good or 
bad. He was a brilliant tactician, an unrelenting liberal, and a 
tireless advocate. He was not especially lovable, but he wasn't looking 
for love; he was looking for results, and he won the respect of friends 
and adversaries alike.
  Phil would not like what he would see in American politics today. 
After decades of struggle and a decade of unparalleled economic 
prosperity, Americans work the longest work hours, for the lowest 
disposable income, with the smallest pensions and health insurance 
coverage and the least vacation time or maternity leave of any Western 
industrial nation. Today, the distribution of wealth in this country is 
more unequal than at any time since the New Deal, and is the most 
unequal of any society in the advanced industrial world. This is not 
the world Phil Burton would have wanted two decades after his death.
  And yet our country in 2003, however enduring its problems, is a 
vastly better place for Phillip Burton's service. Virtually all of the 
important steps forward taken in America during the turbulent 60's and 
70's--civil rights, labor protections, pension security, education, 
land preservation, national parks--were deeply affected by Phillip 
Burton's tireless efforts. He was, in the words of Ted Simon in the Los 
Angeles Times, a ``stupendous and original figure'' who changed the 
political and legislative landscape as few before him ever dared to 
imagine.
  Surely the greatest disappointment of his life was his failure to 
become Majority Leader, a race he lost by a single vote. And yet how 
proud he would be to know that one of his political godchildren--of 
which I happily count myself as one--would two decades later occupy the 
highest position in this House held by a Democrat, and the first woman 
to ever lead a party in Congress, his fellow San Franciscan Nancy 
Pelosi.
  I knew Phil Burton throughout my entire life. He and my father worked 
together to build the modern California Democratic Party in the years 
after World War II. Many of the outstanding political leaders of our 
state, including George Moscone, Willie Brown, scores of members of the 
Legislature and Congress--including our current senate president John 
L. Burton--were students, friends and collaborators of Phil Burton.
  When I came to Congress in 1975, I was placed on the same committees 
as Phil--Interior and Education and Labor. As a junior member, I saw 
first hand his extraordinary political acumen in meeting after meeting, 
often in his secret office in the Longworth Building, as he planned 
everything from minimum wage increases to welfare policy, to his 
historic mega-parks bill, or his even more impressive reapportionment 
map in 1982. Phil knew more details about any issue than just about 
anyone I have known here, and he knew more about almost everyone's 
district, too. Members might beg him to draw a line a little more in 
their favor, but Phil would be able to recite from memory, and without 
computers, the precise registration numbers in the newly configured 
district. ``You're in your mother's arms,'' he'd tell disappointed 
colleagues, ``now get to work.''
  The Congress and the Nation are very different from when Phil served 
here. The tone is different; the agenda is different; and our 
dedication to using the power granted us by the voters to improve the 
lives of the working people, minorities, the poor, the immigrants and 
to improve the environment--well, that's very different, too. I'd like 
to believe we'd be a better country if Phil Burton had gotten to be 
Majority Leader and Speaker of the House.
  Instead, 20 years ago today, we lost a ``brawling character and 
legislative strategist extraordinaire,'' in the words of Richard Cohen. 
In the sprawling, wildly popular Golden Gate National Recreation Area 
that he created--the Nation's most popular urban park--stands for all 
time an imposing statute of Phil Burton, tie askew, jacket flapping, 
arm outstretched. It is Phil at full throttle, in command, perpetually 
barking out a command direction and organizing the troops. There are a 
number of smaller models of that statute in some offices on the Hill, 
reminding us what it was like to serve with a true congressional 
legend, and continuing to summon up the best we have to offer for all 
the people of this nation.

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