[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 664-665]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           IN HONOR OF CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR BYRON D. SHER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 28, 2004

  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor California State Senator 
Byron Sher, the most highly regarded environmental legislator in 
California, who will be retiring this year after representing San Mateo 
and Santa Clara Counties in the California State Legislature for nearly 
a quarter century. Senator Sher will be honored on Friday, January 30, 
2004 by the San Mateo County Democratic Party for his extraordinary 
public service.
  Senator Sher began his public service in 1965 when he was elected to 
the Palo Alto City Council where he served for nine years, including 
two terms as Mayor. He was a Commissioner of the San Francisco Bay 
Conservation and Development Commission from 1978 to 1980, and served 
on the Committee on Environmental Quality for the National League of 
Cities and the League of California Cities. His work on these bodies 
would serve him exceedingly well in years to come.
  Byron Sher was elected to the California State Assembly in November, 
1980, where he served with distinction as a leader on environmental 
policy for over fifteen years. He was then elected to the Senate in 
1996 in a special election to represent the 11th District, which is 
geographically and culturally diverse, spanning from Belmont to San 
Jose, and which includes major portions of the South San Francisco Bay 
and the San Mateo County Coast.
  Throughout Senator Sher's legislative career, he has been regarded as 
the premier legislator on environmental issues. He is not only the 
first Chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, he is 
also the author of countless benchmark laws that have led the State of 
California to enact some of the most significant environmental 
protection policies in our Nation. Among the laws he has authored are 
the California Clean Air Act, the Integrated Waste Management Act, and 
the Safe Drinking Water Act. He has strengthened the State's timber 
regulations with his Surface Mining and Reclamation Act and been at the 
forefront of computer recycling programs to ensure that the dangerous 
byproducts of the information age, such as mercury, don't contaminate 
our landfills and water supplies. Senator Sher also authored the 
Nation's first law to prevent toxic contamination of water supplies 
from leaking underground storage tanks. Virtually all his legislation 
is considered the gold standard for environmental conservation and 
protection laws throughout our country.
  Senator Sher is also considered one of the foremost experts on 
consumer protection and

[[Page 665]]

government ethics. He has consistently been ranked one of the State's 
top ten legislators for intelligence and integrity by the California 
Journal Magazine. Despite the many demands on his time, Senator Sher 
continues to serve as a member of the Steering Committee of the 
National Council on Competition and Electric Services, as a California 
Commissioner on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform 
State Laws, and as a member of the Wildlife Conservation Board.
  Byron Sher has also been an important part of the academic community. 
He was a Fulbright Research Scholar in New Zealand and held academic 
teaching positions in law at Southern Methodist University, the 
University of Southern California and Harvard Law School before coming 
to Stanford University. At Stanford, Senator Sher's passion for the 
rights of his fellow citizens could be seen in the coursework he taught 
as a professor of law: Consumer credit, consumer protection, as well as 
contract and commercial law. At Stanford he's been Chairman of the 
Human Relations Commission and the Faculty Senate, and was a member of 
the University Budget Priorities Advisory Commission.
  Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to call Byron Sher my friend and my colleague 
in public service. This quiet, humble, decent and brilliant man is a 
source of great pride to the Democratic Party, to our mutual 
constituents, to all Californians and to our entire Nation. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in honoring and thanking Senator Sher for his 
lifetime of extraordinary service to California and our country. 
Because of him and his distinguished service, we are unmistakably a 
stronger and a better Nation.

                          ____________________