[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6268-6286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                RECEPTION OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

  The Speaker of the House presided.
  The SPEAKER. On behalf of the House, I consider it a high honor and 
distinct personal privilege to have the opportunity of welcoming so 
many of our former Members and colleagues as may be present here for 
the occasion. We all pause to welcome you.
  I want to say personally, good morning. On behalf of the House of 
Representatives, I am pleased to welcome back all of you. It is always 
good to see so many familiar faces, and for me who has been here 20 
years, even a few unfamiliar faces. I see my former leader, I see 
people who I have served with, so many people I have come into Congress 
with and have continued to serve this Nation well. I am especially glad 
to see my friend from the great State of Missouri and your president, 
Jake Buechner. Jack, I know of the loss of your dear wife, Nancy, this 
year after a courageous fight with cancer. I just want to let you know 
on behalf of all of us in the House of Representatives, our thoughts 
and prayers are with you and your family.
  Matt McHugh is a worthy choice for the Distinguished Service Award, 
and I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Matt. Matt 
served in the House while I was here, a great Member from New York. 
During his tenure, he was a valuable member of several committees, 
including the Appropriations Committee and what has been called the 
Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus. Since leaving the House, Matt 
has continued his efforts to improve our Nation and our world. He has 
served as vice president at Cornell University and currently serves as 
counsel to the president of the World Bank. He is also chairman of 
Bread for the World, a group that fights to end hunger in this world.
  Meetings like this are more than just a chance to catch up with old 
friends. It is a time when you, our more seasoned Members, can offer 
some words of advice and maybe even tell us a few things that maybe 
we're doing right. Trust me, you're in a room full of lawmakers and we 
love to hear what we're doing right.
  Seriously, though, I am also glad to see this group and hear about 
all the great things that you continue to do for our Nation. This 
organization serves a valuable purpose. You spread the good news about 
the importance of our democratic government. And I understand that you 
have a new project that you are undertaking in cooperation with some of 
our international partners, the International Election Monitors 
Institute.
  Again, I want to thank you once again for the work that you continue 
to do on behalf of the American people. I want to thank you for coming. 
Personally, I want to say that as all of us who get up in years and 
have served 20 years or so in this place, we don't always look forward 
to becoming former Members, but we know that we will be.

[[Page 6269]]

I want to look forward to say I appreciate the welcome that you have 
given everybody that has left these Halls and look forward someday to 
joining your ranks myself.
  Thank you, God bless you, and have a great day.
  The Chair now recognizes the Honorable Jim Slattery, vice president 
of the association, to take the chair.
  Mr. SLATTERY (presiding). Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's great to see 
you. On behalf of the association, we certainly wish you good health 
and continued wonderful service to our country, also. It's great to see 
you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you.
  The Clerk will now read the roll of the former Members of Congress.
  The Clerk called the roll of the former Members of Congress, and the 
following former Members answered to their names:


Former Members of Congress Participating in 36th Annual Spring Meeting 
                        Thursday, April 27, 2006

       William Alexander (Arkansas)
       Glen Browder (Alabama)
       James T. Broyhill (North Carolina)
       Jack Buechner (Missouri)
       Bill D. Burlison (Missouri)
       Beverly B. Byron (Maryland)
       James K. Coyne (Pennsylvania)
       Ron DeLugo (Virgin Islands)
       Joseph J. Dioguardi (New York)
       Thomas W. Ewing (Illinois)
       Harold Ford (Tennessee)
       Louis Frey, Jr. (Florida)
       Benjamin A. Gilman (New York)
       William Grant (Florida)
       William Goodling (Pennsylvania)
       Margaret Heckler (Massachusetts)
       Dennis M. Hertel (Michigan)
       Peter Hoagland (Nebraska)
       George J. Hochbrueckner (New York)
       William J. Hughes (New Jersey)
       Robert W. Kastenmeier (Wisconsin)
       David S. King (Utah)
       Ernest Konnyu (California)
       Peter Kyros (Maine)
       Romano L. Mazzoli (Kentucky)
       Matthew F. McHugh (New York)
       Richard Dale Nichols (Kansas)
       Howard W. Pollock (Alaska)
       Larry Pressler (South Dakota)
       William R. Ratchford (Connecticut)
       John J. Rhodes, III (Arizona)
       Patricia Schroeder (Colorado)
       Richard Schulz (Pennsylvania)
       David E. Skaggs (Colorado)
       Jim Slattery (Kansas)
       Dennis A. Smith (Oregon)
       Lawrence J. Smith (Florida)
       Stephen J. Solarz (New York)
       R. Lindsay Thomas (Georgia)

  Mr. SLATTERY. The Chair is pleased to announce that there are 39 
former Members of Congress that have responded to their names here 
today.
  The Chair at this time would recognize the distinguished gentleman 
from the State of Missouri, the Honorable Jack Buechner, the president 
of our association.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker pro tem, and all of you for 
being with us this morning. We are especially grateful to Speaker 
Hastert for taking the time from his busy schedule to greet us and give 
us his warm welcome.
  It is always an honor and a privilege to return to this magnificent 
institution. We revere it and we have shared so many memorable 
experiences here that I think it is indelibly inked into our psyches. 
Service in Congress is both a joy and a heavy responsibility. Whatever 
your party affiliation, we have great admiration for those who continue 
to serve here, serve their country, serve their constituency in this 
rather unique institution. We thank all of you who have served and all 
those who continue to serve, and we thank those who are here for giving 
us the opportunity to report on the activities of the U.S. Association 
of Former Members of Congress. This is our 36th annual report to 
Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be permitted to 
revise and extend their remarks.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Without objection, so ordered.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Our association is nonpartisan. It has been chartered 
by Congress, but receives absolutely no funding from Congress. We have 
a wide variety of domestic and international programs which several 
other Members and I will discuss briefly. Our membership numbers 550; 
and our purpose is to continue, in some small measure, the service to 
country which began during our terms in the House of Representatives 
and the Senate.
  Our finances are sound. We support all our activities via three 
income sources: membership dues, program-specific grants and 
sponsorships, and our annual fund-raising dinner. In addition, we have 
had the good fortune to receive a bequest from Frieda James, the widow 
of the late Benjamin Franklin James, a five-term Republican from 
Pennsylvania.
  During the presidency of my esteemed predecessor, Larry LaRocco of 
Idaho, the association established its first endowment fund. The goal 
of the fund is to ensure the financial viability of the Former Members 
Association, for not just this coming year but for many years to come. 
We envision a time when investment earnings of the endowment fund can 
be used to supplement the association's budget during lean years, a 
safety net to guarantee that tough economic times will not shut down 
this association. Many of our members have made contributions to this 
fund, and we thank them for their kind generosity.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Association of Former Members again has had a 
very successful, active, and rewarding year. We have continued our work 
serving as a liaison between the current Congress and legislatures 
overseas. We have created partnerships with highly respected 
institutions in the area of democracy building. We have had many of our 
members involved in election monitoring missions worldwide. We again 
sent dozens of bipartisan teams of former Members of Congress to 
university campuses here in the United States and abroad as part of our 
Congress to Campus Program. I am therefore pleased to now report on the 
program work of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress.
  When I stood at this podium 1 year ago to present our association's 
activities to the Congress, I announced that we were in the process of 
creating an election-monitoring organization to train former 
legislators in this important aspect of democracy building. I am very 
pleased to report today that in the past year we have cofounded the 
International Election Monitors Institute, an organization jointly 
administered by the U.S. Association of Former Members, the Canadian 
Association of Former Parliamentarians, and the Association of Former 
Members of the European Parliament. We have joined in the drafting of 
initial by-laws of the institute, and later this week we will select 
four members of our association to join four Canadians and four 
Europeans as the first board of directors of this exciting new venture.
  I will now yield to our association's secretary, Dennis Hertel of 
Michigan, to give more details about this association program.
  Mr. HERTEL. I want to thank the gentleman from Missouri for giving me 
the opportunity to report on the International Election Monitors 
Institute and the other advances our association has made in this 
field. The goal of the institute is to train former legislators from 
the three associations in proper standards of election monitoring. We 
have adopted the U.N. Code of Conduct For Election Observers and will 
train our members to be objective and impartial monitors of elections.
  It is clear what a crucial role election monitors can play in 
furthering true democracy across this globe. In addition, former 
legislators offer such a unique and unparalleled experience in this 
field that really no other group of people can match. To then couple 
this with a truly international undertaking that involves former 
parliamentarians from the United States, Canada, and Europe is a very 
exciting and groundbreaking idea. I am pleased that our association has 
created this new entity and through it will send well-trained election 
observers around the world. We will not only monitor on election day, 
but even preceding the election will have teams in place to observe how 
the actual campaign is being conducted.
  Earlier this year we had the chance to apply this model to the 
parliamentary elections in Ukraine where we had

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international observer teams in-country for both the campaign and the 
actual election. I proposed this commission after the Ukraine election 
in November a year and a half ago. We had over 90 former Members, 
Republicans and Democrats as always, who participated in the lead-up 
and in that election in November which was overturned because of what 
the election observers had seen and reported. So we made a difference 
in that country for democracy.
  We also had after that November election for the December election, 
former Members come over the Christmas holidays to be away from their 
families, but to fight for democracy as election observers for that 
final election in the Ukraine also. Funding for this venture came from 
the U.S. Agency for International Development via a grant to the U.S. 
Ukraine Foundation. I personally had the chance to spend election day 
in Kiev and be an officially accredited observer of Ukraine's election 
this year.
  I recommend our Web site for a detailed report of our missions. What 
we have seen is that there are issues; and as much as our people are 
well-trained and politically aware, we want to prepare them and those 
members from the EU and the Canadian Parliament for whatever surprises 
might come during the election period.
  In addition to creating the International Election Monitors 
Institute, our association during this past year created partnerships 
with some of the key institutions in this field. For example, we teamed 
with IFES and successfully applied to the U.S. Agency for International 
Development to become one of their approved organizations to receive 
democracy-building grants. We also partnered with OSCE and have 
received an invitation from this international body to send former 
Members of Congress as U.S. delegates on their election monitoring 
missions.
  One partnership of which we are especially proud is with the House of 
Representatives. David Dreier and David Price head up the House 
Democracy Assistance Commission, and former Members of Congress will 
serve with current Members of Congress on democracy-strengthening 
missions all over the world, not just for elections but after, to do 
democracy-building. In addition, we will lend some of our expertise and 
experience to panels for legislators from newly emerging democracies as 
they learn the nuts and bolts of a representative democracy.
  These are all very exciting developments for this association, and I 
am extremely pleased to be a part of this undertaking, and I am so very 
proud of the former Members who give of their time with no compensation 
whatsoever to be away from their families, to travel to all ends of the 
globe for these activities, to be gone from home for 10 days, 2 weeks, 
to report back and to continue to monitor those activities.
  During the past year, we also placed some of our association members 
on election monitoring missions organized by the International 
Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.
  I now yield to my colleague Jay Rhodes of Arizona to report on his 
experience monitoring the election in Afghanistan.
  Mr. RHODES. Thank you, Dennis. It is a pleasure to be with you this 
morning and to just share with you very briefly an experience that I 
had monitoring the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan in September 
of last year. I was invited to join a monitoring team by the 
International Republican Institute. Frankly, I was invited to join on 
fairly short notice and I hesitated, because we're all busy people, but 
my wife said to me, How can you possibly think about passing up an 
opportunity like this? And I said, Well, you know, that makes a lot of 
sense, so I said, Yes, I will go to Afghanistan.
  One of the things I have to tell you is being in Afghanistan is a 
very interesting experience, but getting to Afghanistan is likewise a 
very interesting experience. It's a long way from anyplace. Also, 
speaking of places like Afghanistan, security is an interesting 
proposition, but I can tell you it is more difficult to get out of 
Dulles Airport than it is to get into Afghanistan.
  The country is absolutely beautiful, but it is really a tough place. 
Kabul is one of the most poverty-stricken places I have ever seen in my 
experience. But to sum it all up, the Afghans, with very, very little 
history of democracy and very, very little history of conducting 
elections, conducted in what was the unanimous opinion of virtually all 
the international observers a very, very good, well-run, capable 
election. I personally went to 16 polling places. Our team went to 110-
some polling places. This was the IRI team. There were others. I think 
probably over a thousand polling places were visited on election day. 
Everybody came away with the almost unanimous impression that the 
election itself was handled capably, professionally, and well.
  That is the good news. The bad news is that as soon as the polls 
closed, the ballot boxes all disappeared and didn't reappear for 
another 4 weeks. We were pretty well assured about ballot box security, 
and I heard very little to indicate that in that 4-week period of time 
anything happened to the ballot boxes. But Afghanistan is such a far-
flung place and it is so primitive that it took virtually 3 weeks to 
gather all the ballots in a central place where they could be counted.
  The most impressive thing that I came away with aside from the fact 
that this country with no electoral history at all handled an election 
very capably was a meeting that our team had with 10 female candidates 
for the parliament. The new Afghan Constitution requires that 25 
percent of the parliament be filled with ladies, females. We sat and 
listened to these candidates for 2 hours. Of the 10, five were 
professionals: four doctors and one registered nurse. The other five 
were people who had run a shop someplace or did rugs or stayed home. 
Their stories about living under the Taliban were chilling, scary. 
Their stories about their intense desire to take part in the new 
Afghanistan was thrilling. We watched the women vote on election day. 
They voted in great numbers. That was the most important, I think, 
experience that I came away with from having been there, was the 
dedication on the part of the new leadership in Afghanistan to include 
women, and to include them in a meaningful way.
  I have a great deal of hope that democracy in Afghanistan is going to 
take hold. It is not going to be easy. The Taliban is not dead. But I 
think that the dedication of those people that we were able to interact 
with in the week that I was there indicate to me that this is a place 
where it can happen.
  Dennis, thank you very much.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Reclaiming my time, I want to thank Dennis and Jay for 
those reports.
  Mr. Speaker, since its founding, the U.S. Association of Former 
Members of Congress has played an important role in fostering dialogue 
between the leaders of other nations and the United States. We have 
arranged more than 450 special events at the United States Capitol for 
delegations from over 80 countries and the European Parliament. We have 
hosted meetings for individual members of parliaments and parliamentary 
staff. We have organized approximately 50 foreign policy seminars in 
about a dozen countries involving more than 1,500 former and current 
parliamentarians, and we have conducted over 20 study tours abroad for 
Members of Congress.
  The association serves as the secretariat for four legislative 
liaison programs which bring current Members of Congress together with 
their colleagues in the parliaments of Germany, Mexico, Japan and the 
most recent addition, Turkey. The Congressional Study Group on Germany, 
which is our largest and most active exchange program involving the 
U.S. Congress and the parliament of another country, is our flagship 
international program of the association. It is a bipartisan 
organization with approximately one-third of the Members of Congress, 
both House and Senate, participating. The Congressional Study Group on 
Germany serves as a model for all other study groups under the umbrella 
of the association.
  For over 20 years, the Congressional Study Group on Germany has been 
a

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forum for lawmakers from Germany and the United States to communicate 
on issues of mutual concern. The study group was founded in 1983 as an 
informal group and was established as a formal organization in 1987. 
The primary goal of the study group is to establish a forum for 
communication between Members of Congress and their counterparts in the 
German Bundestag. Ongoing study group activities include conducting a 
Distinguished Visitors Program at the United States Capitol for guests 
from Germany, sponsoring annual seminars involving Members of Congress 
and the Bundestag, providing information about participants in the 
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program to appropriate Members of 
Congress, and organizing a senior congressional staff study tour to 
Germany each year.
  The Congressional Study Group on Germany is funded primarily by the 
German Marshall Fund of the United States. Additional funding to assist 
with administrative expenses is received from a group of corporations 
whose representatives serve on a business advisory council to the study 
group. The business advisory council is chaired by former Member Tom 
Coleman of Missouri, who served as the chairman of the Congressional 
Study Group on Germany in the House in 1989. The study group has 
established itself as the most productive means of communication 
between the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag. To date, 163 
Members of Congress belong to the Congressional Study Group on Germany: 
34 Senators and 129 House Members.
  Let me just interject a little anecdote, and that is, when the Iraq 
war commenced and there were the attitudes in Europe, and particularly 
Germany and France chose not to participate as Germany had, for 
instance, in Afghanistan, Members of our Congress were contacted by or 
contacted their Bundestag counterparts. The French Ambassador, who had 
just come to the United States, inquired of the German Ambassador why 
was it that France was beaten about on the floor of the House and the 
French toast was taken off the menu and French fries, and Germany 
seemed to, although it had the same position, not receive the same 
amount of sort of verbal pummeling. The German Ambassador said, quite 
candidly, that the study group had developed a rapprochement between 
Members of the House and the Senate and their counterparts in the 
Bundestag so that there were phone communications and e-mail 
communications, and there was a lot of political understanding that 
went on, where a member who stands for election in Germany was talking 
to Members who stand for election over here, even though their politics 
were not necessarily the same. You could have a Social Democrat in 
Germany meeting with a Republican here, or vice versa. You could have a 
member of the Free Democrats in Germany talking to a very liberal 
Democrat over here.
  And the idea was that there was communication and there was an 
understanding. I think that that is the greatest thing that we can do 
with these other parliaments is create an atmosphere of understanding. 
That understanding goes a long way toward creating better 
relationships; and, for that matter, it makes our Members better 
Members. The Federal Republic of Germany is one of our most important 
allies, and the study group has been instrumental in helping to cement 
trans-Atlantic ties over the years.
  The most visible activity of the group is its Distinguished Visitors 
Program. That brings high-ranking German elected officials to Capitol 
Hill to meet with Members of Congress. In 2005, the Study Group on 
Germany organized briefings for Members of Congress with the then 
German Ambassador to the United States, Wolfgang Ischinger; member of 
the Bundestag, Minister President Gunther Oettinger; Minister President 
Roland Koch; and a group of newer Bundestag members.
  The highlight of each programming year is the Congressional Study 
Group on Germany's annual seminar. Every year, the study group brings 
approximately eight Members of Congress together with German 
legislators for several days of focused discussion on a predetermined 
agenda. The parliamentarians usually are joined by several Members of 
the Congress and Bundestag officials of the two federal governments, 
think tank and foundation representatives, and members of the German 
American corporate community.
  The 2005 annual Congress-Bundestag seminar took place in Berlin; 
Brussels, which was an acknowledgment of the part that the EU played 
especially in trade issues; and Frankfurt from March 18 to March 24, 
2005. This program included high-level meetings with representatives of 
the German Government, the European Union and NATO. For the first time 
the Congressional Study Group on Germany spent part of the annual 
seminar in Brussels, as I said, because many policy areas are now being 
governed out of Brussels. One of those policy areas under the EU domain 
is agriculture, which was examined in detail with experts during a 
panel discussion in Brussels. In addition, seminar participants 
attended meetings with NATO officials in Brussels. A visit with 
American soldiers at the Landstuhl military hospital, which is usually 
the first destination for the wounded from Iraq, occurred at the end of 
the annual seminar.
  A report about the activities of the Congressional Study Group on 
Germany would be incomplete without thanking its financial supporters. 
First and foremost one needs to thank Craig Kennedy and the German 
Marshall Fund of the United States because without him and his 
foundation, the study group could not function at its present level of 
activity. Also, one must not forget former Member Tom Coleman of 
Missouri who chairs, as I said, the business advisory council to the 
study group. His tremendous dedication in raising much-needed funds to 
support the administrative side of the study group has been essential. 
He has put together a group of companies that deserve our gratitude for 
giving their aid and support to the administrative aspects of this 
program. Current BAC members are Allianz, BASF, DaimlerChrysler, 
Deutsche Telekom, DHL Americas, EDS, Eli Lilly, Lufthansa, RGIT, SAP, 
Siemens, and Volkswagen.
  Modeled after the Congressional Study Group on Germany, the 
association established a Congressional Study Group on Turkey at the 
beginning of 2005. Turkey, one of our strategic allies, is situated at 
the crossroads of many important challenges for the 21st century: peace 
in the greater Middle East, the expansion of the European Union, and 
the transformation of NATO. The Study Group on Turkey brings current 
Members of Congress together with their legislative counterparts in 
Turkey, government officials and business representatives in Turkey and 
serves as a platform for all participants to learn about U.S.-Turkish 
relations firsthand.
  Thanks to funding from the Economic Policy Research Institute, a 
think tank established by the Turkish business association TOBB, the 
German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a group of corporate 
sponsors, the Study Group on Turkey has started a Distinguished 
Visitors Program in Washington. This program involves events for 
Members of Congress such as roundtable discussions or breakfast/
luncheon panels featuring visiting dignitaries from Turkey. Recent 
guests include then-Turkish Ambassador to the United States Logoglu; 
the EU Ambassador to the United States, John Bruton; Turkish Prime 
Minister Erdogan; Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey 
Arinc; and current Turkish Ambassador to the United States Sensoy.
  The Congressional Study Group on Turkey also conducts an annual U.S.- 
Turkey seminar. The seminar is a week-long conference for U.S. Members 
of Congress to discuss areas of mutual concern with their legislative 
counterparts from Turkey. The 2005 U.S.-Turkey seminar took place from 
May 28 to June 3 and included stops in Istanbul and Ankara. The members 
of the delegation met with high-level representatives, including 
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Arinc; Turkish Prime 
Minister Erdogan; the

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Minister of State for the Economy, Ali Babacan; Turkish Foreign 
Minister Abdullah Gul; and the Chief of the Turkish General Staff, 
General Ozkok; and Minister of Defense Gonul. Topics that the 
participants discussed included the U.S.-Turkish military alliance; 
Turkey's relationship with its neighbors, including Armenia and Syria; 
economic issues; trade and human rights.
  Because of the Congressional Study Group on Turkey, Members of 
Congress were able to interact with their Turkish counterparts and 
learn more about the vital relationship between the two countries. The 
U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress is pleased to add the 
study group to its portfolio of international programs. It is certain 
to attract great interest in Washington and in Ankara. The next U.S.-
Turkey seminar is scheduled to take place in November of this year.
  The association also serves as the secretariat for the Congressional 
Study Group on Japan and the Congressional Study Group on Mexico. 
Founded in 1993 in cooperation with the East-West Center in Hawaii, the 
Congressional Study Group on Japan is a bipartisan group of 71 Members 
of the House and Senate with an additional 36 Members having asked to 
be kept informed on study group activities. The Congressional Study 
Group on Japan arranges opportunities for Members of Congress to meet 
with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet in addition to organizing 
discussions for Members to hear from American and Japanese experts 
about various aspects of the U.S.-Japan relationship. In the past year, 
featured guests have included Japanese Ambassador to the United States 
Ryozo Kato; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas 
Burns; and former Senior Director for Asian Activities at the National 
Security Council, Michael Green.
  The Congressional Study Group on Japan is funded by the Japan-U.S. 
Friendship Commission. I am also glad to say that our member, the 
former Speaker of this House, Thomas Foley, has made himself available 
at least on two occasions to discuss the issues of concern and his 
Japanese counterpart has joined him at some of these meetings for a 
rare insight of diplomat to diplomat.
  Last but not least, the association administers a Congressional Study 
Group on Mexico. U.S.-Mexican relations are a priority and not merely 
set against the backdrop of immigration, though this is obviously a 
very important and timely issue of mutual concern. The Congressional 
Study Group on Mexico is a unique organization in that it serves as a 
bipartisan forum for U.S. legislators from both the House of 
Representatives and the U.S. Senate to engage in issue-specific 
dialogue with Mexican elected officials and government representatives 
so the two countries' political decision-makers receive a comprehensive 
picture of the issues revolving around U.S.-Mexico relations.
  The study group also replicates this forum for senior congressional 
staff. Topics such as border security, trade and narcotics trafficking 
are just a sample of the subjects pertinent to the bilateral 
relationship with Mexico. The Congressional Study Groups on Germany, 
Turkey, Japan and Mexico are examples of how the Former Members 
Association can provide an educational service to current Members, 
their staffs and aid in the foreign relations of this country. Let me 
also add that the association has enjoyed a highly productive working 
relationship with the French embassy, in particular our relationship 
with the French Ambassador, his Excellency Jean-David Levitte. This has 
led to the creation of the Former Members Committee on France, which 
brings former Members of Congress together with current members of the 
French National Assembly and their friendship societies. We have had 
very interesting discussions on foreign policy and trade, and we thank 
Ambassador Levitte for the numerous times he has hosted our association 
for roundtable discussions and panel presentations.
  Mr. Speaker, of course not all of our activities are international in 
nature. One of the most gratifying programs involving this association 
and its members is the Congress to Campus Program. This is a bipartisan 
effort to share with college students throughout the country our unique 
insight on the work of the Congress and the political process more 
generally. Our colleague from Colorado, David Skaggs, has been managing 
this program for the association for the last 4 years as a project of 
his Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Council for Excellence 
in Government, in partnership with the Stennis Center for Public 
Service.
  I now yield to David to report on the program.
  Mr. SKAGGS. Thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate your yielding the 
time, and I am proud to be able to report to our colleagues about the 
Congress to Campus Program activities for this past academic year, 
2005-2006. As the gentleman from Missouri indicated, this is a 
partnership between my organization and the Stennis Center for Public 
Service in Mississippi. I would ask unanimous consent that a full 
report on the activities of the program be submitted for the Record.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Without objection, so ordered.

                       Congress to Campus Program


Report to the Annual Meeting of the U.S. Association of Former Members 
                      of Congress--April 27, 2006

     Introduction
       The Congress to Campus Program addresses a significant 
     shortfall in civic learning and engagement among the 
     country's young people of college age. It combines 
     traditional educational content about American government and 
     politics (especially Congress) with a strong message about 
     public service, all delivered by men and women who have 
     ``walked the walk.'' The Program sends bipartisan pairs of 
     former Members of Congress--one Democrat and one Republican--
     to visit college, university and community college campuses 
     around the country. During each visit, the Members conduct 
     classes, hold community forums, meet informally with students 
     and faculty, visit high schools and civic organizations, and 
     do interviews and talk show appearances with local press and 
     media.
       In the summer of 2002, the Board of Directors of the U.S. 
     Association of Former Members of Congress (Association) 
     engaged the Center for Democracy & Citizenship (CDC) at the 
     Council for Excellence in Government to help manage the 
     Congress to Campus Program (Program) in partnership with the 
     Stennis Center for Public Service (Stennis). CDC and Stennis, 
     with the blessing of the Association, have worked together 
     since to increase the number of campuses hosting Program 
     visits each year, to expand the pool of former Members of 
     Congress available for campus visits, to develop new sources 
     of funding, to raise the profile of the Program and its 
     message in the public and academic community, and to devise 
     methods of measuring the impact of the program at host 
     institutions.
     Quantity and Quality of Program Visits
       This is the fourth year under the current program 
     management. In the 2005-2006 academic year, the Program 
     sponsored twenty-six events involving twenty-nine colleges 
     and universities around the country and the world. [See 
     Attachment 1--Roster of '05-'06 Academic Year Visits & 
     Participants.] These visits took former Members to 
     universities, service academies, colleges and community 
     colleges in seventeen states and three countries. Over the 
     past four years, former Members have visited over 120 
     colleges and universities during campus visits in the U.S. 
     and around the world speaking to nearly 40,000 students in 
     the process.
       We have found college and university participation in the 
     Program to be cyclical in nature. While the numbers were down 
     slightly this academic year, applications and expressed 
     interest from host institutions indicate that the 2006-2007 
     academic year will likely be Congress to Campus' most 
     productive year ever. The average number of visits for fall 
     semesters has been 13 over the last three years; a number 
     already surpassed by applications and requests for visits 
     from schools for this coming fall.
       We continue to fine-tune the content and substance of 
     Program visits based on feedback from Members and host 
     professors. The Program asks visiting Members and host 
     professors to complete an evaluation of each visit. As the 
     result of those evaluations, we encourage host schools to 
     include nearby colleges and universities in Congress to 
     Campus visits and to schedule a broad scope of classes and 
     activities for the former Members. We will continue to make 
     changes in response to the suggestions of participating 
     former Members and host faculty.
       The Program asks host schools to insure contact with at 
     least 250 students over the course of a visit, and that 
     number is often exceeded. During the past academic year, 
     approximately 9,000 students heard Members' unique story 
     about representative democracy and their special call to 
     public service.

[[Page 6273]]

       A draft schedule of events is prepared in advance of each 
     campus visit and reviewed by staff to assure variety as well 
     as substance. There is a conference call before each trip 
     with Members and the responsible campus contact person to 
     review the revised schedule and iron out any remaining 
     problems. Members also receive CRS briefing materials on 
     current issues and background information on government 
     service opportunities prior to each visit.
     Recruiting Member Volunteers for Campus Visits
       The success of the Program obviously depends on Members' 
     participation. With travel back and forth, Members end up 
     devoting about three days to each campus visit. This is a 
     priceless contribution of an extremely valuable resource.
       Each year Members of the Association are surveyed again to 
     solicit information regarding their availability for and 
     interest in a Program campus visit. Using responses to these 
     surveys and direct contact with a number of former Members, 
     CDC developed a pool of just over one hundred available 
     former Members, and some forty participated in visits this 
     year. A ``bench'' of one hundred was deep enough to fill the 
     openings during the current academic year, but more will be 
     needed to meet the demands of future academic years. 
     Association Members are encouraged to complete and return the 
     survey they will receive this summer and then to be ready to 
     accept assignments to one of the fine institutions of higher 
     education the program will serve next year.
     Funding Sources
       In addition to the generous contribution of money and staff 
     time made each year by the Stennis Center for Public Service, 
     the Association continues its support of the Program. Other 
     organizations have also provided funding to help with the 
     expansion of the Congress to Campus Program for this academic 
     year including the Cultural Affairs Office of the U.S. 
     Embassy in Canada (visit specific) and the Eccles Centre for 
     American Studies at The British Library and the Cultural 
     Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom 
     (visit specific). While Stennis' commitment to the Program is 
     ongoing, funding from the other organizations is being 
     provided on a year by year basis. The effort to find new 
     sources of funding for Congress to Campus is a continuing 
     challenge.
       Host schools are expected to cover the cost of Members' on-
     site accommodations and local travel and to make a 
     contribution to cover a portion of the cost of administering 
     the Program. A suggested amount of contribution is determined 
     according to a sliding-scale based on an institution's 
     expenditures per pupil [see Attachment 2--Application Form]; 
     a waiver is available to schools that are not able to pay the 
     scale amount. Several schools received a full or partial 
     waiver in 2005-2006. Still, school contributions produced 
     several thousand dollars in support of the program. 
     Additional funding sources will be necessary if the Program 
     is to continue at current levels.
     International Initiative
       Congress to Campus made its first international visit in 
     October 2003 to the United Kingdom. An earlier Association 
     study tour had laid the groundwork for the visit and had 
     established a relationship with Philip John Davies, Director, 
     Eccles Centre for American Studies at The British Library and 
     the U.S. Embassy's Cultural Affairs Office. The success of 
     that initial visit in 2003 has led to visits to the United 
     Kingdom in 2004 and 2005 with another planned for fall of 
     2006.
       This academic year the Program developed a relationship 
     with the U.S. Embassy in Canada which resulted in support for 
     a campus visit to Carleton University in Ottawa in February, 
     2006. We expect this relationship to continue and lead to 
     support for future Congress to Campus visits to colleges and 
     universities in Canada.
       In past years, the program has sponsored campus visits to 
     Germany and China, as well.
     Program Outreach and Publicity
       The continuing interest on the part of colleges and 
     universities in hosting Congress to Campus visit is the 
     result of a multi-faceted outreach effort. Association 
     leadership and numerous former Members, as well as staff at 
     CDC and Stennis, have made many personal contacts on behalf 
     of the Program. In addition, CDC Executive Director and 
     former Member David Skaggs has made a number of public 
     presentations in behalf of Congress to Campus and 
     informational material has been emailed directly to all 
     members of the APSA's Legislative Studies and Political 
     Organizations & Parties Sections, as well as to many other 
     college and university organizational contacts.
       Campus press and media at host institutions are offered 
     access to visiting Members. Each host institution is also 
     encouraged to make commercial print and broadcast media 
     interviews a part of each Congress to Campus visit's 
     schedule.
     Conclusion
       Interest in Congress to Campus remains strong in the 
     academic community. Association Members participating in 
     campus visits are enthusiastic about the value of the Program 
     and the rewards it brings to all who are involved in those 
     visits. The Program could be expanded further on domestic and 
     international levels if funding uncertainties can be 
     addressed.

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[[Page 6282]]

  Mr. SKAGGS. Over the last 4 years, the Congress to Campus Program has 
visited over 120 campuses around the country and really around the 
world. As most of the people here in the Chamber know, this is a 
program that exists because of the volunteer time that our former 
Member colleagues are willing to donate to the program. A Republican 
and a Democrat spend a couple of days on campuses around the country 
and just as the association is dedicated to the promotion of democracy 
abroad, this program helps build democracy here at home. Its purposes 
are to educate this generation of college students and actually some of 
their faculty as well about how our government works and in particular 
how this Congress works, and, secondly, to encourage them to consider 
spending some of their careers in public service.
  We hope that by having a Republican and a Democrat demonstrate that 
on most things there is more agreement than disagreement for members of 
the two major parties that we can also communicate some message about 
how we really solve problems in our political process. This program is 
only possible because of the generous donation of very precious time on 
the part of our colleagues, over 50 of whom participated in the program 
this year. I would like to call on two of them to give us a little bit 
of a snapshot of the experiences they have had both this year and in 
the recent past.
  I first would like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Goodling.
  Mr. GOODLING. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  First of all I want to thank the Stennis Center, Former Members 
Association, and David's leadership in giving me the opportunity to 
lift my spirits when I'm depressed after reading headlines in the local 
newspapers and The Washington Post and the New York Times, you name it, 
because it is a lifting experience to go out there and exchange with 
thousands of students all across this country. I have had the 
opportunity to go to northern Idaho, to northern Florida, to Amherst, 
U.S. Naval Academy and Frostburg State University. I am sure in most 
instances I have gained more than they have gained from my presence, 
but we give them the opportunity to dig in deeply as to just how this 
Congress works. We don't tell them everything, of course, but we are 
very frank. It is a great experience. If you become depressed, as I 
said, as I do occasionally and wonder whether there is a future for 
this country, go out and meet with these young people.
  The greatest experience, I guess, was to sit in the dining room with 
5,000 of the brightest and best young men and women at the Naval 
Academy and then exchange with them in their classrooms. It sent bumps 
up and down my spine just being there. So I would encourage you, if you 
haven't participated and you want an uplifting experience, go out to 
the Congress to Campus Program and meet with these young people. As an 
educator for 22 years before I came here, of course, it just gives me a 
great opportunity to get up in front and wax eloquently about 
everything that I don't know anything about and then respond 
eloquently.
  As I tell them every time they ask a question, I'll do the same as I 
always did in town meetings. No matter what the question is that you 
ask, whatever it was that I wanted to say this night, I'm going to say 
whether it has any relevance whatsoever to the question you asked. So 
if you want an uplifting experience, go and serve on the Congress to 
Campus Program.
  Mr. SKAGGS. I thank the gentleman for his remarks and for his 
participation.
  I would like to yield to another stalwart in the program, the 
gentleman from New York, Mr. Hochbrueckner.
  Mr. HOCHBRUECKNER. I thank the gentleman for yielding the time, and I 
lend my words of support to what the gentleman has just mentioned. The 
Congress to Campus Program is a great program because it gets you out 
there with real kids, real people; and it is a tremendous outreach 
program that certainly should be encouraged. I was very fortunate to 
visit Rhode Island College with Jan Meyers and also Fitsburg, 
Massachusetts, their college with Greg Laughlin. As was pointed out, 
there are really two goals of the program. The first is to promote 
careers in government service and secondly to provide an insider view 
of how does government really work. You would be surprised at some of 
the questions that you do get from the kids in terms of various things 
we do, how it works, and what the inside view is.
  Of course as you know as former Members, we will tell most because 
we're open. We don't have an ax to grind. We're willing to share. I 
think it's a very educational program for the students. By the way, at 
Rhode Island, I was pleased that they actually expanded the program, so 
not only did we speak to the usual political science and other classes 
but also they had a forum for high school students, and then they took 
us off to the local media.
  So it is a real good opportunity to get the message out that people 
in government are real people who happen to have fallen into this very 
important position through various mechanisms. We are just ordinary 
people serving our fellow people and we get there in a variety of ways. 
That is the kind of thing I think that gets expressed to the students.
  As was pointed out over the last 4 years, the program has visited 120 
campuses, and we have addressed over 40,000 students, 9,000 alone just 
in this past year. So it is a great program. If you have participated 
already, thank you very much. I know you appreciate it, as Bill does. 
If you haven't, please consider it. It is well worth your time and the 
time of the people of our Nation. I am also very pleased that my former 
colleague from New York, Matt McHugh, is being honored today. 
Congratulations to you, Matt. Thank you for the time.
  Mr. SKAGGS. Thank you.
  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, David. And thank you, George and Bill, for 
your very astute observations.
  Mr. Speaker, there are several other activities of the U.S. 
Association of Former Members which deserve to be highlighted today. 
One certainly is our annual Statesmanship Award Dinner. It has been 
chaired so exceptionally over the last few years by Lou Frey of 
Florida. I would like to now yield to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. 
Frey, to comment on the dinner that was held this past March.
  If I may reclaim my time for just a second, we have a visitor here. 
We have the chairman of the, we always say, the powerful Rules 
Committee, the gentleman from California, David Dreier.
  Would the gentleman like to address the organization?
  Mr. DREIER. What do you think?
  Mr. BUECHNER. I think you should.
  Mr. DREIER. Thank you very much, Jack. Let me begin by extending 
congratulations to our friend Matt, and you all are obviously 
absolutely brilliant in choosing to honor him. As I look around this 
Chamber, I can't tell you how much I wish many of you were back. I 
can't tell you which ones exactly, but there are more than a few of you 
that I wish were back for many, many, many different reasons.
  I want to thank Jack and Jim and David. As I listened to George 
Hochbrueckner and Bill Goodling talk about the Congress to Campus 
Program, I couldn't help but think about the fact that you all have 
been so intimately involved and supportive of a program that is taking 
place today right here in the Capitol, and that is the development of 
our House Democracy Assistance Commission. A year ago this month, we 
unveiled this bipartisan commission that Speaker Hastert and Minority 
Leader Pelosi came together to form, I think it may have been the last 
time they met, but the fact is they came together to form this 
commission which is designed to build on the fact that there are so 
many emerging democracies all over the world.
  We right now are hosting delegations from Macedonia, the Republic of 
Georgia, Indonesia and the newest country on the face of the Earth that 
was established in 1999, East Timor. The idea

[[Page 6283]]

behind this, of course, as so many of you know, was to create over and 
above the National Endowment for Democracy and the Democratic Institute 
and the Republican institute, it was to build direct parliament-to-
parliament relationships with these new democracies.
  Now, I often quip that after they see us in operation, they may want 
to go back to totalitarianism in their countries, but frankly many have 
been able to benefit greatly from having spent last week in the States, 
in congressional districts, in congressional offices, meeting with 
chambers of commerce, the media, a wide range of other groups and this 
week here in Washington. At noon today, we are having our farewell 
gathering for these parliamentarians and we are also going to be 
expanding this into a number of other countries. I am going to be going 
to Kenya and Liberia and Lebanon. Obviously, we are going to focus on 
Afghanistan and Iraq.
  I simply wanted to come by to express my appreciation to the many of 
you who have gotten involved in this very important issue. Obviously, 
you have the opportunity to take a little more time in working on this. 
But it is critical for us to do it.
  Congratulations. It is great to see you all. Thanks very much for 
including me. Thanks, Jim.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Chairman Dreier, let me just say that we deeply 
appreciate your leadership in this commission work, and we commend the 
work of Speaker Hastert and Minority Leader Pelosi, and we know that 
you have given invaluable leadership to this commission.
  Mr. DREIER. David Price is the ranking member. He has worked very 
hard.
  Mr. SLATTERY. And Congressman Price of North Carolina, we are aware 
of his participation, also. We look forward to working with you. Use 
us. Thank you.
  Lou?
  Mr. FREY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been asked to talk about two 
or three things briefly. The first is our Statesmanship Award Dinner. 
As you are aware, when I was chairman, I had an idea about 9 years ago 
to do it. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of running the 
dinner. But this is the ninth one, and it is very successful now. We 
have institutionalized it thanks to the hard work of so many people. I 
think we had over 400 people there this year. As you know, we auction 
off some memorabilia. It's a fun dinner. It has become a Washington 
institution, really.
  For your memory, our first award recipient was Dan Glickman. We had 
Lee Hamilton, Lynn Martin, Norm Mineta, Vice President Cheney, 
Secretary Rumsfeld. Probably the greatest one, they are all great, but 
the World War II generation one was just incredible. Talk about chills 
going up and down you. Bob Dole, Sam Gibbons, John Glenn, George 
McGovern, and Bob Michel all talked. It was just an incredible 
experience. Then we had John Breaux and, of course, just recently Chris 
Cox was our honoree.
  We have a lot of people helping. For instance, Dan Glickman still 
helps with an auction item from his association, which is good. And we 
have on our trip to France got to be friends with a French count whose 
family goes back to William the Conqueror. He has a chalet over there. 
He has donated it to the association. Maybe something we should have 
known in the Congress, or learned, we sold it twice for the same amount 
of money. Denis de Kergorlay is the gentleman's name. He has become one 
of our biggest supporters of the association. We get a nice amount of 
money for it, and everybody is happy. It has been a good dinner, and it 
has been really our biggest fund-raiser because our dues don't amount 
to all that much, and we need that money to help run these various 
programs we have talked about.
  We talked about the Congress to Campus Program. One of the complaints 
that we got early on is, gee, this is great, we learn all these things, 
but why don't you write it down. Why don't you put something down about 
all this. It is not in a textbook. So I said, okay, we'll write it 
down. And we did. With the help of 38 of our members in the House and 
Senate we wrote a book called Inside the House. University Press 
published it. It is being used now in a number of schools. I was just 
told now it is being used in the Ukraine as one of the texts over 
there. Obviously, it has had an impact and thanks to so many of you who 
participated.
  That's the good news. The bad news is that we're getting complaints 
that they want something more written. So we are attempting to write a 
second book on the political rules of the road and how they apply to 
life. I have sent, I don't know, a lot of letters and some of you so 
many times you're sick and tired of it, but we have had over 200 and 
some responses from people. My rules are pretty simple of life and 
politics. Number one, don't get in a fight with a guy who buys ink by 
the carload and the second is, and I have been married close to 50 
years and this rules applies in politics and at home, if you've got to 
explain, you're in trouble. Those are my two rules of life.
  We have got some very interesting ones, and we are trying to put that 
book together which hopefully will add to what we're doing. It will 
probably be another year before we get done. It is not an easy thing to 
do, the toughest being getting help from you all. I am asking you 
again, those of you who haven't, please send in your paragraph or page 
about what your particular rules are.
  The third thing I was asked to talk about is a trip to Chile that 14 
of us took within, I guess, the last month, month and a half. I had 
been down there during the Pinochet days when people were disappearing 
and it was really a dicey time and a dicey place. I hadn't been there 
in 25 years. I was shocked. It is the jewel of South America. It is 
free. It has a free press. It has democratic institutions that are in 
there. They have elected a new President who is described by some 
people as vegetarian leftist. I had never heard that before, but I 
think what they were trying to say is that she wasn't too far on either 
side. She appointed 10 women of the 20 to her Cabinet and she appointed 
10 of the opposite party to it. I think she has got an incredible 
chance to continue to move Chile forward.
  The only ominous part that we saw was China. China has signed an 
agreement to take 70 percent of their copper for the next 5 years. Of 
course that is their biggest export. The other interesting part is of 
the profits from copper, 10 percent by their statute goes directly to 
the military. As you move around Chile, you will see cultural centers 
that are there now. English is a second language, but now Chinese is a 
third language; and I would suggest to you that Chile, this is just the 
tip of the iceberg with what is going on throughout South America with 
Chile. We have written a report about it. If you want to get a hold of 
Pete on that, we can give you a more detailed report on Chile.
  Just a couple of other things. Matt, congratulations to you. It is 
certainly well deserved. We are so pleased that your family is here to 
see you honored as you should be. The other thing I have to say is 
that, Jack, you have been through some terrible tough times. You have 
our respect and our admiration and our affection for what you have gone 
through and also for the fact that you have continued to give great 
leadership to this association even in the darkest days. Thank you very 
much, Mr. President, for what you have done.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Thank you, Lou, and I thank you for your kind personal 
remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, the association has some other wonderful things that we 
have done. I want to thank Lou for the work, obviously, that he has 
done, the invaluable leadership. But we would like to highlight a few 
of the other activities. Just so the people up in the gallery 
understand who we are, we are former Members of Congress. One day a 
year, the Speaker is good enough to allow this Chamber to be used for 
us for our annual report back to the Congress of the things that we 
have been allowed to do in our facility as former Members.
  In October of last year, the association hosted a fall meeting in 
Kansas

[[Page 6284]]

City, Missouri. We brought together a number of former Members and 
their spouses and spent a long weekend in my beloved home State. Our 
main focus was to go to the Truman memorial library in Independence. We 
had the great opportunity to listen to former Member of Congress Ken 
Hechler of West Virginia who started his career as an adviser to 
President Truman. It was a great but an informal way of connecting with 
old friends and have the association represented in a place other than 
Washington. We have had a golf tournament, picnics, a Christmas party 
for the first time in 2005. I guess you have to call it a holiday 
party. The association benefits tremendously from the efforts and 
leadership of many people.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Mr. President, might I interrupt you for just a moment?
  Mr. BUECHNER. I yield back to the Speaker.
  Mr. SLATTERY. I would like to just acknowledge the presence of the 
distinguished minority leader, the gentlewoman from California. If 
Congresswoman Pelosi would like to give greetings, we certainly will 
welcome that.
  Congresswoman Pelosi.
  Ms. PELOSI. Thank you very much. So what's this, a Democrat in the 
Speaker's chair? This is a very friendly group.
  Good morning to all of you. Jack, thank you for your leadership and 
the good work of the Former Members Association. Jim, it is wonderful 
to see you there. It is wonderful to see all of you here.
  Thank you for coming. Thank you for your ongoing interest. You know 
that we consider you on both sides of the aisle intellectual resources 
to us in the Congress. We also quote you. We build upon your good work. 
It is just really a source of great encouragement to us that you 
continue to have the interest to come back to this place.
  All of us who have ever served here who have had the privilege of 
stepping onto this floor and represent the American people, what a 
great privilege. It is a banner of honor for life. I come here on 
behalf of the House Democrats to bring you greetings, to welcome you 
here, to thank you for being an ongoing source of inspiration to us, 
and also to say that, as I have said before, all of us who serve here 
consider ourselves colleagues of people that we never even served with 
before because we have all shared this great honor.
  On their behalf, I am privileged to say what a privilege it is for us 
to call you colleague. I am glad that we are also joined by our 
distinguished minority whip, Democratic whip, I always use the name 
Democratic, Democratic whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland. I see so many 
friends here again on both sides of the aisle. I look forward to 
chatting with you individually but also look forward to what comes from 
your meeting here. It will be very important to us.
  Thank you again for being here.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Leader Pelosi. It is great to see you.
  Mr. BUECHNER. I thank the gentlewoman for her kind remarks.
  I want to thank my fellow officers of the association for their 
energy, dedication and invaluable counsel during my 2 years as 
president: Jim Slattery, who is in the chair as the Speaker pro tem; 
Jay Rhodes, who spoke earlier; Dennis Hertel and Larry LaRocco, who is 
the president emeritus. Let me also thank the members of our board of 
directors and our counselors for providing excellent guidance and 
support throughout the year. In addition, we benefit greatly from the 
wonderful work of our auxiliary, led so ably by Debi Alexander.
  Mr. Speaker, to administer all these programs takes a staff of 
dedicated and enthusiastic professionals. We expanded our team from 
three to four full-time employees during 2005, another sign of how 
active and successful a year it has been for the association: Maya 
Yamazaki, our program officer; Rebecca Zylberman, who is the member 
relations manager; Sudha David-Wilp, the program director; and Peter 
Weichlein, executive director. Would you all stand and have the members 
give you a round of applause.
  This has been a great 2 years. I have been honored to be in this 
position as the president. You have heard some comments about the loss 
of my wife who is going to be honored tomorrow and remembered at the 
auxiliary luncheon. I am sorry she is not here today to conclude my 
term.
  In addition to all the programs and projects we reported on today, in 
addition to keeping all contact information about former Members of 
Congress as current and up to date as possible, in addition to 
identifying grant-giving institutions to fund programs such as the 
study groups, in addition to all that and more, our staff has organized 
and executed that office move I spoke to. We are now on K Street, but 
we are not lobbyists, so that works okay. We are in a bigger space.
  I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. HERTEL. I just want to thank on behalf of all the association 
members you, Jack, for all the work that you have done for making this 
organization so effective. There is so much that we can talk about that 
the members have volunteered their time internationally and around this 
Nation at college campuses. Every program has increased so much, the 
funding for these programs has increased, the volunteer support, the 
members' time, because of you, the dedication you have given this 
association, all the time that you have given it, even through these 
most, most difficult times. I just want to thank you on behalf of the 
association and give our heartfelt best to you and your son Charlie.
  Mr. BUECHNER. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased to have with us today several former 
legislators from our neighbor to the north, Canada. It gives me great 
pleasure to welcome Patrick Gagnon, Fred Mifflin, Barry Turner, and the 
Reverend Canon Derwyn Shea, all former members of the Canadian 
Parliament. Would you four please stand so we can give you a round of 
applause. We are honored that you have made the trip to join us today 
and by doing so reaffirm the great relationship that our organizations 
have.
  Mr. Speaker, it is now my sad duty to inform the House of those 
people who served in Congress and who have passed away since our report 
last year. They are:
  Robert Badham of California,
  J. Glenn Beall, Jr. of Maryland,
  Albert Henry Bosch of New York,
  Clair Callan of Nebraska,
  Ronald Cameron of California,
  Caroll Campbell, Jr. of South Carolina,
  Elford Cederberg of Michigan,
  William Dorn of South Carolina,
  John Erlenborn, past president of this association, of Illinois,
  J. James Exon of Nebraska,
  Joseph Karth of Minnesota,
  Hastings Keith of Massachusetts,
  Richard Kelly of Florida,
  John Lesinski of Michigan,
  Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota,
  John McFall of California,
  Donald McGinley of Nebraska,
  Lloyd Meeds of Washington,
  John Monagan of Connecticut,
  Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin,
  James Jerrell Pickle of Texas, also known as Jake,
  Bertram Podell of New York,
  Charles Porter of Oregon,
  William Proxmire of Wisconsin,
  Edward Roybal of California,
  Dan Schaefer of Colorado,
  James Scheuer of New York,
  Stanley Tupper of Maine,
  Richard Vander Veen of Michigan.
  I ask all of you, including the visitors in the gallery, to rise for 
a moment of silence as we pay our respect to the memory of these 
citizens.
  Thank you.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know each year the association presents a 
Distinguished Service Award to an outstanding public servant who is a 
former Member of Congress. The award rotates between parties, as do our 
officers. Last year we presented the award to an outstanding 
Republican, former Senator Dan Coats. This year, we are very pleased to 
be honoring a remarkable Democrat, a remarkable public servant, former 
Representative Matt McHugh of the State of New York.

[[Page 6285]]

Matt McHugh represented the 27th and 28th Congressional Districts of 
New York in the United States Congress from 1975 to 1992. He served on 
a wide range of congressional committees, including Appropriations, 
Intelligence, Standards of Official Conduct, Veterans' Affairs, 
Agriculture and Interior. He chaired the Arms Control and Foreign 
Policy Caucus and the Democratic Study Group.
  His colleagues dubbed him ``the conscience of the House.'' One of his 
last congressional duties was to preside over a bipartisan panel set up 
to investigate abuses of the House Bank that gripped the House in the 
early 1990s and brought discredit unfortunately upon this House. His 
post-congressional career includes serving as vice president at Cornell 
University and being counsel to the president of the World Bank. If you 
ask him his most challenging, yet gratifying, experience after leaving 
Congress, I am sure he will tell you it is the 2 years he was president 
of the Association of Former Members of Congress.
  Matt McHugh personifies what a Member of Congress ought to be because 
of his integrity, his willingness to work with Members from both sides 
of the aisle for the good of the country, and because of his dedication 
to the ideals of deliberative representation. I would like Matt to come 
forward here.
  This plaque that we are going to present to Matt is inscribed as 
follows: The 2006 Distinguished Service Award is presented by the U.S. 
Association of Former Members of Congress to the Honorable Matthew F. 
McHugh for his long and illustrious career in the House of 
Representatives, and for his laudable efforts as counsel to the 
president of the World Bank. During his entire career in public 
service, Matt McHugh exemplified the highest standard of integrity, 
dignity, and intellect. He inspired those serving with him and left a 
legacy for those serving after him. His beloved State of New York sent 
to Congress one of the best and brightest ever to walk these hallowed 
Halls of the Capitol and his former colleagues applaud and salute him 
for his distinguished and dignified service.
  Mr. McHUGH. Thank you very much.
  Thank you, Jack, for your very gracious remarks and for this 
recognition.
  Thanks to all of you for being here this morning. We want to thank 
you, Jack, and the officers and staff for the great work that you do in 
leading the association and in making those programs that we heard 
about this morning work so well. On a personal note, I also want to say 
on behalf of my wife, Alanna, and myself how much we admire you and, as 
the Speaker said, our thoughts and prayers are with you and Charlie 
during these very tough times.
  I also want to express appreciation to my wife and my family, some of 
whom are here in the gallery this morning. As we all know, politics is 
an exhilarating, serious profession with a lot of rewards and 
satisfactions along the way. But most of those rewards go to the 
candidate and the officeholder and precious few go to the spouse and 
the family. They make enormous contributions, but they are very seldom 
recognized. So today is a day to say thank you to Alanna and to my 
family for their patience and understanding and support at all times in 
my life, but especially during those very hectic political years that 
we are all so familiar with.
  As I said, I am grateful for this recognition, but I am very much 
aware that the honor could as easily go to anybody sitting here. As I 
look around the Chamber, I see so many people who have contributed so 
much to our country and to the Congress. One of the great things about 
our association is that it gives us an opportunity to continue to serve 
an institution that we love. I see so many of you who have done that, 
during your years here and afterwards as well. The association brings 
us together for a variety of reasons. We get to see old friends. We 
reflect upon some of the experiences we shared together here. We learn 
something new about what is happening in the world today. But most 
importantly the programs of the association give us a chance to 
continue to serve in some small measure the institution that we do love 
and that is so important to the lifeblood of this country, the 
Congress.
  We are able in some small measure to increase public awareness of how 
important Congress remains to the country. We have heard many of the 
programs described this morning, some of which serve that purpose very 
well but none more important, I think, than the Congress to Campus 
Program. I know many of you have participated in those campus visits 
that have been already described. Bill Goodling and I went together 
recently to Amherst College, and as always we were really touched by 
how impressive the young generation is, idealistic, bright.
  But at the same time given the kind of coverage that government and 
politics gets today and the other distractions and pressures young 
people have in their lives, there is a real risk that many of them will 
not really take a real serious interest in public service. Of course, 
that would be a great tragedy for the country because clearly the 
future of the country rests with them. It rests with young people like 
my own granddaughter who is here today who is going off to college in 
the fall. And so the Congress to Campus Program gives us a chance to 
reach out to those young people to explain why public service is 
important and rewarding, to demonstrate among other things that 
Republicans and Democrats who serve together can actually talk and 
discuss issues thoughtfully and constructively, and to encourage them 
to really engage in public service and community service when their 
school days are over.
  I think we can be grateful to our association for giving us that 
opportunity, not only in the Congress to Campus Program but in many 
other ways as well. I know that we are very limited on time. We are 
almost ready to abandon the Chamber, so I would like to close simply by 
thanking all of you for your work with the association, for your 
continuing service to the Congress and the country, for the recognition 
that you have given me today, and for being with us to share this very 
special moment.
  Thank you so much.
  Mr. BUECHNER. Matt, we also are presenting you with a scrapbook 
filled with letters of congratulations and little notes and memorabilia 
from your good friends from across the years that you have served with 
in this Congress, just another additional measure of our respect for 
you and the compassion that you have always held for the people of the 
great country and your district.
  Mr. McHUGH. Thanks so much, Jack.
  Mr. BUECHNER. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield back 
to the Chair for some closing remarks.
  Mr. SLATTERY. Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, let the Chair 
again congratulate Matt McHugh. It is great to see Alanna here today 
and the McHugh family. We welcome you. Matt, let me just say that I 
don't think anyone who I had the honor of serving with brought greater 
credit to this institution than you. I always viewed you as someone, 
and I am sure this view was shared by your colleagues on both sides of 
the political aisle, as someone who went to work every day here trying 
to not only make the decisions that you thought were best for the 
people of New York and the people of this country. That sense of duty 
and commitment to our country was deeply admired by all of us who had 
an opportunity to serve with you. To sum up, I would just say that you 
are a public servant in the finest sense of the word. We are honored to 
know you. We are honored to recognize you here today. Matt McHugh, good 
luck to you.
  Before we wrap up today, I would also like to again associate myself 
with the remarks of others made here today about Jack Buechner and his 
dedicated service to this association. Jack, without your leadership 
over the last 2 years and your dedication to the objectives of this 
association, we would not have seen the progress that we have seen with 
the Congress to Campus Program. We would not have seen the progress 
that we have also seen with our efforts in the global democracy 
building work and the election-monitoring efforts around the world. We 
recognize you for your dedicated leadership through a most difficult 
and

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painful personal ordeal and time in your life. We have the deepest 
respect for you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you 
have done to advance the goals of the Association of Former Members of 
Congress. Jack, good luck to you, my friend. We look forward to your 
further participation in the work of the association. Jack Buechner, 
let's give him another round of applause.
  The Chair again wishes to thank all of those former Members that are 
here today and give you all another opportunity to record your presence 
if you did not do that at the beginning of the events here today. The 
Chair also wishes to thank all the former Members of the House for 
their presence.
  I am advised that the House will reconvene 15 minutes after the bells 
ring.
  Accordingly (at 10 o'clock and 27 minutes a.m.), the House continued 
in recess.

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