[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12516-12517]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 IN TRIBUTE AND APPRECIATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF EVELYN DUBROW, A 
        DESERVING RECIPIENT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 22, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the legacy of the 
recently passed Evelyn Dubrow. In her many years here on Capitol Hill 
as a delightful yet effective advocate of worker's rights, Ms. Dubrow 
helped influence progress in civil rights issues across the board. She 
was best known as the representative for the International Ladies 
Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), however, her work sought to expand the 
rights of workers for a higher minimum wage, fair trade laws, and 
family and medical leave. Her forthright style and passionate advocacy 
won her many friends and admirers in the Congress.
  For many members of Congress, she was the ideal example of a 
successful lobbyist, and her wealth of knowledge benefited all who had 
the pleasure of crossing Ms. Dubrow's path. Not only was she a model 
lobbyist, but she was also an exemplary human being who did not take 
even a penny for granted, spending in a year what some say others spend 
in telephone bills alone. Hers was a personal style and her winning 
personality made her welcome in the offices she visited.
  Ms. Dubrow's outstanding work was recognized by President Clinton, 
who in 1999 awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was 
also recognized by the Washington Business Review in 1982 as 
Washington's top 10 lobbyists.
  Known affectionately as ``Evy,'' she began her efforts on Capitol 
Hill as one of very few other female lobbyists in the 50's. In those 
days, the minimum wage was only $1 an hour, talk of equal pay for men 
and women was rare, and laws allowed discrimination in housing, hiring, 
and health care. It was in these

[[Page 12517]]

areas that ``Evy'' fought hard to produce improvements for all 
Americans.
  Her obituary in the June 22nd edition of The Washington Post honored 
the life and works of Ms. Evelyn Dubrow. I would like to enter the 
Obituary into the Record and join the Washington Post as well as my 
colleagues on the Hill for reflection and appreciation of this great 
woman's contributions to our country.

               [From the Washington Post, June 22, 2006]

       Lobbyist Evelyn Dubrow, 95; Worked for ILGWU, Civil Rights

                         (By Patricia Sullivan)

       Evelyn ``Evy'' Dubrow, 95, an indefatigable lobbyist for 
     garment workers for almost 50 years and the only person on 
     Capitol Hill allowed to share the congressional doorkeepers' 
     chairs outside the House chambers, died June 20 of a heart 
     attack at George Washington University Hospital.
       Miss Dubrow, the 4-foot, 11-inch, throaty-voiced 
     representative for the International Ladies Garment Workers 
     Union and its successor union from 1956 until about two years 
     ago, wore out countless pairs of size 4 shoes in the marble 
     halls of the Capitol, where she advocated for a higher 
     minimum wage, fair trade laws, family and medical leave 
     policies and civil rights.
       ``Everyone knows Evy,'' said one newspaper profile of the 
     friendly activist. Another said, ``She stands eye-to-eye with 
     Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich and goes toe-to-toe with the 
     big boys, whether the late [House Speaker Thomas P.] O'Neill 
     . . . or Sen. Alan K. Simpson, the 6-foot-7 Republican from 
     Wyoming.''
       ``Evelyn Dubrow is the union label,'' Sen. Ernest F. 
     Hollings (D-S.C.) once said.
       ``By the accounts of her best friends in Congress, most of 
     them Northern liberals, she is the model of the effective 
     lobbyist--persistent but not pushy, knowledgeable and 
     persuasive but not dogmatic,'' New York Times reporter David 
     E. Rosenbaum wrote in 1970.
       Her longevity gave her knowledge of the institution and an 
     understanding of when to compromise. ``There's no point 
     trying to organize an industry if there are no jobs,'' she 
     said in 1985, explaining why labor supported a protectionist 
     textile bill. It also gave her a seat just outside the House 
     chambers; as speaker, O'Neill ordered the doorkeepers to 
     share their seat with the representative of seamstresses, 
     hemmers and buttonhole girls. The apparently unprecedented 
     courtesy lasted until Newt Gingrich won the speakership and 
     barred lobbyists from the second floor during votes.
       Miss Dubrow worked 15-hour days and outlasted almost 
     everyone. For years, she kept her age a secret even while 
     spreading her secrets to successful lobbying: Never beg for 
     votes, don't assume you know everything and don't threaten 
     anyone.
       ``She carries no flip phone, beeper or Powerbook,'' the 
     Baltimore Sun said in 1995. ``[Miss] Dubrow keeps her daily 
     schedule on a card in her appointment calendar in her purse. 
     And her yearly expenses are less than what some spend in 
     telephone bills alone.''
       President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal 
     of Freedom in 1999, calling her ``a tiny woman, larger than 
     life'' who was ``renowned for her grace, candor, and 
     integrity, [who] has earned the respect of opponents and 
     allies alike.''
       Unapologetically liberal, she had friends among both 
     Republicans and Democrats, telling Washingtonian magazine in 
     1997: ``In Washington you should never write off anybody. 
     You'll be surprised where tomorrow's allies come from.'' .
       She came from Paterson, N.J., the daughter of immigrants 
     from Belarus who found work in factories of New York and New 
     Jersey. She got her start in labor activism handing out 
     fliers about the Spanish Civil War in New York's Union 
     Square. She graduated from New York University's School of 
     Journalism and joined her first union, the Newspaper Guild, 
     while working at the Paterson Morning Call newspaper.
       She soon moved into full-time union work, as a secretary in 
     the Textile Workers Union and as an assistant to the 
     president of the New Jersey Congress of Industrial 
     Organizations. She was one of the organizers of Americans for 
     Democratic Action in 1947 and worked for the ADA until 1956. 
     Legendary labor leader David Dubinsky hired her as lobbyist 
     for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and sent 
     her to Washington.
       Miss Dubrow was in her mid-forties when she became one of a 
     mere handful of female lobbyists in Washington. When she 
     started, the federal minimum wage was $1 an hour, equal pay 
     was rarely mentioned and the law allowed discrimination in 
     housing, hiring and health care. She fought long and hard for 
     improvements in all those areas, and later, against the North 
     American Free Trade Agreement, which eroded the jobs of 
     American union members who made clothes.
       ``When I started this job, we were worried about 
     sweatshops,'' she told The Washington Post in 1997. ``Today 
     we're still worried about sweatshops.''
       She was named vice president of the ILGWU in 1977, and when 
     the union merged with another to form UNITE! (United 
     Needleworkers, Industrial and Textile Employees), she became 
     vice president and legislative director, then special 
     assistant to its president. She was a founder of the 
     Coalition of Labor Union Women.
       Miss Dubrow became well recognized off Capitol Hill in 
     time. In 1971, Ladies' Home Journal named her one of the 75 
     most important women in America, and in 1982, the old 
     Washington Business Review called her one of the city's top 
     10 lobbyists.
       Never married, with no immediate family survivors, she 
     reveled in her many nieces and nephews. She also enjoyed 
     poker, gin rummy and reading the classics.
       In the 1970s, she endured four years of Metro rail 
     construction in front of her D Street SE home. Her only 
     complaint about it, she told The Post in 1977: ``Their 
     construction in front of my house caused my shoes to get 
     muddy. But for two weeks, every day, one of the workers would 
     go have them polished and bring them back to me.''

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