[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 399-400]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               RETIREMENT OF DR. PHILIP ROYAL SHIPP, JR.

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am pleased to speak today to honor the 
career of Dr. Philip Royal Shipp, Jr., a devoted public servant who has 
served the Congress for nearly 30 years at the Congressional Research 
Service, CRS. During his tenure at the CRS, Dr. Shipp has served in 
several key management and leadership roles, demonstrating 
extraordinary levels of competence, intelligence, and intellectual 
creativity in each of these positions.
  Most recently, Dr. Shipp has served as the Director of the Domestic 
Social

[[Page 400]]

Policy Division. The Domestic Social Policy Division offers the 
Congress research and analysis in many programs and policies that under 
the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee, including the 
Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children's Health Insurance Programs, as 
well as Social Security, pensions, welfare, child welfare programs.
  I have been honored to serve as chairman of the Finance Committee for 
4 years and am pleased to continue my service as the ranking Republican 
on the committee. Analysts under Dr. Shipp's supervision have worked 
closely with my Finance Committee staff, briefing them on complex 
programs and policies, helping them in the drafting of legislation and 
participating in Senate Finance Committee hearings.
  We Members of Congress simply could not do our work effectively 
without the support we recelve from organizations like the 
Congressional Research Service. There is simply no other organization 
with the reputation and the credibility of CRS. The work provided by 
CRS is always first rate, oftentimes quantitative and impeccably 
nonpartisan. Dr. Shipp, throughout his career, has embodied these 
characteristics.
  Dr. Shipp began his Federal service in 1964 as an economist with the 
Federal Reserve. He was subsequently a progr analyst with the Office of 
Management and Budget and later the Acting Administrator of the Food 
and Nutrition Service. Dr. Shipp made significant contributions to the 
Food and Nutrition Service, including an expanded view of the public 
policy purposes of food assistance programs such as food stamps. He 
also was instrumental in establishing and expanding the agency's in-
house capacity to analyze programs, study their effects, and estimate 
the impact of legislative and regulatory changes.
  Dr. Shipp joined the Congressional Research Service in 1977 as a 
Senior Specialist in Social Legislation in the former Education and 
Public Welfare, EPW, Division. He spent a significant part of the next 
decade leading teams of CRS analysts in high-level, committee-
requested, legislatively relevant research studies focused on health 
and income issues. Topics included health insurance for the uninsured, 
retirement income for an aging population, and work incentives in 
income support programs. Under Dr. Shipp's direction, CRS developed a 
framework and quantitative model to compare legislative options for a 
new retirement system for Federal workers; this model was used in the 
development of the Federal employee retirement system that is in place 
today. During this period, in 1984, Dr. Shipp also served as Executive 
Director of the Congressional Panel on Social Security Organization, 
which was charged with developing an organizational and management 
framework for an independent agency for Social Security. The panel's 
principal recommendations were reflected in the legislation that 
eventually created the independent Social Security Administration.
  In 1989, Dr. Shipp became Associate Director of CRS for Research 
Planning and Coordination, where he guided efforts to evaluate and 
improve CRS services and operations and led several of tge agency's 
first strategic management reviews. He returned to EPW as Division 
Chief in 1994 and became head of the expanded Domestic Social Policy 
Division in 1999. As Assistant Director for Domestic Social Policy, the 
largest research division within CRS, Dr. Shipp emphasized the building 
of analytic capacities, with a special focus on empirical analysis, as 
a way to enhance CRS' legislative support to Congress. He was 
instrumental in building CRS capacities in all areas of domestic social 
policy, in particular health policy analysis, Social Security and 
disability analysis, homeland and border secur, public health 
preparedness, and housing and welfare policy. He organized and staffed 
the division to respond to new challenges, in particular the heightened 
need for expertise in domestic intelligence and counterterrorism after 
the attacks of September 11, 2001. Dr. Shipp also conceived and 
implemented an initiative to enhance CRS' strong analytic work in 
issues associated with the aging of the population, by expanding the 
division's staff to include new analysts with expertise in specific 
relevant disciplines. Under Dr. Shipp's leadership, CRS also obtained 
and developed the capacity to use a micro-simulation model for analysis 
of the distributional impact of alternative policy options for Social 
Security reform.
  I am informed that Dr. Shipp was an exceptional manager with a clear 
vision of how CRS should be of service to the Congress. He leaves a 
strong legacy that will have a profound effect on the Congress for 
years to come. I know that my colleagues join me in thanking him for 
his service and wishing him well as he embarks on new challenges ahead.

                          ____________________