[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 21629-21630] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]COMMENDING THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES ON ITS 110TH ANNIVERSARY ______ HON. JIM McDERMOTT of washington in the house of representatives Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, 110 years ago, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, F.O.E., was founded in Seattle, in what is now the seventh Congressional District that I am privileged to represent. Since its founding, the F.O.E. has expanded to become an international organization with nearly 1 million members that raises and contributes more than $100 million annually to charities benefitting children, health research, and the elderly. I rise today to commend the Eagles on their 110th anniversary, to highlight some of their many accomplishments, and to thank the Eagles for their good work over the last 110 years. The Eagles have a long and proud history of living up to their motto, ``people helping people.'' The Eagles were the first public advocates for establishing the Mother's Day holiday, were a driving force behind establishment of the Social Security System, and work to provide assistance to individuals in need in local communities across the United States and Canada. Just this year, the Eagles have partnered with the University of Iowa and committed to raise $25 million to establish the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center that will break new ground in efforts to both treat and prevent the spread of this terrible disease. The Fraternal Order of Eagles was created in 1898 when six competing theater owners held a secret meeting at Moran's shipyard in Seattle to talk about a musicians' strike. By mid-1898, a constitution and by laws for the new organization had been adopted and the Grand Aerie established. Local F.O.E. chapters and the places that they meet are known as ``Aeries.'' Many of the early members of the Eagles were actors, playwrights, and stage hands who spread the word about the new fraternal organization as they toured from town to town across the U.S. and Canada. The incredible spread of the Eagles in the early years is largely attributable to these people. Eagle Aerie #1--the Mother Aerie--was established in Seattle in 1898, but some of the earliest Eagle aeries are located in: #8 San Jose, California, 1899; #11 Butte, Montana, 1899; #25 Skagway, Alaska, 1899; #33 St. Paul, Minnesota, 1899; #48 Galveston, Texas, 1900; and #42 Rochester, New York, 1900. By the end of 1903 just 5 years after the creation of the Eagles, there were nearly 600 Aeries operating in all corners of the U.S. and numerous locations in Canada. Today, Eagle membership totals about one million in about 1,500 individual local Aeries throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition to camaraderie the fraternity was established to serve a very important function. In the days before death benefits, workmen's comp, or health insurance, the Eagles offered a death benefit to the families of Eagles killed in the line of work to ensure proper burial, no Eagle has ever been buried in a potter's field, and Aeries had physicians who provided health care to members. The Fraternal Order of Eagles Grand Auxiliary was adopted at the 1951 international convention in Rochester, NY. However, Auxiliaries date back to March 24, 1927 in Pittsburgh, KS. By March of 1951, 965 local Auxiliaries were in existence and by the end of that year 22 state and provincial Auxiliaries were operating. The local state/provincial, regional and grand Auxiliaries have continued to grow and provide their importance to the Fraternal Order of Eagles by consistently serving as the strongest fundraising arm in the Organization. The Auxiliary, traditionally consisting of women, is a fully operating arm of the Fraternal Order of Eagles with equal positions of leadership. In 1944, the Eagles Memorial Foundation was created. The Memorial Foundation supports children of members who die while serving their country, or at work. All Eagle members and their families are automatically protected by this member benefit. With the Memorial Foundation, children of deceased members who die while serving their country or at work are able to attend college or vocational school with grants up to $30,000. They can also receive medical assistance including payments to physicians, dentists, orthodontists and hospitals. The cost of eyeglasses, prescriptions, as well as medical and dental devices is also included. Over the years, the Eagles have also actively advocated at the national level for laws that help their fellow Americans. In the 1930s, the Eagles very actively organized to push for creation of the Social Security system. When the Social Security Act was signed in 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt (himself a lifelong Eagle), presented a pen with which he signed the Act and wrote to then-Eagle Grand Worthy President John M. Morin: I am very glad to give you as the representative of the Fraternal Order of Eagles a pen with which I signed the Social Security Securities Act . . . I have long observed with satisfaction the sponsorship by the F.O.E. of social justice legislation both in the states and in the nation. The records for more than a quarter of a century bear witness to the campaigns of education conducted, the literature distributed, and the addresses delivered by your socially- minded Order. These efforts have borne, and are bearing gratifying results. Our countrymen owe the Eagles good will for their unselfish services. The pen I am presenting to the Order is a symbol of my approval of the Fraternity 's vision and courage. May its possession inspire your 600,000 members to re-dedicate their own efforts and those of the Fraternity to the insuring of such economic and political conditions as will bring a greater degree of happiness to our people. The Eagles also supported old age pension laws in the 1920s: ``You Eagles have planted this seed . . . If the Eagles of the United States never do anything else, they have more than justified their existence in their advocacy of this great humanitarian movement.''--Gov. Joseph M. Dixon, Governor of Montana, signing into law America's first old age pension law (1923). Jobs After 40: ``The Eagles started this whole idea. That is why I invited the Eagles to be at this private bill signing, and the reason I am presenting this pen to the Fraternal Order of Eagles.''--President Lyndon B. Johnson, signing the Federal ``Jobs After 40'' bill, outlawing upper age limits in hiring. And enactment of Medicare legislation: ``For your energetic and dedicated espousal of social justices, and for the generous support you have given to all measures designed to further economic opportunity and the compassionate treatment of the sick and disabled.''--President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a message to the Eagles on the signing of the Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act. Today, the Eagles advocate for equally important causes. The Eagles support congressional and administration action to ensure the long-term stability of the Social Security system while protecting the fundamental principles on which it was founded and to provide health care coverage to every American child. The Eagles are also actively advocating for enactment of the Children's Access to Reconstructive Evaluation and Surgeries, CARES Act, H.R. 1655. Evidence suggests that insurance companies are increasingly denying access to the approximately 40,000 American children born annually with birth defects and needing reconstructive surgery. The CARES Act would require all group and individual health insurance coverage and all group health plans to provide coverage for surgery and other outpatient and inpatient medical treatments related to a minor child's congenital or developmental deformity. As a medical doctor and Member of Congress, I am especially proud to be a cosponsor of the CARES Act. In addition, the Eagles are tremendously generous in providing assistance to a wide variety of very worthy charitable causes. Every year, Eagles across the U.S. and Canada generate more than $100 million for charities supported by the F.O.E. The Eagles provide 100 percent of those funds directly to charities in the form of grants, paying administrative costs from their membership dues. These charities include: the Max Baer Heart Fund; the Robert W. Hansen Diabetes Fund; D.D. Dunlap Kidney Fund; the Jimmy Durante Children's Fund; support for Children's AIDS Awareness and Medical Research; the Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Fund; the Golden [[Page 21630]] Eagle, Golden Age Grants, support for community-oriented programs primarily serving the aged, Alzheimer and Parkinson Funds; and the Disaster Relief Fund, first response program for national disaster situations in Canada and the United States, and the new Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa. In addition, the Eagles also provide educational benefits to graduates of Home on the Range in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota; High Sky Girls Ranch in Midland, Texas; and Bob Hope High School in Port Arthur, Texas. The Eagles also operate Eagle Village, located in Bradenton, Florida, a 26-acre senior community open to any member who has at least 15 years of continuous membership in the Fraternal Order of Eagles. In addition to large national charitable initiatives, Eagles work at the local level to make their communities better places to live and work. Many activities focus on children and improving their quality of life. Eagles Aeries and Auxiliaries conduct toy drives, send young victims of domestic violence to camp, hold baby showers for needy families, provide Christmas and Thanksgiving baskets, provide backpacks and school supplies, make quilts for nursing homes, and more. On September 16, 2008, the Fraternal Order of Eagles signed an agreement with the University of lowa to partner in a 5-year fundraising project that will culminate with the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa. The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center will be a dedicated center for diabetes research within the Institute for Biomedical Discovery Building at the University of Iowa. The Eagles are committing to raise no less than $25 million over the next 5 years to fund this center. Money fundraised by the Fraternal Order of Eagles will go directly to medical research. Currently, an estimated 23.6 million adults and children in the USA--8 percent of the population--have diabetes. The Eagles' membership is a broad cross-section of America, ranging from blue-collar workers to teachers to doctors and everyone in between. Seven United States Presidents have been Eagles: Theodore R. Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, James Earl ``Jimmy'' Carter, Ronald W. Reagan. In addition, many famous Americans have been active Eagles, including: Arnold Palmer; Bob Hope; Jimmy Durante; Max Baer, boxing heavyweight champion; Tony Stewart, NASCAR driver; Billy Ray Cyrus, musical performer and entertainer; and baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Roger Maris. One hundred and ten years ago, the Eagles organized with a simple objective, to ``make human life more desirable by lessening its ills and promoting peace, prosperity, gladness, and hope.'' You have succeeded. Over the last 110 years, the Eagles have been an integral part of the fabric of our country--providing civic leadership, raising funds for children, the elderly and medical research, and improving the country in ways great and small. The Eagles have made the United States an immeasurably better place to live, work, and raise families. Thank you for all you have done for our communities and our country. Congratulations to the members and leadership of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Best wishes for the next 110 years and beyond. ____________________