[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19788-19789]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO JAMES L. OBERSTAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, several years ago, they sent us to a 
civility conference because they didn't think that Democrats and 
Republicans were getting along well enough in the Congress, and I have 
never forgotten something our first speaker said.
  David McCullough, the great historian, told a story about a Russian 
visitor who came up into the House gallery in 1948 and watched for a 
while, and then he went out and shook his head and he said, ``The House 
is a strange place.'' He said, ``A man stands up and says absolutely 
nothing, no one pays any attention, and then everyone disagrees.''
  They say there is a little bit of truth in the best humor, and I 
guess there is some truth in that humor. But David McCullough was kind 
enough to go on from there and say, but if he had a chance to live his 
life over again and he could choose what he wanted to do, he would 
choose to be a member of that wild and raucous bunch known as the 
United States House of Representatives.
  I think today, because of some of the television talk shows, that 
many people around the country think that we all dislike each other or 
that we hate each other at times, or that Democrats and Republicans 
just don't get along at all. But that is not true at all, and I think 
for the great, great majority of

[[Page 19789]]

Members, all of us get along really well with everyone, regardless of 
party, and all of us consider it a great privilege and honor to serve 
in the United States House of Representatives.
  We are losing many, many good Members from both sides of the aisle 
this year because of retirements, running for other offices, or for all 
sorts of reasons, and there are many other Members, both Democrat and 
Republican, who are good friends of mine who are leaving to whom I 
should pay tribute. But I rise tonight to pay special tribute to a very 
special man, and that is Congressman James Oberstar from Minnesota.
  In my entire 22 years in this Congress, I have served on the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I had a couple of chances 
in my early years to move to other committees, and I think people were 
surprised that I didn't take either one of those offers. But I enjoyed 
serving on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, originally 
called the Public Works and Transportation Committee, in part because 
it was considered to be the most bipartisan, or nonpartisan, committee 
probably in the Congress. It was often said that there is no such thing 
as a Republican highway or a Democratic highway; and on many, many 
things people on both sides of the aisle on that committee worked 
together to help build America.
  Certainly, Congressman Oberstar was one of the great leaders of that 
committee through his entire time in the Congress. Jim Oberstar served 
for 11 years on the committee staff, rising to the position of staff 
director. He then began his service in the House and continued to serve 
for the past 36 years.
  It is an astounding figure to think that a man worked on this one 
committee for 47 years of his life, but he has done so with great honor 
and distinction. In fact, I think almost everybody knows that there is 
no one in the Congress and probably never has been anyone in the 
history of the Congress who has known transportation issues and 
understood them and worked on them longer and harder and with more 
effectiveness than Jim Oberstar has.
  At one point, he was chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee. In 1994, 
after the election, the Republicans took control and I had the honor of 
becoming the chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, and I served for 6 
years in that position, which was the maximum allowable on our side.
  When I took over as chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee, I had 
frequently heard Jim Oberstar referred to as ``Mr. Aviation.'' So I 
went to him and asked for his help, and he helped me and guided me and 
gave me advice that to this day I appreciate very much, and he did that 
in a very kind and humble way.
  Then, of course, in the last 4 years, he reached the pinnacle and 
became chairman of that committee, a committee that he loves. He has 
been a great chairman, and I think he has tried to help everyone on 
both sides of the aisle.
  So I just wanted to rise and pay tribute to a man that I consider to 
be a great American and a great Member of Congress, Congressman James 
Oberstar.

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