Reception of Former Members of Congress

RECEPTION OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS -- (House of Representatives - April 22, 2004)

The Speaker of the House presided.

The SPEAKER. To all of you I want to say good morning. On behalf of the House of Representatives, I am happy to welcome to the Chamber very good friends of this institution, former Members of Congress.

You are not only friends of this institution; you are also friends of ours, and we look forward to this opportunity every year when we have this chance to visit with you and catch up on each other's lives.

Every one of you has spent precious years of your life, some of the best years of your life, working to represent the needs and concerns of the American people right here in this Chamber.

Your commitment to your Nation did not end when you left the halls of Congress. Many of you have committed to serve the Nation in many other honorable ways.

Senator Sam Nunn is one of those people, and he currently is an ideal and worthy choice to receive the Distinguished Service Award.

While deprived of the opportunity to serve in the House, Senator Nunn served the other body with great distinction. Known as an expert on defense issues, Senator Nunn was respected by both sides of the aisle for his sense of fair play, his patriotism, and his commitment to the security of this Nation.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all former Members for their continued efforts both home and abroad. Your outreach in college campuses throughout this country has helped to strengthen the work of our government and to encourage public service. Your support on parliaments around the world is invaluable, and I want to thank you for those efforts as well.

At this time, I would request that the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Jack Buechner, vice president of the Former Members Association, take the chair.

Mr. BUECHNER (presiding). Will the Clerk call the roll of the former Members of Congress.

The Clerk called the roll of the former Members of the Congress, and the following former Members answered to their names:

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HOYER. Certainly. I will, as John Brademas did, I will use the traditionally opposite podium. I understand Nancy had spoken to you a little earlier and welcomed you here. I have spoken at many of these, perhaps not all, in the last few years.

I might say that I heard how long Senator Nunn served in the Senate. There are some of us who believe he did not serve long enough in the Senate; and, Sam, congratulations to you for this honor and appropriate recognition of the extraordinary work that you have done for our country and, happily for our country, continue to do. We appreciate that.

For those of us from the University of Maryland, we recognize Bill Archer's claim to fame is that he is the father-in-law of Fred Funk, the former coach. For those of you who are golf fans, Fred Funk is one of the great golfers in America on the pro circuit and always does a great job; and I always tell Bill Archer that is why he is famous, not for being in the House.

I am pleased to be here with all of you and add my word of welcome to you. I have said it in the past. Sam just mentioned it. At a time of great challenge for our country abroad, we find ourselves unfortunately divided at home, not only in the Congress but our country divided, as all of us know, and that is reflected in the very close divisions that we find when the public goes to the poll; and when they are polled, we find out how closely divided they are.

It is important, I think, for those of you who had the opportunity to serve, and John Brademas, this morning, my predecessor, I hung the pictures of all the former whips in the hallway leading to my office now, an extraordinary group of people.

[Time: 10:15]

And, John, thank you for all that you have done for our country as well.

But I would urge all of us, not you and me, but all of us, together, to try to increase the dialogue and understanding, lower the confrontation and increase the cooperation that we so desperately need when challenged so heavily, I think, abroad.

I noticed the Speaker, my Speaker, has his arm around a wonderful staffer as well, Billy Pitts, who left the Congress, went out and made vast sums of money in the private sector, I hope, and is now back with us trying to straighten out David Dreier. A very difficult job, but Billy is so talented, he may be able to do that.

So welcome to all of you. We are glad you are here, but much more importantly, we are glad that you continue to be active, involved, and leaders in our country. Thank you very much. Good to see you.

Oh, I might just say, and I was going to start with this, that, tragically, sadly, and, Larry, I came in as you were reading the list of Members who have passed away, but two of the Members who were my predecessors in the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland passed away this past year.

Dick Lankford, I know some of you knew Dick, he was here for 10 years, served on the Committee on Armed Services. I was a sophomore at the University of Maryland. I think he was the first Member of Congress that I really met. Dante Fascell was the first one I knew about when I was going to high school in Florida.

And then Carlton Sickles. You mentioned Carlton Sickles, who called up Danny Brewster, for whom I was working in 1962 and 1963 and 1964, when I was graduating from law school, and they asked me to run for the State senate. I turned them down twice. Tom, you may remember this. I turned them down twice because I did not think I could win the State senate seat. And Carlton Sickles, who was then the Congressman-at-large over here and was running for Governor, called up Brewster and said, no, urge him to run, he can win. I will help him. We will give him a lot of money, et cetera, et cetera.

You have all been there and done that. I did run. He did give me a lot of support; no money, but a lot of support, and I was successful. But he passed away, and I had the honor of speaking at his memorial service just a few weeks ago.

So we have been diminished by their losses, but we are advantaged by your continuing participation. God bless you. Thank you very much.

END