S6028 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 3, 1995

Federal deficit by changing the U.S.

Constitution.

How do you do it? By writing a budget and bringing it to the floor of the

Senate. What is the requirement there?

Well, the requirement is on April 1, a

budget is required by law to be brought

to the floor of the Senate. On April 15,

a conference report is to be passed on

the budget.

Now, the question that many of us

asks is: Where is the urgency today?

Where is the budget? Is there a budget?

Well, we expect there is a budget

somewhere. We cannot seem to see the

budget. We hope that those who

claimed the reduction of the deficit

was so urgent—and it is—just a month

or two ago would now understand that

urgency and meet their obligation to

bring a budget to the floor of the Senate and begin to really cut Federal

spending and really reduce the Federal

budget deficit.

I said then and I will say again today

that there is a difference between posing and lifting. There has been a lot of

posing in this Chamber in the last 3 or

4 months, but now it is time for some

lifting. I think the American public

and the Senate would be well served if

those who talked so much about changing the Constitution to eliminate the

Federal budget deficit would now be interested and willing to bring a budget

resolution to the floor of the Senate as

required by law and really start to dig

in and reduce the Federal budget deficit.

Why has that not yet occurred? Because they have ridden into a box canyon they call a middle-class tax cut

which really gives most of the benefits

to the wealthy in this country, and at

the same time they really want to go

ahead and cut about $300 billion out of

Medicare and Medicaid. They have ridden into a box canyon and discovered

they have dismounted, running for the

bushes, and now they cannot find any

plans. They do not seem to have any

notion at all about what to do about

Medicare and Medicaid. They do not

have a budget. They cannot bring it to

the floor.

We do know this: They do have a taxcut plan. It provides $11,200 a year in

tax cuts to families with over $200,000

in income and it provides $120 a year to

families with under $30,000 in income,

and they call it middle class. Middle

class on Rodeo Drive, I guess, but not

middle class anywhere else in this

country.

Most of us in this Chamber who want

to deal with the deficit honestly want

a budget and we want a budget that is

real and does honest things. We want

to cut Federal spending where we are

spending too much. We want some additional revenues, to close some loopholes, and we want to reduce the Federal budget deficit. And we would like

the majority party, while they are at

it, while they bring the budget resolution to the floor, to jettison this tax

cut and stop calling a tax cut for the

wealthy a middle-class tax cut. It does

not add up.

I yield the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator’s time has expired.

The Senator from Illinois is recognized.

Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. I thank the

Chair.

(The remarks of Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN

pertaining to the introduction of S. 746

are located in today’s RECORD under

‘‘Statements on Introduced Bills and

Joint Resolutions.’’)

Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. PresiTHE NEAS YEARS

fdent, tonight the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, one of the

country’s leading civil rights organizations, will take time to honor its executive director, Ralph Neas, as he leaves

his position after a 14-year tenure. I

would like to take a few moments to

pay a brief tribute to this extraordinary individual, as he embarks on a

new career after devoting the past 20-

plus years to public service.

There is an old African proverb which

says ‘‘God made the world round so we

could not see too far down the road.’’ I

think it is fitting to mention that

proverb here, as I first met Ralph Neas

years ago, when we were both students

at the University of Chicago Law

School. I do not think that either of us

could have imagined then that, some 20

years later, I would be a U.S. Senator

saluting my former classmate as one of

our Nation’s foremost civil rights leaders. But I always knew that Ralph Neas

would make a real difference, and I

take great pride in his accomplishments, and I feel very lucky to be able

to call him my friend.

Mr. President, when Ralph Neas finished law school, the world was his oyster. As one of the top graduates of the

Chicago Law School, he could have

been hired by any of the major law

firms, and he could have made a great

deal of money in the process. Instead,

he chose to devote his life to public

service. He joined the Congressional

Research Service as a legislative attorney on civil rights, but was soon hired

to a legislative assistant to Republican

Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, eventually becoming the Senator’s chief legislative adviser. He

stayed with Senator Brooke until his

defeat in 1978, at which time he accepted a job as chief legislative assistant to

Senator Durenberger of Minnesota. It

was shortly after accepting the job

with Senator Durenberger that Ralph

was stricken with Guillian-Barre syndrome. Within weeks of contracting

the illness in February 1979, he had

been placed on a respirator and was

paralyzed from the neck down. For

nearly 100 days, he lay in the hospital,

kept alive by machines, unable to even

speak. At one point, he was administered the last rites. When he recovered,

he took an 8-month sabbatical, spending time touring Europe, drafting a

book about his Guillian-Barre experience, and helping to establish the

Guillian-Barre Syndrome Foundation,

now entitled the GBS Foundation

International, which now has 15,000

members and 130 chapters throughout

the world.

In the spring of 1981, Ralph was offered the job as executive director of

the leadership conference. It was not

the ideal time to take a job as head of

a civil rights organization. The Republicans had just captured the presidency

and control of the Senate, and many of

Ralph’s friends questioned why he

would want to take such a demanding

job after the experience he had endured. But as he stated later when

asked about his decision:

I certainly had more than a few moments

[while in the hospital] to think about my

life. Here I just came through an experience

where I had been a disabled individual, and

here [I was offered] a job that dealt with

equal opportunity for disabled people, and

victims of discrimination. Whatever happened in 1979 was not only important but

there were some reasons for it happening. I

learned a lot of lessons and I took the job.

Given the fact that the majority of

Ralph Neas’ tenure at the leadership

conference was spent under Republican

Presidents and Republican Senates, it

might be understandable if little was

achieved. But the Neas years were actually among the most productive that

the leadership conference has ever had,

a fact that is a tribute to his leadership. Ralph Neas was able to reach out

to individuals on both sides of the

aisle, and truly make civil rights a bipartisan issue.

But you do not have to take my word

for it, Mr. President. All you have to

do is consider just a few of the civil

rights victories that have been

achieved during the Neas years. First

and foremost, of course, is passage of

the Civil Rights Act of 1991, a bill that

overturned a series of Supreme Court

decisions that made it harder for victims of discrimination to have their

day in court. This legislation codified

the ‘‘disparate impact’’ standard, allowing plaintiffs to present statistical

evidence of the composition of a workplace in order to help prove their discrimination claims, and for the first

time provided monetary damages to

women, persons with disabilities, and

certain religious minorities who were

the victim of intentional job discrimination.

In addition, consider the passage of

the Americans With Disabilities Act,

one of the most significant and dramatic improvements in civil rights law

in two decades. This bill extended civil

rights protection in employment,

transportation, communications, and

public accommodations, and greatly

improved the quality of life for 49 million Americans with disabilities. During the Neas years, the leadership conference played a critical role in defeating repeated attempts to weaken or repeal Executive Order 11246, the Federal

Executive order on affirmative action.

I could go on, Mr. President, for there
May 3, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6029

* On May 3rd, at its Annual Dinner to be held at

the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, the Leadership

Conference will be celebrating its 45th Anniversary

and presenting its Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights

Award to Ralph G. Neas.

is no shortage of achievements—the

Voting Rights Extension Act of 1982,

the Fair Housing Amendments Act of

1988, the Japanese-American redress

bill of 1988, the Civil Rights Restoration Act, et cetera, but I think these

few examples are sufficient to illustrate what an extraordinary contribution that Ralph Neas has made to the

civil rights of our Nation.

Tonight, countless individuals from

the civil rights community, from the

administration, and from Congress will

gather to pay tribute to the remarkable leadership that Ralph Neas has

provided the civil rights community,

the U.S. Congress, and even the Nation

during the last 14 years. This is not,

however, a retirement. Ralph will continue his work in other ways, joining

the Washington law firm of Fox, Bennett & Turner as counsel. While with

the firm, he will establish an affiliate,

the Neas group, that will provide strategic counseling to business and nonprofit institutions. In addition, Ralph

will serve as a visiting professor at

Georgetown University Law Center,

teaching a course on the legislative

process. He will continue his work on

the boards of the Guillian-Barre Syndrome Foundation International, the

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and the Children’s Charities Foundation. I have no doubt that

he will continue to provide those of us

in the U.S. Senate with his invaluable

advice and counsel, a fact for which I

am grateful.

Mr. President, when Ralph Neas was

hospitalized with Guillian-Barre so

many years ago, a nun at the hospital

gave him a needlepoint sampler which

read ‘‘Nothing is so Full of Victory as

Patience.’’ I believe the real hallmark

of his work has been the consistency

and unwavering vigilance—the patience—he has brought to his efforts to

assure the enforcement of laws guaranteeing equality of opportunity to all

Americans. It is no exaggeration to say

that millions of men and women of all

races—who may never know you Ralph

Neas by name—have benefited directly

from his dedication and personal sacrifice in behalf of civil and human

rights. He has made a positive, constructive difference for our Nation. I

am pleased to have an opportunity on

the floor here today, and at the dinner

this evening, to celebrate his contributions. I know that I speak for many

others in this body when I extend to

him my thanks, and my best wishes for

his new career.

I ask unanimous consent that a

statement by Dr. Dorothy I. Height,

the chairperson of the leadership conference, entitled ‘‘The Neas Years at

the Leadership Conference on Civil

Rights,’’ be placed in the RECORD following my remarks.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the

RECORD, as follows:

THE NEAS YEARS

(By Dr. Dorothy I. Height)

Last summer, Ralph G. Neas announced

that he would be leaving as Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil

Rights (LCCR) * in the Spring of 1995. Much

too soon that time has come. As Ralph completes his fourteen-year tenure at the helm

of the Nation’s oldest, largest, and most

broadly-based coalition, it is an appropriate

moment to reflect upon his extraordinary

contributions to the cause of equal opportunity for all Americans and some of the reasons why he has earned his reputation as an

effective leader, strategist, advocate, and coalition builder.

THE BIPARTISAN LEGISLATIVE SUCCESSES

Ralph Neas took over as Executive Director of the Leadership Conference, the legislative arm of the civil rights movement, on

March 31, 1981, after eight years as a chief

legislative assistant to Republican Senators

Edward W. Brooke and Dave Durenberger.

Ronald Reagan had just been sworn in as

president. Senators Strom Thurmond and

Orrin Hatch had just replaced Senators Edward Kennedy and Birch Bayh as chairs of

the Senate Judiciary Committee and the

Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution,

respectively. The previous year, Senator

Hatch had successfully filibustered to death

the Leadership Conference’s top legislative

priority, the Fair Housing Act of 1980. Many

feared that a similar fate awaited the Conference’s top priority in the 97th Congress,

the legislation to extend the Voting Rights

Act of 1965, which was to be introduced in

early April of 1981.

No small wonder then that many friends of

Ralph, who just two years earlier had been

totally paralyzed, on a respirator, and near

death in a Minneapolis hospital room, told

him that this was not their idea of a brilliant career move. But Ralph believed that

his professional training in the Senate,

where he had been the senior staffer on civil

rights issues, and his bout with GuillainBarre ́ Syndrome, which had profoundly influenced his life, had prepared him for such a

professional challenge.

The situation in the Spring of 1981 demanded bipartisanship, creativity, pragmatism, and leadership. Ralph and his LCCR

colleagues showed an abundance of these

qualities during the arduous eighteen month

campaign to enact the 1982 Voting Rights

Act Extension. Many people argued that the

time for federal control over local voting

processes had ended. But LCCR advocates

demonstrated a continuing need and their efforts helped pass the extension by votes of

389 to 24 in the House of Representatives and

85 to 8 in the Senate, leaving President

Reagan with no choice but to sign the historic measure into law. That law not only

extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years,

but also extended the Act’s bilingual assistance provisions and overturned a 1980 Supreme Court decision by reinstating the results standard in the Voting Rights Act.

The remarkable victory against great odds

set the tone for the next fourteen years for

LCCR. Indeed, the 1982 Voting Rights Act

Extension campaign embodied several of

Ralph’s principal legislative theorems. Theorem number one is to always put together

the strongest possible bipartisan bill that

can be enacted into law. During the twelve

years of the Reagan-Bush presidencies, that

usually meant having at least two-thirds

majorities in both Houses. Theorem number

two is that any successful national legislative campaign must effectively integrate

grassroots, Washington lobbying, and media

strategies. If one component is absent, the

legislative campaign is likely to fail. And

third, it is essential that the coalition always remains cohesive and united, never allowing adversaries to successfully use the

tactics of divide and conquer. If these basic

principles are understood, then one can comprehend the success of the 1982 Voting Rights

Act Extension and the legislative victories

that followed.

And there were many other LCCR legislative successes. No one could have predicted

that more than two dozen LCCR legislative

priorities would be enacted into law during

Ralph’s years at LCCR. In addition to the

1982 Voting Rights Act Extension, Ralph coordinated many of these legislative achievements for the Leadership Conference, including the:

Civil Rights Act of 1991—Overturned eight

Supreme Court decisions which had made it

much more difficult for victims of discrimination to get into court and to prove discrimination (the first time Congress has ever

overturned more than one Supreme Court decision at one time). It also codified the ‘‘disparate impact’’ standard. And it provided for

the first time monetary damages for women,

persons with disabilities, and certain religious minorities who are victims of intentional job discrimination.

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)—

Perhaps the most significant and dramatic

improvement in civil rights law in two decades. Provided civil rights protections in employment, transportation, communications,

and public accommodations for the 49 million Americans with disabilities.

Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988—

Provided for the first time an effective enforcement mechanism. Also prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities

and discrimination against families with

children.

Japanese-American Redress Bill (1988)—

Apologized to Japanese-Americans interned

in prison camps in the United States during

World War II and authorized $20,000 to each

of those who are alive.

Civil Rights Restoration Act—Congress

overrode a presidential veto and overturned

the 1984 Supreme Court Grove City decision.

The Civil Rights Restoration Act restored

the broad coverage of the four major civil

rights laws that prohibit the federal funding

of discrimination against minorities, women,

persons with disabilities, and older Americans.

The final passage votes on all these laws

averaged 85% of both the House and the Senate. In recognition of that extraordinary bipartisan success, Senator Edward Kennedy

has called Ralph ‘‘the 101st Senator on Civil

Rights.’’

Ralph also managed the successful campaigns to preserve the Executive Order on

Affirmative Action in 1985–1986 and to defeat

the Supreme Court nomination of Robert

Bork. The Bork campaign was perhaps the

most forceful statement of the determination of the coalition that the civil rights

gains of three decades would not be rolled

back.

Other LCCR legislative priorities enacted

into law over the past fourteen years include

the Family & Medical Leave Act, the Motor

Voter Bill, the South African Sanctions Legislation, the Religious Freedom Restoration

Act, the Voting Rights Language Assistance

Act of 1982, the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act of 1994 (including Chapter One

reform), the Martin Luther King Holiday

Act, three disability measures which overturned Supreme Court decisions, the Age
S6030 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 3, 1995

Discrimination in Employment Claims Assistance Act, the Gender Equity in Education Act, the Voting Accessibility for Disabled and Senior Citizens Act, the 1989 Minimum Wage Increase, the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, and key provisions of the Economic

Equity Act.

Without question, the past decade and a

half has been, legislatively, a bipartisan reaffirmation of civil rights laws and a bipartisan repudiation of the right-wing legal philosophy. Indeed, the right wing did not enact

one major item on its regressive civil rights

agenda during that time. The LCCR victories

are even more remarkable when one considers that during this time two branches of

government were hostile to civil rights.

While the civil rights coalition and its congressional allies achieved considerable success, there was a serious downside to the

Reagan-Bush years. We had to refight the

civil rights battles that had been won during

the 1960’s and the 1970’s. While these battles

were won once again, Congress, the civil

rights community, and the Nation had to devote an inordinate amount of time, energy

and resources in waging these rearguard actions. Consequently, while the legal achievements of the past 30 years were preserved

and in a number of instances, strengthened,

the Nation by and large was unable to address the unfinished agenda of the civil

rights movement—the quest for social and

economic justice.

For years, Ralph and his LCCR colleagues

have been advocating that economic justice

must be the civil rights coalition’s top priority. Our legislative efforts should focus primarily on such issues as health care; affordable housing; economic security, especially

for women and children; child care; Head

Start and other early educational opportunities; employment opportunity, including job

creation and job training; and economic

empowerment issues. Regrettably, just as

this economic opportunity agenda seemed to

be moving to the front of the legislative line,

once again we may have to devote our energies to resisting efforts to dismantle the legislative achievements of the past several

decades.

While the battles will be hard fought, I remain confident that LCCR and its allies will

once again defeat the efforts of the right

wing, whether the issue be affirmative action

or the economic security net for millions of

Americans. Indeed, the same type of bipartisanship, creativity, and pragmatism that

characterized our efforts in the 1980’s and

early 1990’s will lead us to victory in the last

half of the 1990’s.

THE EXPLOSIVE INSTITUTIONAL GROWTH OF THE

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

While the legislative successes are critically important, it is also important to point

out the institutional successes as well. The

fourteen years Ralph has spent managing

LCCR have been characterized by explosive

growth. The budget of the Leadership Conference has grown seven-fold since 1981. And

the Leadership Conference, always the Nation’s largest coalition, has added more than

50 new national organizations, during this

time. Some of the new members are the

American Association of Retired Persons

(AARP), the Association of Junior Leagues,

the Disability Rights Education and Defense

Fund, the American Association of University Women, the Mexican American Legal

Defense and Education Fund, the Service

Employees International Union, the Congress of National Black Churches, the American Nurses Association, the Puerto Rican

Legal Defense and Education Fund, Families

USA, the National PTA, People For The

American Way, the United Brotherhood of

Carpenters and Joiners of America, the

Human Rights Campaign Fund, Citizen Action, and the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium. There are now 180

national organizations, with memberships

totaling more than 50 million Americans,

who belong to the Leadership Conference on

Civil Rights.

Such institutional growth has meant also

the expansion of LCCR priorities. In addition

to minority, gender, religious, and age issues, the Leadership Conference has forged a

consensus on disability and gay and lesbian

civil rights issues. The exceptional growth of

the coalition, while generating new challenges, has made the Leadership Conference

stronger and even more effective.

Throughout the years, Ralph has masterfully maintained unity among the diverse

elements of the LCCR coalition. And through

his work in LCCR, on Capitol Hill, with the

Executive Branch, and with the business

community, Ralph has earned respect for his

ability to build bridges between disparate

communities of interest and across the spectrum of political ideologies.

Ralph has also managed the Leadership

Conference Education Fund (LCEF), an independent organization that supports educational activities relevant to civil rights.

Along with Karen McGill Arrington, LCEF’s

Deputy Director, he has supervised projects

such as an award winning public service advertising campaign promoting tolerance and

diversity; a children’s anti-discrimination

campaign; and the publication of books and

reports on emerging civil rights issues.

RALPH’S NEW CAREER

To say the least, things have not slowed

down during Ralph’s final months as LCCR’s

Executive Director. He was a key strategist

in the successful effort to defeat the Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment.

Presently, he is coordinating the campaign

to save affirmative action. In addition,

Ralph is lecturing one day per week on the

legislative process at the University of Chicago Law School.

In May, Ralph will embark on a new phase

of his professional life. He will join the

Washington law firm of Fox, Bennett, and

Turner, where he will be Of Counsel. At the

law firm, he will set up an affiliate, The Neas

Group, which will provide strategic counseling to business and non-profit institutions.

In addition, Ralph will be a Visiting Professor on a part-time basis at the Georgetown

University Law Center where he will teach

courses on the legislative process.

Among the boards on which he will continue to serve are the Guillain-Barre ́ Syndrome Foundation International, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund,

and the Children’s Charities Foundation.

On behalf of everyone in the Leadership

Conference, I want to express our deepest

gratitude to Ralph and wish him well in all

his new endeavors. We will miss the personal

qualities that made Ralph so effective in his

job—his cheerfulness and optimism even

when facing great challenges, his patience in

working with people to resolve differences

within the coalition, and the respect he accorded to everyone’s point of view. But we

know that there will be many opportunities

to work with him as we confront the challenges ahead of us. There is no question in

my mind that Ralph will continue to be one

of the drum majors for justice.

TRIBUTE TO FORMER SENATOR

JOHN C. STENNIS

fMr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I would

like to add my voice to those which

have already lamented the passing of

our dear former colleague from Mississippi, John Stennis. About 25 of us

went down to Mississippi last week to

his funeral to say goodbye to one of the

true giants in the history of this institution.

I recall about 10 years ago, some Senators, including myself, went to Senator Stennis’ hometown of De Kalb,

MS, where the people of De Kalb and

surrounding areas had gathered to help

celebrate his birthday. There was a

great outpouring of love and genuine

affection from friends and neighbors

who had known him, his father, and

others before him. No one really knows

an individual in the same way that the

people of his hometown do, and you

could see that as they came together

that day. There was an authentic feeling of closeness and friendship.

De Kalb is a small community, probably smaller than the one I come from.

The people there—the salt of the

earth—knew their favorite son, John

Stennis, for his character and integrity. The great outpouring of affection

which was on display that day was the

best evidence anyone ever needed of his

graciousness, honesty, decency, and

dedication to principle. All of us there

could see that he stood very tall with

those who knew him best.

John Stennis and I had much in common, both of us from southern families

that go back for many generations. I

used to enjoy the stories he would tell

about his early years and how his father would raise cotton, transport it

over to Alabama, and ship it down the

river to Mobile. We were both judges at

one time, which gave us a unique perspective on government, individuals,

and human nature in general.

John Cornelius Stennis was born on

August 3, 1901, in Kemper County, in

the red clay hills of eastern Mississippi. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa

from what is now Mississippi State

University in 1923 and 4 years later, received his law degree from the University of Virginia. Just 1 year later, he

was elected to the Mississippi Legislature. He later went on to serve as a district prosecuting attorney and circuit

judge.

After 10 years on the bench, he ran in

1947 for the Senate seat held by the

flamboyant Senator Theodore G. Bilbo

and was elected over five opponents in

November. His campaign theme was ‘‘I

want to plow a straight furrow right

down to the end of my row,’’ and that

philosophy guided the rest of his career

in public service.

Until his last campaign, in 1982, he

was never seriously challenged for reelection. Even then, facing future Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, then only 34, he

won by a 2-to-1 margin.

In his early days in the Senate, John

would work 16 hours a day, staying in

the Senate until it adjourned and then

studying in the Library of Congress. He

was meticulous in his work, someone

who would go over something again

and again until he finally mastered its

complexities. He was a commanding