H 4446 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE May 2, 1995

THE NATIONAL TRAGEDY IN

OKLAHOMA CITY

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from

California [Ms. PELOSI] is recognized

for 2 minutes.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to

join some of my colleagues this morning who have extended the sympathies

of their constituents to our colleagues

from Oklahoma, to their constituents

and, most importantly, to the families

of those who lost their lives in the Federal building there. We have a natural

political governmental connection to

those folks because they carry out the

work of public policy whether it is

helping a child get a Social Security

number at birth or whether it is the

senior citizen applying for Social Security benefits at the end of life, housing

in between and the rest, and they indeed were great public servants and

will be sorely missed.

At this time of national tragedy, Mr.

Speaker, of course we must focus on

the personal heartbreak, and I hope it

is some source of consolation to the

people of Oklahoma City that the

world grieves with them, that more

than anything in life we wish that

would never have happened, that the

innocent victims, that would be all

people involved there, would not have

had to pay the price that they are paying.

For as long as I can remember, Mr.

Speaker, the word ‘‘Oklahoma’’ was

fraught with a spirit of the greatest optimism whether it was on the musical

stage or whether it was on the football

field, and that spirit once again is very

conspicuous in the activities in Oklahoma City as people unselfishly and

tirelessly fight the battle of time to

try to save lives and try to save dignity. I hope again, as this source of

some consolation to those who lost

their family members in Oklahoma

City, that this should engender a spirit

of national reconciliation. Many colleagues have talked about the tone of

remarks and what was intended and

what was not. Let us remove all doubt

that in our public debate and in our

rhetoric that we will take the high

road, that we will not use words that

hurt or can endanger, and that we

know a better way, and that when we

proceed to have our differences discussed, we will have absolutely no

doubt in our mind that none of our

words could have contributed to an act

of violence.

Once again I want to extend the condolences of the people of San Francisco. We have suffered our share of

natural disasters. It is impossible to

fathom a criminal act that would take

life, and we send our deepest, deepest

sympathy.

THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF

OKLAHOMA CITY

fThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from

Colorado [Mrs. SCHROEDER] is recognized during morning business for 5

minutes.

Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I

come to the well to join the gentlewoman from San Francisco in saying

that the people I represent in Denver,

CO, also send their very, very strongest

sympathy and condolences to the tremendous tragedy that has been inflicted upon the people in Oklahoma

City. As my colleagues know, I have

many Federal employees in Denver,

CO, and I think they have felt really

under the gun literally of late. People

have been so free with bashing bureaucrats 24 hours a day, like they were

faceless, they were nameless, they are

familyless, and maybe this will kind of

calm us all down, and bring us to our

senses, and point out that these are

human beings, that they are trying

very, very hard to do something that

this country has done better than almost any other country on the planet,

and that is provide very distinguished,

high quality service through the Federal Government.

Now that is not a politically popular

thing to say. That is not an applause

line on today’s talk show circuit. But

let us talk a bit about the Federal Government and its long distinguished history.

When I was at Harvard Law School, if

someone said, ‘‘You could work for the

U.S. Justice Department,’’ they would

get goose bumps because the U.S. Justice Department was out on the front

lines making sure that there were not

huge trusts that prevented competition. It kept some competition alive so

the consumers got a good deal and that

some big fish did not eat all the little

fish, and we were proud of that. They

were also out there making sure this

country kept its promise, that when we

said America believed in liberty and

justice for all, it was out there making

sure that people were not putting up

racial barriers, or religious barriers, or

gender barriers, or any other kind of

barriers, that, if one is an American

citizen, they have a right to have their

dream become reality, that if they had

the talent and the will to do something, this Justice Department made

sure that they got that chance. It made

sure that people were not putting barriers in their way to vote. It made sure

that all sorts of environmental things

were beginning to happen for the first

time, that we started trying to take

care of this planet.

I say to my colleagues, ‘‘Of late,

when you go to law schools and say you

can work for the Federal Government,

people say, ‘No, no, I don’t want to do

that.’ Now what has happened in these

last few years that our young people

are hesitant to sign up for Federal

service when it has had such a long distinguished period?’’

I think that is something we, as

Americans, have to ponder because

Federal service will never be better

than the people that run it, and we

have had a history of having the most

nonpolitical Federal service in the

world, that we have believed these people should take very rigorous exams,

and that is what they do, and that

these be competitive exams, and that

they compete for these jobs and, their

loyalty is to you, the taxpayer, not me,

a Congresswoman, or not the President

of the United States, or not the Supreme Court. Their loyalty is to the

citizens of America to try and make

this work.

Now things are never perfect. They

never always work as well as we all

hope they are, but they are continually

trying to work and make it better, and

I would put our public service up

against any other public service of any

other national government when we

look at the high quality, the lack of

scandal. I mean tell me the last time

we saw a bribe or something like that

occur where we really brought disgrace

to the Federal service? It has not been

the Federal servants that have been

doing it, it has not been the civil servants that have been doing it. They

have been exemplary in almost all

cases. So to see this incredible reign of

terror rain down on their head because

they were such easy targets really

seems very unfair.

So, as our hearts go out to the people

who have suffered this great tragedy,

let us hope that we learn from this,

that we learn from this that we lower

our voices, that we once again take

pride in the fact that we have a phenomenal Park Service because of the

Federal Government, that we have a

strong Immigration Service because of

the Federal Government, that we have

a Social Security System that works

very well because of the Federal Government, that we have many, many

things we, as Americans are proud of.

We have a justice system because we

say we are a government of laws and

not of men, that people are not to take

their law in their own hand.

So let us be a little more thoughtful,

and let us also continue to extend sympathy for people that have lost things

that can never be replaced.

fRECESS

The SPEAKER pro tempo. Pursuant

to clause 12 of rule I, the Chair declares

the House in recess until 11 a.m.

Accordingly (at 10 o’clock and 5 minutes a.m.), the House stood in recess

until 11 a.m.

fb 1100

After recess having expired, the

House was called to order by the

Speaker pro tempo [Mr. C

fOMBEST].

PRAYER

The Reverend Dr. Clyde H. Miller,

Jr., conference minister, retired, United Church of Christ, Denver, CO, offered the following prayer: