Date: 1991-05-02
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. when I first came to this Congress and went on the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. I remember there sitting at the top dais was Mo UDALL. TOM FOLEY. and Phil Burton and a lot of other outstanding Members of this House. Mo UDALL is a special American. You go into the committee room of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. and you will see a picture of Mo before he became ill. and you see this vigorous. great American. He epitomizes what we would like to think our country stands for. He stood for it. That is the type of man he is. Mo is a man of vision. persistence. patience. compassion and. of course. as you have heard so many times here today. a great American with warm humor. Few who achieve the influence that he did during 30 years of extraordinary service to this country retain such warmth. such a sense of humor and so much humility. He was not only loved and beloved. but he was an astute leader. You would always approach Mo UDALL to ask for help. to ask for his advise. and so forth. This man was responsible for some of the great legislation enacted during the 1970s and 1980s. But he had a great sense of humor. So perhaps you will forgive me if I remind the House that he also played a role in setting up the postal system as we know it today. So Mo was also human. everything was not perfect. We all kidded him about that many times. But America would not be America as we know it today without Mo UDALL. He brought into it and preserved so much of this country. the Alaska landsbill that you have heard so much about today. and other legislation. When Mo UDALL ran for President back in 1976. his vision. his candor. his honesty won him the admiration of many who appreciated his straightforward. downtoEarth approach to the issues. Yet. even in the pitched battles for the State primaries. he never lost sight that it was the people with whom and for whom he was working. During my years as a member of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Mo was a teacher. a scholar. a friend who was never too busy. and as the gentleman from Florida just said. he was always the stateman to all of us in this House. Mr. Speaker. many of the achievements we have made in the offshore areas could not have been accomplished without the guidance. the support and the leadership of Mo UDALL. It is indeed fitting that the easternmost and westernmost points of the United States. Guam and the Virgin Islandsmy homeare named after the Udall brothers. Stewart and Mo. These points look out to the rest of the world. named after a gentleman who indeed in many ways seemed to symbolize much that is America. its genius. its temperance. its leadership and the hardearned. welldeserved respect of their fellow Americans. Mr. Speaker. I believe that Mo UDALL stands as a giant in this Nations history. Mo UDALL is on a par with the greatest of the gentlemen who have achieved fame in these Halls. Mr. Speaker. we will miss him. we will miss his wisdom. we will miss his humor and we will miss his comradeship and remember him always. Mr. Speaker. I salute Mo UDALL upon the occasion of his retirement. No man deserves it more. I wish him swift recovery. I would also like to add that in these difficult times he has been fortunate to have a loyal and a loving and wonderful human being by his side. his wife. Norma. to help him through these difficult days.