Date: 2007-02-06
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker. I would like to echo the words of those who have spoken the words about the job that Jay Eagen and Karen Haas have done. They have served this body well. They have done us honor by their service. I am sure they will continue with honorable service in the future. When I returned to the House of Representatives after being away for 16 years. I observed that there were some things that were better about this House and some things that were worse about this House. Li 1415 I noted that there was always a partisanship in this House. but there appeared to be a harder edge to that partisanship. And one of the things that struck me was that we needed to be around here more often. That is why I. frankly. am one of those on this side of the aisle that believes that attempting to go to a 5day workweek not only is good in terms of the product that we will put out eventually. when we actually do go to 5day workweeks. but the interchange and the interplay and the opportunity for Members to deal with one another and get to know one another I think may very well take the hard edge off the partisanship that is always going to be a part of the House when you have strong feelings argued by Members on both sides. At the same time. I must say it is a disappointment. as a Member of the House Administration Committee. to see the manner in which the decision was made to choose a Chief Administrative Officer. When I served here before. there is no doubt that the administration of this place was in a mess. You could ask questions and get no answers. You could attempt to try and decipher how this place was organized. and you could not find out. You would ask questions. and you would get a wink and a nod and a sense of dont ask. dont tell. You would try and find. for legitimate reasons. information. and you would find that either that was not made available to you or that it could not be made available to you. And since that time. primarily I believe because of the institution of the position of Chief Administrative Officer and the organization that flow from that. it has changed. So I was trying to look back at the experience of the House to see how this was made and how the decision was made to fill that position. When I discovered that both the Republican and the Democratic sides had come together stressing bipartisanship. making a national search. attempting to try and find the best possible person for the job but. above that. requiring unanimous support from both sides of the aisle. it seemed to me that that was an encouraging step towards righting a wrong that existed in this House. And that is why. even though I do not know Mr. Beard. and I will take on its face the recommendations that have been made on the other side about Mr. Beard. it is a missed opportunity we had in this House to manifest an effort in one of the legitimate areas where bipartisanship should reign. that is. in filling the position of someone who is to be the chief administrator of this body. It is a sorely missed opportunity. I know that we should not be complaining about process. and people are tired about complaining about process. and I am tired about hearing the complaints about process. But this was a unique opportunity for us to work together. not as Democrats or Republicans but Members of the House of Representatives who have respect for this institution. who understand the necessity of having this place run at that level on a businesslike basis so that every Member can feel that the person who filled that job was chosen .by the entire membership and that no one has to feel that they have allegiance only to one side. It is very difficult in this place. because of the way it is organized. for us to find that sort of sweet spot. if you will. in the activities in which we are involved. This was one of those chances. and I am very sorry that we rejected the experience and the precedent of the recent past in making this selection. I join the gentleman from Maryland and. others in hoping that Mr. Beard will do an excellent job. It is in the interests of all of us that he does an excellent job. My only point is this was a tremendous opportunity for us to remove partisanship. to work together. as the gentleman suggested a number of years ago when the selection of Mr. Eagen was made. My only hope is that this does not suggest how things will be done in the future when there is abundant reason for us to work together as Members of the House rather than as Democrats and Republicans. Mr. Speaker. with that. I congratulate Mr. Beard on his selection. I hope he will do the best for us. as Mr. Eagen has done. I only lament the fact that we had an .opportunity that we missed.