REMEMBERING BILL EMERSON: CONGRESSMEN PAY TRIBUTE TO BILL EMERSON

The following comments were made on the floor of the U.S. House Thursday in honor of the year anniversary of Rep. Bill Emerson's death.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Virginia

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor our former colleague, the gentleman from Missouri, Bill Emerson, who passed away a year ago after a long and valiant battle.

Bill was known for his bipartisanship, his ability to bring people together to work on hunger. Bill and I and the gentleman from Ohio, Tony Hall, and a few others were in a small covenant group that met every Tuesday in the Capitol chapel to talk with each other, to pray with each other, and to support each other.

I was privileged to know Bill. He was a person of character, a person of courage, a person of integrity. Bill loved history more than anyone else that I knew, and Bill loved to talk about Lincoln; Bill loved to talk about Winston Churchill.

I can see where Bill is; in heaven where Lincoln and Churchill and Bill are talking together, and Lincoln is talking about how it was in the 1850's and 1860's, Churchill is talking about how it was in World War I and World War II, and Bill Emerson is talking about how it really was in the 1970's the 1980's and the 1990's.

Bill made every effort to live by the principles of Jesus, and he set an example for this entire Congress to live by. Every time I see the gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Jo Ann Emerson, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Kanjorski, and the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Skelton, who he rode with, and many others, I think of Bill.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Missouri

Mr. Speaker, it is one year ago that we lost our friend, our colleague, my fellow Missourian, Bill Emerson. In his stead and in his shoes today is that charming and wonderful gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Jo Ann Emerson, who represents the Eighth District of the State of Missouri.

The grief has passed, the loss of pain has passed, and I still find myself, Mr. Speaker, because I rode with him so very often to and from this work, at the end of the day standing toward the back looking around for my friend Bill to hitch a ride out to McLean. But we still have a lot of wonderful memories. His memories live on.

He was truly an outstanding legislator. He understood bipartisanship. He understood what it was to represent wonderful people back home. He understood the legislative process. But most of all I found him, as so many, many did, as a friend, a true friend.

What he leaves today is more for those who follow us in this Chamber and who lead and will lead America in the days and years ahead; to the pages, which he once was, to the young people who he spent so much time with in his office and back home in the Eighth District of Missouri, for he was truly a role model.

I hope and pray that his memory will live in those young folks who will stand in his shoes, in our shoes in the years ahead. We miss him, but we revere his memory. We always shall.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pennsyvlania

Mr. Speaker, Bill Emerson was a colleague to all the Members that are here on the floor. To me, he was my oldest and dearest personal friend.

As all my colleagues have learned, as we go through life, particularly in politics, friends and associates come and go, but our real friends are from our childhood. Bill and I were fortunate enough to meet at the tender age of 15, and I do not think there was ever a year that went by in our lives that we did not have an opportunity to get together, visit with each other or talk with each other. I went through many of his trying times and many of his joys in his lifetime.

Bill Emerson represented something that I want to speak to, because I think it is germane. Maybe we should think about forming the Emerson Society. Because Bill , whenever I look in the back of the Chamber, I see a little smoke and I know that you are still standing at the rail.

He was the type of guy, although he was a Republican and I a Democrat, with whom I could argue and disagree on philosophy and on ideology. But on humanity we agreed.

He was a man that understood the traditions of this great body and of opportunity. He and I served here as young pages and then came back to this great House as Members.

He suffered great pain as he saw the stress of conflict that grew in the 1980's in this House. And toward the end of his life, I think that was the most disappointing part that Bill experienced -- that Members could lose civility, comity, and respect for each other above and beyond the disagreement that they had; that it had started to go to personalities.

If Bill were here today, he would say, wait a minute, life is very short; we are here in a very honored and sacred House that has great traditions. From a small Nation in its formation in 1789 until 1995, we have become the model, the ideal of the world, and the hope for humanity. He would ask why can we not walk across the aisle and get to know each other as human beings, identify what we have in common, and find that we have much more in common than we have in disagreement. He would also say that when we disagree, they should be honorable disagreements. Because Bill reflected that most of all, as the gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Jo Ann Emerson, has said.

I remember Bill talking about his most honored day when he thought about leaving the House, because he thought the Republican Party would be the perpetual minority. And I am probably a little bit to blame, because I said it was my prediction that his opportunity in the Sun was just around the corner. And he stayed that extra term or two and finally made it.

The most important moment of Bill 's life, I think, was on the first day of the 104th Congress, where after 14 years of having been in the House of Representatives and 43 years since the last Republican majority, he had the opportunity to assume the gavel and the Acting speakership of the House.

Those Members that were here during Bill 's term know that when he exercised that gavel, he was truly a Speaker pro tempore for the whole House. He was not just a Republican.

I hope that my friends on both sides of the aisle -- and I have been on both sides of the aisle in my life -- take a moment to reflect that, when we lose our bearing, when we let anger rule over our reason, that there were people like Bill Emerson that understood what this institution is all about. That is, we should go to the basic core of humanity, reach across the aisle, take the opportunity to walk and sit with our adversary, find out what we can agree upon, and work toward it together, as opposed to conflict, arrogance, and just meanness.Bill would be disappointed today if he saw the continued decline in of the demeanor of the House. I would hope that maybe we can think about putting together the Emerson Society and say this is the bottom and let us get together. It is very close. We have a lot of work to do. Let us try to do it in the tradition and in the spirit of my friend, Bill Emerson.

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Missouri

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay special tribute to my late husband, Bill Emerson , who spent 16 wonderful years as a Member of this Chamber, two years as a page, and who died a year ago this Sunday, June 22.

I remember so well when Bill was first elected in 1980 and the excitement and joy that we felt after his election. And I can picture vividly so many memories: that first dinner in Statuary Hall, which was given by Bob Michel, who was then the Republican leader of the House; the many trips he, Mickey Leland, and Tony Hall made to Ethiopia, Somalia, the Sudan and other parts of Africa; fighting for flood relief throughout our district, standing up for the folks he represented; and the most recent memories of the days he sat in the Speaker's chair and oversaw the business of our House.

He was so proud of the fact that he was the only Republican in the 104th Congress who had actually been here during the last Republican Congress in 1953 and 1954 when he served as a page with our colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Paul Kanjorski, and he was real excited on the first day of the 104th Congress, too, when he was asked to preside over the House.

It was Bill who taught me all about putting people before politics and ideas before ideology. He was my best friend and mentor, and gave me the tools that I needed to run for this seat in Congress and to try to be a productive Member of this legislative body.

It was he who taught me the importance of friendship in a place that can be very lonely, and the importance of seeking out relationships and friendships with our colleagues across the aisle, which is why I have chosen to speak this morning from this side of the aisle.

Bill, I know you are in a much better place now, though your friends and colleagues and I miss you very much, but we are all better off for knowing you. And when I look at the person sitting in the Speaker's chair every day, I see your smiling face and hear your deep and resonant voice and know that you are looking down on all of us, encouraging us to do the right thing as we fight for the very folks who sent us here to represent them. Thank you so very much for giving me and your friends here today the benefit of knowing you.

Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio

Mr. Speaker, I am very honored to join with the gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Jo Ann Emerson , and other distinguished Members to pay tribute to Bill Emerson.

So many of us like to say that this is my best friend, the great gentleman from Missouri, et cetera, et cetera, but I can tell my colleagues that Bill Emerson was a good friend.

Like the gentleman from Virginia, Frank Wolf, said, Bill and I traveled together. We ate dinner together often. We, the gentleman from Virginia and I, met every Tuesday at 4 o'clock in the chapel and prayed together. We talked about our families. Our wives knew each other. Our children knew one another.

Bill was a great man. He taught us a lot about what it was like to be a humanitarian. He taught me a lot about agriculture and about being a great example.

My son and he had a special thing, too, because they both had cancer at the same time and they died within a month of each other. Bill would always send my son cheesecake every week from this famous place in his hometown of Girardeau, I believe, and my son always looked forward to it.

So I loved this guy and I really miss him. He was a great man, and the gentlewoman from Missouri, Mrs. Jo Ann Emerson, is carrying on in the great footsteps of her husband.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join with Jo Ann Emerson and other distinguished Members to remember and pay tribute to Bill Emerson .Occasionally, during the course of our work here in Congress, the word, `friends,' is used lightly. But, I can say that Bill Emerson was truly my good friend. Bill and I knew each other for many years. We worked together, traveled together, and spend time together outside of work as well. Our families knew each other and became close.

I know that Bill was also a friend to many other Members of this body. He cultivated relationships with both Republicans and Democrats, judging his colleagues not by their party affiliation, but rather by their integrity, dedication, and willingness to serve. His own integrity and dedication were unmatched. Even after he was diagnosed with cancer, he continued to work and serve -- not to score points or garner sympathy but because that was simply the kind of man he was.

Bill was also a true friend to the needy. He worked endlessly to ease the pain of families and children suffering from poverty. I was honored to serve with him as cochairs of the Congressional Hunger Center and work with him to educate the Congress and the Nation about hunger.

Bill was a good man with a truly humanitarian heart. He taught me a lot about serving others, about being a good legislator, and about the true meaning of friendship. I miss him.

Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia

Mr. Speaker, I have many fond memories of my close personal friend and colleague, Bill Emerson. Probably one of my fondest memories is of the very first day that I was sworn in as a Member of Congress in 1995. My wife and I attended the Speaker's prayer service that morning, and Bill stood up and he said something that I will never forget. He introduced us freshman Members to the prayer breakfast that is held by Members of the House every Thursday morning and he said, `If you attend that prayer breakfast and you pray with your colleagues on both sides of the aisle, when you disagree with those colleagues on the floor of the House, you will do it in a much more civil manner.'Bill Emerson was right. As we are starting off here today, it looks like it is one of those days that, if Bill were here, he would remind us of that. Bill represented in this body everything there is about honesty, decency, and integrity. There are only two things that Bill loved better than this House, and that was his God and his family. I thank God that Bill Emerson served in this body, and I thank Jo Ann and the girls for sharing Bill with us. This great country that we live in is a much better country because Bill Emerson served with us.