Extensions of Remarks

June 10, 1974 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 18575 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS PROCLAMATION OF EQUAL RIGHTS know that henceforth, there shall be no his record of saving taxpayer money has been FOR THE HANDICAPPED discrimination based on race, creed, age phenomenal. ethnic orgin, gender ... and physical or men As a self-appointed guardian of the public tal handicap. purse, it is conservatively estimated he has saved the taxpayer hundreds of millions of HON. JACOB K. JAVITS dollars. The total may even run into billions. OF NEW YORK. Now, Harold Royce Gross, the "Conscience IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES H.R. GROSS: HAIL AND of the House," is retiring at age 75. Nothing is sacred to Mr. Gross if it calls for Monday, June 10, 1974 FAREWELL spending federal money. He has even ques Mr. JAVITS. Mr. President, Dr. tioned the taxpayers' picking up the tab for Andrew S. Adams, the recently installed maintaining the eternal flame over the grave HON. WILLIAM G. BRAY of President John F. Kennedy. U.S. Commissioner of Rehabilitation, in OF INDIANA a June 5 speech at the New York City "FT. FUMBLE" CATCHES IT Mayor's Conference on Consumer Issues IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES In his folksy, blunt newsletter to constitu and Actions Affecting the Handicapped, Monday, June 10, 1974 ents, "Uncle Sam" often becomes "Uncle Sucker" or "Uncle Handout." He dismisses issued a Proclamation of Equal Rights Mr. BRAY. Mr. Speaker, when the the Pentagon as "Ft. Fumble." for the Handicapped. Dr. Adams quite final bells sound adjournment of the He has consistently fought pay raises for properly stressed that the litany against 2d session of the 93d Congress, later members of Congress-including, of course, discrimination on account of race, creed, this year, they will also sound the close himself'. Mr. Gross has voted against every color, or sex must now include also of one of the most unusual and outstand proposed boost in Congressional salaries since physical or mental handicap. It merits ing congressional careers this Chamber they were at the $12,500 level. (The law reading. I ask unanimous consent that makers now are paid $42,000 a year, plus has ever known. The bells will mean extras.) He is not above embarrassing his the proclamation be printed in the Ex many things; they will also mean that colleagues, twitting their consciences, on the tensions of Remarks. H. R. GRoss, our friend and beloved col subject. Last Febn1ary, attacking an abortive There being no objection, the procla league from Iowa, will be with us no move to jump the Congressional salary level mation was ordered to be printed in the longer, as he has announced his retire to $52,800, he told the House: RECORD, as fallows: ment. "At a time when many segments of our PROCLAMATION OF EQUAL RIGHTS FOR THE The American taxpayer is losing one nation and its people are faced with unem HANDICAPPED of their best friends in the Congress. As ployment and belt-tightening, it is incon (By Dr. Andrew S. Adams) ceivable that fattening the payroll of upper the following article from Nation's Busi echelon federal executives, federal judges and The day of ignorance is past in matters ness, June 1974, points out: members of Congress would even be pro related to the dally activities of physically As a self-appointed guardian of the public posed." and mentally handicapped people. Through purse, it is conservatively estimated he has Mr. Gross has never accepted the advice out the United States, we must guarantee saved the taxpayer hundreds of millions of of the late Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas, equal opportunities under the Constitution dollars. The total may even run into bil usually offered to rookie Congressmen: "To to employment, housing, health care, trans lions. get along, you go along." portation, education, use of public accom He has always functioned in the House as modations, recreation, and access to cast an It is a :fitting tribute to a man whom though every federal dollar spent is his own, election ballot regardless of their physical we all admire, respect, and will miss very, or at least his neighbor's. He'll take on a and mental condition. very much. President with no less relish than a. middle These are the eight freedoms I seek for my The article follows: level bureaucrat. More often than not, he fellow disabled citizens. Rehabilitation is a votes against Presidential money requests vital part of our lives, as it provides a path THE HOUSE IS LOSING ITS "CONSCIENCE" (By Vernon Louviere) and he doesn't care which party the Presi for our return to dignified and productive dent belongs to. pursuits. But, it is not enough to prepare Some years a.go, when a bill creating the A Western Republican Congressman dis us to return to communities that perpetuate National Foundation of Arts and Humani covered how this kind of Gross bipartisanship institutional, and individual, attitudes that ties came up for debate on the floor of the works. One day he praised "good old R.R." restrict our inherent rights. House of Representatives, a. somber H. R. for ripping into a Democratic bill. The next We must continue to expand opportuni Gross listened impassively to the preliminary day he was overheard complaining about that ties for all disabled people. Discrimination discussion. "old s.o.b., H. R. Gross" after the latter had works in subtle ways, often beyond the noble The bill, among other things, called for torpedoed one of the Westerner's bills. concepts of our Constitution, and too often federal subsidies to promote such art forms "How much will this boondoggle cost?" is beyond the consciousness of our fellow citi as painting, creative writing and dancing. the way Mr. Gross generally kicks off his zens. Discrimination may or may not be a Finally, Mr. Gross rose and spoke: questioning on the House floor when he sus matter of intention. Either way, I look for "Mr. Chairman, I regret that I did not pects a bill's sponsor is trying to put some the day when discrimination for physical or anticipate this bill would come up this after thing over on the taxpayer. mental handicap, like poliomyelitis, is basic noon or else I wou.d have tried to appear in ally a disease of the past in America.. I look my tuxedo and my dancing shoes to be READING THE FINE PRINT for the day when men no longer Judge their properly equipped for this further going Nothing seems to elude his hawk-eyed at fellows on the irrational basis of physical or away party for the Treasury of the United tention to fine print in the myriad of bills mental handicap. States." and resolutions which come up for House Recognizing the need for a restatement of Then, Rep. Gross offered an amendment action. Few members of Congress will read our fundamental rights under the Constitu which he had drafted with the help of a every bill, as he does. tion, I call for a nationwide proclamation fellow Congressman, a. physician. Take the time, for example, when Mr. of eight freedoms for all physically and men After the word "dance" in the bill he Gross focused on a Foreign Service retire tally handicapped people. wanted these words inserted: "Including, but ment benefits bill that emerged from the These basic freedoms are: not llmited to, the irregular jactiations and/ Foreign Affairs Committee. He seized on a 1. The right to Employment. or rhythmic contraction and coordinated re phrase, "other purposes," and bore in. The 2. The right to Education. laxations of the serrati, obliques and ab "other purposes," it turned out, cleverly con 3. The right to Housing. dominis recit group of muscles, accompanied cealed the fact that the bill also would jump 4. The right to Transportation. by rotary undulations, tilts and turns, timed Congressional retirement benefits a whopping 5. The right to use Public Accommoda with and attuned to the titillating and 33Y3 per cent. When H. R. Gross was fin tions. blended tones of synchronous woodwinds." ished with his attack, so was the bill. It was · 6. The right to Recreation. He let the words sink in, waited for maxi killed. 7. The right to Health Care. mum effect, and spoke again: "That means Anyone less skilled in the workings of the 8. The right to access to ca.st an Election belly dancing." The House broke up. House, or who failed to do his legislative Ballot. With such wit, the diminutive Iowa. Re homework, would not long survive in the role As other segments o! our population have publican has for 25 yea.rs sought to scuttle of Treasury watchdog in which Mr. Gross has petitioned for recognition, let us do the same legislation whose purpose he feels ls to spend cast himself. Even hls detractors concede for disabled Americans as legislated in the for the sa.ke of spending or for some other that few, if any, Congressmen know House Rehabll1tation Act of 1973. Indeed, let it be unnecessary reason. On this day he lost. Still, procedure as well as he. If Mr. Gross has not 18576 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June 10, 1974 memorized those documents which deter TV'S IN THE JUNGLE He adds: "We've been financing this gov mine how all House business is conducted Mr. Gross wrote a March, 1968, NATION'S ernment off the printing presses at the the Constitution, the House rules, Thomas BusINEss article entitled, "We Certainly See Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This is Jefferson's Manual and the 11 volumes of Some Silly Spending." Here's an excerpt printing press money and there is no pro Precedents of the House of Representatives showing his use of wit to attack a federal ductivity behind that kind of money.'' he can put his finger on an applicable sec program: Mr.

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