Bill Barrett Post Office Building

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to support H.R. 7507, and I rise for the purpose of doing that.

I did not know Congressman William Barrett, but he was a lifelong public servant, and this legislation would honor his legacy by naming a post office in Lexington, Nebraska, after him. He served in the Nebraska legislature for a dozen years, including as speaker of the house. He later represented Nebraska's Third District here in Washington in the U.S. House for a decade where he supported the drafting of the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 which was a proud accomplishment of his.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this legislation.

Although I didn't know Congressman Barrett, I would like to use the case of this post office naming in the interests of improving the process by which this is going on, Mr. Speaker. There are a handful of Members of the House who object to naming post offices after former Members of Congress, for example, Congressman Barrett from Nebraska. They don't like that.

Now, the problem is that the way that this process works is that under the protocols and the rules, the custom of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is we wait for a recommendation from the entire congressional delegation, whether it is from Nebraska, California, or Florida. Obviously, in the larger States, it is tougher because you have got to get the sign-off of every Member. Once you have gotten the sign-off of every Member, then it comes to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. At that point, we bring it to the floor.

Now, we are starting to encounter some difficulty. There are a handful of Members who are throwing a monkey wrench into the whole process by refusing to consent to post offices that are sponsored by a Member of the opposite party in their State. So that turns what has been a proudly bipartisan process for decades into a vehemently and perhaps destructively partisan process.

I raise this because I want us to do a U-turn from that. I don't want us to head down the road towards mutually assured partisan destruction on something that should be the opportunity for unity as we have seen on today's bills.

I ask all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to participate in the process the way Members have participated in this process for decades, to assent to the naming of post offices even when they are being recommended by Members of the other party.

If not, then I am afraid we are going to have to change the rules of the House so it will no longer be a unanimous recommendation of each State's delegation but something like a majority of the delegation or 60 percent of the delegation.

I do not want it to be said to the people of America that we have gotten to a point of such vicious partisanship that we cannot even get unity on post office naming bills. That would be a truly sad day for all of us across the board.

I invite any reflections by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but I beseech all of our colleagues to not stand in the way of post office namings that are not in your district and that are maybe not even in your State but you are trying to block them.

Here, the bump in the road are people who are withholding their assent at the State level and then escalating the conflict up the ranks. We can do as well as prior generations of people who served in this great and august body.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I restate my support for H.R. 7507, which will honor a lifelong public servant, Congressman William Barrett, whose party designation is completely irrelevant in this process. He was a U.S. citizen who served all of us, and we should be able to honor him in a bipartisan and unanimous way.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the Third District of Nebraska for his thoughtful remarks and his description of the life of Congressman William Barrett. I didn't know that he was a Republican Member of Congress, but that does not diminish in any way my support for this post office naming bill.

There was a bill that was up earlier today offered by a Member from Texas which did not have the support of all of the Members, and this was a Member who himself withheld support in other cases. I don't know the full extent of the controversy. I don't want to get into the complete controversy, but I hope that everybody on both sides of the aisle will respect the traditions and the customs of the U.S. House of Representatives because we have played nice and supported bills on all sides even when there are people trying to sabotage and sandbag bills that are being introduced by Democratic Members.

Up until this point, we have taken that position, but we would like to see that people are playing fair on this process and not taking advantage of our goodwill to stand by the bipartisan traditions of our committee, the Oversight and Accountability Committee, and the Congress in doing this.

We want to see that it is a two-way street and not a one-way street.

Mr. Speaker, I don't know if the chairman of the committee is still around or if there is someone else who could speak on behalf of the committee, but I hope that somebody at least will articulate a continuing devotion to the customs of the committee, which is that we work to get everybody's bills through and we don't try to sabotage and sandbag the bills from the other side at the State level because that will plunge us into a race of mutually assured postal-naming destruction that is not going to benefit anybody in this body.

I liked what the gentleman from Nebraska said, that Mr. Barrett, who this bill will have the post office named for, would ask the question: What will this do for the people in my district?

It will do nothing for the people of anybody's district if we start throwing a monkey wrench into this process. I hope that the Members in Texas and the Members all over the country will adhere to the protocols and the customs that have lasted for decades on the Oversight Committee and that I hope will last long after all of us are gone.

These post office namings are an opportunity to recognize and to celebrate truly great people in our districts and Nation, not the opportunity for ceaseless partisan conflict and sabotage.

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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