James L. Oberstar Memorial Highway

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding, and I
thank my good friend, Mr. Petri, whom I deeply regret seeing leave the
Congress, as well, because he has contributed so very much to this
Congress, particularly in the field of which we speak today.

Of very few Members can it be said that they grew up in the Congress.
One could almost say that about Jim Oberstar who came here as a
legislative assistant to the Public Works Committee, then ultimately
became its chief of staff, and then decided that he could do the whole
thing and become a Member of Congress from the Eighth District of
Minnesota.

By the time Jim came to the Congress, he had such an early start that
he already knew probably all anyone would expect any Member to know.
This early start led to what can only be called breathtaking knowledge
and, ultimately, achievements in the transportation and infrastructure
field.

He became not only my mentor but, literally, the personal mentor of
every Member on each side of the aisle and, ultimately, a mentor to any
Member of Congress who wanted to know anything about the Nation's
transportation and infrastructure.

At the bottom, Mr. Speaker, transportation and infrastructure is a
very technical and specialized field. It takes hard work and brilliance
to become a master of the roads, bridges, infrastructure, and bike and
running trails of this country, let alone the complexities of
intermodalism. It was a marvel to see Jim go at intermodalism. I had
the opportunity to see him offer visionary leadership on intermodalism
here with Union Station in Washington, D.C., and around the country.

Mr. Speaker, Jim came to subcommittee hearings almost all the time
and participated in these hearings with the same depth as the chair of
the subcommittee. He never let his encyclopedic knowledge wither.

Mr. Speaker, I have been on the committee ever since I came to
Congress in 1991. I can say without any compunction that, if you were
around Jim, no matter where you sat in the committee room, you could
not avoid his kindness, his warmth, and his depth. Sometimes Jim may
have told you more than you wanted to know about transportation and
infrastructure, but at the end of the day, you were glad that you
listened because you heard him speak, sometimes playfully, in French--
he always understood you had better keep using what you once had--but
always offering the benefits of his knowledge, and using his great
intellectual and personal gifts to bring us all in to the field he had
mastered. No wonder Minnesota elected him to serve so long that he
became the longest serving Member from the State.

As we struggle still for a highway bill, I hope we will not forget
this great Member who began as an ironworker, worked himself through
college as an ironworker, organized unions, and never forgot the roots
from which he came, and yet came to this Congress and made himself a
friend of anyone who would listen.

I am pleased to be associated with this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join
me in honoring former Congressman James Louis ``Jim'' Oberstar, my
friend and mentor, and mentor to thousands. Jim represented the 8th
district of Minnesota for 18 terms, from 1975 until 2011, but his
breathtaking knowledge and achievements on transportation and
infrastructure made him the nation's mentor on these issues.

Born in Chisholm, Minnesota in 1934, Jim was the son of an iron miner
and shirt factory worker. He learned at an early age the power of
organizing workers to fight for fair wages and safe workplaces, and
never forgot his roots in the working class and in the organizations
they asked to represent them at the bargaining table. Jim worked in the
Minnesota mines to fund his college education, graduating from the
College at St. Thomas in St. Paul with degrees in French and political
science.

In 1963, Jim started his career on the Capitol Hill. He worked as
legislative assistant and chief of staff for former Congressman John
Blatnik, who represented Minnesota's 8th district at the time. He also
served as chief of staff of the House Committee on Transportation and
Public Works for many years. In 1974, Jim was elected to the House,
where he was fully prepared to use his already well-developed knowledge
of transportation and infrastructure as a member on the House Committee
on Transportation and Public Works.

Jim contributed to the work of building and rebuilding the nation's
transportation systems--its road and bridge networks, and, as a cyclist
himself, its bike and running trails. Jim's encyclopedic knowledge of
the field led him to master the complexities associated with
intermodalism, the transportation wave of the future. His work, for
example, to make the District of Columbia's Union Station truly
intermodal, still in progress, will always be emblematic of his
visionary leadership.

From the moment I joined the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee, in 1991, I learned from Jim Oberstar and felt his warmth,
kindness and depth. Jim not only led us, he nurtured us. Whether
smiling as he playfully spoke French or offering the benefits of his
commonsense knowledge, Jim's intellectual and personal gifts left us
admiring him as a person and in awe of his knowledge and understanding
of the field as a professional. Jim's outstanding work in the Congress
led the people of Minnesota to make him the longest serving House
member from their state, and Jim served the nation with special
distinction at the same time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to join me in honoring Jim Oberstar for
his many accomplishments for the 8th district of Minnesota and for his
devotion to our nation's transportation and infrastructure.

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