Recognizing the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows Program.

I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this and being the floor manager for this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be the primary sponsor of H. Con. Res. 269, a resolution to recognize the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows program. As has already been pointed out, this is a program that was established first by President Lyndon Johnson to be a leadership forum for young Americans of all walks of life, of all political persuasions, all ideological philosophies, to give them a window on Washington for a year and then encourage them to go and be leaders in building America. Since its inception in 1964, over 600 Americans have served as White House Fellows. I was privileged to be a part of the class of 1981 and 1982 where I served in the Department of Energy.

The best thing about the Fellows program are the Fellows. You get to meet the most amazing people. In my class, we had the police captain from Oakland, California; we had an Indian chief from Oklahoma; we had a law professor from Utah; we had a Navy captain from the Navy; an Air Force officer from the Air Force; a tank commander, an infantry battalion commander from the Army; and you had somebody like me, Joe Barton, from Crockett, Texas, plant manager.

There have been, as I said, over 600 Americans serve in the program. Some of them are names that we now know as household words. Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was a White House Fellow. Elaine Chao, Secretary of the Department of Labor, is a former White House Fellow. Wesley Clark, who was former Allied supreme commander in Europe, is a former White House Fellow. In my class, David Karnes was a Senator from Nebraska. Paul Applegarth was a senior officer at the World Bank. Mike Ullman is currently president and CEO of JCPenney Corporation. Members who have served in

Congress or in the Senate since they were Fellows include Tom Campbell; Sam Brownback, who is currently the Senator from Kansas; former Senator Tim Wirth, who started out as a Congressman from Colorado and then became Senator from Colorado; and of course myself, who is currently serving in the House of Representatives.

As has been pointed out, this is a nonpartisan program. You are asked to fill out an application that is about 30 pages long. It is the most extensive application I have ever had to fill out. You are asked what your life's ambitions are, what you consider your notable achievements, what you hope to achieve, and you are even asked to give a policy recommendation to the President of the United States. Pretty heady stuff when you are a young plant manager in Crockett, Texas, like I was back in 1981.

The interview process is extensive. You start out at the regional level. Everybody whose application is accepted, and normally there are 1,000 to 2,000 applications filed that are winnowed down by the staff of the White House Fellows to about 500 or 600. Those then are read over several weekends by former White House Fellows and that application pool is winnowed down to approximately 150. If you are one of the 150 what are called regional semifinalists, you are invited to a regional interview over a 2-day period where you sit down face to face with a panel of leaders in your local area and are asked all kinds of questions.

Each region picks three finalists to go to the national finals. There are 33 national finalists. You come to Washington for a weekend where the national panel interviews you. From that group of 33, they pick the class that is anywhere from 10 to 15 Fellows. I think the largest class has been 19. You then spend the next year, if you are picked, working as an assistant in one of the Federal agencies, up and including the White House; but every week you meet with your class and you meet world leaders, local leaders. My year we met with Tom Foley who was the majority leader, I believe, in the House. We met with Tip O'Neill. We met with the majority leader in the Senate. We met with the President. We met with the Vice President. We also met with corporation leaders. We met with community service leaders.

And you get to go on several trips. We had two domestic trips where we went to Chicago where we studied the architecture of Chicago. We went to the west coast where we went out and studied agriculture in California. I got to take my class to Texas and we showed them Houston, TX, where we met with leaders of the oil industry; and then we went to Austin, TX, where we met with State leaders. We also went on one international trip. My class went to Europe where we studied NATO issues.

This is a wonderful program. You make lifelong friends, but it also helps facilitate that ephemeral quality called leadership. The goal of the program as established by President Johnson back in the 1960s was to give young Americans who had shown potential in their early career the opportunity to have a window on Washington and then go out, whether they go back to their community, whether they stay in Washington, whether they change career paths, to hopefully be a positive force for change for America. I can honestly say after 600 Fellows, after 40 years, that the program has delivered beyond the wildest expectations of President Johnson.

It is with a great deal of pride that I am allowed to be the primary sponsor for this resolution. I think Senator Brownback is the sponsor in the Senate. I say to the past 600 Fellows, the current 15 Fellows and to future Fellows: job well done; let's look to the future; let's continue to build a better America.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 269) recognizing the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows Program.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 269.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 269. This resolution, introduced by my distinguished colleague from Texas (Mr. Barton), honors the 40th class of Fellows participating in the White House Fellows Association. The program was founded in 1964 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and is considered one of the most prestigious opportunities for leadership and public service today.

Offered strictly on a nonpartisan basis, White House Fellowships offer exceptional young people firsthand experience in working at the highest levels of Federal Government. White House Fellows spend a year assisting full-time senior White House staff, the Vice President, Cabinet secretaries and other senior officials. Fellows are also invited to take part in educational travel in order to examine United States domestic and international policy in action. Finally, the education program offers roundtable discussions including leaders from both the private and public sectors.

The purpose of the White House Fellows program is to shape young minds into having an understanding of the challenges faced by the Federal Government. The leadership and public affairs development offered by the program is crucial to the functioning of our system in that it provides us with exceptional young professionals in our nongovernmental sector.

President Johnson's idea for the program was clear when he said, ``I want to give the Fellows firsthand high-level experience in the workings of the Federal Government and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs.'' President Johnson's hope was that those who were given this extraordinary opportunity would ``continue their work as private citizens on their public agendas.''

In Congress today, both the sponsor of this resolution, Congressman Joe Barton, and Senator Sam Brownback are former White House Fellows. I hope that my colleagues will join me in recognizing this exceptional program through the adoption of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 269.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleague from Ohio in consideration of this important legislation. Forty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson, through executive order 11183, established the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. The commission was given the task of creating the White House Fellows program. The program was designed to expose the best and the brightest of America's future leaders to policymaking at the highest levels. Between 11 and 20 young, gifted Americans serve as White House Fellows each year, and they truly represent the best of what America has to offer.

Being a White House Fellow provides each Fellow with the unique opportunity of interacting with officials at the highest levels of government. It is not uncommon for Fellows to learn about policymaking in all of its forms, at both the domestic and international levels, while gaining access to policymakers that is generally afforded to only a small group of advisers and senior staff. As a result, the White House Fellows program plays an integral role in cultivating the leaders of tomorrow.

The program is indeed bipartisan and is hailed as a great success by Republicans and Democrats alike. Over the last 4 decades, more than 600 people have served as White House Fellows. The program has attracted the most talented of America's young up-and-comers. Former Fellows have gone on to serve in Cabinet positions, as elected officials at all levels of government, as heads of industry, as distinguished members of the Armed Forces, as leaders in the legal field, and as distinguished academicians in some of the Nation's top colleges and universities.

I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows program and the Federal Government's continued commitment to producing the future generations of American leaders.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, due to an excused absence, I missed 3 rollcall votes on the night of Tuesday October 25, 2005. I would like to enter into the record how I would have voted if I had been able to attend the session:

On H.R. 3675, the American Spirit Fraud Prevention Act, I would have voted ``yea.''

On H. Con. Res. 269, a resolution recognizing the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows Program, I would have voted ``yea.''

On H.R. 3256, a bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3038 West Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as the ``Congressman James Grove Fulton Memorial Post Office Building,'' I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I regret that I missed three votes on October 25, 2005. Had I been present I would have voted ``yes'' on H.R. 3675 (the American Spirit Fraud Prevention Act), H. Con. Res. 269 (Recognizing the 40th anniversary of the White House Fellows Program) and H.R. 3256 (the Congressman James Grove Fulton Memorial Post Office Designation Act).