To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Madison, Wisconsin, as the "Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building".

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

I rise in support of this bill, and I would first like to thank my colleagues from the Wisconsin delegation, Representatives Obey, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Moore, Kind, Green and Ryan, who have joined me as original cosponsors of this bipartisan resolution to designate the Post Office at 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Madison, Wisconsin as the ``Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building.''

Mr. Speaker, Robert, otherwise known as ``Fighting Bob'' La Follette, is a true Wisconsin hero and a leader of the progressive movement. He was born on a farm in Primrose, Wisconsin on June 14, 1855. This would have been the 150th year of his birth. La Follette was elected to this body at the young age of 29 and served three terms as a Republican from 1885 to 1891. It is such a privilege to hold his congressional seat over 100 years later.

After losing his seat, La Follette returned to Wisconsin to practice law in Madison. It was at that point that La Follette reached a turning point in his political career, when he felt that a party stalwart was trying to bribe him to fix a court case. La Follette decided that it was time to challenge corruption in politics. He did so by taking his ideas directly to the people. La Follette went on speaking tours at county fairs and as a Chautauqua lecturer. He spoke about his commitment to eliminating the corruption in government and in corporations, the railroads, and banks.

He was elected Governor of Wisconsin in 1900, as a Republican, and during his tenure La Follette was able to pass and implement many progressive reforms and anti-corruption measures, including instituting the direct primary election in Wisconsin.

La Follette was elected by the Wisconsin State Legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1905, over 100 years ago, and he was elected while he was still serving as Governor of the State. He resigned as Governor in 1906 to once again return to Washington to represent the people of Wisconsin.

In the Senate, he fought against corruption and led the investigation into the infamous Teapot Dome scandal that revealed the oil lease scandals of the Harding administration. His principled work in the Senate was so highly regarded that a mural of La Follette was placed in the Senate Reception Room in 1959 as part of a collection of five outstanding Senators.

La Follette ran for President on the Progressive ticket in 1922. The Progressive Party championed a populist agenda, which included reforms to outlaw child labor, allow workers to organize, increase protection of civil liberties, and end discrimination on the basis of race, class, and creed. Just outside the House chamber doors, you can visit a statue of ``Fighting Bob'' La Follette. Wisconsin chose La Follette as one of two State heroes to be included in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall collection.

Mr. Speaker, this weekend I had the privilege of addressing graduating students as a commencement speaker at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In that speech, I spoke to the graduates about the obligation to carry one of Fighting Bob's legacies forward, the Wisconsin Idea.

The Wisconsin Idea is the notion that government should collaborate with the State's public universities to address serious social and economic problems. In simple terms, the Wisconsin Idea is often expressed by saying that the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the State.

I would also like to share with you one other of my personal heroes, La Follette's wife, Belle Case La Follette, who La Follette regarded as an equal partner in life. Belle Case La Follette was the first woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin law school. She was a woman before her time, supporting women's suffrage and advocating civil rights legislation for ethnic and racial minorities.

La Follette referred to her as my wisest and best counselor. Mr. Speaker, I would like to close with how appropriate the location of the Madison Capitol Station Post Office is in honoring La Follette. This post office is in the shadow of the Wisconsin State capitol, where La Follette developed many of his progressive ideas and support for farmers and the working person, opposition to monopolies and corruption in politics, and his belief that a strong democracy requires fair distribution of both wealth and power.

This summer, on June 4, Fighting Bob's greatest supporters will come to Madison for his 150th birthday celebration. And I am particularly grateful that this bill has been brought to the floor for a vote in time for this celebration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend, the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).

Mr. Speaker, I have no more requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1760) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Madison, Wisconsin, as the ``Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building''.

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 the bill under consideration.

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

This important legislation, introduced by the distinguished gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin), names a Post Office in Madison, Wisconsin as the ``Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building.''

Robert La Follette, Sr. was a giant in Wisconsin and American politics around the turn of the 20th century. He served the people of the Badger State as a Congressman, a Senator, a Governor, and even ran and finished third in the 1924 presidential election, falling to incumbent President Calvin Coolidge. His passion and his rousing speaking style earned him the nickname ``Fighting Bob.''

As a member of this body, he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture in the 51st Congress, after which he lost a reelection bid in 1890. He returned home to a law career in Madison that began before his first stint in Congress.

Sixteen years after his defeat in 1906, he was elected to return to Washington, this time as a United States Senator. He was reelected three times before he died in office in 1925, shortly after his bid for the presidency ended the previous year.

His legacy was further enhanced when his son actually succeeded him as a Senator and went on to a significant political career of his own. Another son also held up the family name by becoming Governor of Wisconsin in 1931.

Mr. Speaker, all seven members of the Wisconsin delegation have joined Congresswoman Baldwin as cosponsors of H.R. 1760 to prove the stature of Robert La Follette in Wisconsin political history. This Post Office in Madison will be an appropriate memorial to his legacy.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri).

Mr. Speaker, I would urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to speak in support of H.R. 1760, a bill to designate a post office in Madison, Wisconsin, as the Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building.

Fighting Bob La Follette was a strong progressive Republican voice for the people in the late 19th and early 20th century. During his political career as a district attorney, and especially as a Congressman, Governor and Senator, Bob La Follette fought to improve the lot of farmers, workers, children and women, and battled against corruption in politics.

As Governor of Wisconsin, he proposed and implemented the Wisconsin Idea, a philosophy that public leadership, in combination with academic expertise, will improve the performance of government. This philosophy was the driving force in the progressive movement, and here in Washington led to the creation of, among other things, the Congressional Research Service.

Bob La Follette believed that the government should be more directly in the hands of the people. Therefore, he pursued policies, such as the establishment of direct primary nomination. Under his leadership, Wisconsin became one of the first States to adopt child labor laws and pass a women's suffrage amendment.

As a Congressman and Senator, he brought his progressive Republican politics to the national stage by playing a major role in bringing about the direct election of Senators and spearheading an investigation into the Teapot Dome scandal. And you can imagine how popular he was when elected to the United

States Senate and stood up and asked for a roll call vote over and over and over again, for the first time in a generation putting his colleagues on the record as to whether they were voting for or against railroad legislation and a variety of other things.

And the public record, combined with direct election of Senators, revolutionized the United States Senate and American politics from the Mississippi west in our country, in particular.

Bob La Follette was the kind of American that all of us, regardless of party, can be proud of. Accordingly, I urge support of H.R. 1760.

Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 1760, which would name a Post Office in Madison, WI as the ``Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Post Office Building.'' This passage of this legislation is timely, coming shortly before what would have been La Follette's 150th birthday next month.

Robert La Follette was born into a farming family in Primrose, WI, on June 14, 1855. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he served as the District Attorney for Dane County. He would go on to serve the State of Wisconsin as a Congressman, the Governor, and a U.S. Senator. Throughout his career, he fought on behalf of the people, not the politics. He truly embodied the ``fighting'' spirit of the people of Wisconsin.

As Governor, La Follette instituted direct primary elections, allowing the people to choose their representatives, rather than having the party leaders chose them. His reform efforts in the State, and his excellent speaking style, placed him in the national spotlight. In 1906, La Follette joined the U.S. Senate, where he would remain until his death in 1925.

It was as a U.S. Senator that La Follette truly launched a national progressive movement. He protested the corruption of government and the influence of large corporations on political leaders. He argued in favor of women's suffrage, worker's rights and racial equality. He fought for economic and social reform to remove power from the few and place it in the hands of the many.

La Follette's fighting spirit and drive for reform have prevented him from falling out of the Naion's consciousness. Nowhere is this truer than in Wisconsin, the State he served so tirelessly for more than 30 years. His legacy is alive in the people of Wisconsin, who so often embody his pioneering spirit of reform. His legacy is alive in the United States Senate, where we continue to fight for honesty in politics. For all these reasons, I urge my colleague to join me in support of H.R. 1760, to commemorate the legacy, and celebrate the life of Robert ``Fighting Bob'' La Follette.

Mr. Speaker, it is with such great pride and pleasure that I stand here in support of H.R. 1760, to name a post office after Fighting Bob La Follette.

You have heard from my other colleagues from Wisconsin about the institutions that this man has built and the impact that this one man has made on not only the institutions in Wisconsin, developing a civil service system, that has had an impact throughout our country, establishing the Congressional Research Service, which really put us on par with the K Street lobbyists in terms of having information and knowledge about the initiatives that take place here.

But Fighting Bob La Follette has put us on the map internationally, as Wisconsin has been a leader in the world, training people in democratic institutions. Fighting Bob La Follette is a hero to me. He was a powerful voice, a Lincoln Republican. He was a powerful voice with the underrepresented, outspoken for their issues no matter how unpopular or controversial.

He denounced any discrimination based on race, creed, class, during the era, for example, of the Ku Klux Klan resurgence. He called for investigations of World War I profiteers and defended antiwar activists that were sent to jail.

One of the favorite quotes of Bob La Follette that I think is apropos for where we are today was a quote that he made arguing on the United States Senate floor, and I would like to end my remarks with that quote: ``We should not seek to inflame the mind of our people by half truths into the frenzy of war. The poor, who are always the ones called upon to rot in the trenches, at some time will be heard. There will come an awakening. They will have their day, and they will be heard.''