To designate the Federal building located at 6401 Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland, commonly known as the Social Security Administration Operations Building, as the "Robert M. Ball Federal Building".

Madam Speaker, I introduced H.R. 5773 to name the Social Security Operations Building in Baltimore in honor of Robert ``Bob'' Ball, a man who dedicated his career to defending and strengthening Social Security and who helped to expand the safety net for our Nation's seniors by supporting the creation of Medicare.

Mr. Ball's legacy of service makes it truly fitting that we designate the Social Security Operations Building located at 6401 Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland, as the ``Robert M. Ball Federal Building.''

Mr. Ball helped build Social Security from the ground up.

In 1939, he started working for the newly formed Social Security Board as a field assistant in Newark, New Jersey.

His experiences in the field demonstrated to him that Social Security was meant to be a contract between the generations enacted to ensure that retired seniors could avoid poverty in their later years. Mr. Ball's dedication to this basic principle guided all of his future work.

In 1949, Mr. Ball was appointed assistant director of the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance. He was subsequently promoted to deputy director and then acting director.

Through these positions, he developed a deep technical expertise in Social Security, learned how Congress works, and developed the relationships with Members of Congress that would enable him to serve as a valued technical resource for decades.

During his tenure, Mr. Ball assisted Congress members in developing the policies that have been essential to ensuring Social Security programs are run responsibly and effectively.

For example, Bob Ball was the architect of the 1950 amendments raising Social Security benefits and expanding coverage to more Americans, including such groups as the self-employed, and making it easier for these groups to begin to qualify for benefits.

Ball helped draft the legislation establishing Social Security disability benefits in 1956 and helped Members secure its passage even though the Eisenhower administration opposed this change.

In 1957, Ball helped Representative Aime Forand draft a bill that was essentially the forerunner of the legislation that created Medicare. Ball continued to advocate for health insurance for seniors from that time until Medicare's eventual passage in 1965.

For this and his subsequent work supporting the implementation of the Medicare program, he is also known as the father of Medicare.

President John F. Kennedy appointed Robert M. Ball as commissioner of Social Security in 1962. Mr. Ball served in this post until 1973-- longer than anyone else prior or since.

During his service as commissioner, Mr. Ball helped develop the 1972 amendments that linked benefits to inflation, ensuring that Social Security would never fail to meet basic needs.

Robert M. Ball continued to serve Social Security beneficiaries even after leaving government employment through his service on several federal commissions, including the Greenspan Commission in 1983, where he helped broker a compromise that averted a financial crisis and brought decades of financial stability to the Social Security trust fund.

Robert Ball was described by American Scholar magazine in 2005 as Social Security's ``biggest thinker, longest-serving commissioner and undisputed spiritual leader'' and as ``Social Security's chief advocate and defender.''

I cannot imagine a better tribute to a man who dedicated his life to the health and welfare of others than that his name be permanently attached to the building where Social Security operates.

As I close, I thank my colleagues from Maryland who have co-sponsored this legislation as well as Chairman Oberstar, Ranking Member Mica, and my colleagues in the Transportation and Infrastructure committee for working with me to move this legislation.

I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill.

I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

Madam Speaker, normally I don't come to the floor to add to a building naming that's flying through, but I want to put into the Record my thoughts about Bob Ball, one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. And there is no one I have met whose public sector contribution I admire more. Naming this building on the campus of Social Security, a building that has so much of the daily delivery of the Social Security benefit to the American people, having this building carry his name is just so utterly appropriate.

Bob Ball, through his entire service, had a clear vision of Social Security. It comes down to simply this: If all of us protected each of us, the lives of tens of millions would be improved and our country would be stronger as a result.

He was the most influential proponent of social insurance our country has ever had. He was a leading thinker, a gifted administrator, a skilled political operative, an irresistible advocate, an exceptional teacher, and I can tell you personally he was a very wise mentor.

Of all of his remarkable abilities and traits, perhaps the one we will remember most was his dogged persistence. He stayed on task and made valuable contributions to Social Security through six decades of service. Bob knew what his mission was and he never wavered in pursuit of it. By the time he resigned as Administrator of Social Security, he had literally worked at the agency for 37 years. He was the longest tenured administrator serving under three different Presidents of two political parties.

Now, when he retired after 37 years, you might think, well, there he goes riding off into the sunset, job well done. Well, Bob indicated another inclination. In fact, he wrote in his letter of resignation to President Nixon, ``I will continue to be available for whatever help I can give promoting the sound development and sound administration of this important program.''

As the preceding speaker said already, he served on the committee that ultimately worked the long-term solvency package for Social Security out in 1983, and he continued to work right until his final days--at the ripe age of 93--on advancing this notion of Social Security for the American people.

There is nobody I can think of more deserving of the perpetuating honor memorializing his life and his work than Bob Ball, and I am just delighted with this resolution and urge Members' support.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5773) to designate the Federal building located at 6401 Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland, as the ``Robert M. Ball Federal Building,'' as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5773.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5773, as amended, which designates the Social Security Operations Building located at 6401 Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland, as the Robert M. Ball Federal Building.

Commissioner Ball was often described in press accounts as not only the longest serving Social Security Commissioner, but also as chief advocate and defender through the years. Commissioner Ball started with the Social Security Administration as a field assistant in 1939 in New Jersey for the Social Security Administration, eventually becoming the Social Security Administrator from 1962 to 1973.

After Commissioner Ball left the Social Security Administration, he continued to have an outsized role in shaping the program. In 1981, he served as a member of the National Commission on Social Security Reform, arguing for a mix of tax increases and benefit cuts to maintain the viability of Social Security. Commissioner Ball was an outspoken opponent of any attempts to dismantle Social Security or to privatize Social Security. Commissioner Robert M. Ball died January 29, 2008.

Given Commissioner Ball's exceptional public service and dedication to the Social Security Administration, it is fitting to honor him by naming the Operations Facility of the Social Security Administration located at 6401 Security Boulevard in Baltimore, Maryland, as the Robert M. Ball Federal Building. I urge support of my colleagues.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy).

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I simply ask for support of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5773, as amended, which names the operations building on the Social Security Woodlawn campus in Baltimore, Maryland, as the ``Robert M. Ball Federal Building'', after former Social Security Administrator, Robert M. Ball.

Robert M. Ball dedicated his professional life to Social Security and its beneficiaries, serving as Commissioner of Social Security from 1962 to 1973, spanning the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. During his tenure in a variety of senior executive positions at the Social Security Administration, both the disability program and Medicare were enacted into law, and Commissioner Ball played a significant role in creating, securing enactment of, and implementing both of these landmark pieces of legislation.

Commissioner Ball, after retiring from public service in 1972, remained active and engaged in social security issues and policy. In 1981-83, he served on the Commission on Social Security Reform. Mr. Ball was instrumental in working out a compromise among Commission members, that led to the Social Security Act Amendments of 1983, which restored solvency to the Social Security Trust Fund. These amendments remain the most substantive changes to the social security system in the last 30 years.

Recognizing the contributions of Robert M. Ball to the Social Security system by naming the Operations Building at the Social Security Woodlawn campus is a fitting and apt tribute to this public servant who one historian describes as ``the major non-Congressional player in the history of Social Security in the period between 1950 and the present.''

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 5773.

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

Madam Speaker, Mr. Ball served as Commissioner of Social Security during the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations, and even in 1981, he served on the Greenspan Commission that was created by President Reagan to examine the Social Security system. So I think it speaks obviously very well for him; his expertise was tapped by both Republicans and Democratic administrations. It seems fitting, Madam Speaker, that we name a Social Security building after him in recognition for his dedication to that agency.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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