Volume 144, No. 136 covering the 2nd Session of the 105th Congress (1997 - 1998) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO MARILYN A. ELROD” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1879-E1880 on Oct. 2, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MARILYN A. ELROD
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HON. IKE SKELTON
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Friday, October 2, 1998
Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention of my colleagues the contributions of a great public servant, Marilyn Elrod, on the occasion of her retirement from the staff of the House of Representatives. On August 31st, after more than 29 years on the Hill, Marilyn retired from her position as the minority staff director of the House National Security Committee. She will be greatly missed.
Marilyn, a native of Indiana, started her tenure on the Hill working for Representative Allard Lowenstein in June of 1969 after doing graduate work at American University. In November of 1970, Ronald V. Dellums of California was elected to Congress and before beginning his first term in the 91st Congress, Ron hired Marilyn as a military caseworker and legislative aide. From there she moved up to become the Legislative Director for Mr. Dellums, a position she held until 1983.
In 1983, Ron Dellums assumed the chair of the Military Installations and Facilities Subcommittee of the then Armed Services Committee. He quickly had Ms. Elrod appointed to the staff of the Subcommittee where she worked for the next six years. There, she helped him shift the focus of the Subcommittee toward quality of life issues for military personnel. Increased attention to housing, child development centers, and bringing installations into line with Environmental Protection Agency guidelines were all part of the new emphasis in military construction funding. Appropriately, this focus continues today.
Marilyn was assigned to be Mr. Dellums' staff person on the Research and Development Subcommittee in 1989 when he became chair of that Subcommittee. There she was a leader in the effort to have the Subcommittee make policy decisions about the military and economic viability of future weapon systems early in the process--during the research and development phase--rather than in the procurement phase where such decisions had so often been made in the past. Earlier scrutiny where a wasteful or ineffective program could be stopped or realigned means greater savings to the taxpayer. In the same vein, she worked with Mr. Dellums to lead the fight against the wastefulness of
``concurrent'' research, development and procurement.
After ten years as Mr. Dellums' most trusted committee staff person, she made a bit of history. Ron Dellums was chosen by the Democratic Caucus to Chair the House Armed Serviced Committee--the first African American ever to do so--in January of 1993, and he immediately tapped Marilyn to be the first female staff director in the history of the Congress' four defense committees. He often told his colleagues how proud he was to have Marilyn with him to ``break the glass ceiling.'' Two years later, Marilyn continued as staff director to the minority of the National Security Committee when the Republican party took control of the House. For the past several months, I have been proud to have her stay on as my staff director subsequent to the retirement of my good friend and colleague Ron Dellums. Though she was eligible to leave when Mr. Dellums did, I consider it a personal favor that she stayed on and helped ease the transition to a new staff director with her valuable advice and by sharing the benefit of her institutional memory.
As my colleagues and I know, having a staff person who is able to develop expertise quickly and thoroughly on a range of issues is extremely valuable. Ron Dellums knew that when Marilyn briefed him on any subject, he was getting the information and advice he needed to make competent legislative and political decisions. During her twelve years in his personal office, she was always the defense expert, but also became exceptionally knowledgeable on a variety of other subjects, especially health care legislation.
But being an expert is not enough. Working with elected officials, a staff person has to have the confidence and capability to take the policy initiatives of the Representatives and work them without straying from the electoral mandate. Marilyn, though fully capable in her own right, never crossed the line by supplanting the rights of the Members to make the decisions.
Marilyn Elrod was able to carve out a most impressive career on Capitol Hill. She started out on the bottom rung of the ladder as an entry-level administrative staff person in 1969 and, with all of the downward pressures that women have as they rise through an institution, advanced to become the staff director of the House Armed Services Committee. Being the first to accomplish such an achievement, she has set an example for others to emulate.
When staff director of the Armed Services Committee and minority staff director of the National Security Committee, Marilyn displayed her incredible strength as an administrator and her mastery of the legislative process. She brought a management style to the Committee which was a combination of openness, fairness and consultation. It is part of the Dellums-Elrod legacy that a progressive, liberal ascended to be the head of the Armed Services Committee and led it with intelligence, vision and fairness. They rose to the occasion and discharged their leadership responsibilities to the institution.
Marilyn Elrod is a person who understands the right and responsibility of an American to thoroughly investigate government policy and, using her influence as a staff person, would always try to craft the best legislative product. She did it with a sense of humor, a sense of duty and above all, a sense of patriotism. She is a dedicated American in the finest tradition, and this institution will greatly miss her.
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