Volume 153, No. 65 covering the 1st Session of the 110th Congress (2007 - 2008) 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.
“RACHEL CARSON POST OFFICE BUILDING” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3733-H3735 on April 23, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
RACHEL CARSON POST OFFICE BUILDING
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1434) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 896 Pittsburgh Street in Springdale, Pennsylvania, as the ``Rachel Carson Post Office Building''.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1434
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. RACHEL CARSON POST OFFICE BUILDING.
(a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal Service located at 896 Pittsburgh Street in Springdale, Pennsylvania, shall be known and designated as the ``Rachel Carson Post Office Building''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Rachel Carson Post Office Building''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
As a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am pleased to join with my colleagues in the consideration of H.R. 1434, which names the postal facility in Springdale, Pennsylvania after Rachel Carson.
H.R. 1434, which was introduced by Representative Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania on March 9, 2007, was reported from the Oversight Committee on March 29, 2007, by voice vote. This measure, which has been cosponsored by 40 Members, has the support of the entire Pennsylvania, congressional delegation.
Starting in the mid-1940s, Ms. Carson became concerned about the use of newly invented pesticides, especially dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane, better known as DDT. This turned into an amazing thesis she entitled ``Silent Spring.'' ``Silent Spring'' focused on the environment and the effect of pesticides on humans. This was known as Carson's greatest work. She worked to defend the claims in ``Silent Spring'' until her death. It is believed that Carson's ``Silent Spring'' was the catalyst for the United States taking a more in-depth look at the use of pesticides, as well as the founding of government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague for seeking to honor the memory, legacy, and contributions of Rachel Carson and urge swift passage of this legislation.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to speak in total support of the naming of this post office.
As a member of the committee, I thoroughly support the fact that we have not yet done enough to recognize some of the brave people from the past who created the government, the good parts of government that we take credit for every day. Certainly, I believe this is a good example. Not only was she, in fact, the person most responsible for recognizing the dangers of DDT and leading to the banning of it, but, quite frankly, Rachel Carson, in her novel ``Silent Spring,'' brought to the forefront the very concept of writing works which are widely read, and, in fact, can make a real difference in America's point of view.
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Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in a rural area of Springdale, Pennsylvania, where she first acquired her interest in nature. Majoring in marine biology, with a strong background in creative writing, she graduated from Chatham College in 1929 magna cum laude. Despite financial difficulties, Ms. Carson continued her studies at Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 1932 with a graduate degree in zoology. While expanding her great passion about zoology and other living things, Carson taught at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Maryland while pursuing her doctorate degree.
Due to financial circumstances, Carson found a part-time position as a writer for radio scripts at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. She was faced with sexist resistance, not uncommon at that time, not uncommon at this time, as she took the civil service exam, but after obtaining a high score, she was given a full-time position as a junior aquatic biologist at the Bureau of Fisheries. At the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, Ms. Carson submitted one of her radio scripts, named
``Undersea,'' to the Atlantic Monthly, which was published in 1937. Publishers, impressed with her writing, encouraged her to expand the article into book entitled Under the Sea-Wind.
Carson continued to write. Her second book, The Sea Around Us, was on the New York Times best seller list for 86 weeks and won the 1952 National Book Award and earned her two honorary doctorates. The book was then made into an Oscar-winning documentary. Her writing achievements did not end here, as she went on to publish a third and fourth book and write numerous magazine articles.
Ms. Carson's fourth and legendary book, Silent Spring, greatly influenced the way Americans thought about the environment and was discussed by President John F. Kennedy. One of the main themes of her novel was how all aspects of the environment were connected. She explained that when one uses a pesticide to exterminate a particular organism, the poison travels up the entire food chain, ultimately affecting large animals and humans. With the publication of Silent Spring, Carson was able to draw in reputable scientists in support of her cause of responsible DDT usage and help spread awareness of its impact on the environment.
Rachel Carson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received many honors, including the Audubon Medal and the Cullen Medal of the American Geographical Society, for her achievements. Unfortunately, poor health kept Ms. Carson from witnessing the ban on DDT in the United States, as she passed away in 1964. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980.
Carson's legacy lives on as the quiet and consistent voice urging people to come to terms with nature. The major conference room at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency is named the Rachel Carson Room. The Rachel Carson State Office Building is located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and is home to the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. There are also numerous bridges, parks, and schools which bear her name as well.
To further recognize and honor her contributions in the centennial celebration of her birth and to honor her life as a teacher, scientist, environmentalist, activist, and, most of all, writer, please join me in supporting and passing H.R. 1434.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield such time as he may consume to the sponsor of this bill, one of the outstanding new Members of the House, Representative Jason Altmire, from Pennsylvania.
Mr. ALTMIRE. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois and the gentleman from California for their very eloquent remarks.
This is a very special day for me. I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania, right across the river from Springdale, Pennsylvania, where Rachel Carson was born and raised and where she is truly a legendary figure. She is an icon in western Pennsylvania, and this is a very special year for Rachel Carson's memory because May 27, 2007, would have been Rachel Carson's 100th birthday.
And she has received tremendous honors throughout her life. We do have, as the gentleman said, bridges named after her and schools and other things. But I can think of no greater representation for the beginning of Rachel Carson and the beginning of the modern environmental movement than to have the post office in her hometown of Springdale named after her. And, ironically, Springdale itself last year celebrated its centennial, so she was born in the very early days of Springdale. And this bill has widespread support throughout the district that I represent, the Fourth Congressional District where Springdale is located, but also throughout all of western Pennsylvania and all of Pennsylvania. And I do thank the gentleman for his kind remarks. But I wanted to talk a little bit about Rachel Carson.
As I said, she was born in 1907 in Springdale. She graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women, which currently is known as Chatham College. And Rachel Carson got her degree in English, which would serve her well in her writing career over the years. She earned her master's degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University, so she has very strong ties to Maryland, and I am going to talk a little bit more about that because she taught zoology at the University of Maryland, right down the road from where we are right now. And while she continued her studies at the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woodshole, Massachusetts, she continued her teaching career. So in the very early days, she was getting to know the environment and getting a greater understanding of the world around her and what was to come in her life.
Now, according to Time Magazine, ``It was there in her early twenties that she first saw and became enchanted with the enormous mysteries of the sea.'' And as I talked about, this was a lifelong passion for Rachel Carson. Her early writings at the time focused on the waters and the seas, and I believe a lot of that has to do with her upbringing in Springdale, Pennsylvania, because the Allegheny River flows right through the town there, right along the river, and she spent a lot of time studying the river in her youth growing up. And the Rachel Carson homestead, which is her childhood home, has been restored. And there is an active and ongoing presence there in the town, and the stories are legendary about her spending hours and hours of time sitting there on the riverbank, studying the waters and thinking about it. And those who knew her at the time knew that that was her passion and that was going to be the direction of her career and her life.
In 1936 she went to work as a junior aquatic biologist at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, again very suitable to someone with that level of interest and that educational background. She was the second woman in the history of the agency to hold a full-time professional position. So she was a trailblazer right from the start. And her early writings, as the gentleman from California mentioned, Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea, celebrated the wonders of nature and continued her ongoing expertise and interest in aquatics and the sea. The Sea Around Us won the John Burroughs Medal, which was then the equivalent of what is today the National Book Award. So here we see the beginnings of a writing career. And this is where her English degree comes back, and she now has expertise in not only zoology and water and the Bureau of Fisheries as her profession, but she begins a long and fruitful career as an author, so she wins what is then the equivalent of the National Book Award. And within the first year, this was in the 1930s, that book sold over 200,000 copies.
Rachel Carson is most famous, of course, for her book, Silent Spring, which was published in 1962, and it criticizes the use of pesticides, particularly DDT, but not exclusively. It is widely created with launching the modern environmental movement, including Earth Day, which just over this past weekend we celebrated Earth Day all across the country while Rachel Carson is credited with the founding of that movement as well. So, again, this is a very timely measure today, and I do encourage my colleagues to support it.
I did want to mention that, unfortunately, it was not long after the publishing of Silent Spring that Rachel Carson took ill and breast cancer took her life at the early age of 56, in 1964. But that did not end the legacy of Rachel Carson. In 1980 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which all of our Members here know that is an incredible honor to be bestowed upon someone. And in 1999 Time Magazine recognized Rachel Carson as one of the 20th century's 100 most influential Americans, again a fantastic and well-deserved honor.
So, again, throughout western Pennsylvania this year, her 100th birthday we are celebrating Rachel Carson. And it is important, having just had Earth Day over the weekend and the increasing awareness of the environment around us, that we do allow Springdale Township, where this is a very popular measure and something that we have been waiting to see this day come. I would ask my colleagues to show their support and recognize the tremendous contributions that Rachel Carson has had not only for western Pennsylvania, not only for the United States of America, but around the world. She truly is an icon, and she truly did change the world.
So at this time I would like to thank the gentleman from Illinois for allowing me to bring this bill forward. I thank the committee, and I thank the gentleman from California.
Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure now to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for yielding me the time.
Just a few points about Rachel Carson and Silent Spring and the profound transformational effect that that book had on our society.
She was a Federal employee. She worked for the predecessor of the Fish and Wildlife Service. She was recognized, even as a child, as an outstanding writer. But she saw something that she knew was wrong, and she dedicated her life to changing the future for subsequent generations of Americans and really changed the world in terms of its view of pesticides.
At that time it wasn't just that pesticides were being poured all over farms but in our own residential neighborhoods. I can remember, I am old enough to remember, the big clouds of pesticides, and we would run in and out of them, and we would follow the pesticide truck on bicycles, and we had no idea this was poisonous stuff that was being put into our lungs, our atmosphere. And yet at that time the pesticide industry came up with a doctor, he was on television, everybody watched him as he said that she was absolutely wrong. There was no substance to her allegations; that if people listened seriously to her, it would cause widespread disease and poverty all over the world.
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And he said that the scientific evidence shows that there is no harm to these pesticides, these toxic chemicals. One might refer to that when we look at some of the other trailblazers who had the courage to speak up, despite those who too readily condemn them because they are making a profit from current conditions. Climate change, endocrine disruptions and the like. She had the kind of courage and intellect and goodness of spirit to change the world. I am very pleased that she is getting a little recognition from the Congress today.
Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In closing, I think this is so appropriate that we consider today, at a time when we are looking at ever more vexing issues of the use of pesticides, the need for pesticides, the international conventions. I will be part of a group, House and Senate, that will be in Belgium this weekend where one of the major topics will be meeting with the Europeans on the next step in finding ways to limit or eliminate various pesticides, in addition to the constant effort to deal with ozone-depleting chemicals.
We are, today, as a result of her work, we are in fact smarter in the way we look at the chemicals that bring good things to life, as I think that we once said. We don't assume they are bad. We do test to make sure that what they do good for us is well measured against the side effects. That was a standard created as a result of Rachel Carson. We are honored to have had somebody who worked for the Federal Government, who published and who cared and who persevered throughout her entire life.
I join with the majority in urging the swift passage of this bill.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, to close, let me just thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for introducing this legislation, and the gentleman from California for his eloquent statements in support of it.
And I sort of reflected, as I listened to Representative Moran, that it is good to have all of the eloquence and all of the youth, but to have been there and be old enough to remember, I join with him because I remember DDT as I was growing up in rural America, and the utilization of it as people would spray their crops and use it to fight pesticides, but were endangering themselves. And there was a great deal of fear and consternation.
So again, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for introducing this legislation. I urge its support.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1434.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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