For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 13, 2001
Remarks by the President at Bill Signing Ceremony
The Rose Garden
2:02 P.M. EST
THE
PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Please be
seated. It's my honor to welcome you all to the Rose
Garden. So many friends and colleagues of Joe Moakley are
here -- I want to thank you all for coming. This is the first bill
signing ceremony to take place in the Rose Garden since I've been the
President. And I'm glad to be part of an event honoring a
distinguished member of the United States Congress.
After
today, the U.S. Courthouse, located at 1 Courthouse Way in Boston, will
be officially known as the John Joseph Moakley United States
Courthouse. (Applause.) It is a fitting tribute
to a remarkable man.
Joe Moakley
is a man of strong opinions and broad respect. And in this
town it isn't always easy to combine the two, but over a long career
he's been able to do so. He's a self-described
bread-and-butter Democrat. Others know him as a formidable
advocate for his party's cause. Ever since he joined the House of
Representatives in 1972, he has made the cares and concerns of everyday
people his business.
Joe is not
only a passionate advocate for what he believes in, he's an enormously
effective member of Congress. Representative Moakley
understands how the United States House of Representatives operates; he
knows its rules and he knows its ways.
But what
makes Joe Moakley exceptional is not simply his political skills, it is
the fact that he's so well-liked and admired by members of both
political parties. Joe has a well-deserved reputation for
being civil, friendly and funny. Members love his sharp
Irish sense of humor. They admire his courage in the face of
adversity. And a few past members of the Rules Committee
even liked his singing voice. Notice I said a
few. (Laughter.)
But above
everything else, Joe Moakley has brought honor to his
profession. Some people run for office by trying to tear
down the institutions of government. Not this man from South
Boston. Joe loves the United States Congress, and he loves
public service.
Like Robert
Kennedy, another son of Massachusetts, Joe Moakley considers politics
to be an honorable profession, an opportunity for achievement and a
truly exciting adventure. If Speaker McCormack and Speaker
O'Neill where here today, they would have a simple tribute to this good
man: Well done, John Joseph Moakley. You served
your constituents and your Congress and your country with honor and
distinction.
Congressman
Moakley. (Applause.)
REPRESENTATIVE
MOAKLEY: Thank you very much, Mr. President. And
since this is your first bill signing here in the Rose Garden, I'm sure
you'll never forget it. (Laughter.) But,
seriously, to have this courthouse in South Boston is probably the
highest honor I can think of.
As a
youngster of six or seven, I used to go down there, and all the
railroad cars used to come up from the south and they'd unload their
vegetables and fruits. And we used to wait for the
watermelons. And of course, somebody would always drop a
watermelon, and once they dropped it, it was ours.
But,
unfortunately, in that neighborhood, nothing happened for 60 years but
that watermelon breaking. Now, with the infusion of federal
money, and with the hard work of my colleagues in the Senate, led by
Senator Kennedy, and my colleagues in the House, there is now a
beautiful courthouse there. And it's the only federal
building in South Boston.
So I'm very
happy that you felt, Mr. President, that you could sign this
legislation that was shepherded so quickly through the House by my
colleagues from the Massachusetts delegation, so quickly through the
Senate by Senator Kennedy and Senator Kerry. And I'll always
be in your debt for this.
I always
thought, growing up, that my name would be on some federal building,
but I thought it might be written in chalk with some political
expletive right behind it. (Laughter.) And to
have it etched in the courthouse, the state-of-the-art courthouse --
and if you people haven't seen the courthouse, please visit
it. It's a beautiful, beautiful courthouse.
And this is
a very graphic example of how the federal government spent so much
money to spur the economy. As a result of this courthouse,
we're going to get billions and billions of dollars worth of new
building -- office buildings, condominiums, it's going to revitalize an
area that up until now was just a haven of low-grade commercial
uses. And it's just a wonderful experience that we're going
to have rapid transit down there now. Up until this time, it was like
the Sahara Desert -- everybody knew where it was, but nobody wanted to
go there.
So, Mr.
President, your final act of signing this bill today really puts the
cap on it. And my family, my brothers and their wives, and
my friends and myself feel very indebted to you for helping speed this
bill through.
And, you
know, it's nice to be on the same side of the grass that the monument
that honors you is on. And for a while, I didn't think I was
going to make it. I feel fine. On a day like
this, the good Lord is sharing His
sunshine with us and allowed the
President to have this in this wonderful,
wonderful Rose Garden. And these are
memories that I'll take with me.
Thank you
very much. (Applause.)
END
2:12 P.M. EST
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