The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

   Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the privilege to be recognized here on the floor of the House of Representatives and to have the privilege to make some remarks tonight about the life of a former colleague for some of the Members here in Congress and one of the real stars in the Sioux City area that I have the privilege to represent today, and that is the life of former Congressman Wiley Mayne who passed away a little over a week ago at St. Luke's Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa.

   Late Congressman Mayne represented the 6th Congressional District of Iowa for 8 years here in this Congress. That was during a time when this country experienced great turmoil. He came from Sioux City and represented much of the northwest Iowa area. He was elected to Congress in 1966 and was sworn in here on this floor in 1967 and served until the early days of 1975.

   As you know, Mr. Speaker, the '60s and the '70s were tumultuous years for America. But despite the challenges before him, Congressman Mayne accepted an appointment to the Judiciary Committee. Serving on the Judiciary Committee, I appreciate what that means. Only a few years later, he participated in that panel's hearings on the impeachment of President Nixon. That was in the wake of the Watergate break-ins but actually before the Nation heard the tapes that confirmed what actually happened. For his service to America during this tense time, he will be long remembered; and to a significant extent it defined his political career.

   Tonight, we are here to celebrate a man whose service and accomplishments went well beyond the work of any congressional committee.

   Mr. Speaker, I have much to say about the gentleman whom I have had the great privilege to represent, former Congressman Wiley Mayne.

   But I inherited that representation from the gentleman next to me, who also represented the Sioux City area for, I believe, 8 years prior to my privilege to represent them, and that's the gentleman to my left, Congressman Latham, who now represents the north central regions of Iowa, and I would at this time yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham).

   Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank very much Congressman King for the time.

   It is very difficult for me to talk about someone that I admired so much as Wiley Mayne, the idea of him having passed this earth. Wiley was born back in 1917. He passed away on May 27 of this year. He was born in a little town of Sanborn up in O'Brien County, and what a great area up there, a lot of the good Dutch men, and grew up, went to school there.

   And you think about someone coming from Sanborn, Iowa, then going off to Harvard to college, and he got his bachelor of science degree, continued studying law at Harvard, came back to Iowa and finished his law degree at the Iowa Law School.

   In 1941, he joined the FBI and had his career there. And then, during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1943, he served in the United States Navy and escorted destroyers through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific and served his Nation extraordinarily well at that time.

   He came back to Sioux City, practiced law for a couple decades, then became the president of the Iowa Bar Association and obviously was so admired and respected by his peers to have an honor bestowed on him like that.

   Like the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) said, Congressman Mayne was elected to this Congress in 1966 in the 90th Congress, served in that Congress and the three following Congresses and served his people extraordinarily well. He was someone who was dedicated to his constituents, someone that cared all the time about his constituents.

   And you talk to people who were around him at that time, and that's the thing that you will hear over and over, was his concern, his great job of representing his constituents. In my mind, in this job, that is our highest calling is to try and represent to the best of our abilities the people that we are honored to serve in this great body.

   Like Congressman King said, Congressman Mayne had the committee assignments, both Judiciary and obviously with the Watergate investigation and his service on that panel, then also served on the Ag Committee, very, very important to the Iowa interests, and served extremely well.

   The thing I will always remember about Wiley, though, is his deep love and devotion to his wife, Betty. And they were a couple. You'd have the pleasure of meeting up with them at a lot of Republican events and around, but they rarely missed anything, were always so much part of the community.

   And Wiley served on the Sioux City Orchestra Board for years and years, I think was president for 20 years, but so involved in the community.

   But his love for Betty, who he unfortunately lost back in 2001, was devastating to Wiley, and was such a model of a couple who cared for each other, cared for their community, and certainly, most importantly to them were their children.

   Martha Smith, who is their oldest daughter, lives in Colorado now. Wiley, Jr., also I believe lives in Colorado, and their youngest, John, who's a very good, personal friend of mine, who has been such a great help to me personally and to so many people throughout the Sioux City area, but their love for their family, for their grandchildren, for their community was something that was an example for everyone to see and their dedication to their grandchildren especially.

   It is very, very difficult to think about Wiley not being around. I think back when I first ran for Congress back in 1994, and to go over to Sioux City, where I wasn't really familiar with all that many people at that time, but I had the real pleasure and honor to get acquainted with Wiley and John and Betty at that time and to seek their support and which they gave me. And I would not be successful here today if it were not for the advice, counsel and support that they gave me. Wiley was just a wonderful, wonderful person.

   When you think about people who always are thinking beyond themselves, who act on behalf of other people, who are truly concerned about what this country stands for, what their community is about, how they can better the world that they live in for their children and for their grandchildren, Wiley Mayne was one of those people, and he will be dearly missed by so many people throughout Siouxland for so long.

   And certainly, I want to extend my personal condolences to the entire Mayne family, all the children, the grandchildren, all the friends that mourn his loss, as certainly I do, and I know Congressman King does, also.

   But he was an example to me. I went through the predicament, the situation with the impeachment process for President Clinton, and the first person that I called for counsel was Wiley Mayne because he had been through it. And I think people misrepresented what his real position was because he was betrayed by President Nixon, but to get his counsel, to get his insight, to get his thoughts, someone who was so smart and so normal, who could talk in real terms, who could relay not only the facts but the emotions, the feeling, the real sentiment about what this was all about and the long-term, historical part of what was happening.

   I just want to tell Congressman King, I appreciate the chance to visit a little bit about Wiley, but I'm going to miss him personally. And again, I just extend my most sincere condolences to his entire family.

   And the best thing we can do for Wiley is to celebrate him, celebrate his life, celebrate the positive things that he did and celebrate the legacy that he has left for the folks in Sioux City, for Siouxland and the State of Iowa and for this entire country.

   And I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

   Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham) for contributing his time to this cause, and then for me it is a privilege, also.

   I wonder, if Wiley were here today, what he would say about Tom Latham actually being the first Republican Congressman to represent Sioux City who had not been educated at Harvard since 1966. I would imagine he would have a couple remarks to make about that had he given it any thought. I'm going to be interested to hear what the family might have to say about that as well.

   It is one of the things that is the distinction as the second Republican who isn't Harvard-educated, but there has been a certain trend that's there. And I think one of the consistent themes that you hear and one of those certainly that I reflect in my experience in time with Congressman Wiley Mayne was the fact that he was a consummate gentleman, and I can see him sitting there at those events with that smile on his face. He enjoyed sometimes just watching, listening to speakers, watching people, meeting people, being part of it, didn't have to be in the center of the action, but enjoyed being where there was activity and people. And there was a certain glow about him, and the consummate gentleman portion of that was a portion that I always recall.

   And my last memories are sitting in his conference room there in the attorney's office with his son, John, and talking politics, talking current events, talking all kinds of things but never with a sense of what was high stress or high intensity. If my approach to things gets to be a little bit herky jerky, his was always smooth and well-thought out, with a course in mind.

   And one of the comments that I've heard that's consistently come up has been, if you find yourself on opposite sides with Wiley Mayne, you still end up being his friend in the end, and that's an Iowa characteristic perhaps. I'd like to think it is, but it's a characteristic that certainly Congressman Wiley Mayne carried with him throughout his life and his service here.

   I've had a number of Members come to me today that have served with Wiley in this Congress, and some have asked the opportunity to revise and extend their remarks, and we'll see more of this Congressional Record unfold as we commemorate the life of Congressman Wiley Mayne.

   And so what I would like to do, if the gentleman is ready, is simply be in a position to wrap up my thoughts at the conclusion of this period of time. In order to do that, I'd be very happy to yield to the other gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Braley), who is more of a new arrival here to this Congress.

   Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa.

   It's my honor to be here to honor the life and memory of Wiley Mayne. I did not have the good fortune of meeting Wiley, but I did know his son John very well. And if children are a reflection of their parents, then he certainly was a wonderful person.

   And actually, I'm here for many reasons. One of them is, Wiley and I had many things in common. Wiley was an elder in a Presbyterian church in Sioux City, and I was an elder in a Presbyterian church in Waterloo.

   He was a past president of the Iowa State Bar Association from 1963 to 1964, had a distinguished service in the U.S. Naval Reserves serving on destroyer escort duty in World War II.

   But I think one of the things that Congressman King mentioned that Congressman Latham and I and all of the other Members of the Iowa delegation feel so strongly about is that Wiley was the type of person who really exemplified what we feel are Iowa values. He was somebody who believed that representing his constituents did not require him to tear down someone else or their constituents.

   He was an incredibly handsome man, if any of you have seen pictures of him. His dedication to his family was evident from the way that he lived his life.

   When I had the opportunity to work with his son, John, on some cases up in the Sioux City area, we spent a lot of time talking about his father and the work he did in the House of Representatives and how proud he was to serve the constituents of northwest Iowa. And I know that his constituents remember him and remember that he also exemplified what it means to take tough votes based upon your conscience and your convictions and sometimes having to pay the price for that.

   So I was very, very honored to be asked to come tonight and to speak on behalf of Representative Mayne. He will be missed by his family, his friends and his many constituents that he served in the northwest Iowa Sixth

   Mr. KING of Iowa. Well, I thank Mr. Braley, and in reclaiming my time, I appreciate you coming to the floor tonight to enter your remarks into this Record and to voice your sentiments about Wiley Mayne. I didn't realize that you had a relationship that had connected across the State over to Sioux City and with John and with Wiley.

   And I'm always pleased to find out that sometimes we think that it's a small world, but in fact, I think it's a big neighborhood.

   Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. It is a big neighborhood, and Iowa is a large State geographically but small in many ways, and that's why it's so nice when these things come around full circle.

   And I know that his family will miss him. I know they were very, very proud of his many accomplishments, and I just want them to know that my thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time.

   And we certainly are proud to be here tonight to honor this great Iowan.

   Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank very much Mr. Braley, and I'd like to reflect upon some of the things that have been written and said about Wiley Mayne, former Congressman, and most recently passed away Congressman Wiley Mayne. These are just some blogs that were posted in the paper.

   And I would reflect that, when you've been out of public life since the first days of 1975, and 33 years pretty much, that's a lot of time that's passed. And it's more than just a generation, and it approaches a second generation. And many of the people that live in the Sioux City area were not there and maybe were not born yet when Wiley Mayne was our Congressman.

   I remember those days, though, when he was, and I remember his image he had in our household. And we spoke reverently of Wiley Mayne for the positions of character that he took, and we watched him go through the agonizing period of time during the Watergate break-ins and the period of time that was very tumultuous.

   We were in the middle of Vietnam War. We had the Watergate break-in. It's interesting that Marilyn and I were married on the same day of the Watergate break-ins, as was Governor Branstad on June 17, 1972. That's how we remember that.

   Wiley Mayne was my Congressman then. We had great reverence for him and great respect for his integrity. But the reflection back on that, that many years, to inspire someone to go to the keyboard and type some words in to post on a blog that may not be read, but they will be, because I think it's important for me to put this into the Record.

   Here is one from Mr. Joel Greer, and it's published May 29. ``Wiley Mayne is one of the last of the fine, older generation of gentleman lawyers that have made Iowa a good place to practice law. By the end of the case he had against me, we were friends. I loved travelling to depositions with him because he had so much worldly experience but was so humble. He gave good counsel to clients. He comported himself well as our Congressman. He was the consummate volunteer as President of the State Bar Association. I am pleased to have known him, and I thank his family for sharing him.''

   I second those sentiments.

   From Mr. Ronald Scott, same day. ``It was a pleasure to have met Congressman Mayne. He was a friend of my father, Harold Scott; and I met the Congressman when I had my first trip to Washington, D.C., in 1968. I deeply appreciated the time Congressman Mayne spent with our family. I remember him as a true gentleman and an excellent representative.''

   Think of that, from 1968 until a little over a week ago, to have made that kind of an impression on a visit here, that that would cause Ronald Scott to go to the keyboard and put those words in on the passing of Congressman Wiley Mayne.

   Here is a gentleman I do know, Mr. Keith Uhl, who happens to be an attorney. ``As a member of Ben Reifel's (R-SD) staff in Washington D.C., '68-'72 we worked closely Congressman Mayne in Iowa and South Dakota. Wiley was always pleasant, cooperative and effective. His spirit continues thru his efforts for many. As growing up in Mapleton, Iowa, then the western Iowa communities appreciated his fine representation. God Bless. Keith Uhl, Des Moines & Mapleton, Iowa.''

   Those are some of the sentiments that have come out about Wiley Mayne. I have a series of things that have been repeated by Members who have come here to speak about Congressman Wiley Mayne.

   But as I look across his record, I can't help but reflect that his expertise went beyond being a congressman, of course. He went on to also being President of the Iowa State Bar Association, where he served with distinction; and he was also a trumpet player in college. I noticed in one with of the obituaries that I read that not only was he successful there, but he was also successful in debate, which would be a natural thing.

   I would have liked to have had the opportunity to have debated with him on opposite sides to see how he actually comported himself when I get a little wound up. I expect that he would have still applied his gentle nature and his keen intellect and his insightfulness to probably calm me down a little bit, and I would not have wanted to be in a position where I hoped to prevail in that particular debate.

   But his roots going back into Sanborn, Iowa, where he was born and raised and graduated from high school there in 1934. He actually won the Iowa State oratory and the trumpet competitions as a senior in high school. He went on then to Harvard, and he became chairman of the Kirkland House, and he was order of his class there in 1938. That's some pretty tough competition, I would say.

   Just 3 years later, he graduated from the Iowa law school and received one of the highest bar exam scores in the 1941 Iowa bar exam test. Now we can look back on his life and see a great leap in maturity for a young man, even as well educated as Wiley Mayne.

   In fact, we can look back and see his life shifted greatly to a life-long commitment to public service, especially at the tumultuous times that I mentioned earlier. But from 1941 until 1943, Congressman Mayne was a Special Agent with the FBI, assigned here in Washington D.C., also Los Angeles and San Francisco.

   Then he heard the call to serve our Nation's military; and during the thick of the fighting during World War II, he entered into the U.S. Naval Reserve as a lieutenant with the Judge Advocate General in the Navy. From 1943 to 1946, he served aboard a destroyer escort, the USS Stockdale, in the north Atlantic, which was a difficult place, but also the Mediterranean and the Pacific, another difficult place to be.

   Upon returning to the States, he began practicing law in Sioux City; and from 1946 until 1964 he practiced law in Sioux City during some of that time. And 1963 was

   the year that he served as President of the Iowa State Bar Association and then also as a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association from 1966 until 1968.

   He was also chairman of the Grievance Commission of the Iowa Supreme Court and Commissioner of Uniform State Laws. He has a long history in working to help support our laws and our community.

   But, again, at a time of turmoil, Congressman Mayne was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 to represent northwest Iowa. There he served for 8 years as Congressman of Iowa's 6th Congressional District.

   But as a member of the Judiciary, and we haven't mentioned yet the Agriculture Committee, and it's interesting that I have the privilege to serve on both the Judiciary Committee and on the House Agriculture Committee. To some degree, I have the duty and the responsibility, however heavy and difficult the load, of carrying on some of Congressman Mayne's legacy in both of those locations.

   It has been inspiring to me to be able to serve on the Judiciary and on the Agriculture Committee. It's odd that a nonlawyer like myself could serve on the Judiciary Committee, but it's also not odd at all that a lawyer from Sioux City would serve western Iowa, northwest Iowa, in the United States Congress and serve on the House Agriculture Committee, because, of course, of Iowa being one of the leading agriculture States.

   We grew up with agriculture all around us. It doesn't matter whether you are a lawyer or a pastor or a bulldozer operator, you are going to know something about agriculture. You cannot escape it if you grow up in the State of Iowa, especially if you are born and raised in Sanborn, Iowa. But I have the great privilege of serving on the two committees that Wiley Mayne served on.

   But he also served as a delegate to the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in 1973, and it was during Congressman Mayne's final term in the Judiciary Committee in which he served where they investigated a break-in at the office of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. He was one of 10 Republicans that served on the Judiciary Committee that voted not to impeach President Nixon.

   But shortly after that the Watergate tapes were revealed. Congressman Mayne stated that, as that evidence came out, he didn't have enough evidence at the time that he voted to vote for impeachment of President Nixon, but after the tapes came out, it became, the preponderance of evidence, that Mr. Mayne announced he would have voted differently if that information had been available to him at the time.

   That's an intellectually honest way for one to conduct themselves in this Congress. The integrity that he held through that is part of the legacy that's here and part of our obligation to uphold. I don't believe that history has judged him as well as he deserves on that issue, and he was straight up all the time in our family and household as we discussed this issue. We judged him as a man of character, a man who called them as he saw them, a man who felt the obligations to serve his country and did so and gave us a straight answer each and every time.

   But the hindsight was superior to the foresight, and that will always be the case in the real world. But sometimes history is not forgiving; and I think, though, that the legacy that Wiley Mayne has left here has overcome any of those senses, because we know he did what he believed was right at a time that what did he know and when did he know it might be the question he would pose if he were here today to ask it. I think he acted appropriately and honorably on the information he knew when he knew it. The record will show that. History should judge that, and we need to honor his effort in that fashion.

   In recapping this, I want to express my sense of sympathy to the family of Congressman Wiley Mayne, to his two sons and daughter and their children, the grandchildren that are part also of his legacy. I want to express that sympathy and that appreciation for having known him and having the privilege to have been able to call him a friend and a supporter and an adviser. But I think I am more the beneficiary of having been his constituent than I was of any other component.

   He served me as one of his constituents and a resident in northwest Iowa during those years, and he inspired my family and the people around me. He helped lead us through some very difficult times. He was a steady hand at the throttle when we needed a steady hand.

   When the time came for him to leave this Congress, he left this Congress graciously, gracefully, with honor and dignity and integrity. He left a legacy of those adjectives, and his family remembers it well.

   The Siouxland area remembers him well. We can't say enough good about a man who made this kind of contribution and had an extraordinarily good life, a long life, for the most part a healthy life with a good family and good friends.

   He very much enjoyed his time here in this Congress and his time as a retired Member of Congress, but a very active member of the Siouxland community who will long remember Wiley Mayne. We will regret losing him, but celebrate his life and extend our sympathies to his family.

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