David Price: “I thank my colleague for yielding and for taking up this Special Order to focus on the role of the Endowments for the…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding and for taking up this Special Order to focus on the role of the Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities in American life and the need for us in this body to have some historical perspective and appreciation of that, and to rise to the occasion of the challenge presented by the Trump preliminary budget to make certain that these efforts are appreciated, and, more importantly, that they are funded, that they are supported in this body and in our budget for fiscal 2018. I am glad that the gentleman took some time to give us a history lesson. He comes by this advocacy honestly because he is the Representative from Rhode Island. The inspiration behind the Endowments, back in the 1960s, was Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, a towering figure in the Senate. I suppose I am one of the few Members around here who has been around long enough to remember Claiborne Pell. I never served with him, but I was a young staff member in the U.S. Senate when Claiborne Pell was going strong. I first got a job as a summer intern and then returned summer after summer. I ended up writing a dissertation out of the Senate office of Senator Bob Bartlett of Alaska who was a friend and collaborator of Claiborne Pell's. Pell had many things going. I remember his chairman, Senator Lister Hill of Alabama. When I interviewed him at one point, he remarked on Claiborne and how just Claiborne had everything going.…”