Political Quotes

“I rise to support giving long overdue honor to a man who will be remembered as a great chair of the Committee on Education and Labor. "Gus" Hawkins, as he was affectionately called, will be remembered for many significant federal laws that he authored. His name has become synonymous with the Humphrey-Hawkins Act to set our country on the course in pursuit of the often-elusive balance between full employment, balanced growth, and minimal inflation. However, I want speak especially to Chairman Hawkins' work as the author of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I had the good fortune to chair the EEOC during a period when Gus Hawkins was chair of the House Education and Labor Committee. I came to the agency when it was only ten years old and had had a rocky management tenure. Faced with no experience in handling large numbers of complicated cases, the Commission had developed a crippling backlog. The EEOC was fortunate during that period, and later during my own tenure, to have in chairman. Hawkins a dedicated, no nonsense taskmaster who insisted that the agency reform itself so that it could deliver the equal job opportunity the statute envisioned.”