[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 169 (Monday, October 30, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11423-H11424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IN MEMORIAM: HON. B.F. ``BERNIE'' SISK (1910-1995)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from California [Mr. Radanovich] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. RADANOVICH. Madam Speaker, it is my sad duty to inform the House
of the loss of one of our former Members, the Honorable Bernice
Frederic Sisk. ``Bernie,'' as he was widely and popularly known was
first elected to Congress in 1954. His service began in the 84th
Congress and continued for 11 succeeding Congresses. He was not a
candidate for re-election in 1978, returning to his Fresno, California
home where he lived and served the community in many ways until he went
to his final rest on Wednesday of this week--October 25.
Mr. Speaker, I have the honor to represent today much of the area of
California that Congressman Sisk served during his near quarter century
in this House. Thus, I am familiar with his legacy and I know from
countless constituents the admiration and respect in which he was held.
What was written by Capital commentators over time about Congressman
Sisk is worth recalling as we honor his memory. In the 1972 Almanac of
American Politics, reference is made to how his ingratiating
personality and conservative record saw him, an important figure in the
House, become a candidate for Majority Leader in late 1970.
I feel a kinship with my late predecessor, Mr. Speaker, not only
because of geographical identity and his conservatism--even though my
party was not his--but also because of his main legislative interest,
namely, agriculture, and his sponsorship of major water projects for
California's Central Valley. Indeed, the San Luis Dam of the Central
Valley Project is named for him.
Our community also applauded ``Bernie'' Sisk's legislative leadership
in 1977 when he moved to the fore in connection with health care cost
control related to Medicare. According to Congressional Quarterly
Almanac, he relayed concerns from his district about the effects of an
administration plan. He said, according to CQ, ``hospitals must have
some way to control the cost of their supplies if they were required to
control their revenues.'' The publication reports that Congressman Sisk
said hospitals in his area had complained that Federal regulations had
become too binding, preventing economy measures that the hospitals
wanted to institute. ``There must be more flexibility,'' he is reported
as saying.
Probably no better statement of the legacy of Congressman Sisk could
be expressed than that of our former colleague, Congressman Tony
Coelho, who once served as Congressman Sisk's administrative assistant
here on the Hill. Tony told me today, ``No single individual did more
to advance the economy and growth of the Central Valley than Bernie
Sisk.''
Mr. Speaker, Congressman Sisk's passing is a loss to our community
and country. To his family, friends, and all he served with great
distinction, I express my sincerest sympathy.
In further esteem for his memory, I ask that there be included with
my remarks the published obituary from the Fresno Bee of October 26,
1995, entitled ``Congressman Leaves Legacy.''
Congressman Leaves Legacy
(By Felicia Cousart and Michael Doyle)
Former Congressman B.F. Sisk, who emerged from a Dust Bowl
childhood to become a longtime political power broker in the
nation's capital, died Wednesday in Fresno after a lengthy
illness.
He was 84.
Mr. Sisk, a moderate Democrat from Fresno who served in
Congress from 1955 to 1979, worked with six presidents and
four House speakers during his long tenure representing the
Valley.
The one-time tire salesman was one of the most influential
lawmakers to come from the region, benefiting not only Valley
interests but shaping national policy as well.
``There's nobody who had a greater impact on the San
Joaquin Valley than Bernie Sisk,'' said Tony Coelho, former
House majority whip and Mr. Sisk's one-time administrative
assistant. ``You can go up and down the Valley and find the
projects he put there.''
But Mr. Sisk's story is much more than the legacy of a
political mover-and-shaker. How he got there is just as
fascinating, especially for a man who professed to never have
any political ambitions until that day in 1954 when Mr. Sisk,
then 43, decided to run for office.
He upset Republican Oakley Hunter in what was then
California's 12th District and never looked back.
`political accident'
Mr. Sisk's years in Congress stretched from the laid-back
days of Eisenhower to the turmoil of Vietnam and Nixon's
Watergate to the early years of the Carter administration.
``I was a political accident,'' Mr. Sisk said in his easy
Texas drawl in 1978 when he announced he would retire. He
said he never caught what is called ``Potomac fever.''
For a ``political accident,'' Mr. Sisk's work had far-
reaching consequences, from his relentless pursuit of the San
Luis water project in the Valley to serving on a committee
that helped land the first man on the moon.
He showed a remarkable aptitude for the political game and
became a consummate player. As a member of the House Rules
Committee and House Administration Committee, he did for
other lawmakers so that they could do for him.
``That gave him a very powerful place,'' said former Sen.
Alan Cranston. ``He'd start something in the House, or I'd
start something in the Senate and then we'd work together.''
Mr. Sisk's greatest single Valley contribution is the San
Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project. Recently, the San
Luis Dam was re-named B.F. Sisk San Luis Dam. The project
includes the vast reservoir near Los Banos and 115 miles of
canals that help irrigate farmland between Los Banos and
Kettleman City.
At more than 2 million acre-feet, the San Luis Reservoir is
the largest reservoir in the world without a natural stream.
``I'm not sure anybody else could have gotten it through,''
Coelho said.
And there are other projects that exist because of Mr.
Sisk.
Communities like Sanger, Selma, Madera and others tapped
into federal funds because of him. The huge Internal Revenue
Service center in Fresno, with its 3,500 permanent employees,
is in Fresno because of Mr. Sisk. The federal building in
downtown Fresno is named after Mr. Sisk.
But his reach went far beyond the Valley. When the Soviet
Union sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957, Washington went into a
tailspin. Within hours, House Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas
put together a blue-ribbon committee on science and
astronautics and appointed Mr. Sisk.
The committee acted to create the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, a move that climaxed with the United
States landing Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969.
In 1961, Rayburn again picked Mr. Sisk for another plum
assignment: serving on the power-wielding Rules Committee.
The panel is for insiders only--its members set the rules
for debate and decide which amendments can be voted on.
That committee in the early 1960's helped change history.
President Kennedy pushed to
[[Page H 11424]]
add Mr. Sisk and five other members to dilute the power of the Southern
Democratic chairman who was blocking Kennedy's agenda.
With the balance shifted, the committee moved ahead on more
progressive Democratic proposals that included civil rights,
minimum wage and education aid legislation.
important issues
Not all of Mr. Sisk's efforts were of such weighty
magnitude, but they were just as important to him.
A baseball fanatic who played the game in high school and
college, Mr. Sisk campaigned fevently to keep a professional
baseball team in Washington, D.C., when the Senators
announced they were leaving in 1971. He and other congressmen
even got a committee together.
In 1973, The Touchtown Club of Washington, one of the major
athletic clubs in the nation, gave Mr. Sisk its ``Mr. Sam
Award'' in recognition of his efforts.
Mr. Sisk had the ability to separate his personal
relationships from his political positions. For example, even
as he resisted Southern California's recurring bids for
water, he maintained good relations with all sides.
``He used to hate my client but he and I got along great,''
said Bob Will, a longtime lobbyist for the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California.
``He was one of the fairest guys I ever dealt with. If he
had a problem, he summoned me to his office and we tried to
work it out,'' Will said. ``Bernie was one of the real
doers.''
He did not always get what he wanted. He tried for the
position of House majority leader once and failed. Then he
tried for the chairmanship of the House Democratic caucus and
failed.
He had his rivals for power in California, like the late
San Francisco Congressman Phil Burton and they would maneuver
for advantage against one another.
But Mr. Sisk was never short of admirers.
``Congressman Sisk helped establish a tradition of moderate
Democrats from the Valley who are committed to furthering the
cause of Valley agriculture,'' said Rep. Cal Dooley, D-
Hanford. ``His tradition is one that I and other valley
legislators have tried to follow.''
His Republican colleague, Rep. George Radanovich of
Mariposa, said the community and nation lost a leader.
``Bernie Sisk's service and his special concerns for
California's Central Valley set a standard that all of us
respect and will long remember,'' he said.
``I wouldn't even call him a politician,'' said Tim Dillon,
former lobbyist for the Westlands Water District. ``He would
never connive. Bernie was just a fine person from the
standpoint of integrity''
his beginnings
He was born Bernice Frederick Sisk on Dec. 14, 1910, in a
house in rural Montague County in Texas. It was a family of
traditional Southern Democrats.
His father, Arthur Lee Sisk, was a farmer and his mother
was the former Lavina Thomas. He was the oldest of three
children.
It was a time when young Bernie rode to school on a horse
named Beauty, and he remembered at the age of 7 ``going with
my parents in the Model T to the Baptist Church in Alanreed
to listen to a new invention called a radio.''
In school, history was his favorite subject. He finished
high school in Meadow, Texas, where he was class
valedictorian.
It is also where he met his first wife, Reta. It was not
exactly love at first sight. Mr. Sisk had fallen for another
and ended up on a double date. Reta was the date of the other
fellow.
``Well, Reta and I soon found out we liked each other
better and became engaged to be married before we graduated
from high school,'' Mr. Sisk recalled.
They were wed on April 20, 1931, and were married for 54
years until her death in January 1986.
Reta helped keep him a down-to-earth man. She would play
annual April Fool's Day jokes on him that rarely failed to
get his goat.
After high school, Mr. Sisk enrolled in a business college
and later attended Abilene Christian College.
The Depression and drought in Texas made times tough for
the Sisks and everyone else. Their first child, Bobbye, was
born in February 1932, and their second child, Marilyn, was
born in February 1935.
Mr. Sisk found different kinds of jobs, like running a
service station and working for his father at a cotton gin,
but it got to the point where there ``were just no jobs to be
had.'' He managed to get work as a truck driver but it meant
long hours away from the family.
By 1937, it was time to move and California seemed the best
destination.
His first job paid 30 cents an hour to thin nectarines.
From there, he picked other crops until he landed a job at
California Growers Wineries near Cutler. He helped organize a
union there and was its first shop steward.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mr. Sisk
was 31 and volunteered for officer candidate school. He went
to work as a flight dispatcher at Sequoia Field in Visalia.
After the war, the Sisks moved to Fresno, and Mr. Sisk
found a job as a tire salesman, eventually becoming general
manager for the General Tire and Rubber Co.
in tune with valley
It was this job that put Mr. Sisk in tune with what was
happening throughout the county. As he visited with farmers
on the Valley's west side, he learned of their water
problems.
Mr. Sisk also noted there were few Democratic leaders in
the area and complained about it.
Then one day in 1954, Mr. Sisk was invited by lawyer Ken
Andreen and labor newspaper editor Charles Clough to meet at
the old Sequoia Hotel on Van Ness Avenue.
Mr. Sisk thought he was going to make another tire sale.
But they wanted to sell him on something--running for
Congress.
``Man, I almost fell out of my chair,'' Mr. Sisk recalled,
``I said, `You people are mixed up. I work for General Tire
and Rubber Company.' ''
They said: ``We understand that's the work you do, but we
have been told that you're a Democrat and frankly we're
needing a candidate.''
The rest is history.
Mr. Sisk worked with some of the most powerful men in
America's political history. He worshiped Rayburn, who
appointed him to those prized spots on the Rules Committee
and the aeronautics committee.
He said his favorite president was Kennedy. ``I was a
disciple of Camelot,'' he said. ``I came to love that guy. I
never felt more of a personal attachment for a president.''
Once retired, Mr. Sisk returned to Fresno and threw himself
into a number of projects.
After Reta's death, Mr. Sisk married again seven months
later to Virgie Mitchell, whose late husband was a brother of
Reta.
For Mr. Sisk, responding to thousands of constituents'
queries was just as important as running in the high-powered
circles of Washington.
Andreen, who became a justice for the 5th District Court of
Appeal, would share a story at a 1978 testimonial dinner for
Mr. Sisk about the farmer whose tractor was stuck in the mud
because the Friant-Kern Canal was flooding his land.
Mr. Sisk, just elected, was in the process of moving into
his Washington office. In 2\1/2\ hours, Mr. Sisk called the
farmer back.
``He did not say, `I'm going to get on it' or `I told so-
and-so to do something,' '' Andreen said. ``No, he told the
farmer, `The leak is fixed and your tractor is out of the
mud.' Nothing happens that fast in government--unless it
comes to the attention of Bernie Sisk.''
tributes
``Bernie was everybody's congressman. He was always
enormously helpful to his constituents. He knew when to leave
partisan politics outside the room. . . . His heart and mind
were always back home.''--Charles ``Chip'' Pashayan, former
U.S. representative.
``Congressman Sisk helped establish a tradition of moderate
Democrats from the Valley who are committed to furthering the
cause of Valley agriculture. His tradition is one that I and
other Valley legislators have tried to follow.''--Rep. Cal
Dooley, D-Hanford.
``Our community and our country have lost a leader. Bernie
Sisk's service and his special concerns for California's
Central Valley set a standard that all of us respect and will
long remember.''--Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa.
``Bernie Sisk will go down in history as a person that
probably has done more for agriculture, particularly in terms
of helping to provide irrigation water. He was very
instrumental in the construction of the San Luis Dam. And
those who served with him, whether they agreed with him or
not, will always remember him as a true gentleman.''--John
Krebs, former U.S. representative.
``There's nobody who had a greater impact on the San
Joaquin Valley than Bernie Sisk. You can go up and down the
Valley and find the projects he put there.''--Tony Coelho,
former House majority whip and B.F. Sisk's one-time
administrative assistant.
``He was one of the fairest guys I ever dealth with. If he
had a problem, he summoned me to his office and we tried to
work it out. Bernie was one of the real doers.''--Bob Will, a
longtime lobbyist for the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California.
``I wouldn't even call him a politician. He would never
connive. Bernie was just a fine person from the standpoint of
integrity.''--Tim Dillon, former lobbyist for the Westlands
Water District.
``Man, I almost fell out of my chair. I said `You people
are mixed up. I work for General Tire and Rubber Company.'
''--Sisk, when asked to run for Congress.
``His number one thing was to take care of the
constituents. He never held himself out to be a world leader.
What Bernie had, that very few folks have, was the ability to
disagree with you without making you angry.''--Gordon Nelson,
Sisk's former administrative assistant.
____________________