Speech of The Honorable Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland in the House of Representatives, Congressional Record, February 28, 2008.

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and the Republican Leader Mr. Boehner to congratulate the Congressional Management Foundation on its 30th anniversary. CMF has had a widespread and positive impact on this institution, and we are proud to applaud its efforts over the decades in applying its motto, "Good government through good management.''

Founded in 1977, the Congressional Management Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to serving the Members of the House and Senate, as well as the institutional offices of the Congress, through staff management training, office facilitation services, publications on best practices, and technology research.

The idea for CMF was born out of the rapid growth of congressional offices in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Offices no longer were comprised of a single Member with a few support staff. Citizens had come to rely on Congress for a vast array of constituent services and expected rapid responses to questions and opinions on pending legislation.

Tom Bedell came to Washington to work in Congress in the 1970's to work for his father, Congressman Berkley Bedell from Iowa. He saw that, while Members of Congress could be brilliant legislators and great communicators, they were often overwhelmed by the management challenges of running up to four offices and a staff of twenty. Along with Dr. Len Hirsch, an organizational development consultant, Tom founded CMF and they began offering programs on enhancing efficiencies in office budgeting, managing constituent correspondence, and hiring staff.

Working with staff organizations such as the House Chiefs of Staff Association, CMF expanded its programs in the 1980's and 1990's, training hundreds of senior managers on everything from how to perform high quality personnel reviews to how to conduct difficult conversations with their staff and their bosses. With the help of CMF's strategic planning services, scores of Members of Congress have clarified their goals, enhanced their effectiveness at serving constituents and improved staff morale.

CMF strives to help congressional offices get off on the right foot even before the swearing-in ceremony. In 1984, CMF wrote the first edition of Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide. This book, which is revised for every Congress and distributed within days of the election, is now a staple for freshmen Members and veterans alike. They also produced a companion, Frontline Management: A Guide for Running Congressional District/State Offices. Additionally, for 20 years CMF has been offering an orientation program to introduce new senior staff to the basics of hiring staff, creating a budget and setting up an office while their bosses are struggling to learn the nuances of parliamentary procedure and committee assignments.

CMF was also the first organization to create salary and employment studies for Capitol Hill, providing Members and senior managers with useful benchmarks to aid in the office budgeting process.

In the last few years CMF has been an invaluable resource as Congress has adopted new technology to respond to the dramatic increase in communications and citizen advocacy as a result of the Internet. It partnered with distinguished universities, such as George Washington University, Harvard University, Ohio State University and the University of California-Riverside, to offer guidance on how to design congressional Web sites and be more responsive to constituents online. Their Gold Mouse Awards for superior Web sites have become coveted commodities on Capitol Hill.

Also in the last few years CMF has helped respond to a House request for perhaps one of its most important projects in its 30-year history: helping to design a 10-year information technology roadmap for the House of Representatives.

Thanks in part to CMF, Congress has a more professionalized workforce with better morale and performance. And the American people get a better government when our democratic institutions are more efficient and effective.

We thank all of the current and past supporters, leaders, and staff of the Congressional Management Foundation who believe in the Congress and the people who work here, and who feel that we truly can achieve "good government through good management.'' We congratulate them on 3 decades of outstanding service to the Congress and the Nation. And we wish them success in the decades to come.