Member of The U.S. Congress and Senate
On August 31, 1943, Engle was elected as a Democrat to represent California's 2nd congressional district in the 78th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Harry L. Englebright. He was elected to a full term in 1944 and was reelected to the following six Congresses, serving until January 3, 1959. While in the United States House of Representatives he was Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on War Claims for the 79th Congress and Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs for the 84th Congress and the 85th Congress.
Engle was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1958 and began his service there January 3, 1959. However, on August 24, 1963, he underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor, which left him partially paralyzed, forcing him to miss several Senate sessions.
On April 13, 1964, the gravity of Engle's health problems were clearly evident as he attempted to introduce a resolution calling for a delay in the construction of an atomic power plant near San Francisco. He was given permission, but was unable to speak, forcing a colleague to present the resolution instead.
Engle officially ended his re-election campaign on April 28, 1964, just four days after undergoing his second brain operation in eight months. However, he chose not to endorse either of the remaining Democratic challengers, California State Controller Alan Cranston and former Presidential press secretary Pierre Salinger. That decision came as a result of the state Democratic leaders refusing to endorse him unless he provided details concerning his health.
Read more about this topic: Clair Engle
Famous quotes containing the words member of the, member of, member, congress and/or senate:
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Even in harmonious families there is this double life: the group life, which is the one we can observe in our neighbour’s household, and, underneath, another—secret and passionate and intense—which is the real life that stamps the faces and gives character to the voices of our friends. Always in his mind each member of these social units is escaping, running away, trying to break the net which circumstances and his own affections have woven about him.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I think the Senate ought to realize that I have to have about me those in whom I have confidence; and unless they find a real blemish on a man, I do not think they ought to make partisan politics out of appointments to the Cabinet.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)