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:
“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class. At a time when I had not yet grasped the significance of the fact that in my house English was a second language, or that I wore dresses while my brother wore pants, I knew—and I knew it was important to know—that Papa worked hard all day long.”
—Vivian Gornick (b. 1935)
“Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“Every member of the family of the future will be a producer of some kind and in some degree. The only one who will have the right of exemption will be the mother ...”
—Ruth C. D. Havens, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“There is not a subject in which I take a deeper interest than I do in the development of Alaska, and I propose, if Congress will follow by recommendations, to do something in that territory that will make it move on.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“At first I intended to become a student of the Senate rules and I did learn much about them, but I soon found that the Senate had but one fixed rule, subject to exceptions of course, which was to the effect that the Senate would do anything it wanted to do whenever it wanted to do it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)