Jamie Whitten

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Jamie Whitten
House Appropriations Committee
In office
January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1993
Preceded byGeorge H. Mahon
Succeeded byWilliam Natcher
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Mississippi
In office
November 4, 1941 – January 3, 1995
Preceded byWall Doxey
Succeeded byRoger Wicker
Constituency2nd district (1941–1973)
1st district (1973–1995)
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
In office
1931–1932
Personal details
Born
Jamie Lloyd Whitten

(1910-04-18)April 18, 1910
Cascilla, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedSeptember 9, 1995(1995-09-09) (aged 85)
Oxford, Mississippi, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationUniversity of Mississippi
Jamie Whitten's voice
Jamie Whitten on the urgency of continuing appropriations for FY1984
Recorded November 10, 1983

Jamie Lloyd Whitten (April 18, 1910 – September 9, 1995) was an American politician and member of the

FDR administration
.

Early life, education, and early career

Jamie Whitten was born in

District Attorney of Mississippi's 17th District, which included his home county of Tallahatchie
.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Whitten's portrait in 1983

In 1941, Whitten was

special election to represent the state's 2nd District, in the northern part of the state. The seat had come open as a result of incumbent Congressman Wall Doxey's election to the United States Senate
. He was elected to a full term in 1942 and was re-elected 25 more times.

Whitten's district was renumbered as the 1st District after the 1970 Census.

Tenure as leader in agricultural policy

Whitten had the support of the Democratic caucus and served as chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture (1949-1953 and 1954-1978). He was chair of the entire committee 1979-1992. Throughout that period he had a decisive voice on agricultural spending and to a large extent on policies. [2]

In 1977 his subcommittee lost control of environmental issues. He lost his influence after suffering a debilitating stroke in February 1992.[3] As a champion for American farmers, he fought against the FDA's early 1970s recommendation of restricting the use of antibiotics in livestock. He required that scientists prove the danger of antibiotic use.[4]

Whitten was a

New Dealer who supported most liberal spending issues. He supported distribution of free food to the poor from surplus commodity stocks, school lunch programs and food stamps in coalition with urban Democrats.[5] In the 1980s he clashed with the conservative Reagan administration on policy matters. He voted against Reagan's economic plans, tax cuts, increased defense spending, balanced budget initiative, tort reform, welfare reform, abortion restrictions, missile defense system, and the Persian Gulf War. Although Whitten represented a district that grew increasingly suburban and Republican from the 1970s onward, his opposition to Reagan's program did not affect him at the ballot box. Indeed, his seniority and popularity resulted in his facing only "sacrificial lamb
" opponents on the occasions he faced any opposition at all, even in years when Republican presidential candidates carried the district in landslides. Nonetheless, it was taken for granted that he would be succeeded by a Republican when he retired.

Record on racial issues

Whitten was originally a segregationist, as were many of his colleagues from Mississippi and the rest of the South. He signed the

Brown vs. Board of Education, which desegregated public schools. Along with virtually the entire Mississippi congressional delegation, he voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965 and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S Constitution. Whitten later apologized for these votes, calling them a "mistake" caused by severe misjudgment. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1991
.

Committees

Throughout most of his tenure in the House, Whitten served on the

1992 election. In 1985, when then-junior Appropriations Committee member Dick Durbin spoke with Chairman Whitten about possibly sitting on the Budget Committee, Whitten told him, "Well, if you want to be on that committee, you can be on that committee, but I want you to remember one thing, the Budget Committee deals in hallucinations and the Appropriations Committee deals in facts."[6]
While on the floor of the Senate on March 21, 2018, now Senator Durbin referred to that quote from Whitten as "Whitten's Law," which implies that the Budget Committee is a political branch that makes budget promises while the Appropriations Committee is obliged to either make or break those promises during the budget-making process.

Retirement from the House

102nd Congress
in 1991

Declining to run for reelection to a historic 28th term in 1994, Whitten retired from the House as America's longest-serving Congressman (53 years and two months). He retired to his home in

Carl T. Hayden, Robert Byrd
and John Dingell.

Publications

Whitten authored That We May Live, written largely as a pro-development, pro-chemical pesticide answer to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the seminal 1962 book that helped spur the modern environmental movement.[7]

Legacy and honors

The Jamie Whitten Historical Site is located at the bridge of the

conservatives
to their construction using federal funds.

In June 1995, Congress renamed the main headquarters building of the

Washington, DC the Jamie L. Whitten Building in his honor.[8]

The Beta Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Mississippi has named their leadership award after brother Whitten. Each year, one graduating brother is selected to receive the award based on his leadership and commitment to the chapter, university, and community.

References

  1. ^ David Binder (September 10, 1995). "Jamie Whitten, Who Served 53 Years in House, Dies at 85". The New York Times. p. 53.
  2. ^ Sidney E. Brown, "An Analysis of the Federal Extension Service Appropriations," Journal of the Northeastern Agricultural Economics Council vol 8 (April 1979) DOI: 10.1017/s0163548400004611
  3. ^ Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 1996 (1995) pp. 751–752.
  4. ^ "FDA, farmers still debate the use of antibiotics in animals". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  5. ^ Senate Appropriations Committee, Agriculture-environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1975, Hearings Before ... 93-2 Parts 8-9 (1974) pp 219, 224 online
  6. ^ 164 Cong. Rec. S1881 (daily ed. March 21, 2018) (statement of Sen. Durbin) https://www.congress.gov/crec/2018/03/21/CREC-2018-03-21-pt1-PgS1881.pdf
  7. ^ "Jamie L. Whitten Collection, Series 23: That We May Live" (PDF). University of Mississippi Library and Archives. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  8. ^ "Histories of the USDA Headquarters Complex Buildings". U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2004. Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-05-10.

External links

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Mississippi's 2nd congressional district
1941–1973 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Mississippi's 1st congressional district
1973–1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the
House Appropriations Committee

1979–1993 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Dean of the United States House of Representatives
1979–1995 		Succeeded by
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