Jamie Whitten: Difference between revisions

| name = Jamie Whitten

| image = File:JamieWhitten1961cropped.jpg

| caption = Whitten in 1961

| office = 42nd [[Dean of the United States House of Representatives]]

| term_start = January 3, 1979

| term_end = January 3, 1995

| predecessor = [[George H. Mahon]]

| successor = [[John Dingell]]

| office1 = Chair of the [[House Appropriations Committee]]

| term_start1 = January 3, 1979

| term_end1 = January 3, 1993

| predecessor1 = [[George H. Mahon]]

| successor1 = [[William Natcher]]

| state2 = [[Mississippi]]

| term_start2 = November 4, 1941

| term_end2 = January 3, 1995

| predecessor2 = [[Wall Doxey]]

| successor2 = [[Roger Wicker]]

| constituency2 = [[Mississippi's 2nd congressional district|2nd district]] = {{ushr|MS|2|c}} (1941–1973)<br>[[Mississippi's 1st congressional district{{ushr|1st district]]MS|1|c}} (1973–1995)

| office3 = Member of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]]

| term_start3 = 1931

| term_end3 = 1932

| predecessor3 =

| successor3 =

| birth_name = Jamie Lloyd Whitten

| birth_date = {{birth date|1910|4|18}}

| birth_place = [[Cascilla, Mississippi]], U.S.

| death_date = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1995|9|9|1910|4|18}}}}

| death_place = [[Oxford, Mississippi]], U.S.

| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]

| education = [[University of Mississippi]]

| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Rep. Jamie L. Whitten on the RetirementUrgency of Rep.Continuing Appropriations Eddiefor BolandFY1984.ogg|title=Jamie Whitten's voice|type=speech|description=Jamie Whitten on the retirementurgency of Massachusettscontinuing representativeappropriations [[Edwardfor Boland]]FY1984<br/>Recorded JuneNovember 2210, 19881983}}

'''Jamie Lloyd Whitten''' (April 18, 1910{{spaced ndash}}September 9, 1995) was an American politician and member of the [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] who represented thehis native state of [[Mississippi]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1941 to 1995. He was at the time of his departure the [[List of United States Congressmen by longevity of service#U.S. House time|longest-serving U.S. Representative ever]]. From 1979 to 1995, he was [[Dean of the United States House of Representatives|Dean of the U.S. House of Representatives]]. He is the [[List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service|longest-serving member of Congress]] ever from Mississippi. He was a [[New Deal liberalism|New Deal liberal]] inon economic matters, and took a leading role in Congress in forming national policy and spending regarding [[agriculture]]. Whitten was the last- remaining member of the [[United States Congress]] to have served during the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR]] administration]].

Jamie Whitten was born in [[Cascilla, Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/10/obituaries/jamie-whitten-who-served-53-years-in-house-dies-at-85.html|title= Jamie Whitten, Who Served 53 Years in House, Dies at 85|author=David Binder|page=53|date=September 10, 1995|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> He attended local public schools and the [[University of Mississippi]] where he was a member of [[Beta Theta Pi]] fraternity. He worked as a school teacher and principal and was elected as a [[Mississippi Democratic Party|Democrat]] to the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]], where he served in 1931 and 1932. He attainedwas admission[[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]] in 1932, and from 1933 to 1941, he was [[District Attorney]] of Mississippi's 17th District, which included his home [[County#United States|county]] of [[Tallahatchie County, Mississippi|Tallahatchie]].

[[File:Jamie L. Whitten.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Whitten's1983 portrait inof 1983Whitten]]

In 1941, Whitten was [[election|elected]] as a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] to the [[United States House of Representatives]] in a [[special election]] to represent the state's 2nd District, in the northern part of the state. The seat had comebecome openvacant 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.

In 1977, his subcommittee lost control of environmental issues. He lost his influence after suffering a debilitating stroke in February 1992.<ref>Michael Barone and Grant Ujifusa, ''The Almanac of American Politics 1996'' (1995) pp. 751–752.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fda-farmers-still-debate-the-use-of-antibiotics-in-animals/2014/10/12/f4d93e38-508e-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html|title=FDA, farmers still debate the use of antibiotics in animals|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=14 April 2015}}</ref>

Whitten was aan ardent [[New Deal Coalitioncoalition|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.<ref>Senate Appropriations Committee, ''Agriculture-environmental and Consumer Protection Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1975, Hearings Before ... 93-2 Parts 8-9'' (1974) pp 219, 224 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sTUVhLhup6gC online]</ref> 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 [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]]. Although Whitten represented a district that grew increasingly suburban and [[Historysuburb]]an of theand Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]-leaning 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 token, or "[[sacrificial lamb]]", opponents on the occasions he faced any opposition at all, even in years when Republican presidential candidates carried the district inby landslide landslidesmargins. Nonetheless, it was taken for grantedassumed that he would be succeeded by a Republican when he retired.

Whitten was originally a [[segregationist]], as were many of his colleagues from Mississippi and the rest of the South. He signed the [[Southern Manifesto]] condemning the [[U.S.Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]]'s decision in ''[[Brown vsv. Board of Education]]'', which desegregatedordered the desegregation of public schools. Along with virtually the entire Mississippi congressional delegation, he voted against the Civil Rights Acts of [[Civil Rights Act of 1957|1957]], [[Civil Rights Act of 1960|1960]], [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|1964]], and [[VotingCivil Rights Act of 19651968|19651968]], andas well as the [[CivilVoting Rights Act of 19681965]] and the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|196824th Amendment to the Constitution]]. Whitten later apologized for these votes, calling them a "mistake" caused by severe misjudgment.{{cn|date=May 2024}} He voted for the [[Civil Rights Act of 1991]].

Throughout most of his tenure in the House, Whitten served on the [[U.S. House Committee on Appropriations|Appropriations Committee]], ultimately serving as Chairmanchairman from the 1979 retirement of [[George H. Mahon]] until newly-elected [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] in the House Democratic Caucus removed him in favor of [[William Huston Natcher]] after the [[U.S. House election, 1992|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."<ref>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</ref> 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.

[[File:Jamie Whitten.png|thumb|right|Whitten’sWhitten's official photo for the [[102nd United States 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 [[Oxford, Mississippi]] and died there on September 9, 1995, aged 85. His service from November 4, 1941, to January 3, 1995 set a record for [[List of U. S. Congressmen By Longevity of Service#Uninterrupted Congressional Service (House only)|length of service in the House]], which remained unbroken until February 11, 2009, when [[Michigan]] [[United States Congress|Congressman]]Rep. [[John Dingell]] surpassed it. Whitten is also the [[List of members of the United States Congress by longevity of service#Combined U.S. Senate and U.S. House time|5th longest-serving CongressmanCongressmember]] (House and/or Senate) behind Dingell, [[Daniel Inouye]], [[Carl T. Hayden]], and [[Robert Byrd]] and John Dingell.

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 [[environmentalismEnvironmentalism|environmental movement]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/finding_docs/whitten/series_23.pdf|title=Jamie L. Whitten Collection, Series 23: That We May Live|website=University of Mississippi Library and Archives|access-date=2019-09-20}}</ref>

In June 1995, Congress renamed the main headquarters building of the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] in [[Washington, DCD.C.]] the [[Jamie L. Whitten Building]] in his honor.<ref name="usdahist1">{{cite web|url=http://www.da.usda.gov/buildings.htm|title=Histories of the USDA Headquarters Complex Buildings|year=2004|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture|access-date=2009-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425013908/http://www.da.usda.gov/buildings.htm|archive-date=2009-04-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>