Fritz Hollings: Making Government Work

Schooled as governor in the benefits of balanced budgets, Sen. Fritz Hollings – the longest-serving member of the Budget Committee -- has been the Senate's most relentless foe of federal deficits. After opposing the supply-side tax cuts of the early 1980s, he attempted to reign in the Reagan-era budget deficits by proposing the "Fritz Freeze" (to freeze the budget at previous-year levels) and co-authoring the landmark Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act of 1985. He has been a lonely but tireless voice opposing the looting of surpluses in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds in order to hide the true size of the deficit.

At a time when other Southern governors were pledging "massive resistance" and threatening to "stand in the schoolhouse door," Hollings led South Carolina non-violently into the civil rights era. Using his bully pulpit as Governor, he rallied South Carolinians to support "a government of laws not of men" (as he put it in his Farewell Address) and orchestrated the peaceful integration of Clemson University in 1963. As a Senator, he opposed all amendments seeking to weaken the 1982 Voting Rights Act, and he authored legislation to strengthen federal authority to prosecute church burning crimes. He appointed Matthew Perry as the first African-American district court judge in South Carolina, Margaret Seymour as the first, African-American female federal district court judge in South Carolina, and Ralph Everett as the first African-American staff director of a U.S. Senate committee. In recent years, he's led efforts to recognize and preserve historic and cultural landmarks in South Carolina including Beaufort County's Reconstruction Era sites, the Penn Center, and Gullah/Geechee sites.

Emphasizing "practical conservationism," Hollings co-authored legislation to create the Congaree Swamp National Monument; secured funding necessary to purchase land for the Monument; and is currently spearheading the Monument's designation as South Carolina's sole National Park. He helped to broker cooperative efforts to preserve the ACE Basin by securing the Federal designation as well as funding for every acre contained in both the ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge and the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve. He secured federal funding to expand the Sumter National Forest around Lake Jocassee, the Francis Marion National Forest near McClellanville, and Wildlife Refuges at Waccamaw and Cape Romain. Currently, he is leading efforts to conserve the portions of the Cooper River known as Bonneau Ferry.

As governor (1959-63), Hollings balanced the state budget and earned the first AAA credit rating of any Southern state. Determined to create jobs and build a skilled industrial workforce, he set forth a vision for a statewide network of low-tuition, technical schools; the Hollings plan was passed by the legislature in 1961, and is now a nationally acclaimed system of 16 colleges serving 235,000 students annually. Gov. Hollings aggressively recruited new industries and launched South Carolina's transformation from a low-skill, agrarian economy to a high-value modern economy that is a magnet for investment from around the world. Using his bully pulpit as governor, he rallied South Carolinians to support "a government of laws not of men" as he orchestrated the peaceful integration of Clemson University.

As a decorated combat veteran and, for more than three decades, a member of the Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Hollings has followed in a tradition of powerful Southern senators demanding - and funding - robust U.S. Armed Forces without peer on the world stage. He has devoted special attention to bolstering U.S. military installations and investments across South Carolina, as well as ensuring that the U.S. government keep its promises to the veterans who sacrificed so much to defend the nation.

Hollings authored an extraordinary range of laws to safeguard America's coasts and oceans, including the Coastal Zone Management Act (1972), the Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972), the Oceans Dumping Act (1976), and the Sustainable Fisheries Act (1996). He is recognized as the legislative "father" of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2000, President Clinton signed into law Sen. Hollings' Ocean Act, which created the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and set in motion a comprehensive review of the nation's ocean and coastal policies. He has continued to pursue his visionary approach, authoring two new innovative measures: the Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection Act and the Oceans and Human Health Act.

Concerned about widespread poverty across the South and in urban America, Hollings embarked in 1968 on a series of "hunger tours" to spotlight the issue, and in 1970 authored "The Case Against Hunger: A Demand for a National Policy," advocating programs to address persistent poverty. From 1969 to 1975, he helped lead the Congressional effort to pass the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children, popularly known as WIC. He championed development of the Community Health Center program to bring medical care to the poor. Spurred by South Carolina's high cancer rates, he has led the charge for aggressive investments in the war on cancer. He secured funding for a nationally renowned cancer research and treatment center -- now known as the Hollings Cancer Center -- at the Medical University of South Carolina. He authored legislation creating a nationwide program to screen women for breast and cervical cancer, and was one of the first Senator's to advocate doubling funding for the National Institutes of Health.

Hollings has been a legislative champion of the modern consumer movement, authoring or coauthoring a diverse array of laws to foster telecom competition, improve online privacy, safeguard personal data, protect Americans from unwanted telephone solicitations, and much more. He has sought to strengthen America's participatory democracy by advocating a Constitutional amendment permitting limits on campaign expenditures (to prevent wealthy candidates from, in effect, buying elections) and - most recently - co-authoring legislation to preserve a diversity of voices in the media by reinstating ownership limits and halting further concentration in broadcast media.

As chairman or ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, he has authored or co-authored every law enforcement funding bill since 1977, regularly steering federal investment to bolster and modernize South Carolina's law enforcement capabilities. Both before and since 9/11, he has fought to secure America's population and economic infrastructure against terrorist attack, with special attention to America's ports and its aviation system.

Authored the Maritime Transportation Security Act, signed into law November 2002
Authored the Aviation Transportation Security Act, signed into law October 2001
Wrote or co-wrote every law enforcement funding bill since 1977
Led effort to fund innovative law enforcement programs like the COPS program, School Resource Officers, "Weed and Seed," and the Safe Schools initiative
Steered substantial resources to help South Carolina modernize its law enforcement operations, including funding for a high-tech DNA lab, an advanced communications system, bullet proof vests, law enforcement vehicles, etc.
Brought the National Advocacy Center to Columbia
Brought the U.S. Border Patrol Academy to Charleston
Established the nation's first Computer Crime Center in Columbia
Established Project Seahawk in Charleston, the nation's first port security, command and control center
Authored the American Home Fire Safety Act and is a lead co-sponsor of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Act (SAFER)
Played a critical role in passage of the FIRE grant program which provides federal resources to local fire departments for training and equipment

Alarmed by the erosion of America's manufacturing backbone - in particular, the textile industry - Hollings has been the Senate's most relentless advocate of "competitive trade" policies, demanding that U.S. companies be given the same access to foreign markets that we give to others. Opposing a President of his own party, he led the fight in the Senate against NAFTA and GATT. He is the lead defender of congressional authority over trade matters, and opposed granting the President "fast track" negotiating authority. While opposing counterproductive trade policies, he created two innovative programs to support and enhance domestic production: the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships program within the Department of Commerce.