Home > Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity > Proxmire, William

[NOVEMBER 11, 1915–]

U.S. senator

For nineteen of his thirty-one years as a U.S. senator, William Proxmire made repeated and frequent speeches calling for Senate ratification of the United Nations (UN) Genocide Convention. Representing Wisconsin in the Senate from 1957 to 1989, Senator Proxmire began his prolonged campaign for the Convention in January 1967 at the urging of Milwaukee lawyer Bruno Bitker (1899–1984). Calling the Senate's failure to approve the treaty a "national shame," Proxmire committed himself to "speak day after day in this body to remind the Senate of our failure to act and of the necessity for prompt action" (Power, 2002, p. 79). From this point forward he took a personal responsibility for this issue and persisted for two decades until he prevailed.

As a U.S. senator, William ("Bill") Proxmire was best known for his work on the Senate Banking and Appropriations Committees. Over the years he gained a reputation as an outspoken debater with tenacious personal and political commitments. Most of all, Proxmire was known for attacking wasteful and frivolous government spending. Beginning in 1974 he awarded a monthly "golden fleece" award to little-known budget items, which he considered as a "wasteful, ridiculous or ironic use of the taxpayers' money." In his personal life, Proxmire began each day with a four-mile run, and authored a 1973 book on health and fitness. To set an example of frugality, his Capital Hill office regularly returned over one-third of its allotments to the federal budget. Over time the senator's tenacity took the form of never missing Senate votes. He eventually held the record of 10,000 consecutive votes over a 22-year period. This approach to his life and work was needed to win Senate passage of the Genocide Convention.

Treaty ratification requires the votes of two-thirds of senators for approval. Proxmire and his allies Jacob Javits and Claiborne Pell encountered tireless opposition to ratification from a minority led by Sam Irvin and later Jesse Helms. To keep this issue constantly before the Senate, Proxmire gave 3,211 speeches calling for ratification of the Convention, an average of 168 each year. The speeches were pointed reminders to his colleagues made during the Senate's "Morning Hour" before the chamber began scheduled business. More expert in domestic issues than foreign policy, what motivated Proxmire to persist in this effort was his service during World War II, his disdain for the practice of killing legislation in committee without a vote, and daily headlines from Biafra, Bangladesh, Uganda, Kampuchea, and elsewhere bringing news of atrocities and possible genocide.

Finally, on February 19, 1986, the Senate approved the Convention by a vote of 86 to 11, but only with reservations and understandings that Proxmire reluctantly agreed to accept. The implementing legislation became known as "The Proxmire Act," despite the senator's disapproval of the practice of naming legislation for sponsors. On November 25, 1988, only weeks before the fortieth anniversary of the Convention's 1948 approval by the UN General Assembly, the United States deposited instruments of ratification at the UN headquarters. Soon after this, Proxmire retired from the Senate. He announced his treatment for Alzheimer's disease in 1998.

SEE ALSO Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide; United States Foreign Policies Toward Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

James T. Fussell