Federal File: Family tradition ends; Eating one's words

When the House Education and Labor Committee convenes its first meeting in 1993, it will sit for the first time in 43 years without a Perkins on the roster.

Representative Carl C. Perkins, Democrat of Kentucky, announced recently that he will not run for re-election, declining to endure what could have been a difficult campaign due to Congressional redistricting.

Mr. Perkins's father, the late Carl D. Perkins, was instrumental in the creation of most major federal education programs during his 35 years in the Congress. His iron-fisted rule of the committee, which he chaired from 1968 until his death...