9th, but Chicago machine bosses persuaded him to accept a circuit judgeship in return for letting Yates take his old seat back. Yates served on the Appropriations Committee throughout his career and chaired the Interior Subcommittee from 1975 to 1995. On this committee he supported environmental programs and the National Endowment for the Arts. Yates remained on good terms with both liberal reformers and machine politicians in Chicago throughout his career. He also served on the Foreign Operations subcommittee and was a strong advocate of American support for Israel. He worked hand-in-hand with his chief of staff, Mary Bain, to preserve federal funding for the arts and for Natural Heritage Preservation programs, and to establish the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 1993, he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Clinton and in 1997 he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech In 1999, the Auditors Building in Washington, DC, was renamed the Sidney Yates Building in his honor. He is the longest-serving member ever of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Illinois. He holds the record as the 10th longest-serving member in the history of the US Congress, and also has the longest tenure of all members whose time in Congress included a break in service. Death and burial Yates died in Washington, D.C., on October 5, 2000. He was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois. Family Yates was married to Adeline Holleb (1914–2002) for 65 years. They were the parents of Stephen R. Yates (1940-2000), who served as an Illinois circuit court judge. His brother Charles was a talent agent for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Martha Raye. See also List of Jewish members of the United States Congress Notes References External links 1909 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American politicians Jewish American military personnel United States Navy personnel of World War II American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Illinois lawyers Politicians from Chicago Presidential Citizens Medal recipients University of Chicago alumni Variety (magazine) people 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American Jews