Recognizing the Honorable Martin Frost

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my great admiration for a former colleague, and friend. Martin Frost, who always rose to the aid of those Texans he served so well for almost 30 years here in the House. He also ably led our party and our Caucus, serving as chair of the DCCC and the House Democratic Caucus.

Following his outstanding service in Washington, Martin Frost devoted much of his post-congressional life to the FMC, the Association of Former Members of Congress. This challenging year, 2020, brought to a conclusion his term as President of the FMC, after many years of serving in various leadership positions within it.

Many of my colleagues are familiar with the democracy building and civic education work the FMC conducts, including its outstanding Congressional Study Groups. Martin Frost provided the leadership for FMC to achieve incredible growth in all of these activities.

He was instrumental in strengthening FMC finances, for example, by creating and growing an Endowment Investment Fund. He greatly increased the number of actively involved Former Members from both sides of the aisle. And with his guidance, FMC now reaches a much greater number of students through the Congress-to-Campus program.

The extent of Martin's tremendous impact cannot be done real justice with these brief remarks, but I speak for everyone involved with FMC-- its board of directors, its membership, and its staff--when I state that, thanks to Martin Frost, like every organization which he has led--FMC is better, more effective. and more impactful than it has ever been.

Especially during these divisive political times, when we need more bridges, not walls, Members like Martin Frost and organizations like FMC deserve our gratitude for attempting to bridge the political divide, serving as experts on Congress as an institution, and reconnecting citizens with their representative government, all in the service of strengthening our democracy.

Our political infrastructure, like our actual infrastructure, needs the attention and maintenance to keep our economy strong, our citizens safe and healthy, and to preserve our democracy. I am not planning to join Martin soon as an FMC member, but when I eventually do, I know that it will be a stronger organization because of his dedication. This is a heartfelt thank you for his continuing efforts to make our Nation worthy for our grandchildren and beyond.

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