Providing for Consideration of H.R. Paycheck Fairness Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, a distinguished member of the Rules Committee and also a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I support this rule and the underlying legislation, and I urge my colleagues on both sides to do the same. I hope they all will vote for the rule.

The two bills that we are bringing to the floor are the product of regular order. They went through the committee process, hearings and markups.

We, in the Rules Committee, made the Republican substitutes in order so they can try to defend their ideas, which I don't agree with. Nonetheless, other Republican amendments are made in order as well. But then again, I guess there is not much we can do to make some of my friends happy.

Madam Speaker, I rise for a more somber purpose, and that is to honor my friend and colleague, Congressman Alcee Hastings, who we lost last week after a courageous battle with cancer. I am proud to have sat side-by-side with him in the Rules Committee for many years.

I often say that the Rules Committee is like a family. To those outsiders who are observing the Rules Committee, we can sometimes look a little bit like a dysfunctional family, but nonetheless, we are a family. Today, our family is in mourning.

This House is already a little less joyful and a little less purpose- driven without him here. That was the thing about Alcee Hastings. Whether he was in the majority or the minority, or whether he liked what we were considering on this floor or not, he relished his service in this institution. He used every day here to wage worthy fights on behalf of justice.

His election marked the first time an African American was elected from Florida since the Civil War era. He went on to become the first Black chairman of the Helsinki Commission, a respected voice on the world stage.

There was not a barrier he was afraid to break. He was steadfast in providing a voice to all those who needed an ally, including minorities, children, immigrants, and people struggling in poverty.

Madam Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that he could do more with the simple turn of a phrase than many of us could do with 100 words or more. As he was yielding back his time in the committee or here on the floor, especially if he felt that we were considering a bill that somehow was disadvantaging vulnerable people in this country, he would get up and give a stern and passionate and succinct lecture to this body. Then he would conclude by saying: That is my story, and I am sticking to it. And if I offended any of you by what I said, that was intentional.

It was pure Alcee Hastings. He chose his words carefully, and he meant every one of them. Now I have lost a dear friend, this Congress has lost a giant, and those who all too often go unseen in America have lost a champion.

We send our prayers and our condolences to his family, to his dedicated and wonderful staff, and to his constituents, knowing that these Halls will never see someone quite like him again.

May he rest in peace.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source