Thanking Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Her Service

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I don't know where to begin. I think of Chair Cathy Rodgers as a friend. I truly mean that. We use that term a lot, but in her case, it is truly true. I consider her a real friend.

The other thing I wanted to say is that you hear me a lot on the floor and in the committee talking about how I often blame Republicans for being in the pocket or somehow beholden to corporate interests, to big corporations, to the wealthy. Forgive me for saying that tonight because I do say it a lot, but I have to say it is never the case with her. She has a set of values that I don't know if it is just her, it is from eastern Washington, or what it is, but she is always looking out for what I call the little guy, particularly the children.

You never get the impression with Cathy that she is here because she wants to cater to some special interest group or somebody who is wealthy. She is always looking out for the average person in a way that--I am not saying there aren't other Republicans that do that; of course, there are, many who are on the floor tonight--but there is something very special about the fact that she always looks out for the little guy. Everything that she does is oriented to trying to help the average American and not thinking about any trade association or lobbying association, at least from what I have seen.

I know she was a trailblazer. The very first day she walked in, I said I guess I always had hoped that somehow the Democrats would have the first chairwoman--not that I would want anybody to replace me as chairman or ranking member--but the fact that she was the first woman chair as a Republican I thought was rather significant, not only that she was the first chair but also that she is a Republican and in that capacity as the first chair.

Our committee has this tradition of being bipartisan. It is easy to say, but it is not always easy to make sure it happens because it is very easy in the way things are today with the media, social media, whatever, for us all to digress into shouting matches, hollering at each other, and saying bad things about each other.

Cathy would never let that happen. Oftentimes, if it was going to happen at a hearing or a markup, she would come over to me, or if she was sitting next to me, she would say: Look, what can we do to kind of calm this down so people don't go after each other?

We maintained not only bipartisanship when we can but also dignity and respect for each other. There were many occasions when, if it wasn't for the fact that she was willing to step in and do that with my help, we would have digressed into the kind of the law of the jungle or whatever you want to call it.

I know a lot has been said tonight about the legislation that she shepherded through. I missed part of it in the beginning, but a lot of it was significant. In all honesty, the nuclear package--we were at the White House, I guess in the summer, when the President signed the nuclear package. That wasn't easy. There are a lot of people who are opposed to nuclear energy, even the President himself in the past has often been against nuclear energy. We managed, through her efforts, to get that bill passed on a bipartisan basis. It was a major achievement.

Other bills that I think were very significant was the hospital transparency bill. We call it that, but it actually went way beyond hospitals. It dealt with PBMs. It dealt with insurance companies. It dealt with so many other things. Again, this goes back to, I think, her championing the idea that if we pass legislation where people can sort of be empowered themselves to do things, that that works. That is what that bill was all about. We haven't passed the Senate, but we will get it passed at some point.

It was the idea that we would empower the consumer, the individual, or the group to actually be able to do comparison shopping, create competition, which is the American way, to create that competition. I think that was, again, to her credit that she championed this, made it bipartisan, and it passed out of our committee and also passed the floor of the House.

I have to say, Cathy, that many times you would bring up China.

Oftentimes, we would have a hearing and she would start going after not China per se, but Beijing, Communist China. I would often laugh and say: Here we go again. She is going to talk about Beijing and the Communist Party in China.

The fact of the matter is, I agreed with her. I mean, I do think that the biggest threat that we face is from Beijing, from China, militarily. In terms of trade, the competition is there. That culminated in the TikTok bill and the data brokers legislation, which I know is still being challenged in the courts, but it seems like we are doing pretty good.

That was a recognition of the fact that the Communist Party in China was really out to spread misinformation and lead us down a path that was contrary and dangerous to our national security.

I would laugh when she talked about the Communist Party in China, but I agreed with her. I totally agreed with her every time she talked about it because it is absolutely true. There is no question about it.

I know another bill that we didn't have complete success on was data privacy, but again, that goes back to her caring about kids. I remember when she had all of her children. I often wondered: How is she going to do this? How is she going to have all these kids while she is in Congress? How is she going to have these children and how is she going to continue to be a leader? She was head of the Conference, I think, part of the time, but she just managed to do it all.

Mr. Speaker, she managed to be the mother, to be the example for women as a mother, as a leader in politics, and as a legislator. I don't know how you did it, but you did manage to do it all.

Of course, when we talk about data privacy, a lot of that was her concern for social media and how it is negatively influencing kids.

I think you felt the same way about fentanyl and the drugs and how young people were being hooked on fentanyl and other drugs and that we had to do something about it. We have done some things about it in my opinion.

I thank you, Cathy. I don't want to keep going on. I know there are others who want to speak.

Thank you, Cathy. Thank you to your husband, Brian, your three kids, Cole, Grace, and Brynn, who basically sacrificed a lot while you were here. I know you want to get back to them and to eastern Washington, which you love so dearly.

I also thank Nate, Sarah, and the entire team. They not only made it possible for her to accomplish what she did but they really loved her, too. That showed, as well.

We are going to miss you. I know we are going to see you again and hopefully see you often.

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