Honoring Congressman John Dingell on his Retirement

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for
taking this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, when this new House convenes on January 6, it will be
the first in 59 years not to include the distinguished dean of this
House, Mr. John Dingell of Michigan.

We will still have a Dingell from Michigan. It will be his wife,
Debbie, whom so many of us in this House have come to know and admire.
I have worked with Debbie every year that I have been in the Congress.
She won the election to succeed John, and surely we will continue to
have him in our midst as a congressional spouse. But he will be very,
very sorely missed among the Members of this body, all of whom he
welcomed to the House over the course of his service as the longest-
serving Member in the history of the Congress.

A lot of people like to point to John's tenure in the House and note
that when he came to Congress, Americans had Dwight Eisenhower as
President, Brooklyn had a champion Dodgers baseball team, and Elvis
Presley had his first gold record.

But what I will point out is what Americans did not have. They did
not have Medicare. Seniors were unprotected from the rising costs of
health care in their golden years until John Dingell became their
champion and introduced legislation that was the precursor to Medicare.
And he presided over this House when it passed Medicare in 1965.

Americans did not have the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act.
When John Dingell took his first oath of office as a Member of this
House, millions of African Americans across the South could not vote
for Representatives in this House. Just 4 months after taking office,
he bravely challenged the Eisenhower administration's leadership on
civil rights.

He rose in this Chamber with great audacity to demand that the
President protect those who were being denied their most fundamental
rights as Americans. It almost cost him his seat. But all of us who
know John understand why he was willing to risk everything for a cause
that was just.

Americans did not have the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, or the
Safe Drinking Water Act, nor did they have the Endangered Species Act
or the National Environmental Policy Act. John realized before many of
his contemporaries that if Congress did not act to protect our
environment, future generations would inherit a Nation spoiled by
pollution and neglect, so he became a crusader for conservation.

And the American people did not have SCHIP or the Affordable Care
Act--SCHIP being children's health insurance. John Dingell fought his
entire life in public office to make affordable quality health care
accessible to all who need it.

In between his work to pass Medicare in 1965 and the enactment of
health care reform in 2010, John Dingell successfully pushed for
incremental progress that made the Affordable Care Act possible. And
when Leader Pelosi struck the gavel to signify the passage of that law,
it was the same gavel that was used by John when he announced the
passage of the Medicare Act nearly 50 years before.

I was proud to nominate John for the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
our Nation's highest civilian honor, and to be on hand last month as
President Obama presented that Medal of Freedom to him at the White
House.

Let no one mistake John's legacy as one of simply longevity. Had he
served nine terms and not 29, we would surely be here on this floor to
praise him as a man of vision, of principle, of courage and
achievement, and of a deep love for this country, its people, and for
this institution.

I have had the privilege of serving with John in this House for 33
years. Throughout that time, he has been a dear friend from whom I have
learned much and with whom I shared many memorable experiences on and
off this floor.

John Dingell, my colleagues, has been and is a man of conviction, he
has embodied civility, and he has worked in a bipartisan fashion. His
example is one that if we follow, it would benefit the country and the
House.

As chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, John was
instrumental in supporting a strong auto industry and jobs for America
and measures to promote manufacturing here in this country.

Americans remember with gratitude his determined effort as chairman
to root out waste, fraud, and abuse across the government and save the
taxpayers while improving how the government works.

Seventy-three years ago this week, a young John Dingell, Jr., then a
House page, sat in this Chamber, in which his father, John, Sr.,
served, while President Roosevelt delivered his famous speech asking
for a declaration of war as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on that Day of Infamy.

Four years later, while serving in the United States Army, Second
Lieutenant John Dingell was preparing to invade Japan when the bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to an end and quite possibly
saving his life. We are all grateful for that, that Providence spared
him, so he could come to the people's House and do the people's work
for 59 years.

We will miss him dearly. I will miss him. I take comfort in knowing
that he will still be here among us as a private citizen, as the
husband of the new Member from Michigan's 12th District, and as an
elder statesman for our country who I hope will always be ready to
share the wisdom of his experience with those who will continue his
work in this House.

John Dingell has been a great American, a citizen who loved his
country and served it well. God bless you, John Dingell, and thank you.

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