Honoring Congressman John Dingell on his Retirement
December 9, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the congressional career of our colleague, the Dean of the House, JOHN DINGELL. As the longest-serving member of Congress ever, it is hard to imagine our nation, this Congress, and the Energy and Commerce Committee without him as he retires at the end of the 113th Congress. I am happy that he is leaving on his own terms and I wish him every happiness as he moves onto the next phase of his life as a congressional spouse.
I am just so honored to be here to celebrate and honor somebody I call a friend – JOHN DINGELL. Over my time in the House of Representatives, I have noticed that everyone who talks about JOHN DINGELL says my friend, my chairman, my colleague, my mentor, someone I look up to, and someone I respect. I would just like to say that I can’t really change those words because they echo my own sentiments.
I was not yet born when JOHN DINGELL was first sworn into the House on December 13, 1955. It was about two and a half years before I entered the world. When he took that courageous vote in support of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and civil rights, I was six-years-old. I recall at the time living here in the Washington metropolitan area that my father and mother used to bring us to this Capitol almost every Sunday after church. They would bring us and we would run up and down the east front of the Capitol. We would picnic on the west front of the Capitol.
I am thinking today how wonderful it is to know there was someone who was in this chamber who so valued this institution and who, even when I was a six-year old, JOHN DINGELL was working to protect my rights. When I think about that, I think of the need to create a formula for the VRA that the Supreme Court can support that institutes the way that we protect our voting rights in section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Almost none of us, including JOHN LEWIS, would be here had JOHN DINGELL not had the courage to take that vote in 1964.
So, it’s such an honor to serve with him and to know that while that may have been the battle in 1964, he remains fully prepared to engage in the battle here in 2014. It is also an honor that we all have the great privilege of being able to serve with JOHN DINGELL.
I believe there is hardly anything that impacts our modern day laws that we can’t attribute to the great hard work and public service of JOHN DINGELL. The fact that I got up this morning and turned on a faucet and ran a glass of water and was able to drink it and know that it was clean, was about JOHN DINGELL. That I walked outside today and knew that I could breathe air that was okay – we still have work to do – but to know that that clean air, and the cleaner we make our air, is attributed to JOHN DINGELL.
I think back to my grandmother who came to live with us at a point when she was aging – and it was actually just prior to the enactment of Medicare – and how different families’ lives are now because of the protections that they have for health care as they age and are disabled. Those things are attributable to the great work, the legislative legacy, and the service of JOHN DINGELL.
When I first came into Congress, I won a primary election against an incumbent member. One day JOHN DINGELL pulled me aside in the cloak room and he said, “Come sit down, I want to talk to you, I want to get to know you.” And I was, frankly, afraid of him. I knew his history, I had watched him Chair several Energy and Commerce hearings, and I knew that he was a great friend of my predecessor in this chamber.
I sat down and I talked to him, and what I gained from JOHN DINGELL was the kind of honor and dedication that he has, and reverence that he has, for this institution. It is unlike any that we see, and we learn from that. So we talked, and we became friends.
Then a funny thing happened. Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, and his inauguration was about to occur. It is another reminder that JOHN DINGELL’s almost 59 years of service – that anniversary will occur this Saturday – are about this amazing legislative work, but it is also about the children, women, men, and families of his district.
The Marching Chiefs of Wyandotte Roosevelt High School in Mr. Dingell’s congressional district were invited to play in the 2009 inaugural parade for President Obama. Somehow or another, they booked a hotel in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that was approximately 130 miles and a couple of hours away from Washington, DC. Those students and their chaperones would have had to get up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning to get to the inaugural staging area on time. I have the honor of representing a congressional district just outside of Washington, DC, in Maryland. JOHN DINGELL reached out to me and he told me this story, and I said, Well, maybe we can figure out something.
We found a willing partner in Wise Junior High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where they could stay in the gym. The parent-teacher organization, the staff, and the students welcomed those students from Michigan that they didn’t know at all into their high school. They fed them and provided sleeping bags, blankets, and even an ironing board. So, the Marching Chiefs were able to actually get to the inaugural parade much easier and on time.
Those students were so grateful to JOHN DINGELL. What I saw in this great legislator is that the people of his district really did come first and he looked out for them, and they knew that he looked out for them. I thought that that is the kind of Member of Congress that I want to be.
JOHN DINGELL and I have been locked at the hand and the hip ever since. In 2011, I was scheduled to speak at a Washtenaw County, Michigan, Democratic Club dinner. I flew into the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and as I walked through the terminal, the Wyandotte Roosevelt High School Marching Band started to play. Unbeknownst to me, JOHN DINGELL had coordinated with the school as a surprise thank you.
I think there are so many of us who serve in this institution who really do value the message that JOHN DINGELL has given us about the need to work together and to preserve and protect our democracy by working in a way that gives value and service to all of our communities and to this great nation. So for that, I want to thank JOHN DINGELL for being such an important part of this institution and important part of the way I have learned to become a Member of Congress.
Finally, I want to say a word about JOHN DINGELL’s efforts on health care. As many of my colleagues know, JOHN DINGELL, like his father before him, has introduced a universal health care bill at the beginning of each new Congress. Before I came to the Congress, I had an experience of not having had health care and getting very sick, which required a trip to the emergency room. I ended up having a lot of bills that I couldn’t pay because I didn’t have health insurance. When we began to consider what is today known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it was JOHN DINGELL sitting as speaker pro tempore who gaveled in the House with the gavel that he used for the passage of Medicare.
Then during the course of the debate on the ACA, I had the honor of presiding as speaker pro tempore and there was one moment that JOHN DINGELL was speaking on the floor about his father’s experience and about his experience working on health care. I will never forget that moment because for me it was what we do as legislators, but it also felt very personal. It felt so wonderful to know that in JOHN DINGELL’s service, he has never stopped for a single day of those 59 years to make sure that millions of Americans like me could have health care that was quality, affordable, and accessible. So I thank him very much for his service, and I am so honored to have had the opportunity over these past seven years to serve with him and to learn from him.
JOHN DINGELL’s retirement will leave a void in this House that cannot be filled. I wish him, his wife Debbie, his children Chris, Jennifer, John, and Jeanne, and his grandchildren continued success, happiness, and hopefully some well-earned rest. I know they have been of tremendous support to him in his service to this House and our nation. He leaves behind a legacy of service that others can and should aspire to.