[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE LOUIS STOKES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. JERRY LEWIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 23, 1998

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I insert the following for the 
Record:
  I want to add my voice to the tributes offered by the Congressional 
colleagues of the Honorable Louis Stokes. When I first came to 
Washington, nearly six years ago, as the Assistant Secretary of 
Community Planning and Development at the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, Louis Stokes was Mr. Chairman. He was the Chairman 
of the Subcommittee that controlled the purse strings for all the 
creative ideas that a new Administration wanted to implement--an 
unprecedented increase in funding for the homeless, funding for 
partnerships between the Federal Government and not for profit 
organizations to build and rehabilitate affordable housing, a new 
economic development grant program. And he agreed with those 
initiatives and helped restore the Department as the agency that is 
dedicated to assisting the most vulnerable among us and to revitalizing 
our cities and towns.
  Now as ranking member of that same Subcommittee, he continues to help 
this Administration and me as Secretary of the Department. He has been 
with me every step of the way as we have ``reinvented'' HUD and I 
counted on his advice and counsel. Now that we are beginning to see the 
results of that reinvention, he has fought to give the Department the 
resources it needs to create jobs and economic opportunity to meet the 
challenges of the global economy and the demands of American cities. He 
has fought steadfastly to expand and preserve housing opportunities for 
renters in public and assisted housing, for homebuyers, and for the 
homeless. He has fought unabashedly to end the scourge of housing 
discrimination. He has taken on all these battles even in the face of 
terribly tight budget strictures.
  Perhaps it was growing up in public housing, but, whatever the 
reason, Congressman Stokes sought to serve on the two appropriations 
subcommittees that reach those most in need--VA, HUD and Independent 
Agencies and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, & Related 
Agencies. And serve those in need, he has. He is a man who cares deeply 
about the programs of this Department and the people they impact.
  So I want to pay tribute to him and to say how deeply I appreciate 
his long, hard work. I will miss him and the people who rely upon HUD's 
programs will miss him.

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