[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7771-H7773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEMAN HANKINS POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4002) to designate the United States Postal Service building 
located at 5300 West Jefferson Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as 
the ``Freeman Hankins Post Office Building''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 4002

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. FREEMAN HANKINS POST OFFICE BUILDING.

       (a) Designation.--The United States Postal Service building 
     located at 5300 West Jefferson Street, in Philadelphia, 
     Pennsylvania,

[[Page H7772]]

     shall be known and designated as the ``Freeman Hankins Post 
     Office Building''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     building referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Freeman Hankins Post Office Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. McHugh) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh).


                             General Leave

  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4002 was introduced on June 5 of this year by the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), our distinguished colleague 
who serves as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Postal Service. 
Pursuant to the rules of the full committee, this bill enjoys the 
sponsorship of the entire delegation from the great State of 
Pennsylvania.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished gentleman for his 
leadership on this issue, for bringing forward not just this particular 
renaming, but one that will soon follow. In doing this, I think that 
the gentleman that has once again upheld the tradition that has been 
established both in this Congress and in previous Congresses in 
relegating to those very worthy individuals the honor of having a 
postal facility named after them.
  Certainly, Mr. Hankins is, indeed, a prime example of the kind of 
individual that has really come to be synonymous with making this 
country what it has been and what we all hope it will remain to be, the 
greatest and longest-lived democracy on the face of the Earth.

                              {time}  1730

  He was perhaps best known for his service in the Pennsylvania State 
legislature, first as a Member of the House of Representatives, 
beginning in 1961, and then as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate in 
1967, where he served until his retirement in 1989. During those nearly 
three decades of service, this gentleman compiled a record that did for 
his community the kinds of things that all good Americans look to their 
government for. He did, perhaps most of all, carry forward the 
legislation in his State to designate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday 
as a State holiday.
  Over, as I said, the nearly three decades, he received numerous 
awards, served on so many different boards in service to that State, 
such as the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, the 
Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Agency, Lincoln University, 
and on and on and on.
  I know, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) 
will have much more to say about the particulars of this individual's 
achievements, and I do not want to preempt his opportunity. So let me 
just say that my colleague has done a service to this House, in my 
opinion, by bringing forward the name of Mr. Freeman Hankins for 
designation of this post office building, and I am honored to join with 
him in urging all of our colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let me, first of all, in a much more perfunctory way, thank the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh). I think many must realize that 
this is the person that this Congress has given the burden of being the 
legislative steward of our postal service. Some 700,000 plus Americans 
work for the United States Postal Service. It is an extraordinarily 
important element of our national economy, and which we all pat 
ourselves on the back for the economic success here in our country, but 
our economy could not function without a universal system of mail 
delivery. The gentleman from New York has done so much to help ensure 
the efficient and effective running of the world's largest and really 
best postal service. It is the one that is benchmarked by all of our 
economic competitors around the world.
  I want to first of all thank him, mention to the House that we will 
be having a markup quite soon on some important legislation, and I know 
that he would like to have the House's attention on, but I take this 
time to let him know that I truly appreciate the work that he has done. 
All of us who come to the Congress, obviously, could imagine doing any 
number of things, but none could imagine a responsibility greater than 
the role that the gentleman from New York is playing.
  Let me say that, obviously, I rise in support of H.R. 4002. I was in 
the post office that we now are going to be naming after the gentleman 
that I had an opportunity to follow to the State Senate. He actually 
preceded me in the State Senate. It is in the heart of the West 
Philadelphia community, the 7th senatorial district, that Freeman 
Hankins served for more than two decades. He also, like myself, before 
his service in the Senate served in the Statehouse.
  He led the way, in terms of Philadelphians, and served on the board 
of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which is an 
agency I eventually had the opportunity to chair the executive board 
of, and which has helped over a million children in Philadelphia 
receive financial assistance to go on to college and to obtain a 
college education. But it was Freeman Hankins who helped create this 
entity, one of the first of its kind in the country, a State agency 
governed by a board of legislators. Unlike other boards, and any other 
board we can find in any other State, it is a State agency governed by 
lawmakers, with a minority of the appointments made by the governor, 
eight members in the Statehouse and eight in the State Senate, and is 
the finest student financing agency anywhere in the country.
  Freeman Hankins is credited with passing the Martin Luther King Day 
Holiday bill but also was the spearhead in helping to develop the 
Minority Business Development Agency. He served on the Lincoln Board, 
on which I had an opportunity to later sit in his seat on the Lincoln 
University Board of Trustees, which is a university that we know has 
graduated many of the top leaders in our country.
  But Freeman Hankins was not just another public servant. He was also 
a businessman who ran a business in west Philadelphia, a mortuary and a 
funeral home. He was the leader of a national association of African 
American funeral home directors. He was a substantially wealthy 
individual who, nonetheless, dedicated the majority of his time to 
public service. And I remember as he would take his summer vacation at 
his beach house in Atlantic City, we just considered that an adjunct to 
his district and would visit there often to chat with him about 
important matters.
  He was a gentleman and a statesman, someone who gave honor to the 
State Senate in his service, and we want to take this opportunity to 
encourage all of my colleagues to favorably consider this bill. He is 
someone who, in the naming of this post office in west Philadelphia, 
will remind his constituents long after his passing of his service, and 
will remind them that the type of public official that comes along 
every once in a while can truly make a difference in people's lives.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. McHUGH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  In closing, let me first of all respond to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania on his very gracious remarks. I have always viewed this 
postal subcommittee as a challenge, not as a burden. Perhaps it could 
have been a burden had we not had such, I think, admirable cooperation 
on both sides of the aisle, a recognition I think most prominently 
displayed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) that this is 
a very important system, one, as he said, that really does bind our 
Nation together. And we all recognize that this is the kind of activity 
that deserves our concerted attention and our concerted care, and he 
has been a leader in ensuring that. I deeply appreciate the opportunity 
to continue to work with him and thank

[[Page H7773]]

him for his cooperation, his input, his leadership and his comments.
  I would also say, with respect to this particular bill, that we have 
had the opportunity, and I would argue or certainly assert, the honor 
to do a fair number of these this year, and I can never recall a single 
word of opposition to any of them. I say that not because these are 
automatic or that the naming process is simplistic, but rather that 
Members think very carefully before they bring to the floor and work on 
behalf of a particular nominee being designated with this naming honor. 
And certainly today that is shown again in this bill designating the 
postal facility in the honor of Freeman Hankins, and I will again say 
for the bill that follows as well.
  So we owe our thanks to the gentleman from Pennsylvania for once 
again bringing to us a very worthy individual and one that, I think, is 
fully deserving of this particular honor. And, again, in, closing, I 
would proudly join with the gentleman in urging all my colleagues to 
support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hefley). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. McHugh) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4002.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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