[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 172 (Wednesday, December 12, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H9242-H9243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ARMEY ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, at the end of this Congress, I will have 
served 18 years in the United States House of Representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the good people of the 26th 
Congressional District of Texas who nine times elected me to represent 
them in this body. How very privileged I am to have been given that 
trust, that responsibility and the opportunity to serve the values I 
share with these good people: faith, freedom, safety, security and 
peace, in that order.
  Mr. Speaker, I have come to love this place. This is the most 
marvelous democratic institution in the history of the world. It is 
true what we say about this wonderful House Chamber. Here the people 
govern; we, the House of Representatives. It is more than a place. It 
is we the people, working each in our own way to secure the blessings 
of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.
  In my time here we have managed to secure many blessings of liberty. 
We have been the instruments of the American people during a special 
period when America led the world in a freedom revolution. As a lesson 
in how freedom works, we whipped stagflation and set a course of 
economic prosperity and growth unparalleled in the history of the 
world.
  America halted the march of communism in our hemisphere. We inspired 
the demise of its tyranny in Eastern Europe. The Cold War ended on our 
terms. The Soviet Union collapsed. The Berlin Wall fell. We won the 
Gulf War, and as we speak, we are removing the scourge of terrorism 
from the globe.

                              {time}  1030

  Peace through strength and supply-side economics changed this world 
for the better. Because the American people champion liberty, more 
people in the world live free today than at any time in the world's 
history. Yet there is more to be done, and it is America who will lead 
the way.
  Mr. Speaker, that marvelous creativity known as practical American 
genius led us through the agricultural revolution and the industrial 
revolution. It now leads us through the electronic revolution. Once 
again we see new marvels, deriving from the American creativity and 
hard work. Today, we see a renewal of faith in God that lifts the 
hearts of everyone in America. There is a renewal of patriotism that 
vindicates the faith of our fathers and the sacrifices of our heroes.
  America is a good Nation, where blessings endure and difficulties 
pass. The American people deserve a government that knows their 
goodness and has the decency to respect it. It is up to us to be that 
government, and I have complete confidence that we will continue to be 
just that.
  Because of this confidence, I am comfortable telling you today that 
the end

[[Page H9243]]

of this 107th Congress is the time for me to stand down as majority 
leader and as a Member of Congress; to take my leave of this place and 
the people I love so much, and to return home to my beloved 26th 
district of Texas and, more importantly, to my beloved wife and family.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sad to say what we all know is true. Too often our 
service to our Nation is a disservice to our family. To our spouses, 
our years of service seem to be an unbroken string of broken promises 
and disappointments. Our husbands and wives are too often excluded from 
what we do. They live a life of hardship that is rarely supposed and 
even less understood. It is as if they are single parents.
  You all know what I mean. We all have our own heartbreaking chapter 
and verse. Bless our hearts, and, even more, bless our spouses' hearts.
  But, Mr. Speaker, here is the good news. Throughout all the 
difficulties that only we who serve here can understand, I have kept 
the love of a good woman. And, Mr. Speaker, I have kept my love for her 
just as it was on the day we were wed. Just as she has always been, my 
darling wife Susan is here with me today from our home in Texas.
  Honey, I want to thank you for all your years of sacrifice. And, 
honey, you get to keep this house. We are not moving again.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just mention our children, Kathy and Brandon, 
David and Lori, Chip and Christine, Scott and Carisa, and Scott and 
Pam. They have given us our beautiful grandchildren, Avery, Christian, 
Christopher, and Jacob. I very much look forward to making up for lost 
time with them, just as with my wonderful mother-in-law, Alyne, our 
beautiful sister Betsy and her darling little Ryan.
  Mr. Speaker, while this is a sad announcement for me, I am consoled 
by the fact that I have one more year, one more year in the leadership 
of this body. I am looking forward to that being the best year ever. We 
are just completing an outstanding legislative year, and we will do 
even more next year. I do not intend to miss a minute of it.
  Mr. Speaker, my first lesson in politics was ``good policy makes good 
politics.'' I believe that. And I believe this majority makes good 
policy. That is why, Mr. Speaker, the American people elected us to 
this majority and that is why I know they will do it again in the next 
Congress, and I do not have a doubt about it. I can complete my work 
next year knowing the House will remain in good hands.
  And, Mr. Speaker, may I say in that regard to you personally, to you 
personally, Mr. Speaker, thank you for answering your Nation's call to 
duty. Mr. Speaker, you are, in my life's experience, more than anybody 
else I have ever known, the right man to step up to provide the right 
leadership at the right time for all the right reasons, and I thank 
you. May God bless you.
  I might add, Mr. Speaker, that you have made it possible for me to 
know I have got the best job in this town, and I am going to do it with 
all my energy for another year.
  The good people of Texas have made it possible for me to work with 
the finest people in the world, the Members of the United States House 
of Representatives on both sides of the aisle. To my friends on the 
other side of the aisle, we have many good contests. We are sometimes 
together, but we are more often in opposition. But we always represent 
what we believe. Thank you, my friends. You are constant, consistent 
and reliable.
  You know, despite the often too-bitter contests we have, I cherish 
the fact that when our country needed us to come together, we stood on 
the steps of this Capitol and hand to hand we sang ``God Bless 
America.'' It was that feeling of unity, not the heated exchanges, that 
I will remember most fondly when I leave here.
  To my Republican colleagues, we should be proud of what we have done 
in our young majority. Twice now we have lowered the tax burden on 
America's working families and left them more in charge of their own 
hard-earned money. We reformed a failed welfare system in a way that 
has saved families. We honored the American people's prosperity by our 
spending restraint, and we turned government deficits into hard-won 
surpluses, and we must now hold them. We will hold those surpluses by 
restoring economic growth through supply-side tax cuts, and that is why 
we cannot leave here without an economic stimulus package.
  My colleagues, my friends, my appreciation for you has only been made 
greater because in the past few years I have had the privilege of 
visiting nearly every congressional district in America. I am looking 
forward to returning to about 100 more next year. But for now, my 
friends, let us finish our work and go home.
  Let me conclude by saying, I wish you all, all of you and all your 
hard-working staffs, and all the wonderful people that make this great 
organization work, and the security and the police, let me wish you all 
a happy holiday season. Whether it is the celebration of Chanukah or, 
for me, Christmas, the birthday of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I 
just hope this is a happy and joyous occasion. It will be for me and my 
family, it will be for America, and it should be in all our lives.
  Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

                          ____________________