[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 119 (Monday, July 28, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6868-H6870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WILLIAM H. GRAY III 30TH STREET STATION

  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4838) to redesignate the railroad station located at 2955 
Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commonly known as ``30th 
Street Station'', as the ``William H. Gray III 30th Street Station''.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4838

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

     SECTION 1. REDESIGNATION.

       The railroad station located at 2955 Market Street in 
     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commonly known as ``30th Street 
     Station'', shall be known and designated as the ``William H. 
     Gray III 30th Street Station''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the railroad station 
     referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to 
     the ``William H. Gray III 30th Street Station''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.


                             General Leave

  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous materials on H.R. 4838.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4838, and I am honored to rise 
in support of H.R. 4838, which renames Amtrak's 30th Street Station for 
William H. Gray III.
  I am proud to be a Pennsylvanian and proud to have known Mr. Gray. 
Mr. Gray led a life of service in his church and to the Second District 
of Pennsylvania, to the education community, and to America.
  Representative Gray served the Second District for six terms and was 
the first African American House Budget Committee chairman and first 
African American House majority whip.
  He also helped provide Federal resources for the renovation of 
Amtrak's 30th Street Station, so it is only appropriate today that we 
have a bill on the floor that would rename the 30th Street Station for 
him. As I understand it, this will have no cost to the taxpayers, but, 
again, I probably have used the 30th Street Station more than any other 
station, whether traveling from Union Station to Philadelphia or 
traveling from the Harrisburg terminal to Philadelphia.
  Again, it is a beautiful building, and, again, with the renaming of 
it, I think it is very appropriate that we name it for William Gray.
  With that, I urge the support of H.R. 4838, and I reserve the balance 
of my time.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4838, which 
designates Amtrak's 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
as the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.
  For those who did not know him, Bill Gray was a tireless advocate for 
both the people of the Second District of Philadelphia and Amtrak. He 
was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and 
served with distinction until 1991, when he went on to serve as 
president of the United Negro College Fund, before founding Gray Global 
Advisors.
  During his tenure in the House, Bill Gray served as the first African 
American to chair the Budget Committee and the first to serve as the 
majority whip from 1989 to 1991. His role on the Budget Committee and, 
later, the Appropriations Committee enabled him to help boost Federal 
spending on public housing and revitalize Amtrak's 30th Street Station, 
one of the busiest intercity passenger rail service in the United 
States.
  I want to thank Congressman Chaka Fattah for introducing this 
important legislation recognizing the chairman's great accomplishments.
  In 2011, Amtrak renamed its Wilmington station stop the Joseph R. 
Biden, Jr., Railroad Station. Amtrak was able to accomplish this 
without any disruption to operations, including its ticketing and 
reservation systems, training, schedule, and other references to the 
station, and we expect Amtrak will carry this renaming in the same 
manner.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I want to congratulate and thank Congressman 
Fattah for honoring the great legend

[[Page H6869]]

of Bill Gray's strong leadership and steadfast support of Amtrak. I 
urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, our side has no more speakers, so I 
continue to reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Congressman Chaka Fattah.
  Mr. FATTAH. Well, I thank the gentlewoman, and I thank the chairman 
of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. As an appropriator, 
we were going to proceed in an appropriations bill with this naming, 
but after consulting with the chairman, he felt that it was important 
that we proceed under regular order and that this was important enough 
that we have an actual piece of legislation, and he guided me through 
this process.
  I want to thank the chairman for his advice on the matter, and also, 
we were able to round up every single member of the Federal delegation 
from our State who were enthusiastic in their support for this, and our 
cosponsors--and our two United States Senators have introduced a 
companion bill in the Senate, Senator Toomey, and our senior Senator, 
Senator Casey. We thank Senators Toomey and Casey for their support.
  Mr. Speaker, Bill Gray served for 12 years as Budget Committee chair 
and as majority whip. He was an accomplished lawmaker and leader in a 
bipartisan way. He helped to lead the budget negotiations with 
President Reagan's administration, which at first sought to eliminate 
Amtrak, but in the conclusion, it was Secretary Stockman who said that 
it was Bill Gray's leadership that allowed for necessary cuts to be 
made in other areas of the budget, but for Amtrak to continue to 
receive the necessary support, so that it could be a vital part of our 
transportation infrastructure.
  He also, as the chairman has indicated, directly impacted the station 
in Philadelphia by arranging for some urban development action grants 
to be the focus of revitalization of the station at 30th Street.
  Now, I live in a city in which we have the Betsy Ross Bridge, the 
Walt Whitman Bridge, and the Ben Franklin Parkway, but to add to this 
now the Bill Gray Station at 30th Street I think appropriately 
recognizes the historical contribution of a young man who was elected 
at 38, who served in this Congress, and provided extraordinary service.
  When he left here, he went on to lead the Nation's most aggressive 
effort ever in terms of scholarships for students to pursue colleges 
who were coming from underrepresented categories.
  He served as a special envoy for President Clinton, in terms of 
interacting around challenges in Haiti, and on a day where we had the 
Young African Leaders summit here in Washington, some 500 young 
leaders, Gray is most remembered in Africa because he championed and 
passed successfully the divestiture of South Africa, the legislation 
that would effect the divestiture of stock to end apartheid, and as a 
freshman, he passed a bill that created the African Development Bank. 
Freshmen at that point, and even today, find it difficult to pass major 
legislation in our House.
  So I think it is great that we have come to this moment, and even 
though I passed other very important pieces of legislation, I am 
extraordinarily and personally honored to be able to carry this bill. I 
thank the gentlewoman from Florida, the ranking member, and the 
chairman for all of the courtesies that have been extended.

                              {time}  1430

  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have one quick question.
  Mr. Fattah, were you aware that the gentleman was raised on the 
campus of Florida A&M University where his father was the president?
  Mr. FATTAH. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. FATTAH. I am aware that he was raised by educators and that his 
father was the president of a great college in Florida. I think it is 
appropriate that you would come in from Florida to help us move this 
bill forward. But Bill Gray loved you, and he loved the State of 
Florida. He made that his home once he retired from the Congress 
representing Pennsylvania.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. Were you also aware that he was one of the most 
outstanding preachers that this country has ever known?
  Mr. FATTAH. I am convinced, in terms of someone mounting a pulpit, 
there are very few people who could claim the mantle that he claimed as 
pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church. He was just an extraordinary 
figure. There are so many stories on a bipartisan basis that could be 
told. I think it is great that years--decades--after his service and 
before a year has passed since his passing that the House is taking 
this step today to honor his service. It honors us that he served here.
  Ms. BROWN of Florida. I thank you, and I thank his wife, his 
children, and his family.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I appreciate the gentlelady yielding back the balance of 
her time so I get the final word. Sometimes I don't always get the 
final word with the gentlelady from Florida. I didn't know if you knew 
he was a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania. So he was educated at a great school in central 
Pennsylvania, so we would like to take some credit.
  Mr. FATTAH. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SHUSTER. I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. FATTAH. I was aware of that, and he constantly reminded those of 
us from Philadelphia that it wasn't Penn or some of these other 
institutions in which he got fortified for his national service role.
  Mr. SHUSTER. I appreciate the gentleman pointing that out. I am a 
graduate of Dickinson College, which used to be in the MAC, Middle 
Atlantic Conference, which F&M was in, so I share that heritage of the 
MAC conference with Mr. Gray.
  The other thing I wanted to point out, his family moved to 
Philadelphia in 1949. His father took over the church of his 
grandfather, and then Bill Gray led that church, and so he was a third-
generation pastor at the Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia. 
After pointing that out, some folks around here know my heritage.
  I spoke to my father this weekend and asked him what he remembered 
about Bill Gray. My father said he was smart, he was hardworking and 
tough, and he was a true gentleman. So he sent his best down here for 
this debate also.
  Finally, I just want to thank Amtrak for working with us to be able 
to move this forward. The president of Amtrak, Joe Boardman, and his 
staff worked very hard to ensure this became a reality. Being able to 
name the station for a Pennsylvanian, someone with a tremendous 
background and experience, it has been an honor for me to take part in 
this.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. SCHWARTZ. Mr. Speaker, Bill Gray was a friend and mentor.
   With his unwavering dedication to public service, Bill made an 
indelible mark on the history of Philadelphia and the U.S. House of 
Representatives.
  Bill was a trailblazer and was truly one of the most remarkable 
public figures in Philadelphia.
  He was a proud leader and representative of the people of 
Philadelphia and a staunch advocate for the working families and those 
less fortunate in Pennsylvania and across the nation.
  In the House, Bill was the first African American to serve as 
Chairman of the Budget Committee and the first to rise to the rank of 
Majority Whip.
  I am proud to support this measure to name Philadelphia's 30th Street 
Station in his honor.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise is strong support of H.R. 4838, 
which designates the railway station located at 2955 Market St. in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commonly known as the ``30th Street 
Station,'' as the ``William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.''
  This is a fitting tribute to the late Congressman William H. ``Bill'' 
Gray III, who was a legislator, a politician, a pastor, a teacher, a 
public servant, and a larger-than-life patriot.
  Congressman Bill Gray was born on August 20, 1943 in Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana, but he spent most of his childhood in Florida, where his 
father was president of Florida Normal and Industrial College, which 
later became Florida A & M University.

[[Page H6870]]

  Congressman Gray, like his father, was a strong supporter of 
education and leading advocate for strengthening America's educational 
systems.
  He earned several degrees: a bachelor's degree in 1963 from Franklin 
and Marshall College, a Master's of Divinity in 1966 from Drew 
Theological Seminary, and another Master's in Church History from 
Princeton Theological Seminary in 1970.
  Additionally, he was awarded more than 65 honorary degrees from 
America's leading colleges and universities.
  At an early age, he accepted his calling to become a preacher, and 
from that day, he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus in the church, in the 
community, and even in the halls of Congress. His faith was unshakable. 
It was evident that he lived his life based upon what he preached.
  Congressman Gray was the pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church in 
Philadelphia for more than 25 years, a church pastored by his father 
and grandfather.
  Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1978, 
Congressman Gray was a persistent voice for equal rights, educational 
access, and opportunity for all persons, in the United States and 
abroad.
  In 1985, Congressman Gray became the first African American in 
history to chair the House Budget Committee, where he introduced H. R. 
1460, the ``Anti-Apartheid Action Act of 1985,'' which prohibited loans 
and new investment in South Africa and imposed sanctions on imports and 
exports with South Africa.
  In 1989, Congressman Gray was elected by his colleagues Chairman of 
the Democratic Caucus and later that year was elected Majority Whip.
  As the first African American to hold these two senior leadership 
positions, Bill Gray's success inspired a generation of African 
American elected officials.
  In 1991, Congressman Gray resigned from Congress to become the 
president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund 
(UNCF).
  Approximately one-half of the more than $1.6 billion raised in UNCF's 
history was collected during Congressman Gray's tenure.
  During the Clinton Administration, Congressman Gray served as 
President Clinton's special adviser on Haiti.
  As a result of his commitment to Haiti, Congressman Gray and 
President Clinton received the Medal of Honor from Haitian President 
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
  Mr. Speaker, there is only one word to convey the sweep and scope of 
Congressman Gray's life of service: giant. He was a giant of 
Philadelphia, of the Congress, and in the history of our country.
  By designating ``30th Street Station'' to ``William H. Gray 30th 
Street Station,'' the American people, not just the residents of 
Philadelphia, will be reminded of Congressman Gray's illustrious legacy 
of public service to his city, his state, his country, and the world.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting passage of H.R. 
2430.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4838.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________