[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 5 (Monday, January 12, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H209-H214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COMMEMORATING THE LIFE OF MARIO CUOMO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) is 
recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Pelosi), the minority leader of the House.
  Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I thank the distinguished member and longest-serving member--I don't 
want to say ``senior member''--in the New York delegation for getting 
us off to a start to sing the praises of Mario Cuomo. It is my honor to 
join the New York delegation. I feel honored to do so. Four of our 
children were born in New York, so that gives me some standing on the 
subject.
  Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor to join the New York delegation in 
paying tribute to the memory of Governor Mario Cuomo. I am reminded of 
Ecclesiasticus. We all know this, but just think of how appropriate it 
is for Mario Cuomo.
  In Ecclesiasticus, it says:

       Now let us praise great men, the heroes of our Nation.
       They led the people by their counsel and their knowledge of 
     the laws. From their font of wisdom, they gave instruction.
       These are godly men whose righteous deeds have not been 
     forgotten. Their wealth is their descendants, and their 
     inheritance is their children's children. Their bodies are 
     buried in peace, and their names will live forever.
       The people will tell of their wisdom, and the congregation 
     will continue to sing their praise.

  Does that remind you of Mario Cuomo? Is that perfectly appropriate 
for him? Surely, those words apply to the life and legacy of our great 
departed friend, Mario.
  As a fellow Italian American, I have always taken great pride in his 
leadership. As a San Franciscan who hosted the Democratic Convention, 
we in California had some kind of claim on Mario Cuomo because of the 
great speech that he made at that convention which Mr. Rangel 
referenced, but my observing of his greatness goes farther back than 
that.
  It was during a trip to Italy that we were invited by President 
Carter in 1980 to bring the sympathy and support of the American people 
to Italy at the time of the earthquake, when they lost 2,700 lives and 
which left 265,000 people homeless. I mention that because we went by 
helicopter from village to village to village. Villages were 
devastated.
  Mario Cuomo, here was this person who had such a large spirit and a 
good soul, who could sympathize with these people in English and 
Italian. For example, in a village where a First Communion class was 
rehearsing for First Communion, all of the 7-year-olds in that village 
were in that church when the earthquake hit. The roof came down, and 
every 7-year-old in the village was lost.
  Imagine the grief of those individual families and of that community 
to lose those children, but as you would expect, he was up to the task, 
knowing that words were completely inadequate and that no sympathy 
could meet the pain that they were feeling; nonetheless, there was this 
beautiful, sympathetic man identifying with these people from a region 
from which his family had come in southern Italy.
  Mario Cuomo was a pillar of strength through his community, his 
State, and our Nation. His values, his vision, and his effectiveness 
for the people of New York were an inspiration around the world. He was 
a man of principle and eloquence--that was good--and all the world saw, 
again, that manifested in the ``shining city on a hill'' speech at the 
1984 Democratic Convention.
  With those soaring words, Governor Cuomo summoned the best of America 
and called us to empower the working people and middle class families 
who are the backbone of our Nation. He asked us to remember how futures 
are built. We know Mario Cuomo's language and leadership will echo 
through the ages just as vital, just as urgent, just as energizing as 
his words were that day.
  In word and deed, Governor Cuomo challenged us to make real the 
American Dream. He had it for his family. He wanted it for everyone 
else, for all who strived to realize it, and opened the doors of 
opportunity for every American family.
  Family meant everything to him. He was a proud Governor of New York 
for three terms, but his proudest achievement was his beautiful family. 
No one could miss the pride and inspiration he found in his immigrant 
parents and how he talked about them so beautifully or in his boundless 
dedication to Matilda and his children.
  Our country has lost a great leader, but his family has lost a 
devoted husband to his wife of over 60 years, to Matilda. He was a 
loving father to five children--Margaret, Andrew, Maria, Madeline, and 
Christopher--and was a doting grandfather to some really lovely 
grandchildren.
  My husband, Paul, and I and our entire family are heartbroken. We are 
really heartbroken by his passing, and we continue to extend our 
deepest sympathy and love to Matilda and their family.
  I hope it is a comfort to them that so many people in their own 
State, in the country, and, really, throughout the world mourn their 
loss and continue to pray for them and continue to be inspired by this 
great man.
  As Ecclesiasticus says:

       People will tell of his wisdom, and the congregation will 
     continue to sing his praise.

  I thank Mr. Crowley for yielding. I thank him for bringing us 
together to sing the praises of Mario Cuomo.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Thank you.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Rochester, New York, 
Louise Slaughter.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. I thank Mr. Crowley for yielding to me. There is so 
much on my mind as to what I could say about him.
  I knew him longer than the rest of the New Yorkers. I met him in 
1973. I was a member of the Democratic State committee in Rochester, 
New York, and I was asked by the district attorney to come over to his 
house and meet a man from New York City who was thinking about running 
for Governor; so I joined my friends and sat in the

[[Page H210]]

living room for about an hour, awaiting the guest from New York to get 
off the telephone in the kitchen and come out and talk to us.
  He came out. He was perfectly charming, but he didn't know upstate 
New York. He started by telling us: ``A lot of people are talking to me 
about running for Governor, and I thought it would be a good idea if I 
came up here to see what all of you thought.''
  I left the house that night, and I said to my friend that I was 
driving with: ``He is really a nice guy, and he is very smart, but, 
boy, he needs a lot of help.'' I was really pretty lucky, I think, that 
I got to do that. As it turns out, Governor Carey ran for Governor at 
that time, and Mr. Cuomo was appointed secretary of state.
  He had some great ideas for upstate New York. One of them was they 
were going to have an upstate coordinator, which is kind of an 
amorphous title, but I was very blessed that he let me try that job. I 
had been out of the workforce. I was home. My youngest child was about 
12 years old. It was back in the day when one income could bring up a 
family and educate them.

                              {time}  1945

  And so trying to get back into work and to get back into all of that 
was pretty difficult for me. And I am not sure anybody else would have 
put up with me, other than Mario Cuomo, giving me every opportunity in 
the world to try to learn what it is we were trying to do.
  But, boy, did I ever teach him a few things. We had an old State car, 
a rattletrap. I drove him all over upstate New York, and the 
conversations we had would absolutely astound you.
  We stopped one day in one of our beautiful rural villages in upstate 
named Pavilion to get a cup of coffee. And a 16-year-old girl came out 
to wait on us. And here he was: a new person to speak to. Now, those of 
you who knew him know how exciting that would be. And he started in by 
asking her, What was the main business in Pavilion? What was the gross 
domestic product there? He was asking her all these questions. And all 
she wanted to do was get him a cup of coffee. And I felt a little sorry 
for her, so I said, ``He is the secretary of state.'' Unfortunately, I 
forgot the part to say secretary of state of New York. She went back 
into the kitchen, knowing this man was not Henry Kissinger, and never 
came back out.
  And as we rode around in this old red car, he would ask me about the 
cornfields. And I will tell you, if my agriculture people knew what a 
botch I made of trying to explain to him the life of the cornstalk, it 
was really awful. And he would say things like, How do they heat that 
house over there? What do you think they do? Where do they all go to 
school? Everything in the world interested him.
  He was the most extraordinary teacher that I have ever had. I just 
had those 2 years of showing him upstate New York. And then when he got 
elected lieutenant governor--I ran that upstate campaign--the State 
Police took over. But we still carried on all these great conversations 
we had. And I remember one of the policemen said once that no matter 
how upset Mario was, when he got off the plane and would go 10 miles or 
10 rounds with Louise, they were off on a whole other subject.
  I learned so much from him. And I know that everybody thinks of him 
as a one-speech maker sort of a--but let me tell you, that was not it. 
The speech that he made at Notre Dame was so incredibly wonderful and 
so important and so instructive that everybody should read that as 
well. But one of my very favorites was when he made his speech about my 
hometown of Rochester on Lake Ontario.
  He described Rochester as a necklace of neighborhoods clustered 
around the lake. Now that is talking. And he also talked about life, 
that our life needed to be more than to just hope always to land on the 
safe squares. And we thought that was such an incredible thing to think 
about, that your life had to have more meaning than that.
  The people that we worked with at the secretary of state's office who 
were holdovers from the previous administration had said to me many, 
many times how wonderful it was for them to be able to work for such a 
first-rate lawyer. And believe me, he really was.
  He loved the country, as Nancy Pelosi pointed out. His love of his 
family was absolutely legendary. He was a man of deep conviction, of 
religious faith, who loved his family more than anything. But he also 
loved the great opportunity that this country had given to him.
  He talked so admiringly of his father and the strength that his 
father and mother had, coming here with literally nothing. And it was 
the manual labor that his father did to lift himself up and, 
consequently, his family to a better life, and the country.
  He loved New York. He loved its people. He loved its history more 
than anything. He loved the institution of governing.
  So I speak of him as somebody that maybe other people didn't get to 
know the way I did, but I admired him always. And I am pretty sure I 
would not be in elected office at all had I not had the opportunity to 
learn from him, the wonderful opportunity to represent our neighbors 
and to come down and to try to make law and to make some changes.
  So I thank you very much for the time, Mr. Crowley. We will not see 
his like again.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentlelady.
  I now yield to the gentleman from the Bronx, Mr. Serrano.
  (Mr. SERRANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. SERRANO. I thank my colleague, Mr. Crowley.
  This week in 1975, I became a member of the New York State Assembly. 
This week in 1975, Mario Cuomo became secretary of state. I left to 
come to Congress in 1990, so I am fortunate to have served in the 
legislature 16 of the 20 years that he served in the executive branch.
  And in 1983, when I became chairman of the Education Committee, I 
really got to know him and to speak to him and to understand what 
everyone that has spoken has already said. Above all, this man never 
forgot, and he understood how important it was for him to be the son of 
an immigrant family. So he wanted everyone else to have the same 
opportunity.
  Yes, he was eloquent. Yes, he had to be a great human being--after 
all, he was a minor league baseball player and was signed by the 
Pittsburgh Pirates, I believe, to play ball, that alone makes him a 
great guy. But he was an eloquent man who also remembered his humble 
beginnings in the grocery store, having to work to get through law 
school, to be able to understand.
  So when I stood in front of him as one who had been born an American 
citizen--but a lot of people forgot along the way that we were and 
treated us in a different way--he understood. There was that simpatico 
that he had with him, where he understood where we came from and what 
we needed. And I am just so honored to have served all those years with 
Mario Cuomo and to have considered him a friend.
  When I went to his funeral, Matilda was just so gracious because she 
wrote a book once where she asked people to write about who had 
influenced them. And I wrote about a certain gentleman in the Bronx who 
had played major role in my starting my public career. And she 
remembered that.
  And I, once again, offer my condolences to the Cuomo family.
  But we should not feel sorry that he is gone. We have been blessed 
with the fact that he lived among us. And for me, 16 of those 20 years, 
I learned so much from him, and hopefully I was able to help him along 
the way at times too.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank my friend from the Bronx.
  And I yield to the gentleman from Manhattan, Mr. Nadler.
  Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I too came to the legislature and served for 16 years 
there. And for most of that time, Mario Cuomo was Governor.
  We all know that he was an eloquent philosopher in politics, someone 
who could express the goals and the principles of public office and of 
government more eloquently than almost anyone else.
  Mario Cuomo graduated first in his class from St. John's Law School 
in 1946. And despite sending out over 70 resumes, he couldn't get a 
response or an interview from a top law firm because he was Italian. 
And that was the

[[Page H211]]

state of prejudice in this country--or at least on Wall Street in 1946.
  He went on from there to become a major lawyer, to become the 
Governor of a State, to become a leader of a philosophy in American 
politics. But in doing so, he never forgot where he came from. He 
didn't forget his experiences, and he knew that other people were 
having similar experiences.
  He was a man of great principle. He vetoed the death penalty--though 
he knew that the death penalty was very popular in New York--12 times 
in a row, and he sustained those vetoes. Having not forgotten where he 
came from, he always wanted to use government to help defenseless 
people who needed the help of government, and he did.
  We all know many of the things he did. I am not going to repeat them 
here. But I want to just mention a couple of things that didn't get 
great publicity but that I saw as a member of the legislature.
  When he became Governor, he set up a commission. I forget the exact 
title--Commission on Child Support, Commission on Day Care, whatever it 
was. But every year for years, that commission came up with legislation 
which he supported and pushed, and some of us in the legislature worked 
on that. And he passed--we passed pioneering legislation, pioneering in 
this country on child support enforcement, which was considered a 
radical idea in the early 1980s. We passed the Child Support Standards 
Act so that judges couldn't leave women and their children without 
adequate support. He passed day care resource and referral legislation 
and family day care, all of which came from the initiatives of Governor 
Cuomo, none of which got a lot of publicity, which was focused on so-
called bigger items. But these helped people. These were vital for 
people living their lives without a lot of money, without a lot of 
resources. But government became a helper and a friend because of 
Governor Cuomo.

  Mr. CROWLEY. Thank you, Mr. Nadler.
  I now yield to the gentlelady from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, 
Ms. Nydia Velaazquez.
  Ms. VELAAZQUEZ. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor a leader who inspired not only New 
Yorkers but who also captured the imagination of progressives across 
the Nation. At a time when our national dialogue was dominated by those 
seeking to leave working families to fend for themselves, Governor 
Cuomo outlined a different vision. Through his policies as Governor and 
his evocative speaking abilities, he articulated our moral obligation 
to care for one another while working toward a society that benefits 
all Americans, not only the affluent and powerful.
  All of us remember his famous words from the Democratic convention in 
San Francisco. Questioning conservatives' rose-colored view of the 
Nation, he noted we were becoming too much a ``tale of two cities,'' 
rather than a ``shining city on a hill.'' That speech crystallized the 
differences in competing philosophies between those who believe 
Americans can do more to help one another and those who think our 
Nation has already reached its greatest heights and cannot further 
improve.
  However, just as he was serving as an intellectual lodestar for 
progressive and liberals nationally, Mario Cuomo remained dedicated to 
improving New Yorkers' lives. A son of Queens, in many ways, he 
reflected the aspirations and dreams of that borough's residents. 
Today, Queens is where families of all backgrounds--Latinos, Asian, 
Italian, and Greek immigrants--converge to secure a decent, affordable 
place to live.
  In today's political landscape, we could all benefit from remembering 
those words. In today's cynical environment, many have forgotten the 
tremendous good our government can achieve in pursuing justice, 
creating opportunity, and caring for neighbors in need.
  Governor Cuomo made many contributions, but that may be among his 
most important. He provided the intellectual framework to remind us 
that we have more to do, that our Nation can be better, and that we 
cannot afford to leave our fellow New Yorkers and Americans behind.
  For ensuring these ideas remain part of our national conversation, 
all of us owe him a debt and all of us appreciate his decades of 
steadfast service.
  I send my thoughts and my prayers to his family, including his son, 
Governor Andrew Cuomo. I hope they can take comfort in knowing that all 
of us join in mourning with them.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from Brooklyn, 
Queens, and Manhattan. I now yield to the gentlelady from Queens and 
Manhattan and Brooklyn, Mrs. Carolyn Maloney.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the 
gentleman for yielding and for his leadership in so many ways, and I 
thank the leader of the Democratic Party for leading us in this tribute 
to our great Governor. We appreciate very much your presence and 
support of Mario Cuomo on the floor.
  It seems only fitting and proper for us to pay tribute to the late 
Mario Cuomo here in this historic Chamber, here where some of the most 
powerful and eloquent speakers in our Nation's history have changed the 
course of human events, not with swords but with words and ideas.
  Mario Cuomo, the former Governor of New York, the liberal lion of the 
Empire State, the conscience of the Democratic Party, and a cherished 
friend, had few peers when it came to making the power of ideas and 
ideals irresistible forces for good.
  His faith, his passion, his values, and his unique gifts produced in 
him an unrivaled ability to articulate the plight, defend the rights, 
and engage the hopes of ordinary citizens.
  I had the great fortune to be a delegate when he gave one of the most 
storied speeches at the National Democratic Convention in 1984. I will 
never forget it. When Mario Cuomo spoke, it electrified the whole 
convention. We were transfixed by the power of his appeal right to the 
deepest reaches of our common humanity.
  He made all of us feel like we needed to do more, work harder, and 
help others because that is what really came through when Mario Cuomo 
spoke: his deep, unwavering commitment to fundamental decency, justice, 
and humanity.
  He spoke to a sitting President on behalf of the forgotten and the 
dispossessed. He spoke to the powerful on behalf of the powerless. 
``There is despair,'' he said, ``in the faces you don't see and the 
places you don't visit.''
  Mario Cuomo was right. He spent his life working and looking out for 
the hardworking people who build our shining cities, who supply our 
food, who teach our children, who staff our hospitals, people who are 
too often overworked, overlooked, and underserved.
  His own family had owned a store in Jamaica, Queens, and he knew full 
well the value of hard work and of education. He lived the American 
Dream and spent his life trying to build the American Dream for others. 
Mario Cuomo worked his way into St. John's University. He attended St. 
John's University School of Law in New York and graduated first in his 
class.
  He first rose to public attention when he came roaring out of Queens 
back in the 1970s to challenge city hall's condemnation of a working 
class neighborhood in Corona. People quickly began to appreciate that 
Mario Cuomo had the transformative power to inspire others to demand 
for themselves a more just and humane society and a better government. 
He insisted that representative government should be just that: a 
government for all the people.
  Whenever he was on the ballot--and I remember as an active Democrat 
then--Democrat registration went up because everybody wanted to vote 
for and help elect Mario Cuomo. They knew he would do everything in his 
power to give them a fair shake.
  He once told me--and I always had these terrible elections. He would 
always tell me that he was my fairy godfather, and he would grant me 
three wishes to win the election, but only on one condition, that I 
would go out and grant three wishes to someone else and help them do a 
better job in what they wanted to do.
  He was a wonderful friend and a mentor, a husband, a wonderful 
father. As a parent, there is no question he did a remarkable job. One 
son is a Governor, another is a news anchor, one daughter

[[Page H212]]

is a physician, another active in continuing the family work in housing 
the homeless, and another is an attorney. If that was all that he ever 
did, that would be plenty for one lifetime.
  Mario Cuomo did much more. He was secretary of state of the great 
State of New York, then Lieutenant Governor, and finally Governor for 
three terms. He led New York to provide health care for children. He 
began the Decade of the Child, an effort that used multiple health care 
and educational strategies to better the lives of our most vulnerable. 
He passed the child support enforcement bill.
  Under his leadership, the most intense public health plan in the 
Nation was put in place to take on the AIDS epidemic. Under Mario 
Cuomo, New York State became the first State in the Nation to enact a 
seatbelt law. He was a great man, and I am proud beyond all telling to 
be able to say that he was a friend, a mentor, and a supporter.
  I grieve his passing, and I send my most heartfelt condolences to his 
family and his friends. I shall miss the singular and remarkable man 
until the end of time. To know him was to love him.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Queens 
and part of Nassau, Mr. Meeks.
  Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  When I think of Governor Mario Cuomo, many talk about his great 
oratory, many talk about some of the fantastic speeches that he made, 
but when I think about Mario Cuomo, he didn't just talk the talk; he 
walked the walk.
  His speeches were not made just because it was a political gathering 
or forum. His speeches were made because that is what he truly 
believed. It came from his heart. It is how he lived his life, and you 
could see that in how he dealt with his family because that was his 
foundation.
  From that foundation, he was able to build--and starting with that 
little place in Jamaica, Queens, that I am now proud to represent, he 
looked at Queens and then, by extension, the city of New York and then, 
by extension, the State of New York as the foundation of which he could 
make a difference, learning from his growing up with his parents.
  As a result, you found individuals falling in love with Mario Cuomo, 
and you could see that by the people that were around him who became 
completely loyal to him because he had a real great leadership.
  Once you became infected with the spirit of Mario Cuomo, you 
continued to stay around him, and you would see in the visuals who were 
with Mario Cuomo until the day that he died folks loyal to him. In this 
business in this day and age, sometimes, if you don't have that kind of 
character, people come, and people go.
  Lastly, because I know that we have got so many members of the New 
York delegation that are here that want to speak, let me just say that 
he was competitive. I can think about those days when--I thank him 
first because he talked about getting into politics, he allowed me to 
cut my teeth by appointing me first to the New York State Workers' 
Compensation Board as a judge, then later appointed me to become the 
supervising judge in the State, having me going all over the State, and 
then encouraging me to run for the State assembly and, once I got 
elected to the State assembly, working very closely with him.

  Once I got into the assembly, I thought he was a nice guy until you 
got on the basketball court. How competitive was he on that basketball 
court? Elbows--I look at some of the players now when they are 
complaining, et cetera, well, you need to go play old school basketball 
with Governor Mario Cuomo.
  I close by saying that I thank God--because he was a very religious 
man, Mario Cuomo, too, but God could have sent him to California; he 
didn't. He could have had him in Illinois or in Texas or in Florida; 
no.
  We were fortunate because God had him, through his parents, who 
emigrated from Italy to come to a place where the Statue of Liberty 
was, who believed ``Give me your tired, give me your weary,'' who 
believed in family, and we had him in the great State of New York.
  Thank you, Governor Mario Cuomo.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend.
  I now yield to the gentleman from Buffalo, New York (Mr. Higgins). 
Mario Cuomo was known all over New York State, obviously, as the 
Governor, but my colleague Brian Higgins knew him well.
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with my colleagues, to 
honor the life and legacy of Governor Mario Cuomo who passed away on 
January 1 at the age of 82.
  When we think of Governor Cuomo, we think of him along with his son--
now Governor Andrew Cuomo--and then his counsel Tim Russert from 
Buffalo driving in a car, riding from the airport to the Moscone Center 
in San Francisco, still writing new sections of his historic keynote 
address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention which catapulted him 
forever as a prominent figure within the Democratic Party.
  Less remembered than his speeches but just as admirable were his 
writings. He wrote extensively on the American Dream his immigrant 
parents achieved, and the numerous causes that he cared about, 
``Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo,'' ``Reason to Believe,'' ``Why Lincoln 
Matters,'' and ``More Than Words,'' which is a collection of 31 
speeches he wrote going back to 1974.
  As a student of government, a teacher of government, and now as a 
practitioner, in 2006, I went to see Governor Cuomo, former Governor 
Cuomo, who was practicing law in Manhattan at a place called Willkie, 
Farr, and Gallagher. Remember, I had 15 minutes scheduled with him and 
left 2 hours later. I told him that his writings, going back to 1974, 
were as relevant today as they were when they were written. They were 
timeless; they were classics.
  My favorite story is the one that he told about how he came to edit 
the book, ``Lincoln on Democracy.'' In 1988, Governor Cuomo met in 
Albany with a delegation from the teacher section of Poland's 
Solidarity Union, which was the leading advocate for bringing democracy 
to Poland when it was under Communist rule.
  The teachers told the Governor that they were building an archive of 
influential and insightful writings on democracy. They asked if he 
could recommend writings by American thinkers that had influenced his 
approach to public service and democracy. Cuomo immediately identified 
Abraham Lincoln as his favorite source of wisdom.
  The Polish delegation said, ``Governor, Lincoln's writings and 
speeches are not available in Poland.'' In fact, they were banned. 
Cuomo promised to give them the speeches that they needed in order to 
appreciate what he had come to appreciate in Lincoln.
  Cuomo says, ``Delegation, come over here.'' He pulled out the 378-
page index of the collected works of Abraham Lincoln--not one mention 
of democracy in those works; so together with Lincoln scholar Harold 
Holzer, he wrote, edited, and published ``Lincoln on Democracy,'' a 
book that to this day is essential reading for anyone wishing to 
understand the uniquely American approach to democracy and governance. 
True to his word, the Polish version of the book appeared in Warsaw in 
early 1990 before its English version was available in the United 
States.
  Mario Cuomo's gift was that he forced us to think for ourselves. He 
forced us to consider our history, and he forced us to recognize our 
responsibility to build a foundation that is better than the foundation 
that those who came before us built for us.
  That is the true meaning of the American Dream, and it was embodied 
by a unique individual who was an unlikely successful lawyer, an 
unlikely Governor of New York, Mario M. Cuomo.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments on 
Governor Cuomo. I now yield to my colleague and friend from the upstate 
region, Mr. Paul Tonko, who also served in the State assembly while 
Mario Cuomo was Governor.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Queens, State of 
New York, for the opportunity to share some thoughts here this evening 
with our leader, Nancy Pelosi, and members of the New York delegation, 
as we pay tribute to the life of Mario Matthew Cuomo, the greatest of 
Governors in New York, and certainly a true

[[Page H213]]

statesman, a bold and great individual, a humble giant, and a roaring 
voice, a lion voice for social, economic, and environmental justice.
  This evening, what I recall about the life of Mario Cuomo is that as 
I entered the New York State Assembly in 1983, that was the same year 
that he entered into the office of Governor, and for my first 12 years 
of service in the New York State Assembly, it was guided and nurtured 
and impacted by the strength and the passion of Mario Cuomo.

                              {time}  2015

  The walk with him and with Matilda Raffa Cuomo as a first couple of 
New York was a joyous one but a challenging one to pay tribute to the 
greatness, the foundation of family, and the passion of immigrants. 
Those two guiding dynamics drove the principles, the integrity, and the 
message of Mario Cuomo.
  As a member of his upstate cabinet informing and alerting the 
Governor to various strengths, vitalities, contributions, and history 
of upstate New York, we were able to connect in a very meaningful way; 
the work with him very deliberate and very challenging. I will forever 
be grateful for the learning curve that was developed by working 
alongside this person of greatness.
  I think, also, we need to understand that, as his son Governor Andrew 
Cuomo eulogized at his funeral service, he made mention very 
deliberately, Mario Cuomo would not offer, render his words of speeches 
to an audience telling them what they choose to hear but, rather, what 
he needed to share. That, I think, speaks to the humble greatness of 
this individual, one who had a vision not only for his State, but for 
his country and, for that matter, the world.
  I was also touched by the Governor's sharing about his dad, the 
eloquence of his speech, the eloquence of his speaking, his public 
speaking that reached so many people throughout the world. He talked 
about those words and put it into an analogy of a fine bit of jewelry 
where each word seen as a gem would be deliberately chosen, 
strategically placed, and majestically clustered in a way where that 
array would reach our senses, would speak to our senses about what is 
correct, what is socially just and morally sound. That is true 
leadership. And it is no wonder through that speech in San Francisco 
that he lit within the minds, hearts, and souls of Americans the best 
within us, how we could assume this level of greatness by understanding 
that we are at our best when we incorporate in an inclusive set of 
principles in our world of politics.
  Mario Cuomo impacted all of us, myself included, by his reverence for 
his parents' journey as immigrants. That journey, which was a pathway 
to freedom, that journey which settled into a grocery story, a corner 
grocery store, became the pulse of the American Dream for his family 
that was tethered into this country called the United States of 
America. He never forgot that. He revered it. He was guided by it. The 
light that he brought to his field of politics was immense, and it was 
driven by fairness and inclusion.
  So this evening, it is an honor to join with my colleagues to speak 
to a humble man, a great individual, who, with his wife alongside him, 
Matilda, brought to this State of New York a sense of hope when there 
was despair.
  As was said at the funeral, he will continue to live. His voice may 
have been silenced, but his integrity, his spirit, and his principles 
will long live in the lives of those who struggle and reach to America, 
to her government, for a better tomorrow.
  May he rest in peace.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time, I ask the gentleman from Brooklyn and from 
Queens, Mr. Jeffries, for his comments.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank my good friend, the distinguished gentleman 
from Queens, for anchoring this Special Order hour and for yielding a 
few moments for me to reflect on the passing of our great Governor, 
Mario Cuomo.
  Mr. Speaker, like many other members of the New York delegation, I 
also served in the New York State Assembly. But unlike most, I didn't 
get the opportunity to serve alongside Governor Mario Cuomo. I arrived 
several years after he had completed his three terms in office.
  So I speak today not from the perspective of someone who served in 
government alongside Mario Cuomo, but as a young man who grew up in 
Mario Cuomo's New York. What an opportunity to be able to come of age 
in the 1980s with a Governor, a leader, who articulated such an 
eloquent vision of equal protection under the law for everyone. What an 
opportunity to be able to come of age under a Governor who believed in 
opportunity for everyone, who recognized that New York State's greatest 
strength was our diversity from every community, every perspective, and 
every religious background.
  It was great to be able to come of age and look up at a Governor who, 
notwithstanding the political potential pitfalls, stood on principle, 
was ahead of his time as it relates to his firm opposition to the death 
penalty at a time when that was not a popular position to take. He was 
a great leader, a charismatic intellectual, a wonderful family man, a 
tremendous lawyer, and a wonderful statesman and Governor.
  I can only imagine that when Mario Cuomo arrived up in Heaven he was 
prepared to get to work. But I think that there was probably a greeting 
committee that was there at the gates of Heaven, one of whom was FDR, a 
former Governor of the State of New York, the other of whom was FDR's 
cousin, Teddy Roosevelt, two former great Governors of the State of New 
York. And I think they probably ushered Mario Cuomo to a place in front 
of the throne of glory where Almighty God Himself may have said to 
Governor Cuomo:

       Listen, you can take your suit off and put this robe on. 
     Governor Cuomo, you can rest now. You have been faithful over 
     a few things. You can rest now. Well done, My good and 
     faithful servant, well done.

  Mr. CROWLEY. Well done, my friend from Brooklyn and Queens.
  Mr. Speaker, I now would like to yield to the gentlewoman from 
Flushing, Queens, New York, Ms. Grace Meng.
  Ms. MENG. Thank you to the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker. Governor Mario Cuomo's legacy is important for all of us 
to remember here in Congress. Although the late Governor Cuomo is most 
well known nationally as an eloquent orator and bastion of liberalism, 
he first received public attention for his career creatively merging 
the values of social justice and access to affordable housing while 
protecting family values in my home borough of Queens.
  Governor Cuomo's life is a personal inspiration as he was also raised 
in Queens and born to immigrant parents. Perhaps it was this background 
that allowed him to regard himself as a progressive pragmatist who 
upheld the idea that government should be a positive source for good.
  This is best seen through Governor Cuomo's advocacy for an activist 
government that provides shelter for the homeless, work for the idle, 
and care for the elderly and infirm even in times of austerity. This 
belief in a dynamic government met some opposition, but Governor Cuomo 
recognized the crucial safety net and that government investment is the 
foundation for a strong economy, an understanding that is imperative in 
today's political and economic climate.
  As a mom of two young children, I am particularly touched by his 
launching of the Decade of the Child to enact educational and health 
care reforms affecting children. He deeply understood that improving 
children's lives ultimately betters our communities and empowers our 
future. Under his leadership, New York was the very first State to 
enact seatbelt laws, and today we continue focusing on making sure that 
children's toys and car seats are safe and effective. This academic 
year, New York City implemented universal pre-K, a concept that the 
late-Governor Mario Cuomo championed and the current Governor Andrew 
Cuomo aptly budgeted for success.
  I believe in what Hubert Humphrey said:

       The moral test of a government is how it treats those who 
     are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the 
     twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow 
     of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

  I think that Hubert Humphrey would have found Governor Cuomo to be a

[[Page H214]]

strong, moral leader and, like the rest of us, would have mourned the 
loss of an inspired beacon of progressive ideology.
  I join my colleagues today from the New York delegation in sending 
condolences and sympathy to the entire Cuomo family, and know that 
Governor Cuomo's respected legacy will be a blessing to us all.
  Mr. CROWLEY. I thank the gentlelady for her remarks. I thank all the 
members of the New York delegation, as well as Ms. Pelosi, the 
Democratic leader, for their remarks today and remembrance of the great 
Governor of the State of New York, Mario Cuomo.
  Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity at the early age of 15 years of 
age to be engaged in, really, my first political campaign. My then-
Uncle Walter Crowley, who was one of my political idols in life, along 
with a fellow by the name of Michael Dowd, were in charge of a portion 
of Queens County in terms of making sure that, I think, the Catholic 
vote came out for Mario Cuomo during the 1977 race for mayor of New 
York, which was famously won in that primary by Ed Koch. But that was 
not the only election that Mario Cuomo--and storied election--that 
Mario Cuomo was a part of. He had been a part of elections before that, 
and, lo and behold, in 1982 he once again found himself in a matchup 
between himself and Ed Koch, and Mario Cuomo prevailing in that 
statewide election.
  At 15 years of age, I remember handing out literature at the churches 
in western Queens and southern Queens, and it really was my entree into 
a political life. Then, in 1984, as a student at Queens College, I 
interned in the office of then-Governor Cuomo. And what an experience 
that was to be working with Bob Sullivan, his storied pollster, but 
officially, on the official side, was working in the statistics office 
with Dick Starkey, a former reporter, a storied reporter in New York 
City; Marty Steadman; to have Tim Russert walk into the room. We all 
died because Tim Russert just walked into the room.
  I can remember in 1986 when I was elected to the State assembly how 
supportive Mario Cuomo was to me as a young man, recommending me to 
travel around the world with ACYPL, to come here to Washington to get 
my feet wet as well, to get that Washington sense. I remember being on 
the second floor in 1988 in the Blue Room, what is known as the Blue 
Room where the Governor would give his budgets, anticipating his 
delving into, diving into the 1988 Presidential elections, only to have 
my heart broken when Mario Cuomo said he would not run in that 
election.
  Mario Cuomo was tough. He had one of the biggest hearts I have ever 
come to know.
  He had also gone to law school, my Uncle Walter, and there was an 
intimacy between the Crowleys and the Cuomo family in Queens County 
politics, one that exists to this day with his son Andrew, as Governor, 
and my family as well.
  Mario Cuomo always did the right thing. He always did the right 
thing. And Mario Cuomo had an incredible magnetism about him. I have 
never seen, outside of people who are Presidents of the United States, 
the kind of magnetic sense that Mario Cuomo emitted. People wanted to 
be around him. Whenever he was publicly out, he was walking in the 
street or at an event, it was hard to get near Mario Cuomo because 
everyone wanted to be around Mario Cuomo.
  I was always nervous around Mario Cuomo, a healthy nervousness, but I 
was excited to be around him. I always wanted to be around him. I loved 
the man. I loved him dearly, although I never had enough time to be 
with him. As Paul Tonko had said at the funeral--and what a beautiful 
funeral Mario Cuomo had, what an incredibly beautiful funeral--simple, 
yet elegant. That is how I describe it. His son Andrew and his entire 
family, how respectful they were of their father. And I think of the 
people who attended that funeral had to walk away knowing that these 
children, all of them, were raised so well: Andrew, Margaret, Madeline, 
Maria, and Christopher. And all their grandchildren, how they behaved. 
It was just remarkable, just wonderful to see the respect they had for 
their father and their grandfather, for their in-law.
  But Andrew had said that his father told him you don't tell people 
what they want to hear--and I am paraphrasing. He told them you tell 
them what they need to hear. You told them what you wanted to tell 
them, the message you wanted to get across.
  It wasn't always popular, the message of Mario Cuomo; but I do know 
that people, even when they disagreed with him, they respected him and 
they admired him because of his tenacity, because he believed in what 
he was saying.

                              {time}  2030

  I think what they respected about him was he was always consistent as 
well in his thoughts. We will miss Mario Cuomo. Queens County, his home 
borough, will miss him. The city of New York and the State of New York, 
and, I think, the country have lost a great statesman, someone who 
didn't look to the next election but looked to the next great issue 
that needed to be tackled, not only in New York, because New York in 
many respects is the leader of State legislators in the country; he was 
thinking nationally, he was thinking globally as well.
  Mario Cuomo will forever be one of my heroes, as is Lincoln. Mario 
Cuomo was bipartisan. He loved Lincoln, a Republican, but was true to 
his own democratic principles and his party as well. There is not 
enough time to say everything about him. But, Mr. Speaker, I once again 
want to thank the delegation for their loyalty this evening and being 
here for as long as they were, and the indulgence of my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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