[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 140 (Thursday, September 15, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H5519-H5521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING THE LATE HONORABLE MARK TAKAI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Honda) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Matsui).
  Ms. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Gabbard for bringing us together 
here this afternoon.
  I have to say that this is a special time here for all of us. I was 
sitting here listening to all of the wonderful memories of Mark. We are 
so privileged to have known Mark.
  May I just say this: I have been in and around Congress a long time, 
and this is so highly unusual for an individual, any individual, who 
has been here to have this kind of response. Mark was special. Amongst 
our sadness that we feel here, we can't help but smile when we think 
about him. That is what he did for us all the time.
  I didn't know Mark very long at all, but I feel like I have known 
Mark forever. He has been a joy to all of us. He is somebody that has 
come into our lives and grabbed our hearts in such a meaningful way. 
And he came to Congress with a purpose. He said: Oh, he is merely a 
freshman. Mark Takai was never merely a freshman. He came with his 
commitment and his duty and his love of country wanting to do the best 
thing.
  His impact was immediate. He had already been in the legislature and 
served in the Army National Guard. He had experience. He understood 
what it meant to be American and to do the right thing. He also 
understood what it meant to be a loving father, a husband, a son, and a 
wonderful sibling. He was the complete person. We don't meet many of 
those people in our lives. And when we do, we remember, we will always 
remember.
  He demonstrated a selfless dedication to public service, to all of 
us, from a young age, by being a State representative for two decades, 
and through his service to our country in the Army National Guard and 
in Congress for such a short time.
  My memories of him are just so joyful because I watched his 
commitment. I went on that trip with Leader Pelosi last April, and he 
was so privileged to be a part of that group. As the Leader said, we 
started out in San Francisco and then we went to Hawaii. We met many 
service people, and we were meeting the military with security aspects 
in mind.
  Leader Pelosi said to Mark: Mark, you are our expert here, you have 
served, and you understand.
  And Mark said: Oh, yes, ma'am.
  Then he turned to me after a while and said: Doris, I am just a 
freshman.
  I said: You are not a freshman; you know what is going on; and you 
can stand up to the generals and everyone else because you understand.
  And do you know what? He was our expert, and we were so proud of him 
throughout that whole trip.
  That is what I remember so much about him. He took responsibility, 
but he also understood the human side. Because on that trip, as we went 
through our official duties, there would be Mark always with a smile 
and a laugh and always trying to find a better place to eat, a place he 
had heard about from someone he met on the street, some person who 
said: You have got to try this little restaurant.
  So sometimes after our official dinners, he would say: Do you want to 
go to this little restaurant that I just found?
  We would say: No, we don't want to do that.
  But do you know what? He was a Pied Piper. He was a Pied Piper, and 
we wanted to be with him.
  We are going to miss him so much. He was a complete person. We love 
him. We are going to miss him.
  Let me just say this: Sami, Matthew, Kaila, the family, we will never 
forget him. He touched us in a way that few people have. We love him, 
and we will miss him. We love you, and we will always remember him.

                              {time}  1200

  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Lofgren).
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, so much has been said about Mark today, I 
can't repeat it all. But as I have been looking at this picture, I just 
find it hard to accept that he is gone.
  You know, we meet each other here in the House. There are 435 people. 
We don't know each person who is here. We tend to meet each other best 
when we serve on committees. I actually first met Mark on the airplane, 
of course, because each Member of the California delegation flies home 
to California every week. It is to be forgiven if Members from Hawaii 
or Samoa don't go every week because, by the time you get there, it is 
time to come back to Washington, but Mark went home every week. And I 
would get on that plane, and there he would be, because he was so 
devoted not only to his constituents, but to his wife and to his 
children. He needed to be with them every week.
  Much has been said about this trip to Asia. I was on that trip. And 
on these congressional delegations, spouses are invited to come to keep 
company with the Members. My husband was not able to come, and Mark's 
wife was not able to come either, so we sat next to each other for that 
entire trip. I heard all about his wonderful wife and his wonderful 
children throughout that trip in Asia.
  I have such precise memories of Mark, as Doris Matsui has said. He 
was a freshman Member but someone who was on the Armed Services 
Committee, who had served in Iraq, who was Active Duty Hawaii National

[[Page H5520]]

Guard, and who spoke with such clarity and poise not only with our 
American military, but, as we met with foreign leaders, was able to 
hold his own.
  I have vivid memories of us meeting with the communists in Vietnam 
and facing off with those communist leaders to advocate for human 
rights. Mark did that for freedom. He believed in freedom. He believed 
in this country. He loved his family. He loved this institution.
  We will miss him greatly. But I actually think, in a way that is very 
profound, his short time here has changed this institution for the 
better. We thank Mark for that, and we thank his family for letting him 
serve here with us.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Northern 
Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan).
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Honda for yielding.
  It is a great sadness to lose a neighbor, and Mark Takai was my 
neighbor. He was a man of the Pacific, an islander. And though our 
islands are thousands of miles apart, for the people of the Pacific, 
distance does not separate. Distance and the knowledge that we have the 
stamina, the ability to read sea and sky and the courage to trust in 
our own capacity--distance connects us. Distance makes us neighbors. 
Mark Takai was my neighbor. As islanders, our foothold is trimmed by 
the vast sea, but our vision sweeps beyond the horizon.
  Look at the legislation Mark Takai brought out in his brief time 
here. We can see the islander's breadth of vision reflected in his 
concerns: veterans, students, small-business people, homeowners. Mark 
Takai took them all to heart, wanted to help them all.
  As an islander, he cared too. He cared a lot about the natural 
environment. We who have so little land cherish it all the more. We 
take seriously our responsibility to steward the land, to pass it on to 
the next generation whole and thriving. We honor the deep wisdom that 
the land is inseparable; my land and yours are one.
  We know the union of neighbors. Mark Takai was my neighbor. Here in 
Congress as well, Mark's office stands across the hall from mine in 
Cannon. We could have opened both our doors and, seated at our desks, 
seen each other at work. We would pass in the hall, share a word, feel 
the connection of our shared experience. We both traveled a very long 
way from very different cultures to be here. In that, we were 
neighbors. Now his door is closed. Now his lights are dimmed.
  Farewell, Mark. Farewell, neighbor.
  Our Lord decides our time--I Saina Man Des Popone.
  Mr. HONDA. Mr. Speaker, I was going to start out by saying that I 
rise today in mourning, but I don't think it is about mourning. It is 
about celebrating Mark's life.
  We have heard all about Mark's character, his person, his presence in 
this Hall; and I think it is important for not only the family to hear 
this, but for Matthew and Kaila to hear it, too.
  For their short lives, they must have shared their dad 
intermittently. And while he was here, I used to ask him: Did you call 
home? Did you call your kids? Well, he always said yes, so I stopped 
asking him because I knew that that was part of the way he lived his 
life here.

  It is fitting that we talk about Mark here in the dome, the Capitol, 
because I think there are three places that Mark did his work. He did 
his work in church, under this dome, and his home, and he did it well. 
He did it according to, I think, the way his parents had raised him, 
both Erik and Naomi. I could tell because, when he used my car, he 
returned it better than I gave it to him: clean and with the tank full.
  I didn't know he was so much into sustainable energy, so I hope it 
didn't offend him if he drove the hybrid. But I certainly feel good 
every time I sit in the car right now, because I know he was there with 
Sami, his family, whenever he went to church or took the drive to 
Baltimore for treatment.
  I always told him that my prayers are with him because I believe in 
the power of prayer. But I suppose that there is a greater power, and 
that is the will of his Savior. I think he is with him right now.
  I tried to think of a way to describe Mark here in front of his 
family and his two youngsters, but I guess because church is such an 
important aspect of his life--I know that because he and Sami would go 
to church a lot, consistently, faithfully, to the First Presbyterian 
Church of Honolulu at Ko'olau and here in Virginia. So that told me 
that, between his upbringing and his faith, that everything that people 
talk about was a pure reflection of his upbringing and the kind of 
person he was.
  To Naomi and Erik, you have done good, and I know that he had 
followed your teachings, because when you were staying over, you left 
behind a lot of kakimochi, Hawaiian coffee. And I have to tell you, for 
the record, I never shared it because it was so meaningful and 
delightful to have eaten that stuff by myself, but I also know that 
that is part of aloha, that is part of being ohana.
  So those things I have learned from Mark. I am older than he is, but 
I still learned that, as a son, as a husband, as a father, as a 
brother, as an uncle, that how we live is the demonstration of a 
person's life.
  I think that someone said earlier: What would Mark do? What would 
Mark say? I suspect that Mark, when he would wonder what he had to do, 
he would probably say: What would Jesus do? And I think that that would 
be probably an accurate statement.
  Mark lived his life well, and he lived his life in such a way that it 
is something that I wanted to be able to copy, because I always look 
for something that makes me a better person. He was gentle, Christlike, 
thoughtful, kashikoi, and at peace with himself. And I think that sense 
of peace is the strength that we saw every day here. The day that he 
came back from the hospital, he was here on the floor, and the first 
thing he said to me, as he said to Tammy: How are you? He asked me how 
I was. He demonstrated to me that the way you are, the way you speak, 
the way you behave is another way of ministering to others of who you 
are and what you believe in.
  When he came down here with his friend Scott Nishimoto, they did 
borrow my car to visit another friend who was recuperating at the 
hospital from her battle wounds, Tammy Duckworth.
  So even though it was a short time that I had been able to know Mark, 
your dad, he was a wonderful example of someone that I would hope and 
imagine that you would be able to keep in mind and try to emulate also. 
There is nothing greater than children who would want to be like their 
parents, and I think that this is something that you might want to 
consider.
  Every day when I was a kid, my dad used to say: When you leave this 
house, be a mirror. I said: Be a mirror? He said: Yes, be a good 
reflection of who you are and where you come from so that you will 
always bring pride to our family.
  So, Matthew, Kaila, you shared your dad with us, and I hope that you 
get the sense that the idea of immortality is what my dad used to say: 
Immortality is sharing a bit of yourself with somebody else. They take 
that which was shared and pass it on to others, and that is an earthly 
immortality.
  But right now, he is with his own Savior, and he is waiting. And I 
think that our faith will sustain us and give us strength to move on 
and live life as he has taught us and has taught you.
  To the family, thank you for allowing me to be briefly part of your 
ohana and your friend.
  I will sign off from this floor to both you, Matthew and Kaila, as 
Uncle Mike.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier).

                              {time}  1215

  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from our beautiful 
State of Hawaii (Ms. Gabbard) for giving us the opportunity to reflect 
on an extraordinary man.
  To the family, let me say, as I was sitting here and contemplating 
the pain and anguish and loss that you feel, I also was reflecting on 
the fact that many people leave this Chamber after they have served 
their time. They may be remembered by a moment of silence, maybe not.
  As painful as it is to have lost Mark and in the way that you have 
lost him, I hope there is some solace, some balm that will soothe you 
in knowing how extraordinary it is to have a person like Mark, who has 
served in this

[[Page H5521]]

House, be so loved to the point that we would have a special ceremony 
in Statuary Hall and we would spend an hour reflecting on his life.
  It is a great reflection on his family. It is a great reflection on 
our country that we have so recognized such an outstanding leader.
  When I think of Mark, I think of a number of words to describe him. I 
think of grace. I think of stoic courage. I think of integrity. Now, 
many people have spoken about the grace with which he handled this 
horrific disease and the stoic courage he showed.
  I am going to spend a few minutes just talking about integrity. I 
have been working on an issue for some time here in Congress on the 
incidence of military sexual trauma and the fact that there is so much 
of it that goes on that goes unaddressed. Each year, I have brought an 
amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to try and take 
these cases out of the chain of command. I have not succeeded.
  I took it up last March and was certainly counting the votes, but I 
wasn't counting Mark as one of those votes because my experience had 
been that those who have served in leadership in the military would 
side with the military and not be willing to take these cases out of 
the chain of command.
  You can imagine how shocked and in awe I was of him when not only did 
he vote for the amendment--which was a huge message to the entire 
membership of the committee that someone actively in the military would 
recognize the importance of this reform--he spoke up in favor of it. 
That is a man of extraordinary integrity. I will forever be grateful to 
him for cracking open the myth that members of the military don't 
recognize the importance of dealing with that issue.
  Mark Takai, you live on for all of us. You are a great example for 
all of us as to how to lead as a Member of Congress with great dignity, 
with great integrity, and with great grace.
  Mr. HONDA. I yield back the balance of my time.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind the Members that 
clause 7 of rule XVII does not permit references to occupants of the 
gallery.

                          ____________________