[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 176 (Wednesday, December 7, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H7273-H7274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FAREWELL TO THE HONORABLE STEVE ISRAEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about my friend and 
colleague, Steve Israel, who is retiring from Congress after 16 years. 
We came into Congress together and have been the best of friends and 
brothers ever since.
  Now, the last time I mentioned Steve Israel on the House floor was 
after making a bet with Steve over the Dodgers-Mets series, a bet that 
I lost, and I had to sing the ``Meet the Mets'' song on the House 
floor. I want to assure all my colleagues that is never going to happen 
again either on the playing field or on the House floor.
  When we came to Congress together, we were given a book, like all 
incoming freshmen, called ``Charting the Course.'' This is a book that 
basically says that there are three different models of being a 
Congressman. You can be the policy expert or you can be the political 
animal or you can be the pothole Congressman who is focused on district 
needs and excellent at meeting the needs of constituents, but the gist 
of the book is you can't be all three. You have to pick where you are 
going to make your specialization, and if you

[[Page H7274]]

try to do all three, you will end up not doing any one of them very 
well. Steve Israel proved the premise of that book wrong because he 
proved to be superlative at each and every aspect of being a Member of 
Congress.
  On policy, Steve developed an expertise in energy policy and became a 
leading champion of the development of renewable sources of energy. He 
became an expert on defense issues; and as one of the members of the 
Appropriations Committee, he helped eliminate wasteful expenditures on 
systems we didn't need and investment in defenses that would really 
protect the country.
  He became an expert on Middle East policy and sorting out the 
difficulties of all the complicated relationships between the nations 
in the Middle East. He became an expert on the Syrian conflict.
  He also became an expert on issues affecting the middle class and has 
always been a champion for what needs to be done to make sure that 
people in this country can enjoy a secure retirement, can get a good 
job, can raise their family, and that their kids will enjoy a quality 
of life at least as great as that of their parents, and hopefully even 
better.
  He also founded and co-chairs the Center Aisle Caucus, doing 
something very difficult in this institution, and that is bringing 
people together of both parties--something we need to see a lot more 
of.
  In addition to those policy strengths, he was also and has been one 
of our greatest political leaders. He served for many years as the DCCC 
chair and had an encyclopedic knowledge of each and every district in 
the country belonging to friend or foe alike. He was an extraordinary 
chair, not only in terms of raising resources, but recruiting some of 
the finest candidates, and a great many Members of this institution owe 
their very presence here to his incredible work.
  He then became the chair of the House Democratic Policy and 
Communications Committee and was a very effective Member at shaping our 
message and at helping us articulate what the Democratic Party was 
about and has been among the most effective surrogates the Democrats 
have.
  In addition to his political expertise and policy expertise, having 
visited his district and having met his constituents, I know he was 
also so attuned to the needs of his constituents, particularly the 
veterans and the homeless, but also in championing the economy and 
bringing improvements to Long Island Sound. His casework was renowned 
within New York, and his staff was among the most superb anywhere on 
the Hill or in any district office.

  In addition to all that--and that would be enough for any of us--he 
also wrote a fabulous novel on his iPhone, ``The Global War on 
Morris.'' Who can do that? Who can write a book at all, let alone one 
on his iPhone, let alone it gets published by a major publisher and 
does phenomenally well?
  When Steve retires, this Congress is going to lose another of its 
great Members, someone of genuine talent, intellect, and integrity, 
someone who has come to be relied upon by Presidents. We are also going 
to lose someone with a great sense of humor, who is a wonderful friend 
and a bit of a practical joker--like the time he convinced his chief of 
staff that one of his district staff had run over his dog. Yes, Steve 
is a cruel man, but funny. We are going to miss him tremendously.
  I want to wish him all the luck in the world in the exciting career 
that awaits him when he retires, and all his new endeavors. I look 
forward to finding him not in the center aisle necessarily, but in a 
different aisle in the bookstore near me with his latest work.
  I want to join my colleagues in thanking Steve Israel for his 
tremendous years of service and for his wonderful friendship. We will 
all miss him as, indeed, will this entire institution.

                          ____________________