[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 72 (Thursday, April 27, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H2902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING FORMER CONGRESSMAN RAY KOGOVSEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Colorado (Mr. Tipton) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIPTON. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor former Congressman Ray 
Kogovsek, a dear friend who represented the Third Congressional 
District of Colorado before me. I ask that you keep him in your 
thoughts and prayers as he now faces a challenge far greater than any 
political race.
  Ray is a native of Pueblo, Colorado, and but for his college years 
and his tenure here from 1979 to 1985, he never left his hometown and 
never wanted to. His commitment to his community spread to encompass 
the entire Third District, which he came to serve after 10 years in the 
Colorado Legislature where I first met him.
  Ray won election to Congress in 1978 by 364 votes. In 1980, he faced 
the same challenger in a Reagan landslide year. He won by 22,000 votes. 
And in 1982, after redistricting changed half of his district, he 
handily won again. Ray won because of who Ray is. He is a man of gentle 
wisdom, wisdom about people, a man with a gut instinct to know what is 
right, a genuine man, a man who knows no anger.
  His achievements in his short time here in Congress were many. From a 
vast wilderness bill painstakingly built through his outreach and 
development of a coalition of broad support, to funding to widen a 
beautiful highway through Glenwood Canyon to make it safer for road 
travel, to resolving a decades-old boundary dispute for the Ute 
Mountain Ute Tribe, and his work on behalf of the Third District 
continued after he chose to leave Congress.
  He is known for his work on Western water issues and was awarded the 
prestigious Wayne Aspinall Award by the Colorado Water Congress, an 
award named after another Colorado congressman who served as chairman 
of the House Interior Committee.
  But I have a sense that what Ray values most about his career in 
public service, about his advocacy for his district and for the West, 
are his friendships, the friendships that he found and nurtured here in 
these halls and beyond.
  I want to thank Ray Kogovsek on behalf of the House of 
Representatives and the Third District and wish him and his family 
comfort and strength during this difficult time.

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