[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 96 (Tuesday, June 6, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MARK GALLAGHER'S ENDURING LEGACY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2017

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Gallagher family 
will lay to rest a beloved husband, father, brother, grandfather and 
great grandfather--Mark Gallagher.
  I worked with Mark for many years in his capacity as the key U.S. 
Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbyist for the poor and unborn. Mark 
was a quiet but extraordinarily powerful force. While the full reach of 
his impactful life can only be known to God, those of us who were 
blessed to know him witnessed the many ways his persevering work made a 
positive difference for the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable.
  First hired by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment in 
1974, Mark formally took up the cause just one year after Roe v. Wade 
stripped the unborn child of all legal protection. He eventually 
represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as their lead 
lobbyist until his retirement in 2007. Over the course of those three 
decades, Mark played an integral role in every pro-life effort in 
Congress.
  He educated an entire generation of lawmakers on the arguments for 
protecting the unborn, at a time when few others could be found on 
Capitol Hill with this expertise.
  Mark's skillfulness and serene demeanor was critical to the enactment 
of and defense of the Hyde amendment--the landmark amendment preventing 
federal funding of abortion that has saved the lives of at least two 
million people. Two million people who have been aborted instead 
survived because public funds were unavailable to effectuate their 
violent demise.
  Mark was as concerned about the plight of women facing an unplanned 
pregnancy as he was about their unborn children. A former worker for 
U.S. anti-poverty programs like Catholic Charities, he was happy to 
take part in efforts to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act and the 
Refundable Child Tax Credit.
  A brilliant strategist for the causes he served, Mark was always 
selfless and self-effacing. Thanks to Mark's mastery of intricate 
details of the rules of Congress, all the legislative recommendations 
of the Meese Report, i.e. the Attorney General's commission to combat 
pornography, were enacted into law.
  Beyond living out a Christ-like care for the vulnerable in the 
political realm, Mark also labored for souls, becoming a permanent 
deacon in the Catholic Church in 1996.
  Someday soon, America will protect the weakest and most vulnerable. 
And into eternity Mark Gallagher played a critical part in this all-
important human rights struggle. We are grateful for the gift of his 
life and pray for his family in their time of grief.

                          ____________________