[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H10503-H10506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING SPECIAL CONSTITUENTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a few special
constituents in my region who deserve recognition.
Honoring the Life of Bill Chanatry
Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, this past October, the Mohawk Valley lost a
local businessman, leader, and a dear friend when Bill Chanatry, owner
of Chanatry's Hometown Market in Utica, New York, passed away at the
age of 89.
Bill was raised in Utica and graduated from the highly acclaimed
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute--many of you known as RPI--and enjoyed
a 40-year career as an engineer, eventually serving in the Army Corps
of Engineers in Japan during the Korean war; and later he joined
General Electric Aerospace Electronics Division, where he served as a
project manager for the U.S. Navy E-2C Surveillance Radar Team in
Utica, New York.
Chanatry's, the family grocery store, was founded in 1912 by Bill's
father and his two uncles. In 1991, Bill eventually retired from
General Electric, GE, and became the president of Chanatry's and
oversaw a significant expansion and innovation, using his unique skills
in engineering to really bring Chanatry's into the forefront and to
maintain it as a family, home-owned business catering to the needs of
families in our community.
But along with all of these lifelong achievements that Bill had,
Bill's legacy is better defined by his terrific family: his loving
wife, Janet; five children, Ameena, Joanne, Michael, Bob,
[[Page H10504]]
and Mark; and, of course, all of their children, grandchildren, and
many great-grandchildren as well.
The strong personal relationships that Bill cultivated with so many
people in our community are thanks to his integrity, his loyalty, his
ultimate belief in the goodness of humankind. Much of the love that he
had came from his very strong devotion to faith. He also was known to
attend daily mass.
He also was such a good friend to so many as he worked in his post-
retirement, in his post-GE life, retirement life at Chanatry.
Bill's son, Mark, a long-time friend of mine, dear friend, stated
that his father's greatest lesson to him when it came to rebuilding the
number one grocery store in Utica year after year is simply:
``Chanatry's business was built on treating people right.'' And that
was Bill's message. Mark and his family continue that great legacy left
by their father, Bill.
For anyone who has been to Chanatry's, it is really hard to imagine
walking through the market and not seeing Bill attending to every
aspect of the business, taking the time to talk to individuals, to help
consumers and people coming in and individual customers, which is
something that he did every single day. It was a big part of his life.
He was also just hard to miss. He was full of energy, full of
excitement, a lot of fun to be around. Our community will dearly miss
Bill Chanatry, and especially his friends, his family, and his
customers.
Mr. Speaker, our entire community really lost a true leader in Bill
Chanatry, someone who was always able to innovate and actually reinvent
himself, and someone who--I think what is most important--actually made
a difference.
Honoring the Life of James VanSlyke
Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, next, I would like to recognize another
really terrific person, a dear friend of my family. I would like to
honor the incredible life of a man named James VanSlyke of New
Hartford, New York.
Jim VanSlyke passed away on June 6, 2018, 1 day before his 89th
birthday. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Virginia, whom
we all know as Ginny; his children, Matt, Patrice, Andy, and Mary; his
grandchildren, great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.
Hailing from Hamilton, New York, Jim stayed in his hometown after
high school, attending Colgate University, also in Hamilton. He
received a full academic scholarship and graduated in 1952 with a
master's degree in science.
My mother's hometown also happens to be Hamilton, where she and Jim
attended high school together. At Colgate, Jim also met my father, who
was a college classmate of his.
Immediately following Jim's graduation from Colgate, Jim went on to
serve in the United States Army. After honorably serving our Nation,
Jim continued his lifelong journey of service and moved back to Mohawk
Valley, where he dedicated 66 years of his life in the town of New
Hartford.
Upon his return, James began his 31-year career in New Hartford
School District, serving as a math and science teacher, a coach, a
guidance counselor, and a principal for both the junior high and senior
high school.
I had a the honor of attending New Hartford High School during his
tenure as principal. Back to Mr. VanSlyke, as I always called him. He
was respected, sometimes feared, but always a person with common sense
and someone who could be relied on for sage advice for many high school
students, including me.
Later in his life, Jim ventured into another form of public service,
where he served seven terms as the town and village justice for the
town of New Hartford.
Jim was regarded as a knowledgeable, fair, and hardworking man,
always making sure that he knew each aspect of the law relevant to the
case at hand.
{time} 2045
If Jim didn't know the answer to something, he was quick to admit it
and also quick to find the answer. He was willing always to listen to
another's perspective, including other attorneys. His intelligence was
self-evident but humbly portrayed.
As an attorney, I appeared before Jim on many occasions in court. He
always asked me about my family, and especially my mother's sister,
whom he was quite fond of, my Aunt Polly, who was also a classmate at
Hamilton High School.
Jim was also a very talented high school athlete and a college
athlete, as I learned from my mother kind of the hard way. I am always
going to remember, there was an article written by someone I actually
went to Colgate with, I believe, and it was in Sports Illustrated. It
described Jim's famous son, who is a professional baseball player and
also my classmate in high school. He used to sit right behind me, a
baseball player named Andy Van Slyke, who many know, who also later
became a coach. I remember the article described Jim Van Slyke and Andy
as coming from a family with no athletic talent, to which my mother
immediately said:
He was the star of Hamilton High School in every sport, and
he went on to Colgate to be a star as well.
Though Jim never served as a professional athlete like his son, Andy,
Jim was a star in all of our minds. He was a terrific person, a great
educator, and later in life found a passion for cooking. His culinary
skills provided another way to express his deep love for his family by
bringing them together at the dining room table.
Mr. Speaker, please join me in recognizing the life of one of New
Hartford's greatest educators, Jim Van Slyke. Our community will
forever remember the life and legacy of Jim Van Slyke. We will also
remember Jim's sense of humor and his kind and humble manner in every
aspect of his life.
Expressing Gratitude to Constituents, Members, Supporters, Family, and
Staff
Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I now want to just say a few words about my
term in the 115th Congress and what an honor and a privilege it has
been for me to serve.
I want to first thank my constituents who have been terrific. I have
really enjoyed my time with them, serving them, and working very hard
every day to try to find results--actually excellent results--in the
115th Congress. I think we have reached some unprecedented levels in
our last 2 years.
I also want to thank my supporters. They were terrific, a lot of fun.
It was a great time, a lot of hard work, a lot of anguish, and a lot of
frustration. But through it all, they were very tough and hung in there
in spite of our loss this past November.
A lot of my volunteers, also among the supporters, were terrific. I
want to thank them for so much work, so many phone calls, and just a
great opportunity to serve with them.
I also want to thank a lot of the people in our community who serve
in social service agencies who have done so much to help the truly
neediest people in our communities. I am grateful that they reached out
to me and I was able to give back to them and provide much-needed
resources on the Federal level. I really appreciate their good counsel
and care and what they provided to me and my staff in making sure that
we were able to understand the issues and bring those issues back to
Washington and deliver to our constituents.
I wanted to also thank the local officials in my district throughout
the community who have been an invaluable resource for bringing issues
to the table that needed to be resolved and their hard work, their
belief in me and some of the amazing accomplishments we had throughout
the eight-county region and to the many towns and villages, it was
really an honor to serve.
Some of the resources we brought back to the city were tremendous. So
I want to thank them for their sage advice, their counsel, and their
good friendship. I hope that we can continue to provide solutions and
realize good things for them in the future.
Also I thank my friends and my family who have been through a lot in
my rather short time in public service. It has been very exciting and
filled with a lot of ups and downs, but a lot of challenges. I am just
grateful for them to kind of hang in there with me through all of this.
I stand here today as a Member of the 115th Congress. I also served
three terms in the New York State Assembly. I have been a lifelong
Republican. I never missed a vote since I was 18.
[[Page H10505]]
Oddly enough, I have never been endorsed by my local Republican
committee for any office I ever sought until this year. So maybe it is
bad luck in the end. But I wanted to just say thank you to so many of
the rank and file and people who serve in this capacity in both sides,
in all parties, in what they bring to the table and how important it is
to our constitutional Republic and democratic principles. I want to
just say I am grateful to them.
Toward that, I also want to just say thank you, especially to my
colleagues. You hear so many terrible things about Congress, and I
myself thought: What is wrong with these people here?
But I have gotten here and realize there really are terrific people
who care about this country. They care about their constituents, they
care about preserving our constitutional Republic, they care about
democratic principles, they care about serving mankind, and they
recognize the importance of where we are in the world. I say that about
people I have met genuinely on both sides of the aisle, there are
really terrific people who serve in this office. I may not agree with
everything that they have to say, but they have been really terrific to
me.
I especially want to thank my freshman class. They have changed my
life in so many ways. It has been such an honor, including, Mr.
Speaker, a couple of my favorite colleagues here, but I wanted to say
that I really appreciate the fact that our freshman class, the incoming
class for the 115th Congress, took a very special measure. It was
spearheaded by my colleague, Congressman Mike Johnson. We signed a
commitment to civility; something that I thought was a really great
idea, a terrific idea, something that really meant a lot to us who have
signed on to this. We have endeavored to stick to that commitment to
civility. I know I have.
Among some of the pledges we made was to introduce legislation and
make every effort to make sure it was bipartisan. I am honored to say
that every piece of legislation that I authored, unless it was district
specific, was cosponsored by one of my Democratic colleagues, and I
always wanted to get one of my freshman class members when I could. So
I am grateful to all the Democrats and the Republicans, everyone who
signed that commitment and came forward to try to work on resolutions
to stand together and to really work to get to know each other.
I think we did make a difference. Unfortunately, it isn't sound-bite
worthy. The media didn't really cover it. But I think it is something
people should really look at that makes our class so unique and why we
accomplished so much this first term.
I really want to just say thank you all to my family. My family has
been terrific. They stood through a lot. It was very hard for my family
to go through the political process, as ugly as it has become, which is
why that commitment to civility is so important and why I was so
dedicated to it.
It is okay to advance your cause, to argue, and to disagree. I am a
lawyer. That is a natural instinct, and that is good. But to make sure
in the end that we don't hold grudges, that we stand for each other and
respect each other when we walk away, and I think our freshman class
showed that this year. I am honored and proud to be part of that.
I am not done, but I think that my colleague from Texas (Mr.
Arrington) would like to say a few words.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Arrington.
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlelady from New
York--and let me say the gentlelady from New York has served these
United States so admirably and so effectively and with such dignity and
honor. Gentle because she has a big heart soft for this country. She
mentioned the civility and the commitment to civil discourse. She was
part of leading that effort and leading by example. A gentlelady, she
was class every day and in every way in her term in serving the people
of New York in her district. Gentlelady from New York, she is a New
Yorker, and I am a Texan. The only folk I know who may rival Texas in
toughness are New Yorkers. She is tough, she is strong, she is
passionate, and she fought every day for her constituents and for this
country she loves.
So I just wanted to say that it has been an honor and a privilege to
serve with Claudia Tenney, United States Representative, Claudia
Tenney.
I am a better person, I am a better servant leader, and I am a better
Representative of my people in west Texas because of the time I spent
with you. So I know your folks back home are proud, your freshman
class--and I will say this on behalf of our freshman class, and I can
say it with confidence--you make us proud. We are going to miss you,
but I know we haven't seen the last of you and your service to this
country.
Ms. TENNEY. Thank you so much Representative Arrington. You are
terrific.
I might add something about the commitment to civility and why it
really reflects who you are also and why it was such an honor to serve
with you. I remember all of us having the discussion, the freshman
class, with the Democrats. We were at one of our social events, and you
were just always the consummate ``let's get along, let's be ladies and
gentlemen, let's work together. We have got to do this, because in the
end the tables are going to turn. You are going to be in power, and we
are not, or you are going to be in the majority, and let's just not
look at that. Let's go beyond that.''
I still remember those conversations with you. You are a terrific
Member. You served honorably. You have a wonderful family. I really am
grateful for your friendship and your support.
None of these friendships end here. This is an amazing 2 years in
this 115th Congress. I think it was really special. Maybe everybody
feels that way when they go to Congress, but I think our group was
really different, and I am including the Democrats in that as well.
We had a great group, and as we move into 116--I am sorry I am not
going to be joining you all--but let's keep on the tradition of what we
have done. Let's stay together and continue to work to protect our
constitutional Republic.
I am a huge Lincoln fan, and I have said this many times, certainly
in my community, but I look back on some of the tough times that we are
facing ahead, and I remember what Lincoln said at one point. I would
say the enduring message from his body of work was: Can we save this
Republic? Can we save it? Can we be self-governing?
We can, but we have to work together. We have to fight the fight. We
have to stand on our principles and find a way to compromise in the
end. I feel like that is what we have done with so many great bills and
so many accomplishments. If you look at what happened in the 115th--and
I think we can all take credit for this across the board--the
accomplishments are something that we haven't seen in decades in
Congress. In just one Congress all of our agenda was passed and done,
and much of it was bipartisan. I wish it all were, but maybe as we go
into the 116th we can make that happen as well.
But I just want to say thank you so much to you and all my colleagues
who served with me, whether they are in the freshman class or not, I
love you guys. You have been terrific. My life has changed, and my life
is better because of my service here and meeting all of you and finding
out, yes, there are really good people who serve this Nation, and they
are here in Congress--not everybody. But there are a lot of us out
there.
I am so proud and honored to have been serving here for 2 years and
to have met the people I met, whether they are in Congress, whether
they are the great staff or the people who work here, the people behind
me who we keep up at late hours to do their job, but it has really been
an honor. I want to say thank you so much to you.
One last thing, I do want to say thank you to--first of all, I want
to thank again the chairman of my committee, the Honorable Jeb
Hensarling--who is retiring--for his terrific service and great work
and what an honor it was to serve on the Financial Services Committee.
Also to the staff of the Financial Services Committee, I want to say
thank you. They were terrific, and they helped us every day come up
with an incredible agenda and very bipartisan work. I am grateful to
them to have had a number of bills that were originally sponsored by me
that either
[[Page H10506]]
were included in other bills, the S. 2155, or others, and for their
help in getting those across the finish line and having five original
sponsored bills that ultimately became law.
So I want to say thank you to them.
I also want to say thank you, last but not least, to my hardworking
staff. First of all, I put them in alphabetical order so you don't know
who is better than the other, but I want to say I loved having them on
my staff. They did a tremendous job.
Let me just say a hearty thank you to my staffers, Hannah Andrews,
Alexandra Cade, Haim Engelman, George Iverson, Maria Giurastante--I can
never say Maria's name--Kate Kelly brought me to New Orleans my first
time, Samantha LaMarca who was with me from the times in the assembly,
Rebecca Lumsden, Patrick O'Brien, Nick Stewart, Robert Simpson, Michael
Stademeier, Kathy Vences, Brett Wakeman, and Katie Ziemba.
I want to thank so many terrific interns who joined us and inspired
us every single day with their excitement, their youth, their
enthusiasm, and the fact that they were all so much more technically
proficient than I was, so I could just hand them my phone with trust
that they could fix whatever it was that was wrong with it. I want to
say thank you to them for the hard work and the hours that you put in
throughout the last 2 years.
It wasn't easy. We were in a tough position, whether it was the
media, whether it was just the position we were in as a targeted seat
in the Nation. But you came through. We did terrific work. We made
groundbreaking strides in our community.
I want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you
for what you have done and what you have done to serve us and serve my
community and always have a servant's heart as you dealt with all the
constituents and the literally, I don't know if it is thousands, but
every time one of my constituents contacted me directly and I got to
the message, I copied, I pasted, and I sent it to you, and you reacted
and helped the constituent out.
{time} 2100
I really am grateful to all of you for doing that because I love the
job that I do. I love serving. I love doing this kind of work to help
people. For the first time, I really felt like we got to help people in
the last 2 years.
Again, I want to say the last thank you to my family members: my son
and my parents. My parents, who passed away, never got to know that I
actually got here. I just want to say thank you to them for instilling
in me the integrity, the loyalty to people and the compassion for
fellow human beings and for helping this world, and also for the
tenacity that I got from my mother, who was really my inspiration.
I want to just say one of my favorite quotes that my dad used to
always say when I used to be in all the sports I attended, whether it
was curling--yes, I am a curler--whether it was basketball, horse
shows, equestrian--I did that as well--golf and a lot of sports I got
into, my father would quote, when I was disappointed that I didn't win,
from Rudyard Kipling's poem ``If.'' I am just going to pick out part of
it. ``If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two
imposters just the same,'' and the poem goes on. But that is exactly
what it is. It isn't about winning and losing. It is about how you play
the game. We did a great job.
I want to say thank you, lastly, to my son, who has been my
inspiration. I am hoping that I get to see him at Christmas, but I am
not sure I will, because he is currently serving as a captain in the
Marine Corps. So we are very proud of him in our family for answering
the call to serve.
But I do want to say thank you so much again to everyone who has been
so kind to me. Whether it is Pat and Doris, the ladies in the Lindy
Boggs Room, everyone who is working here, it is really a highly
professional operation. You hear terrible things about Congress, but it
is not true. There are a lot of terrific people that work here that
aren't just Members. They are the people who keep the trains running on
time, the people who make this happen.
I just want to say thank you again for letting me have this
tremendous honor to do what I have done for the last 2 years. I wish
everyone the best of luck and God bless.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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