[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.

                          ____________________