[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 11, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H7600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMMEMORATING THE 18TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Mrs. Demings) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. DEMINGS. Madam Speaker, September 11, 2001, is one of those days 
when everyone of age can remember where they were and what they were 
doing when the first plane hit.
  I was a police commander assigned to the Orlando International 
Airport. It appeared to be a normal day, and then the events unfolded. 
The planes hit. The towers collapsed. The Pentagon burned. The 
passengers of Flight 93 mounted their heroic resistance.
  It appeared time stood still as the world watched the results and the 
actions of the hijackers, evil men who set out to attack America, to 
kill Americans. But they could never have killed the idea of America. 
You see, that idea belongs to us. It will endure as long as we continue 
to believe in it, to perfect it, and to make it worth fighting for.
  2,977 lives, 343 firefighters, 23 New York police officers, and 37 
Port Authority officers--they took much from us that day.
  As a mother, I think of the roughly 100 babies who will turn 18 this 
year having never known their fathers.
  Today, I remember the passengers and crew. I remember the first 
responders who rushed into fire and smoke, dust and rubble in a 
desperate fight to save whomever they could; who worked for weeks on 
end, breathing deadly particles, trying to find survivors, or at least 
identify the dead; heroes who died that day or from illnesses 
contracted from the search, rescue, recovery; heroes who died as they 
lived, in service to others, who believed in service above self. These 
men and women didn't just save lives; they defined what it means to be 
a hero for a generation.
  On the day of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, our first 
responders showed us the best of us. I am relieved that, earlier this 
year, Congress passed lifetime funding for the 9/11 Victims 
Compensation Fund.
  Yes, evil men took much from us that day; but the heart and soul of 
America, the courage and tenacity, the ability to endure and to stand 
no enemy can take away from us.
  The work of caring for those individuals who answered the call that 
day must go on, just as our work will go on to secure our Nation, to 
ensure that we will never again suffer the injury we did on that 
morning.
  But today, on September 11, we pause from that work to remember and 
to honor the victims and to acknowledge the service of 9/11 is not just 
something to be memorialized, but to be emulated, to put service above 
self. May we stand united and serve in the people's House with courage, 
devotion, gallantry, compassion, and grace.

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