[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 5, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H1976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





  WELCOMING THE HONORABLE KWEISI MFUME TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Hoyer) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, all of us, of course, were deeply saddened 
by the passing of our friend, Elijah Cummings, last year. He was a 
giant of moral strength and unquestioned integrity.
  In his 24 years in office, Elijah built a reputation for legislative 
skill, excellence in constituent service, an unyielding energy for 
rooting out corruption in government, and fighting tirelessly for 
justice, equality, and opportunity. He served his constituents in 
Maryland's Seventh Congressional District well. And today, Madam 
Speaker, they are sending someone to take his place whom I believe is 
an excellent choice.
  As the dean of the Maryland Congressional delegation, it is my honor 
today to welcome the House's newest Member, Representative Kweisi 
Mfume.
  However, he is not new to the House. He is a veteran of this body, a 
skilled and experienced legislator, who represented Maryland's Seventh 
District from 1987 to 1996. When he left to become the national 
president of the NAACP, Elijah Cummings was chosen to succeed him.
  Now, as we continue to mourn Elijah's passing, we welcome 
Representative Mfume back to his old seat to carry on the work that he 
and Elijah have both been engaged in for many, many years.
  The voters of the Seventh District, to their credit, replaced great 
intellect with great intellect, a passion for justice, equality, and 
opportunity, with a successor who mirrors and shares that passion and 
history of commitment.
  Their shared work has been to ensure that the promise of America is 
kept for all Americans equally, regardless of race or faith or gender 
or sexual orientation or national origin; to break down disparities in 
justice and access to opportunity; to address the tragic and 
unacceptable disparities in access to quality, affordable healthcare, 
which the COVID-19 tragedy has made so starkly evident; to make certain 
that every child in this country can go to a good, safe public school 
and receive a quality education that leads to a rewarding career.
  That is what Representative Mfume fought for as a member of the 
Baltimore City Council and as a Member of this House. It is what he 
worked hard to achieve as a former chairman of the Congressional Black 
Caucus and as the NAACP national president.
  I speak on behalf of our delegation, but all who served with him here 
in the Congress of the United States, we are pleased that he is back 
with us. And I know that those who were not Members when he last served 
will find him to be a wonderful colleague, a man of wisdom, 
thoughtfulness, depth, and whose experience can help guide this House 
and our majority as we navigate challenges both longstanding and new.
  I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in congratulating 
Representative Mfume on his election to represent Maryland's Seventh 
Congressional District once more and in welcoming him back to the 
House.
  I am now honored, Madam Speaker, to yield to my friend of 
longstanding, my colleague, and my fellow Marylander, Kweisi Mfume.
  Mr. MFUME. Madam Speaker, I thank the majority leader for his kind 
and overly gracious remarks.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to offer my heartfelt thanks and my deepest 
appreciation to the people of Maryland's Seventh Congressional District 
for the high honor and the distinct privilege of again representing 
them here in the Congress of the United States.

  I am happy to have been joined by members of our distinguished 
delegation from the State of Maryland, and I appreciate their presence 
here among us.
  I thank Almighty God for the victory and for my wonderful family and 
friends. I am joined here in the gallery by my wife, Dr. Tiffany Beth 
Mfume, and a longtime family friend, attorney Eric Bryant, and others.
  I am honored by those supporters who are Black and White, Latino and 
Asian, who could not be here at this time but who have worked so very 
hard to make sure that this moment would be possible. And I believe, as 
they do and as we continue to do, that racism, sexism, and anti-
Semitism are wrong, that Black bigotry can be just as cruel and evil as 
White bigotry, that gay bashing, immigrant bashing, and union bashing 
ultimately deplete us as a Nation and rob us of our ability to make 
true and lasting change.
  Today marks my return to this body after 24 years and following the 
death of the Honorable Elijah Cummings, my friend of 42 years. I do so 
against the backdrop of COVID-19 and in the midst of our Nation's 
greatest health crisis of the 21st century.
  Simultaneously, we are also locked in the Nation's greatest economic 
collapse, where there are now families and individuals who haven't had 
a paycheck in weeks as they struggle to buy food and to pay bills.
  Madam Speaker, our challenges as a Nation at this hour, as you and 
others know better than I, are economic, educational, social, and 
systemic, and they require both the courage of conviction and the 
unwavering resolve that the American spirit has always exhibited in 
order to solve them.
  Thus, in yielding back my time, I call forth the words of Dr. James 
Cheek, when he so eloquently exclaimed: ``I have not given up on the 
American idea or on the American possibility, and I ask my colleagues 
in this body not to give up also.
  ``I am convinced that our Nation still stands before the world as 
perhaps the last expression of a possibility of mankind devising a 
social order where justice is the supreme ruler, and law is but its 
instrument; where freedom is the dominant creed, and order . . . but 
its principle; where equity is the common practice, and fraternity the 
true human condition.''
  It is against that backdrop that I welcome and embrace both this 
challenge and opportunity before me.
  Madam Speaker, I thank you and I thank the distinguished majority 
leader for his words of introduction.

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