[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 204 (Thursday, December 3, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H6053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FAREWELL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE of New York. Mr. Speaker, this may be the last time I get to 
address this hallowed Chamber, and for that I am grateful for this 
opportunity.
  I want to start by thanking my staff. It may come as a surprise to 
some of my colleagues, as well as the press, but I do have some flaws. 
My staff worked with me for 2 years--some of them even longer--and 
together we--not me, we--accomplished an extraordinary amount for the 
great people of southern Brooklyn and Staten Island.
  As I leave to pursue new adventures, I want to depart, though, with a 
few words of optimism for our great country, as well as a warning.
  We live in a tough time for truth, and it is causing faith in our 
government to corrode. There is not a person in this Chamber who thinks 
the American people trust us. There is not a person sitting here right 
now who thinks the American people believe in our government.
  This didn't happen overnight. It was death by a thousand 
disappointments, a thousand scandals, and a thousand lives broken by 
politicians who mock a virus until it kills their neighbor; who carve 
us up into blue States and red States, yet have the nerve to question 
someone else's patriotism; who saw no problem whatsoever giving a 
trillion-dollar tax cut to Big Pharma and companies that are killing 
our planet, but then they clutch their pearls when we say we want to be 
there for poor people and when we say we want to be there for the most 
vulnerable.
  During my few years in politics, I have seen how we can beat back 
this festering cynicism: when we fight like hell for what is right, 
especially for those who need us most, when we bring converts to our 
side by promoting truth where there is injustice, and by appealing to 
common sense and--God forbid--humanity.
  I have seen constituents who thought their government was there only 
to screw them over; begin to hope that maybe that wasn't the case when 
we passed the Victim Compensation Fund; and when we cut through the red 
tape to finally begin the construction of the East Shore Seawall, the 
largest resiliency project in New York City history. I saw it when we 
reunited families torn apart by the racist Muslim ban and when we 
secured millions to combat the opioid epidemic.
  In retrospect, those were the good days.
  Then there were days when it felt like our politics was absolutely 
irredeemable, when a peaceful march for justice in my community was 
used as a weapon to tell my constituents that it is impossible to 
believe that Black Lives Matter while also believing that the vast 
majority of police officers are heroes. Those marchers were called 
thugs and they were called rioters just for believing that peaceful 
protests could change this country. The public was told that their 
movement was dangerous and not something you should listen to but 
something you should be afraid of. Yet for those who saw it with their 
own eyes, the truth cut through all those smears.
  I remember being outside of a supermarket. It was raining, and I was 
miserable. An off-duty police officer came up to talk to me. He assured 
me he was no Democrat, but he had been working that day of the march. 
He had been skeptical, but those young men and women changed his mind, 
and he was proud of them. That officer saw past the lies and past the 
differences others have used to divide us. He witnessed his fellow 
Americans in pain, and for him it changed everything. In typical Staten 
Island fashion, though, right after, he told me he wasn't going to vote 
for me and that I was going to lose for a thousand other reasons.
  But conversations like that refreshed my memory and my faith that 
this country can one day live up to its promise. We can put the 
government back on the side of working people from New York City to 
Washington, D.C., and everywhere in between.
  That is the America we know is possible: One where, in the face of 
unimaginable vitriol, we don't hate back; in the face of unimaginable 
adversity, we don't give up fighting until it doesn't matter what you 
look like and where you come from, but in this country you can 
accomplish your dreams--a safe America, a just America, our America.
  In light of recent electoral results, some have begun to wonder if 
Democrats should soft-pedal the fight for equal justice, if they should 
take a step back from fighting for economic security or even just give 
up. I am here to say absolutely not. This cannot wait. Justice cannot 
wait. If you aren't willing to risk everything to build a better 
country, then you do not belong here in the first place.
  Mr. Speaker, to close, representing Staten Island and south Brooklyn 
has been the honor of my life. On behalf of Leigh, Miles, and myself, I 
thank the people of the 11th Congressional District for this 
extraordinary privilege. I am not sure what life has in store for us, 
but I will be on the front lines making sure our city and our country 
live up to its promise.
  May God bless my colleagues with the strength to do what is right, 
and may God bless this great country.

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