[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 68 (Tuesday, April 26, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4491-H4496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PAYING TRIBUTE TO MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Jacobs of California). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Slotkin) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of 
the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent that all 
Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous materials on the subject of the Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Kaptur).


                Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to urge passage of the 
Lend-Lease Act for Ukraine. I think Madeleine Albright would like this 
very much.
  Putin's unprovoked war on the sovereign nation of Ukraine is an 
attack on freedom-loving people around our globe. Not since the costly 
tragic wars of the 20th century has the world seen such a test of 
liberty's survival.
  The Lend-Lease is an uncommon tool for uncommon times. These are 
uncommon times.
  Justice Franklin Roosevelt marshaled U.S. arms for the aid of our 
allies in World War II. We must now marshal those same resources to 
defeat a tyrant seeking to rebuild his fallen, tyrannical empire.
  Ukraine is the scrimmage line for liberty on the European Continent. 
If the world allows Putin to claw Ukraine under his command, our 
Central and Eastern European allies may very well be next.
  The time to act is now. Pass the Lend-Lease Act. Arm Ukraine. Defeat 
the Russian war machine. The fate of liberty rests in the balance. This 
is our watch in freedom's defense. Let us meet this test.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much for yielding time.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of our 
country's greatest public servants and diplomats.

[[Page H4492]]

  Madeleine Albright was a stateswoman, a trailblazer, and someone who 
has been a friend and mentor to me and to so many other women in 
national security.
  I appreciate Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer for creating 
this Special Order hour and allowing me to host it here and allow 
Members of Congress from across this entire body to contribute some 
remarks, some recognition, for a woman who has done so much to change 
the course of history in the United States.
  I think it is particularly important because not only was she our 
first Secretary of State, not only was she at the U.N., not only does 
she have a storied history in national security in the executive 
branch, she was also here in Congress as a Congressional aide, a chief 
of staff, a national security staffer, that made her mark in this body 
as well.
  She was also a national security staffer at the White House, one of 
the first women to represent our country in the United Nations and, of 
course, our very first female Secretary of State. Her remarkable career 
and achievements are made all the more astonishing by the fact that she 
first came to this country as a refugee, having first left 
Czechoslovakia to escape the Nazis and then again to flee communist 
rule in Eastern Europe after the Second World War.
  Secretary Albright would be the first one to tell you that her story 
would only be possible in the United States, the country she loved and 
served even long after her time in government had come to an end.

  She left her stamp at the U.N. and at the State Department with her 
intelligence, her passion for human rights, and her unwavering 
commitment to democratic ideals. On the world stage, she stood up to 
dictators, shined the light on human rights abuses, and championed 
diplomacy and democracy.
  Even though she had always been an idol for me as a young woman in 
national security, I actually didn't get a chance to meet her until 
2018, until I became a Member of Congress. But the years that I have 
spent getting to know her since then have been incredibly important to 
me.
  I think what many of us will recognize and remember is the class of 
2018--that large group that were elected in 2018 to come into this 
body--it had the most women that had ever been elected; one of the most 
diverse classes that had ever been elected; one of the classes that 
contained the largest number of national security people; people that 
were veterans; and people that were former intelligence community 
folks--like myself. Madeleine Albright was the speaker when we all 
traveled to Williamsburg for our orientation, our session to get to 
know each other and how to be a Member of Congress.
  I met her there, along with her wonderful chief of staff, Jacob 
Freedman, and basically had the honor of hosting her and walking her 
around the room. What I remember very clearly is that she had 
admiration coming at her from every corner: young, old, early parts of 
their career, later parts of their career, and, importantly, Democrat 
and Republican.
  One of the fondest memories I have from that first year with her was 
when she actually took me up on an offer to come to Michigan in early 
2020, right before the pandemic really began. We did a road trip around 
Michigan together.
  I will go into that in just a moment, but I note that the Speaker has 
just arrived on the floor.
  We did this road trip across mid-Michigan. She was already over 80 
years old. She took me up on this offer. She spoke at Michigan State 
University. She spoke at Oakland University. She did events for folks 
at restaurants and in private homes. We had her on an incredibly busy 
schedule. She kept us on our toes, and she was never short of a kind 
word or a borderline saucy joke the entire time. No matter where we 
went, her presence was electric.
  One of my proudest moments was when we brought in all the honor 
students from the Rochester and Rochester Hills area. These are young 
people, still in high school. I actually questioned whether they would 
have a connection to this woman who had been the first female Secretary 
of State long before some of them were born. It took about 1 second for 
her to get a complete rock star welcome. All the students who came out 
were desperate to talk to her about service, about being the first 
female Secretary of State, about how to think about leading in their 
own careers, and all the barriers that she had shattered.
  At a separate event at Oakland University, the reception was no less 
boisterous. We had, I think, up to 500 people. We were oversold; people 
from across the community wanted to come in. And even at a moment of 
deep polarization for our country, here was a woman who seemed to 
supersede politics.
  For us in Michigan, with so many Michiganders who left the Balkans to 
come to the United States and resettled in Michigan, she, with that 
community, is truly a hero. It is now etched firmly into the history 
books that Secretary Albright was the driving force behind engaging the 
United States and ending the genocide in the Balkans.
  She understood that while America is not perfect, the world is better 
off with a strong American leadership role in that world. She used her 
moral authority to bring American might into that conflict and then 
later negotiated the peace that, ever-tenuous, still holds today.
  Her visit to Michigan was filled with people whose fates were quite 
literally changed by her having a seat at the table as Secretary of 
State, and being able to see that up close was a truly remarkable 
experience for me and for all the people who came to greet her.
  I would be remiss if I didn't point out that as someone who has spent 
her career in national security, there just aren't that many senior 
women we have to look up to for guidance, for mentorship. There are 
very few women who had navigated the complicated waters of working and 
leading in male-dominated fields.
  Not only did Secretary Albright blaze a new trail for women in 
national security, she also raised the bar for all of those who would 
succeed her. She became the gold standard. Despite all the 
accomplishments and accolades, this was a woman who never let ego cloud 
her actions.

                              {time}  1930

  She was humble and gracious with everyone I saw her meet and engage 
with in Michigan, students, parents, perfect strangers. She was 
generous with her wisdom and insights, but never full of herself.
  For her, the work she did in government was always about serving the 
country that she loved, the country that welcomed her and her family as 
refugees when she was just 11 year old.
  Her preferred way of continuing to serve after leaving office was by 
teaching the next generation of national security leaders. Her passion 
for her students at Georgetown University was evident to everyone 
around her, and it is no exaggeration to say that an entire generation 
of rising public servants are better prepared for the challenges of the 
21st century thanks to her guiding hand.
  So this is how I will remember her: As a down-to-earth, warm, saucy 
leader who meant something to perfect strangers and world leaders 
alike. I am so grateful for the years that I had to get to know her and 
for the chance to introduce her to the next generation in my State.
  As we mourn the loss of this incredible humanitarian, we also 
celebrate the life and achievements of a woman whose impact, both here 
at home and in the farthest corners of the globe, will be felt for many 
years to come.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Pelosi), the Speaker of the House.
  Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Slotkin for 
arranging for this Special Order and for just speaking so beautifully 
about Madeleine Albright, a person that we all loved so very, very much 
for so many years. And to hear the gentlewoman, a new Member, a 
relatively new Member of Congress, but a woman in national security 
making her own mark in a significant way, recognize the greatness of 
Madeleine, it is just a joy to us to see another generation of women 
leaders in security speaking about Madeleine.
  Madeleine Albright was a stateswoman. She was a champion of national 
security in our country. She was

[[Page H4493]]

the embodiment of the American Dream; her family coming when she was 11 
years old, a refugee to our shores. Her personal story is the makings 
of novels and movies and the rest.
  But she was fresh and frisky, and she had a sense of humor that was 
wonderful. And I remember the night that there was a debate in St. 
Louis for the Presidential, when President Clinton was running for 
President; we had dinner after the debate. And I said well, Madeleine, 
would you like--are you interested in participating in the 
administration?
  I was a relatively new Member of Congress at the time. And she said, 
I am not going--I don't want to go overseas. I said, I know what you 
want. You want to be Ambassador to the U.N. Because that would be of 
the stature, and yet she did not want to go overseas. She wanted to be 
home for all kinds of different reasons. And what a magnificent 
Ambassador she was for us to the United Nations.
  And then, as it would turn out, to become the first woman to be 
Secretary of State. This is such an exalted position. Thomas Jefferson 
was Secretary of State. And Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State.
  And as Congresswoman Slotkin said, she had boundless energy. She 
would be--well, she was on the campaign trail after serving as 
Secretary of State, on the campaign trail, and she was, as the 
gentlewoman said, a rock star. She was a major attraction. People loved 
to see her.
  I want to say, because my husband loved her so much, my husband, 
Paul, who was the chairman of the board of the Georgetown School of 
Foreign Service for a couple of decades I think. It seemed like a long 
time. He worshipped at the shrine of Madeleine Albright. When she would 
call me, if he had the phone first, I would have a hard time getting it 
away from him because he thought they were the best of friends. She was 
my girlfriend in addition to being someone I admired so greatly.
  And she would always call the day before your birthday because she 
wanted to be the first one to wish you happy birthday which, of course, 
I was looking forward to this year. And instead, we would get this very 
sad news, with all the dignity of Madeleine Albright, with all of the 
warmth and greatness of her, be with her family, right up to the end.
  Alice, Anne, and Katherine, thank you for sharing your mother with 
us; and again, to sister, Kathy, and brother, John.
  Another thing I want to mention about her is I don't know how many of 
you were at the funeral of Brzezinski, National Security Advisor 
Brzezinski. Two people spoke at his funeral in the church. Some of us 
spoke afterward in the more informal setting. But two people spoke at 
his funeral; President Jimmy Carter and Secretary Madeleine Albright. 
And what a beautiful compliment to speak for another great American 
patriot born overseas and coming to America to make his mark.
  And she spoke so beautifully about America and about patriotism, 
about civic responsibility, and of the contribution he made; that she 
was chosen to make that speech with the President was really so clearly 
appropriate and great to hear her speak.
  Now, she had a collection of pins, and she would always say, when she 
would go to give testimony or whatever it is, ``read my pins.'' 
Sometimes it would be an American eagle. We never knew what it might 
be. And she even toured the country with her pins, and people showed up 
to see Madeleine's pins, because she had something about her that was--
she knew how to connect with people. You know, this great intellect and 
the rest.
  I will just go back to Paul in closing to say this: She taught at 
Georgetown for 40 years, for 40 years. The gentlewoman mentioned this 
next generation of young diplomats and the rest. They took such pride 
in her leadership, her service, her being a professor there, that they 
were cooking up how they were going to observe her 40 years and this or 
that; and again, she had other plans, to be in heaven and look down on 
all of us.
  How wonderful it is that tomorrow, many of her friends from Congress 
and--she made us all feel as if we were her best friends. I mean, I 
thought so.
  So many of her loved ones, whether they were diplomats or people in 
service, would be there to praise her as an Ambassador to the United 
Nations and Secretary of State, she represented our Nation with great 
poise and distinction and brilliance on the world stage and worked 
relentlessly to keep Americans safe and America secure.
  As a trusted voice on foreign policy, and those jobs, and beyond, and 
beyond, because her influence extended long after her actual service in 
public office, but also as a professor, she was quick to sound the 
alarm at the rise of autocracy. As you know, she wrote about that in 
her book, at home and abroad, a prescient warning that remains an 
important guide and resource today.
  And then, as a professor at Georgetown, which we, the Pelosi family, 
take great pride. My husband went there; my kids went there; I have an 
honorary degree there, and we all feel associated with Madeleine.
  She shaped the next generation of leadership by sharing her hard-
earned wisdom and experience.
  So tomorrow, many of her loved ones, whether it is from government, 
politics, security, academic world, friendship, girlfriends, hair 
dressers, wherever we met together, her family, first and foremost, 
which she loved so much, will join Madeleine's family and her loved 
ones to pay our final respects at her memorial at the glorious 
Washington National Cathedral.
  I said final respects. I meant final respects for tomorrow. We will 
be paying our respects to her in many things that are being planned 
already. The presence of so many Members and diplomats at her memorial, 
and two Presidents of the United States to speak at her service, will 
be another testament to the monumental impact she made on our Nation 
and the world.
  I wish everyone would read the op-ed that another Secretary of State, 
a national figure, Hillary Clinton, wrote about Madeleine Albright. 
They were kindred spirits. They loved each other very much. They worked 
together with great respect for each other and for our country in such 
a beautiful way.
  Please, if you can, go to The New York Times and read what the 
Secretary of State--I think she may be speaking tomorrow, too. I don't 
know what the program is. I think she may be speaking tomorrow, too.
  So God truly blessed America with the life and the service and the 
leadership and the goodness of Madeleine Albright. May she forever rest 
in peace.
  And again, I thank Congresswoman Slotkin for affording us all the 
opportunity to pay our respects to our dear Madam Ambassador, Madam 
Secretary, Madeleine Albright.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I thank the Speaker for that personal 
tribute.
  I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority 
leader.
  Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for 
yielding. And the Speaker pro tem, Ms. Jacobs, how proud Madeleine 
Albright would be of the two of you standing here, presiding here, and 
giving tribute to an extraordinary woman who must have been, 
particularly for women--she was for me as well, but particularly for 
women, an extraordinary example of success, of focus, of intellect, of 
achievement. And I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Slotkin) 
for taking this Special Order.
  Madam Speaker, tomorrow, as the Speaker just said, at the National 
Cathedral, really the cathedral--America's cathedral, many of us will 
gather to remember and celebrate the extraordinary life of former 
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
  Secretary Albright was a dear and valued friend for over 35 years. As 
the chair of the Helsinki Commission, I worked closely with her on 
issues related to human rights and foreign affairs for years, for a 
decade that I was chair.
  Secretary Albright was a diplomat, a teacher, and a mentor to so many 
who now serve in our diplomatic corps and the world of foreign policy.
  She was an author who used her pen and her voice to urge us both to 
see the untapped possibilities in our world, and not to ignore the 
dangers that confronted our country, our freedom, and our democracy.
  Perhaps most of all, Secretary Albright was someone who never forgot 
the experience of being a refugee and a survivor of war and genocide. 
It gave

[[Page H4494]]

her great insight and determination to confront the enemies of freedom 
and human rights.
  Her family fled Czechoslovakia when it fell under the oppression of 
Nazi occupation. Her determination was spurred as well when 
Czechoslovakia fell under Stalin's heel. That experience pushed her to 
spend her life working to keep others safe from those evils and to 
ensure that the world's democracies, led by America, took action to 
help those fleeing conflict and danger.
  In 2018, she released a masterful book that everyone ought to read: 
``Fascism: A warning.''
  She said in that book: ``Throughout his time in office,'' she wrote 
of Vladimir Putin, ``He has stockpiled power at the expense of 
provincial governors, the legislature, the courts, the private sector, 
and the press. A suspicious number of those who have found fault with 
him have later been jailed on dubious charges or murdered in 
circumstances never explained.''
  She saw then very clearly the threat that he and others pose to 
democracy in our time.
  I miss her wise words. Luckily, she wrote a lot of them down and 
those were some that we certainly ought to remember; those insights, as 
Ukraine's brave fighters battle a new tyranny and another criminal 
dictator.
  After she died, just days following Vladimir Putin's criminal and 
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, former Secretary of State Hillary 
Clinton, whom the Speaker just mentioned, said: ``As has happened so 
often, the man with the guns was wrong, and Madeleine was right.''
  Right now, as the world confronts Putin's aggression, as we and our 
fellow democracies stand up to authoritarianism and tyranny, we do so 
better prepared, Madam Speaker, because of the warning and lessons that 
Secretary Albright gave us.

                              {time}  1945

  In many ways, the most fitting tribute to her memory is the unity we 
and our allies are demonstrating in the face of Putin's threat to 
democracy, decency, and international law.
  Before Secretary Albright's death, President Biden had committed $424 
million toward his Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, 
which drew heavily on Secretary Albright's proposals and sought to 
tackle the challenges she identified in her book, ``Fascism: A 
Warning.'' ``It is easier,'' she wrote, ``to remove tyrants and destroy 
concentration camps than to kill the ideas that gave them birth.''
  This is a war of ideas, and America must lead the fight for 
democracy.
  Now, Secretary Albright's legacy is felt throughout the global 
alliance of our democratic allies and partners confronting Vladimir 
Putin and Russia together, where billions of dollars in both military 
and humanitarian assistance are being mustered and deployed in defense 
of democracy and human rights, the cause for which she lived and of 
which she spoke so eloquently.
  After Secretary Albright died, I spoke at length with my foreign 
policy adviser, Mariah Sixkiller, who was a part of the group that met 
at Secretary Albright's home for 15 years for discussions about 
American leadership around the world. I asked Mariah to write a few 
words of her recollections. She told me: ``I was honored to be at her 
table for 15 years and to learn from this great stateswoman. She was,'' 
as the gentlewoman from Michigan has pointed out, ``witty, wise, bold, 
and brilliant, even until her final days,'' even, as the gentlewoman 
from Michigan said, someone as old as 80.
  Mariah Sixkiller went on to say: ``She had the perfect combination of 
good humor and unique charm.'' Our Speaker just reflected that, as the 
gentlewoman from Michigan did. ``She made us laugh even at the hardest 
times.''
  All of us who knew her and who worked with her during her time in 
government remember that characteristic wit and charm, along with her 
keen intellect and her vision of a more perfect Union and a more 
perfect, peaceful world.
  Madam Speaker, I particularly admire the dedication she had to the 
mission of standing up for the rights of women and girls worldwide.
  As the first woman to serve as Secretary of State, a successor to 
Thomas Jefferson and so many other extraordinary leaders who have 
served in that post--including, of course, Secretary Clinton--at a time 
when women were still having to prove they belonged in boardrooms and 
around Cabinet tables dominated by men, she felt a unique 
responsibility to be a voice for girls and women striving to be all 
they could be, undefined by gender alone. And she was that voice.
  She knew that when women had more political, social, and economic 
freedoms, societies are better off in every way. Democracies, she 
believed, are stronger, and democratization is more successful when 
women and girls can pursue opportunities in safety, equality, and 
freedom. The fight for women's rights never ended for her.
  Even as recently as just a few months ago, Secretary Albright was 
working furiously to push for more action to help women and girls in 
Afghanistan.
  We left Afghanistan. We left Afghanistan with the hopes that there 
would be some civilized action by the Taliban. Sadly, we have seen that 
they returned to their old ways of discrimination and putting down, 
disallowing young women to go to school to prepare themselves for 
leadership. Secretary Albright was active and, as a matter of fact, the 
leader of the National Democratic Institute, which she chaired and 
which argued strenuously for the rights of those girls and those women.
  That was the last time we spoke directly, as we worked together to 
help save these courageous Afghans who dedicated themselves to the goal 
of creating a democratic future in their country.
  In the final months of her life, Secretary Albright wrote down some 
reflections to be included in a new memoir. Discussing what she 
perceived to be her own shortcomings, she shared this: ``My parents 
taught me what the best teachers tell us all: that it is no sin to make 
a mistake but unpardonable not to try to make the most of our 
talents.''
  Fortunately for America and people around the globe, Madam Speaker, 
Secretary Albright made the most of the many, many, the legion of 
talents which she had and with which she was gifted.
  One of the greatest was as a teacher. As the Speaker said, she was a 
teacher for 40 years, and I would correct the Speaker and say she was a 
teacher for at least 60-plus years. Although probably prior to 20, she 
was a teacher as well. She taught thousands of students over the course 
of an almost 40-year career in academia.
  As a professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown 
University School of Foreign Service, Secretary Albright helped train 
and launch the careers of so many who are leaders today for America's 
foreign policy and national security.
  That is why so many of us are going to honor her tomorrow, and we 
will not ever forget what she contributed to this country, a perfect 
example of how important it is to accept and have come to this country 
the brightest minds, the most committed people. What an extraordinary 
example she was of the enrichment that immigration has given to this 
country.
  Moreover, she had an unwavering belief that women in the field of 
foreign policy must support each other.
  Mariah didn't give that quote. I know Mariah is listening right now. 
Mariah Sixkiller was my national security adviser, and she worked with 
me. Very frankly, Mariah knew what I believed before I believed it. She 
was extraordinary. The inspiration that Secretary Albright gave to 
Mariah is still fired up in her eyes, in her speech, and in her 
thinking.
  Secretary Albright served as a mentor to scores of other young women 
who were students, as well as her colleagues at the State Department, 
and she strove to ensure that these women got a seat at the table.
  Secretary Albright's legacy will live through these women who have 
followed in her footsteps and become the Foreign Service officers and 
ambassadors working hard on behalf of the American people today and for 
a long time to come.
  Madam Speaker, we are so fortunate to have their talents in service 
to our country as a result of Secretary Albright's example and 
advocacy. I, again, repeat, as I am sure she is watching, she is so 
proud--I hope of our

[[Page H4495]]

friendship--but so proud of Congresswoman Slotkin and so proud of 
Congresswoman Jacobs as they rise on her behalf as leaders of this 
country.
  Tomorrow, we will bid Secretary Albright farewell, but our country 
and its leaders would be wise to keep her close in our hearts and in 
our minds in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
  In many ways, the battle underway between democracy and despotism is 
one that Secretary Albright so presciently foresaw. That battle, which 
currently rages in Ukraine, reminds us, as she did, that the price of 
liberty is, in fact, eternal vigilance.
  We face a torturous road ahead, one that will demand our energy, our 
faith, our perseverance, and our courage, all of which Secretary 
Albright displayed throughout her life.
  She believed that democracy would surely prevail, but she knew that 
that result required our constant attention. When democracy prevails, 
as surely it must, it will be in no small part due to her work, her 
contributions, and her service.
  God blessed America with an extraordinary woman whose name was 
Madeleine Albright, and that name will be remembered for a long, long 
time to come.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Thank you, Mr. Leader, for those words.
  I know we have a few other Members of Congress who are trying to make 
it here, and so I will just say a couple more things as we wait for 
them to come in.
  When I was with Secretary Albright and brought her to Michigan, we 
were on this road trip. I think most people know she is not a tall 
woman. No one ever would describe her as a tall woman. She was quite 
petite. I drove her around in my Ford Escape, and we had to kind of 
help her into the front seat.
  It happened to be what is called Paczki Day in Michigan, Fat Tuesday. 
It is when we all eat these jelly doughnuts full of powdered sugar on 
top. We brought a box of those in the car, and she indulged me and 
tried a paczki that day.
  We just had hours in the car driving around my very large district 
and got to talking. I think that one of the best things you can have 
when you are a younger person learning from someone who has really 
broken glass ceilings is you have time with them to just hear stories 
about what life was like.
  She told me that her one regret in life is that she never ran for 
Congress. She never ran for office. She was a chief of staff up here, a 
legislative assistant. She was adjacent to campaigns pretty much her 
entire adult life, but she never actually ran herself.
  I can only imagine how successful she would have been as an elected 
leader because, as Speaker Pelosi mentioned, she had that thing where 
she could connect deeply with anyone from any background. Not all 
Members of Congress elected today have that, and she had it in spades.
  She had an ability, despite all the amazing things she had done, to 
connect with real people, with strangers. I think people understood 
that she was confident because she had seen a lot of things in her 
life, and the woman had a code.
  She had a code that she believed in, a principled place with which 
she engaged in the world. When you meet someone who has a code, you 
don't have to question whether they are kind of like a leaf blowing in 
the wind, that they will bend to whatever whim. You have the confidence 
to know that this person is going to make decisions based on character 
and integrity. She really had that, and it kind of oozed out of her. 
People could see that and feel that.
  I know that this body would have been much strengthened should she 
had ever decided to run for office. I am sorry that we all didn't get 
to see that, but she helped so many of us who were seeking elected 
office.
  Then, just to add to what the majority leader said about her famous 
quote, that there is a special place in hell for women who don't help 
women--I think we have all seen that quote. I think most women 
understand exactly what that means, but let me just give you an example 
for many of us, particularly in national security, of what that really 
meant.
  When I joined the CIA as a young CIA officer in 2003, I was put on 
the Iraq desk. We were in the middle of the Iraq war, and I would often 
go and brief the senior-most folks at the CIA on kind of what was 
happening on a daily basis. I would often go with mostly male 
colleagues into these rooms and brief very senior folks.
  At the time, there were a couple--just a couple--of very senior women 
at the CIA. They had clawed their way to the top. I think at that 
point, the most senior woman was the number three at the CIA, and there 
were a few other senior women in the analytics side of the house.
  I would go in and brief, and I remember very clearly going in with 
all of my male colleagues, my peers, and this very senior woman kind of 
had it out for the only other woman in the room. There was a generation 
of women who were basically so sort of tough in making it to the top 
that they really internalized this idea that there could only be one 
senior woman. There could only be one woman who was in the shop with 
the boys. So any other woman that came there was a threat, and you were 
going to put your sights on that woman.
  I remember my male colleagues saying, man, like, she just has it out 
for you. It was a thing that a lot of us in national security grew up 
with. Now, I am happy to say that, a few years later, that generation 
largely retired, and in came the next generation of senior leaders who 
believed in lifting women up.
  But when Madeleine Albright gives that famous quote, that there is a 
special place in hell for women who don't help women, she knows of what 
she speaks. It is not a general statement. It is something that I know 
she specifically had to deal with as a woman who was a leader on the 
Hill, a leader in the executive branch.

                              {time}  2000

  And it is very hard when you are trained a certain way to change your 
approach and say I am not going to repeat that kind of aggressive focus 
on women, and I am going to learn from my experience and do something 
different. I think she really embodied that. That was a very real thing 
that was still going on until relatively recently in national security 
circles.
  Lastly, as we wait for Mr. Malinowski, somewhere in the ether, he 
texted me to say that he was on his way. I will say that I noted that 
Secretary Albright died just about exactly a month after the start of 
the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I know that in her final days she was 
watching, I am sure with rapt attention, what was happening in the 
world.
  As has been said many times tonight, she really was a person thinking 
ahead that this competition between democracy and autocracy was not 
over. It was not something of the past, it was not a Cold War-era 
phenomenon that didn't exist anymore. It was very alive, like a bone in 
the throat.
  It gives me great peace that despite the terrible things that are 
going on and watching the suffering of the Ukrainian people that 
Madeleine Albright spent her life trying to push back on the kind of 
violence and dictatorship that we see active right now. Her words and 
lessons are helping us parse through what to do in a place like 
Ukraine.
  We have a history in places like Europe, particularly the Balkans, in 
using American willpower and military power to help get us through 
these conflicts because she laid that predicate by pushing in her era 
when she was Secretary of State.
  Despite the fact that she didn't get to see the end of this conflict, 
I know that she would feel confident that whether it is in a few weeks 
or a few months, whatever time it takes, that the principles of 
democracy and freedom are not things you can just snuff out with the 
barrel of a gun. I am sure she would have felt that deeply as she was 
watching in her final days the events taking place in the world.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Malinowski).
  Mr. MALINOWSKI. Madam Speaker, when people sometimes ask me to name 
an unusual fun fact about myself, something that no one would quite 
believe would be true, I sometimes say that at a younger point in my 
life I had a chance to write and negotiate a four act parody 
performance of ``West Side Story'' with the Russian Government. I owe 
that experience to Secretary Madeleine Albright.

[[Page H4496]]

  I was a young speech writer at the State Department when she became 
Secretary of State. I was so thrilled to have that opportunity because 
here I was an immigrant from Poland when it was a Communist country. 
Our new Secretary of State was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia, 
leaving that country under duress with her family when it became a 
Communist country. I felt a kinship with this extraordinary American, a 
sense that we saw the world in similar terms.
  I saw her in every part of the world stand up for our country, for 
our values, for our interest. I saw her face down dictators and comfort 
their victims. I saw her sense of fun.
  In 1997, we were on our way to a meeting of the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, in Malaysia, and we learned a couple of 
days in advance that there was a tradition that every delegation would 
put on a skit at the end of this diplomatic meeting, something very, 
very unusual. We heard, furthermore, that the United States had 
developed a reputation for really sucking at the skit. That was not 
acceptable to Madeleine Albright.
  She was going to go and stand up for democracy in Burma and Cambodia 
and have a standoff with the Chinese over the South China Sea, but we 
were also going to win the skit. So she assigned me to write a brand 
new version of ``Don't Cry for me Argentina'' from ``Evita,'' which 
became ``Don't Cry for Me ASEANs.'' We all got up there and performed 
it, not really knowing what the reaction would be. It was reviewed in 
Playbill on Broadway. It was such a surprising hit.
  We learned something really interesting, in diplomacy you can 
actually say anything, no matter how sensitive, no matter how 
potentially offensive to your diplomatic partners around the world, if 
you make it rhyme and you put it in a song.
  So the next year we got even more ambitious, and we went to the 
Russians, and said, Would you like to do ``West Side Story'' with us? 
They said, Yes. So my job over the most stressful week of my life, 
counting my last two elections, was to negotiate into long hours of the 
night with the Russian diplomats the jokes that we would make in this 
four-act production of ``West Side Story.''
  We didn't think that they would do it until the last minute. The 
night before the performance, at midnight, the foreign minister of 
Russia, Yevgeny Primakov, who had been the head of their KGB, stumbled 
in with his aides into Secretary Albright's suite completely drunk, and 
said, We are ready to rehearse. We knew that we had it.
  Those were obviously simpler days, better days, when we could fight 
with the Russians on all kinds of issues, but still find fellowship and 
some friendship and some opportunity to laugh together.
  Times have changed. When I look at what is happening right now to the 
brave people of Ukraine and the evil that Russia has unleashed on them, 
and so many other terrible things that the government of Vladimir Putin 
has done in recent years, I thank goodness for what Secretary of State 
Madeleine Albright did in the 1990s, particularly her role in leading 
the first expansion of the NATO alliance.
  She understood and saw, before most people, that it would be unjust 
to stay allied with Europe's old democracies, France, Germany, the 
United Kingdom forever, but Europe's new democracies never, simply 
because they had once, against their will, had been subjugated by the 
Soviet Union.
  She also saw it would be unwise, in fact reckless, to allow these 
Eastern European democracies to stay in a gray zone of insecurity, to 
signal to Russia that it could, in effect, do what it wanted in this 
zone, that America would not defend these countries.

  She said then of NATO expansion that it was basically about expanding 
the part of Europe where wars do not happen. By making clear that we, 
the United States, will fight, if necessary, to defend our allies 
there, we would make the necessity of doing so actually far less 
likely. She was right.
  Not a single member of NATO, old or new, has ever been attacked on 
European soil to this day. The only countries Russia has attacked are 
countries that do not have NATO's defense guarantee.
  I think one reason she saw these things is because as an immigrant to 
America, as an immigrant from tyranny, she saw America from the inside 
but also from the outside. She saw what America means--what the idea of 
America means to a human rights defender in Burma, to a dissident in 
China, to a refugee from violence in Kosovo or Bosnia. She comforted so 
many of those people and convinced them that America was on their side.
  She believed America is a special country, indeed, an indispensable 
country. She understood that our influence in the world comes not just 
from the example of our power, but from the power of our example at 
home.
  In her last years, when I would see her, she would often tell me that 
one of her greatest regrets was she never had a chance to run for 
office. She was jealous of those of us who had worked with her over the 
years who decided to run for Congress because she understood that we 
can't do anything for others if we are not safe and strong at home in 
our own great, American democracy.
  Years ago, when I worked for her she gave a commencement address, and 
I will just close with these words that she spoke: ``There is no 
certain roadmap to success, either for individuals or for generations. 
Ultimately, it is a matter of judgment, a question of choice. In making 
that choice, let us remember that there is not a page of American 
history, of which we are proud, that was authored by a chronic 
complainer or prophet of despair. We are doers. We have a 
responsibility, as others have had in theirs, not to be prisoners of 
history, but to shape history; a responsibility to fill the role of 
pathfinder, and to build with others a global network of purpose and 
law that will protect our citizens, defend our interests, preserve our 
values, and bequeath to future generations a legacy as proud as the one 
that we honor today.
  ``To that mission, I pledge my own best efforts and summon yours.''
  We pledge our best efforts to that mission here today, and we summon 
those of everybody who is watching this evening.
  Ms. SLOTKIN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for those moving 
remarks.
  As I conclude here, I just want to thank everyone who came to speak, 
and I feel extremely proud that these remarks and just a taste of the 
Secretary's legacy will be kept forever in the official Record of the 
people's House.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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