[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 193 (Tuesday, December 13, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9696-H9697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAREWELL TO CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ryan of New York). The Chair recognizes 
the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, it has been an honor to represent the people 
of greater Cincinnati in public office for more than 35 years now. I 
thought I would take a few minutes to sum up those years.
  I first ran for office, Cincinnati City Council, when I was 26 years 
old. When this, my last term in Congress, expires next month in 
January, I will be turning 70. 26 to 70, that is long enough. It is 
somebody else's turn.
  I had seriously considered retiring and not running this past 
election cycle, but it was a redistricting year. The congressional 
lines were being redrawn, and I was concerned that if I didn't run, our 
district was going to be written off and drawn in a way that only a 
Democrat could win it as had been done 10 years ago in Columbus and 
prior to that in Cleveland.
  I didn't want to see that happen to the people of greater Cincinnati 
who depended on me and trusted me to represent them as a commonsense 
conservative for so many years.
  Redistricting turned out to be a pretty rocky process. I ended up 
with a 9-point Biden district, making it the toughest Republican-held 
seat in the country outside the State of California.

                              {time}  1045

  Despite starting out in a 9-point hole, I hoped that with a lot of 
hard work and a little luck we could hold it anyway. I was wrong. That 
is water over the dam.
  There is a Chinese proverb, ``May you live in interesting times.'' My 
26 years in Congress have certainly been that. I was first elected in 
the 1994 Republican Revolution, Newt Gingrich, the contract with 
America. Republicans took over the House for the first time in 40 
years, which was my proximate age at the time, and 73 freshmen 
Republicans were elected. I am the last one in the House out of 73, and 
I will be gone in a few weeks.
  I have been asked a number of times: What are my proudest 
accomplishments during my time here in Congress? At the top of the list 
was leading the effort to pass the ban on partial birth abortion. I 
fought that battle for 8 years, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 
They upheld the law, and it has been described as the most significant 
pro-life legislation since Roe v. Wade. It is estimated that it saves 
about 20,000 innocent unborn babies every year from a particularly 
brutal death. Some have said my strong pro-life positions were a factor 
in my defeat this election. If so, it was worth it.
  Another accomplishment was having served as both chairman and ranking 
member of the House Small Business Committee. I was in the position to 
introduce, pass, and implement the PPP, the Paycheck Protection 
Program, during the recent pandemic. As a result, the First 
Congressional District received more money, almost $3 billion; got more 
small business loans, over 27,000 of them; and most importantly, saved 
more jobs, over 247,000, than any other congressional district in Ohio. 
A lot of people's lives, both in our community and across the country, 
were positively impacted.
  Rather than list a whole bunch of other bills I have got passed over 
the years--I am limited to just 5 minutes here this morning--let me 
just tell you this: the University of Virginia, UVA, and Vanderbilt, 
have together done three studies of Congress over the last 10 years in 
order to determine who are the most effective Members of Congress.
  I am proud to say that I was rated in the top 10 most effective 
Members each time. When you consider that there are 435 of us, I would 
say that is pretty good. Of course, I could have accomplished none of 
this without the hard work of my tremendous staff both here in 
Washington and back in Cincinnati, and without the support of my 
family.
  My wife, Donna, and I will be celebrating our 50th wedding 
anniversary this coming June. We were blessed with a daughter, Erica, 
and a son, Randy, both adults now, and the two cutest

[[Page H9697]]

grandchildren anywhere ever, Reed and Keira. And I thank my son-in-law, 
Kevin, for creating and then overseeing my blog over the years.
  Finally, let me conclude with this: Despite all the rancor and 
controversy and partisanship that routinely goes on in this place, it 
was truly an honor to serve here in the people's House. This 
extraordinary country, the United States of America, is still the 
greatest country that ever existed on the face of the Earth.
  Goodbye.

                          ____________________