[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9914-H9915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAREWELL TO CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Georgia (Ms. Bourdeaux) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BOURDEAUX. Madam Speaker, I rise today with gratitude to bid this 
body farewell.
  I thank my family, my friends, my supporters, and the wonderful 
people of Georgia's Seventh Congressional District for the honor of 
serving as your Representative in Congress.
  While there are many things we accomplished, the most important 
occurred in my first week in office. On January 3, as I was on the 
floor to be sworn in, I looked at my phone and saw a notification that 
President Trump had tried to illegally pressure Georgia's secretary of 
state into finding 11,780 more votes to change the results of the 
election.
  A few days later, on January 6, as I was in my office preparing 
remarks to defend Georgia's electoral count, I was told to lock down 
and to shelter in place. There I sat for hours and hours with my sister 
and a couple of staff as we followed on TV and through text threads the 
mob attacking the Capitol and the narrow escapes of many of my 
colleagues.
  I was one of the first of my colleagues to call for impeaching 
President Trump because there was never any doubt in my mind that he 
had incited that crowd to march on the Capitol to try to block the vote 
to certify the election and to keep himself in power.
  That night, I walked past the broken glass through the eerie, empty 
halls to certify the election of Joe Biden as the next President of the 
United States.
  At some point during these events, majority leader Steny Hoyer turned 
to me and said: ``I bet this wasn't what you expected when you ran for 
Congress.'' I told him that actually I ran for Congress precisely so 
that I could be standing at this place at this time to take this vote 
to certify the election and to defend our democracy.
  I know that many of the people who supported me in the 4-year effort 
to flip Georgia's Seventh Congressional District and to deliver Georgia 
for the Democrats worked so hard and sacrificed so much in large part 
because they, too, saw the danger and worried that President Trump 
would stop at nothing to achieve and retain power. While there were 
many other important issues at stake, fundamentally, we saw our efforts 
as a rescue mission for our country.
  I know that many other democratic frontliners saw their efforts the 
same way. I know that some of my Republican colleagues who took brave 
votes at great political risk shared our concerns.
  So for those who are cynical about our politics, who believe that it 
is all about corruption, money, and power--and, yes, there is a lot of 
that--please know that many people of integrity, courage, and talent in 
both parties and in many different roles worked hard for years to be at 
the right place at the right time in this particular moment in our 
country's history so that they could hold the line to stop the forces 
of chaos and autocracy and renew our democracy for one more turn of the 
wheel.
  I want to recognize the sacrifice of my family and thank my husband, 
Jeff, and my son, Nathan, who encouraged me all along the way. I want 
to recognize my sister, Margaret Bourdeaux, who threw herself into 
helping me day in and day out, and my aunt and uncle, Margaret and 
Howard Arbuckle, who stood by me when both my parents died in 2017 and 
told me I could not quit working for change, it was too important.
  I thank my many supporters whose persistent acts of courage and 
sacrifice allowed me to have this brief but very important time in 
Congress.
  While the preservation of our democracy was always top of mind, we 
accomplished quite a lot on other fronts, including the American Rescue 
Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS Act, and 
the Inflation Reduction Act.
  Also critical to the Seventh District was the PPP Extension Act and 
almost

[[Page H9915]]

$18 million in community funding projects that will allow the 
restoration and preservation of our community's Black history, that 
will support critical early childhood education programs, that will 
promote small businesses and innovation and economic development and 
infrastructure, and that will support a vast array of much-needed 
mental health and other social service programs in our rapidly growing 
community.
  To my staff, all that we have accomplished would not have been 
possible without you. Thank you for your hard work and dedication, and 
I look forward to seeing what you do next.
  To the residents of Georgia's Seventh District, thank you again for 
the honor of representing our community in Congress.

                          ____________________