[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 118 (Monday, July 22, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4712-H4715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          U.S. CONGRESSMAN SAM JOHNSON MEMORIAL VA CLINIC ACT

  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 4136) to name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based 
outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, as the ``U.S. Congressman Sam 
Johnson Memorial VA Clinic''.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4136

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson 
     Memorial VA Clinic Act''.

     SEC. 2. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMUNITY-
                   BASED OUTPATIENT CLINIC, PLANO, TEXAS.

        The Department of Veterans Affairs community-based 
     outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, shall after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act be known and designated as the 
     ``U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial VA Clinic''. Any 
     reference to such clinic in any law, regulation, map, 
     document, record, or other paper of the United States shall 
     be considered to be a reference to the U.S. Congressman Sam 
     Johnson Memorial VA Clinic.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Bost) and the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Budzinski) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on 
H.R. 4136.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4136, a bill to name the 
Department of Veterans Affairs community-

[[Page H4713]]

based outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, as the ``U.S. Congressman Sam 
Johnson Memorial VA Clinic.''
  Sam Johnson, a legend and an American hero, was born October 11, 
1930, in San Antonio, Texas. At the age of 20, Sam began a 29-year 
decorated career in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a full bird 
colonel.
  He flew nearly 100 combat missions with the Thunderbird demonstration 
team, as a fighter pilot in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, and as a 
commander of a tactical fighter wing. Later, Sam Johnson went on to 
serve as the director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School.
  On his 25th combat mission over Vietnam, Sam's plane was shot down, 
and he was captured by North Vietnamese forces. Sam would then go on to 
spend the next 7 grueling years as a prisoner of war, more than 3 years 
of that time in solitary confinement. As Sam put it: The solitary 
confinement did not shake his fighting spirit. He was so resistant in 
captivity that he earned himself a windowless 3-by-9-foot concrete cell 
at the infamous ``Hanoi Hilton,'' where he was then released from in 
1973.
  A decade later, his right hand permanently disabled and left with a 
limp for the rest of his life, Sam Johnson continued his service in the 
Texas House of Representatives where he served a total of 7 years, but 
Sam wasn't done yet. He ran for Congress in 1991, where he served our 
great Nation once again for 27 years and left an undeniable mark on 
this institution.
  His fight for freedom and defending individual liberties never 
wavered, and American families are better off today because of Sam's 
service.
  Congressman Johnson served honorably as a pilot, a decorated war 
hero, and a statesman. It goes without saying that there is no one more 
fitting to name a VA clinic in Texas after than Congressman Sam 
Johnson.
  Now, I know there are some that will raise concerns that this bill 
does not meet the committee's rule for naming VA facilities. That is 
correct, and it is only because a small minority of the Texas 
delegation has not signed onto a letter expressing their support. I am 
not one to bend or break committee rules, but in this case, we simply 
can't wait any longer.
  Sam toiled in a prison camp for 7 years serving our country, and we 
should not wait another second to honor his service.
  I thank the sponsor of this bill, Representative Self, for leading 
this effort, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4136.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1945

  Ms. BUDZINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 4136, to rename 
the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in 
Plano, Texas, as the ``U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial VA 
Clinic''.
  Congressman Sam Johnson was a combat veteran of both the Korean war 
and the Vietnam war, a fighter pilot, and a nearly 28-year 
Representative from Texas. He flew 62 missions during the Korean war. 
During his 25th mission in Vietnam, his F-4 Phantom fighter bomber was 
shot down on April 16, 1966.
  His injuries included a broken arm, a broken back, and a dislocated 
shoulder, none of which were properly treated during his nearly 7-year 
imprisonment in Hanoi's Hoa Lo, commonly referred to by many former 
POWs as the ``Hanoi Hilton.''
  For the last 18 months of his captivity, Johnson shared a cell with 
future Senator John McCain. Mr. Johnson weighed 120 pounds when he was 
released February 12, 1973. His right hand was permanently disabled, 
and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
  Congressman Johnson graduated from Southern Methodist University in 
Dallas, Texas, in 1951 as a member of the Air Force ROTC. Following his 
service in Vietnam, he received a master's degree in international 
affairs from George Washington University in 1974. He retired from the 
Air Force as a colonel in 1979.
  Congressman Johnson's political career followed shortly after. He was 
elected to the Texas State legislature in 1984 and won his seat in the 
U.S. House of Representatives in 1991. He served the Texas Third 
District for nearly 28 years before retiring in 2019.
  Congressman Johnson passed away in May of 2020, but he will be 
remembered for his courage and lifetime of public service. It is only 
fitting that the Plano, Texas, clinic be named in his honor.
  A dedicated public servant in war and in peace, Congressman Johnson 
is certainly deserving of this Nation's gratitude.
  Despite this bill not meeting all of our committee's rules for naming 
VA facilities, Republican leadership has chosen to bring it to the 
floor. I am supporting this bill, and I trust that Republican 
leadership will grant the same consideration to Representative 
Crockett's bill which honors our former colleague, Congresswoman Eddie 
Bernice Johnson, who served as the chief psychiatric nurse of the 
Dallas VA Medical Center for 16 years before her time in Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Self), who also knew Sam Johnson very well.
  Mr. SELF. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on my bill to rename the 
Plano, Texas, VA Clinic after former Congressman, Air Force Fighter 
Pilot, and POW Sam Johnson.
  Congressman Sam Johnson served in the U.S. Air Force for 29 years 
where he was the director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and 
flew the F-100 Super Sabre with the Air Force Thunderbirds precision 
flying demonstration team. He flew the slot.
  He was a combat veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars as a 
fighter pilot, flying 87 combat missions.
  On April 16, 1966, while flying his 25th combat mission over Vietnam, 
he was shot down and suffered a broken right arm, broken back, and 
dislocated shoulder. He was a prisoner of war for nearly 7 years, 
including 42 months in solitary confinement.
  He was part of a group of 11 U.S. military prisoners known as the 
Alcatraz Gang, a group of prisoners separated from other captives 
because they would not break.
  His heroic actions led him to be awarded two Silver Stars, three 
Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star 
Medal, and two Purple Hearts.
  In 1985, he was called on again to serve, only this time in the Texas 
State House of Representatives, where he served until being elected to 
this body in 1991.
  He went on to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2019. During 
his time in Congress, Sam was a force. His House tenure included many 
accomplishments, including holding a position on the powerful House 
Ways and Means Committee.
  I am proud to serve as Representative for Texas' Third District, the 
same district that Sam served so honorably.
  As I reflect on Sam's life, I am reminded of a story that 
demonstrates his signature tenacity, toughness, and character.
  Gib Lewis, Texas Speaker of the House of Representatives at the time, 
tried threatening Sam regarding a piece of legislation. Sam put his 
old, crooked hands, those that had been broken many times in torture, 
on Gib's desk and said: What are you going to do, Gib? Break my hands?
  There was absolutely nothing that Gib Lewis could say.
  I truly can think of no individual who is more deserving of having a 
VA clinic named in his honor.
  Ms. BUDZINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Crockett).
  Ms. CROCKETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Self for bringing this 
bill.
  It is interesting to just hear the overlap between Congressman Self's 
bill and the bill that I have been trying to get out of committee. 
Congressman Self is doing this on behalf of Congressman Johnson, and I 
am doing it on behalf of Congresswoman Johnson.
  Interestingly enough, they both were from the Dallas area or spent 
time in the Dallas area, as my predecessor is not from Dallas herself. 
However, she started her career at the Dallas VA, the Dallas VA that 
she ended up representing in Congress for 30 years.

[[Page H4714]]

  After becoming the first woman and the first Black woman to be a head 
nurse at the Dallas VA, she then became the first nurse to ever swear 
into Congress.
  As it was already laid out about Congressman Johnson, she went into 
the Texas State House, as well. She went into the Texas State House in 
1972 as one of the two first Black women to ever swear into the Texas 
House, and then she went on to the Texas Senate where she was one of 
two only Black women to still ever serve in our Texas Senate.
  Most importantly, I currently represent the Dallas VA, and we lost a 
hero in Dallas. We lost a hero in this country just like here recently, 
her sorority sister, when we lost Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
  I am just asking, considering the standards that are set out by this 
committee, that we allow my bill to move forward as well because the 
first standard is that such individual is deceased, which she meets. 
The person is either a veteran or a Member of Congress. She was a 
Member of Congress. The individual performed outstanding service for 
veterans. She did that in her 16 years in service directly but also in 
the work that she did afterwards.
  In addition to that, each member of the congressional delegation has 
demonstrated their support in the form of a letter. This was not met by 
Congressman Self's bill, and it is not met by mine. However, I will 
tell you, Mr. Speaker, that I stood with Congressman Self on his bill, 
and I am happy to say that he stood with me on mine, as well.
  The final requirement is letters of support from VSOs. We both have 
met those requirements. The only requests that I have--because I do, 
again, stand in support of this--is that we bring my bill to the floor 
as well to honor the late great Eddie Bernice Johnson who passed in 
December of 2023.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would like to take a moment to respond to Ms. Crockett's comments 
about breaking precedent today with this naming bill.
  Sam Johnson was a prisoner of war for 7 years. He was held in 
solitary confinement for more than 3 of those years in the infamous 
Hanoi Hilton.
  After enduring hell on Earth, as he actually put it during his time 
in uniform, he kept serving our Nation, first as a commander of a 
tactical fighter unit, then as a State legislator, then as a Member of 
Congress. Sam was everything that Americans should aspire to be. He was 
a hero.
  I understand and respect the precedent that we have had regarding 
naming bills, but in this case the reason for breaking that precedent 
is we are not going to sit here and play silly D.C. politics and take 
longer than he was a prisoner of war to pass a bill for naming this 
after Chairman and Colonel Sam Johnson.
  I know Ms. Crockett would have liked to have had her naming bill that 
is pending for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson on the floor today, 
and I would be happy to work with the gentlewoman and both leadership 
teams to see if there is something we can do to move that forward.
  However, today we are here to honor Sam Johnson. I will put this 
plainly. If you can find someone as deserving as Sam Johnson, then I 
will be glad to bypass precedent for them, as well.
  I encourage everyone to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
Scalise).
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Veterans' 
Affairs Committee for yielding and for bringing this bill. Especially I 
thank Mr. Self for his leadership in working for so long on this 
important bill.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not often that we will walk amongst people who are 
larger than life. During my years in Congress, I have been honored to 
serve with two people whom I would put in that category: Sam Johnson 
and John Lewis. Both of them have amazing stories that are well 
chronicled.
  I got to know Sam over the years that I served with him. It was a 
treat to be able to just sit down and hear stories and talk to him 
about the things I had heard about him because Sam was truly larger 
than life, Mr. Speaker. We heard stories of his early days as an Air 
Force pilot.
  This was back in the days before the Apollo missions when our Air 
Force pilots were trying to push the boundaries to figure out just how 
far we could go, how fast we could go, and how high we could go. They 
were doing things that had never been done before.
  I had heard a story that Sam challenged Buzz Aldrin. Buzz, of course, 
famously was the commander of the Apollo mission, the first mission to 
land on the Moon. He was the second man to walk on the Moon after Neil 
Armstrong. I heard that story, and one time after Sam had left 
Congress, I had the opportunity to meet Buzz Aldrin.
  I said: I want to ask you about this story. I heard that Sam Johnson 
challenged you to a fighter pilot race.
  He just lights up. Buzz Aldrin was just incredibly accomplished and 
was a national hero in his own right. He lights up at the words: Sam 
Johnson.
  He said: That is not the whole story. Yes, Sam Johnson challenged me 
to a fighter pilot race. We would practice every day, and I would 
usually beat Sam.
  He said that the night before the race, Sam had souped up his plane, 
and, sure enough, the next day we had this race, and Sam just flies by 
and wins the race.
  Sam was just an incredible person. He had an unbelievable sense of 
humor. I got to see that.
  Later on in life when we both had our physical challenges, we 
challenged each other to a scooter race. It was not quite the same 
thing, but I never saw him laugh as much as at that because, again, Sam 
was just an amazing person who for all the things he went through still 
maintained a great sense of humor while he exhibited so much 
leadership.
  Nonetheless, we know the story that Sam lived through 7 years in the 
Hanoi Hilton. He wrote a book about it. As I started to get to know 
Sam, I said: I am not going to really truly understand Sam unless I 
read the book. The book is called ``Captive Warriors.'' So one week 
when I was going out of town, I got the book, and it was one of those 
books you get not for easy reading because it was a difficult read. I 
teared up a lot because he goes into great detail of the things that 
happened to him during those 7 years.
  As Mr. Self talked about, he was one of the elite men who was being 
held captive, and so they held him in a special place, a separate 
place. They put Sam in shackles for a number of those years he was 
held. They broke almost every bone in Sam's body, but they never broke 
Sam's spirit. That is the one thing I think that probably frustrated 
the Viet Cong so much is that for all the things they did to him 
physically and mentally they were never going to break Sam because he 
loved this country. He loved his commitment to service, and he 
maintained that throughout those 7 years.

                              {time}  2000

  We know the medals he won: two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying 
Cross, the Bronze Star with Valor, and two Purple Hearts.
  Sam wrote a line in his book, ``Captive Warriors,'' that I will read: 
``If hell is here on Earth, it is located on an oddly shaped city block 
in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam.''
  This was a man that I had the true, distinct honor of serving with 
because of who he was. When you met Sam, you were not let down. You 
truly understood you were in the presence of greatness.
  May we all strive to have the kind of character and integrity that 
Sam Johnson had when he lived his life. Let's honor him today by 
passing Mr. Self's legislation to name the VA hospital in Plano, Texas, 
after my dear friend, an American hero, Sam Johnson.
  Ms. BUDZINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in 
passing H.R. 4136, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. BOST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to 
close.
  Mr. Speaker, I have had the pleasure of actually doing some naming of 
many facilities for the VA in this position and also sponsoring some. I 
don't know, of all the great people in there, that there is a person 
who is more deserving in the naming of a facility than the Honorable 
Colonel and Congressman Sam Johnson.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this

[[Page H4715]]

resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 4136.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________