[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 10, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H6586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      BIDDING FAREWELL TO CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Eshoo) for 60 minutes as designee of the minority leader.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to give valedictory 
remarks as my service as a United States Representative comes to a 
close.
  Nearly 32 years ago, I arrived in this Chamber after the people of 
the most distinguished congressional district in our country gave me 
the honor of a lifetime to serve as their Representative in the 
Congress.
  Over those years, I have worked to live up to that sacred trust that 
they placed in me and I can say that I have given it my all.
  In 1993, I was sworn in as a Member of the largest freshman class 
since World War II with 110 new Members and one of the 47 women elected 
in the House in that ``Year of the Woman.'' I was the first Democrat 
and the first woman in the history of my congressional district to 
represent it.
  During that time, I had the honor to serve among the giants of the 
bay area delegation: Congressman George Miller, Congressman Norm 
Mineta, so many from the bay area known as the conscience of the House 
of Representatives, and my forever Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
  They gave me the guidance I needed to accomplish my goals for my 
first term. In my second term, I became a member of the House Energy 
and Commerce Committee, one of the oldest House legislative committees 
and the committee with the broadest of jurisdictions.
  From that powerful position of enormous privilege, I was determined 
to be an ambassador to the future from the Silicon Valley District, 
drafting and passing 68 bills into law signed by five Presidents.
  I didn't do this alone. Nearly every single bill was bipartisan and 
many had more than 200 cosponsors. I am proud of this body of work and 
what we achieved together.
  During my tenure, I have witnessed much. We have witnessed much 
together: the horror of September 11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
a painful and deep recession, the loss of over a million American souls 
to the pandemic, and January 6th.
  However, there were so many high points: The passage many years ago 
in 1995 of the Telecommunications Act, the Affordable Care Act where 
finally we had a national health plan, a real health plan for the 
American people, the Violence Against Women Act, the end of over 100 
years of silence by the United States with the passage of the Armenian 
genocide resolution, and the election of the first woman Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

                              {time}  1800

  Each weekend I have flown home to be with my constituents, and I have 
seen the words of the laws that we have written walk into people's 
lives. In my community, as in so many others, Federal grants paved new 
bike paths, created ADA accessibility, and unveiled the 21st century 
transportation system of electric trains.
  I heard from my neighbors about small improvements, like my law many 
years ago to lower the volume of loud TV commercials, and big 
improvements like children whose lives were saved because of new 
pediatric treatments at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
  I am especially proud to have created two new Federal agencies to 
bring lifesaving research to the American people: the Biomedical 
Advanced Research and Development Authority--we call it BARDA--and the 
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, ARPA-H. That agency is at 
work to pursue the cures for those diseases that are death sentences 
today.
  During my tenure, I had the privilege to serve on the House 
Intelligence Committee, where I worked to protect and defend during the 
challenging times of the Iraq war, and to visit our courageous troops 
in the war zones where they were serving. I still picture them in the 
places that they were, these young men and women who answered the call 
of our country.
  One of the most memorable events, for me, that took place right here 
in this Chamber was the visit of Pope Francis in 2015. I recall his 
words: ``A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty, as 
Lincoln did; when it fosters a culture which enables people to `dream' 
of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther 
King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the 
oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work. . . .''
  My brother-in-law carries forward that work at the Catholic Worker 
House in Redwood City, California.
  To my staff, you have been a brilliant team, a team that has crafted 
and negotiated the legislative legacy that I am so proud of and who 
have successfully helped thousands upon thousands of constituents with 
immigration issues, housing needs, Social Security benefits, and other 
important Federal issues. You heard them, you saw them, you served 
them, and you gave them hope. I thank you.
  To all who work in this Chamber and throughout the Capitol, cleaning, 
cooking, repairing, and administering, I thank you for your labors.
  To all of my colleagues, I am grateful to you for your friendship and 
your support over all the years. I will miss working with you and 
seeing you every day.
  To my beloved California delegation, to say that I will miss working 
with you and being with you doesn't begin to describe it. Thank you for 
keeping our State the golden one in our country, and I know that you 
will continue to. For your precious friendships, I can never thank you 
enough. To the Connecticut delegation, thank you for adopting me. I was 
born in Connecticut.
  To the people of California's 16th Congressional District, you have 
my unending gratitude for choosing me to be your voice in Congress.
  To my family, thank you for your love, your support, most of all your 
patience. You have sustained me every single day of my service.
  While it may be customary to end these farewell speeches with advice 
or warnings about the future, I am not going to do that.
  What I have carried with me throughout my public service are the 
words of my grandmother. When I was a child and I would walk past her 
bedroom every morning, there wasn't a time that she didn't lean over 
and kiss the ground. When I asked her, ``Nana, why are you doing 
that?'' this was her answer: ``To thank God for this country, for what 
it represents, and what it has given to us.''
  My colleagues, love our country, defend her, make her stronger and 
better to serve its good and decent people.
  I thank God for the blessings that have come to me, and I say 
farewell to all of you, my colleagues. This has been the joy, the 
privilege, and the pleasure of my life, and I thank you for it. May God 
continue to bless the United States of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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