[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 183 (Tuesday, December 10, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to our colleague, 
and more importantly, my dear friend Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger. 
By any standard, Dutch has had an exceptional career with 38 years in 
public office, beginning when he was first elected to the Baltimore 
County Council in 1985. Even before our time together in Congress, 
Dutch and I shared a common bond as we are both proud graduates of 
Baltimore City College High School. Maryland is grateful to be the home 
of City College as it is our Nation's third oldest public high school 
and its alumni include three Maryland Governors and the late U.S. 
Representative Elijah Cummings.
  Dutch's decision to seek public office began after a serious car 
crash while he was working as a prosecutor a decade earlier which 
nearly claimed his life. Dutch credits the facility now known as the R. 
Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland for two 
things: saving his life and setting him on his political path. I am 
dually grateful to the doctors at the University of Maryland for their 
quick thinking and expertise which has, in turn, presented Dutch with 
the grit, determination, and circumstances to run for office and serve 
11 successful terms in the House of Representatives.
  Dutch is a Marylander through and through, born and educated in 
Baltimore, and his quick rise in the Baltimore County State's Attorney 
office was therefore not surprising. After almost a decade of taking on 
organized crime, drug trafficking, and political corruption in 
Baltimore as a county executive, he was elected to serve as the 
Representative for Maryland's second district in 2002. Dutch 
immediately broke new ground by becoming the first ever Democratic 
freshman to be appointed to the coveted House Intelligence Committee. A 
decade later, Dutch served as the ranking member for the very same 
committee during a tumultuous time for our Nation's national security. 
Dutch, and then House Intelligence Committee chairman   Mike Rogers, 
became the first dual recipients of the William Oliver Baker Award, 
which recognizes excellence in nonpartisan security. The presentation 
of this prestigious award was due to their superb work on the high-
profile Osama bin Laden capture, Benghazi attacks, and Edward Snowden 
leaks.
  Dutch also served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee for 
12 years, now serving on both the Defense and Commerce, Justice, and 
Science Subcommittees. He had previously served on the Armed Services 
Committee, as well as the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 
He has been a staunch advocate for community project funding and 
leveraged his role as an appropriator to ensure the Port of Baltimore, 
the Chesapeake Bay, and the local communities received their fair share 
of funding from the hundreds of billions of Federal dollars in which 
the House Appropriations Committee is responsible for each fiscal year. 
I am proud of his dedication to improving the lives of Marylanders at 
every opportunity.
  His support of the local community extends to local governments as 
well. In 2016 Dutch founded the House Municipal Bond Caucus for both 
sides of the aisle to better advocate for the tools local and State 
governments require to fund schools, roads, libraries, local law 
enforcement, and emergency services. Dutch's focus on enhancing the 
quality of life for public servants through legislation promoted by 
this caucus has had a net effect of lower taxes and new jobs for the 
everyday Marylander.
  Maryland's second district was formally home to two Army bases: Fort 
Meade, which houses the codemakers and codebreakers of the National 
Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, and Aberdeen Proving Ground. In 
addition to these bases, Dutch was also responsible for the oversight 
of the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, as well as dozens of other 
defense support equities. Dutch also chairs the U.S. Naval Academy's 
Board of Visitors, of which I am also a member, and is the cochair of 
the bipartisan House Army Caucus.
  Dutch has always been a man of action, from his days as a police 
officer during law school, to his time as a lifeguard on the beaches of 
Ocean City, MD--where I am sure he will be spending much of his 
retirement.
  This same drive for action has benefited our Nation's men and women 
in uniform in many ways, like establishing the Peer Reviewed Orthopedic 
Program, which revolutionized the way traumatic combat injuries to 
extremities were treated from troops returning home from the Middle 
East, often saving them from amputation. Dutch also created the 
``Operation Hero Miles'' program in concert with Fisher House after he 
learned that our servicemembers and their families were paying out of 
pocket to visit their wounded or ill loved ones who were undergoing 
treatment at a military or Veteran's Affairs medical center. This 
program allowed any American to donate their frequent flyer miles to 
our Nation's heroes.
  These are just a few of Dutch's many accomplishments, and on behalf 
of our beloved Marylanders and all Americans, I thank him for his 
decades of service. I am equally thankful for the continued friendship 
of Dutch and his wife Kay, and I am thrilled for him to be able to 
spend more time with Kay, his two children, and his five grandchildren. 
Dutch's cheery wit and unwavering patriotism will be missed by me, the 
entire delegation, and in the Halls of Congress. I offer 
congratulations to Dutch on his well-deserved career of public service.

                          ____________________