[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 187 (Tuesday, December 17, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H7243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FAREWELL TO CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Jackson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JACKSON of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to give my 
last speech as a Member of the House of Representatives.
  What an incredible honor this has been. It has never been lost on me 
that the privilege of serving here was granted by the people I 
represent, people who trusted me to listen to them, speak for them, and 
conduct myself with integrity.
  Every time I have stepped onto this floor, I have felt the weight of 
our Nation's history and the hope of millions of people that we will 
conduct ourselves and do work that serves them well.
  One of the joys of serving in Congress has been the surprise of 
learning how much good work you can do if you are here to do work.
  I thank my staff, an incredible group of young people who woke up 
every morning asking themselves: How much good can I do today? A big 
part of the reason serving here was such a joy and such an honor was 
because I was able to do the work with them. I won't go down the big 
list of everything that we got done, but we were able to do a lot: 
improve water systems for small towns; expand parental leave for 
members of the National Guard, parents who had earned it; and improve 
weather radar detection for the people of North Carolina's 14th 
District who have needed that for decades.
  When people come up to me now that I am leaving and say: Boy, Jeff, I 
bet you are glad to be getting out of that place, I say, no, that 
hasn't been my experience here at all.
  Part of the reason that has not been my experience is because of the 
two committees I had an opportunity to serve on: Armed Services and 
Science, Space, and Technology, relatively serious bipartisan 
committees, really about the work. There is not a lot of shouting going 
on in the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. The Armed Services 
Committee, for someone who enlisted as a private 22 years ago, to be a 
part of classified briefings with our Nation's top military leaders, 
what an amazing experience, what an incredible education. To anyone who 
is considering running to serve, I could not encourage you more 
strongly.
  However, that said, a word of caution to everyone back home, as well 
as anyone who may be listening. I know that when you look at Congress, 
you see a lot of anger. What I need you to know is that most of the 
ones who are angry here are faking. They know that eliciting your 
outrage is a surefire way to gain your attention. Some of them want 
your attention more than they want to do a good job. I have seen this 
over and over again, that when the cameras turn off, so does the anger.

  There are moments of genuine frustration felt by everyone. It is felt 
by me. That is normal in a legislative body. It is to be expected. The 
ones who are always trying to make you angry, they are faking. It is 
theater. A ton of you keep falling for it, and you owe it to yourselves 
not to be fooled by the outrage farmers in Congress.
  My request to all of you, to everyone back home, is don't reward the 
theater, reward the work. If you do that, you will get more work and 
less theater. I thank my colleagues who do their job in that manner. I 
thank my staff who genuinely was a constant source of energy and 
inspiration. I thank my family who allowed me to be away from home to 
do this work. Lastly, I thank the people of North Carolina's 14th 
District for trusting me to be your voice. It has been the greatest 
honor of my life.

                          ____________________