[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H3468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM CLAY

  (Mr. BELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BELL. Mr. Speaker, today our country lost a true trailblazer. 
Congressman William Clay passed away after a lifetime of service that 
reshaped St. Louis and our Nation.
  Already a civil rights icon before he was elected, he didn't come to 
Washington to play politics. He came to fight for working people, Black 
families, union members, and those too often left out and unheard. He 
carried their voices into this Chamber and made sure they echoed.
  Bill Clay was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. I 
and so many others would not be here without the doors he opened and 
the example he set.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cleaver).
  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, as I sat on the bed this morning, trying to 
get up, I received a phone call to tell me that Congressman Bill Clay 
had just passed. I sat there for a few minutes, feeling sad.
  Then it occurred to me that death is not the greatest loss in life. 
The greatest loss in life is to die with a life not lived and still 
inside a man.
  Bill Clay did not die with hope for his country inside him. He did 
not die with his brilliant writing inside him. He did not die with 
creativity. Bill Clay did not die without working every day he walked 
into this place for the people of St. Louis.
  Mr. BELL. Mr. Speaker, I hold his son, my friend and predecessor, 
Lacy Clay; the entire Clay family; and the St. Louis community in my 
prayers.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of myself, the entire CBC, which he helped 
found, and the Missouri delegation, I ask for a moment of silence in 
memory of the Honorable William Lacy Clay, Sr.

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