[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



 A TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM RONEY, A TENNESSEE HERO, AND A PLEA FOR CONGRESS 
               TO DEBATE AND PASS MEANINGFUL LEGISLATION

  (Mr. FORD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FORD. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to rise and pay tribute to a young 
man in my district, a hero in my district, William Roney, who just 
recently on Sunday, June 20, alerted families in a Park Estates 
apartment in East Memphis Park in my district of a fire that had 
developed and which eventually consumed portions, large portions of the 
building.
  Because of his actions, he certainly could have driven right by and 
made a phone call, but he jumped out of his car, knocked on doors, 
waved and yelled, and got all the families out of this building. It is 
my hope that those in my community will certainly pay the type of 
respects and certainly honor him in a way that he deserves.
  I would say to my colleagues here in the Congress, we have heard a 
lot of talk this morning about guns and HMO reform and campaign 
finance. I would hope my colleagues, particularly on this side of the 
aisle and even on my side of the aisle, would realize that all we have 
really done in this Congress is pass a bunch of suspension bills. We 
fly back on Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings to vote on naming Post 
Offices and other Federal buildings.
  HMO reform, people are crying out for it. Campaign finance reform, 
people are crying out for it. People want some action on guns, maybe 
not what we want, maybe not what the other side wants, but people want 
something. Let us rise up and do what the American people have elected 
us to do: not pass suspension bills, but pass meaningful legislation.

                          ____________________