[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12277]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  EXTENDING DEEP LOVE AND APPRECIATION

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I wish to add my words to that of the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and the Florida delegation in 
extending our deepest love and appreciation to our treasured colleague 
from the State of Florida (Mrs. Meek). Without question, her spirit 
carries this institution, and she has given hope, not only to her 
district, but to the people of our entire country. Each of us here in 
the House knows we are serving with an historic figure, and we thank 
her family, we thank the people of Florida, of Miami, for sending her 
here in order that our country be a better place in which to live.
  I think every single Member here whose life she has touched is a 
better person for knowing her. She has strengthened us when we were at 
our weakest, she has made us laugh when we were taking ourselves too 
seriously, and even as recently as this afternoon she was fighting for 
the weakest and the poorest among us in the Committee on Appropriations 
in a several-year effort that she has fought to get rid of usurious 
lending and check-cashing facilities across this country that prey on 
the poorest among us.
  I will never meet another person like the gentlewoman from Florida 
(Mrs. Meek), and I say to the gentlewoman, I hope that you will come 
back to us as often as you wish, because you have a seat in the office 
of every single person on both sides of the aisle of this Chamber. You 
are held in the highest regard, and you truly have fulfilled the oath 
that you took to represent the interests of our country.
  It has been my great privilege to serve with you, and I thank you for 
your work on behalf of the citizens not just of your district or mine, 
but our entire country and the world. You are one of a kind. God bless 
you.

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