[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11750-11751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 IN TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page 11751]]


  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I join with others in the House in expressing 
the deepest condolences to Nancy Reagan and the Reagan family on the 
passing of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United 
States of America, and in paying tribute to President Reagan as we 
remember his Presidency and what he meant to our country and, indeed, 
to the world.
  I deeply admired and respected President Reagan. I had the good 
fortune to run for the 10th Congressional District of Virginia seat in 
Congress in November of 1980 when he was elected to his first term. 
Some called my victory then ``on Reagan's coattails.'' I have no doubt 
that I am in Congress today because of President Reagan.
  I will always be grateful that after my two successful bids for 
Congress Ronald Reagan led the ticket I was on and I became a member of 
the class of 1980. I am sure all members of the class of 1980 would 
agree, President Reagan made us feel good again. He gave us hope. He 
inspired us. He gave us optimism because he was an optimist. His legacy 
belongs not only to America but to the world.
  I saw a woman in California being interviewed. She was holding a 
bouquet of flowers and tears were streaming down her face. She had a 
broken English accent and identified herself as a Russian immigrant. 
She said she had to come to the makeshift memorial outside the funeral 
home where President Reagan was resting because, ``I owe my life to 
President Reagan.''
  Mr. Speaker, I will close by sharing his own words spoken in August 
1992 about how he wanted to be remembered. President Reagan said, 
``Whatever else history may say about me when I am gone, I hope it will 
record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to 
your confidence rather than your doubts, and may all of you as 
Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine 
guidance, and never, never lose your God-given optimism.''
  Mr. Speaker, we thank God for the life of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

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