[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10134-10135]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise very proudly to congratulate 
Antonio Villaraigosa as the newly elected mayor of the City of Los 
Angeles. Believe it or not, the last Latino mayor elected in the City 
of Los Angeles, which is overwhelmingly Latino and African American and 
Asian, was back in 1872. Can we imagine what a whirlwind of change has 
occurred?
  Antonio Villaraigosa is one of the Nation's most promising leaders of 
our country. I served with him in the State assembly and he served as 
the assembly speaker for the great State of California, where he helped 
to expand the Healthy Families program, which we know here as at the 
Federal level as the S-CHIP program, and helped to pass one of largest 
park bonds in the State of California which helped to identify areas in 
low-income communities to establish urban conservancies. And my 
district was a proud recipient of one of the largest urban 
conservancies in California.
  Antonio is one of those individuals who will bridge the gap in our 
communities. He is about empowering people, empowering our communities, 
putting public safety and education first, and helping to fight crime.
  I look very much toward his leadership and know that the country is 
looking at our great State of California, and especially Los Angeles; 
and I am proud to say that a portion of my district, he and I have 
similar jurisdiction in the community of El Serreno. So he is a 
champion, someone I continue to work with, and I extend the best wishes 
to him and his family.

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