[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13048]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 WELCOMING THE HONORABLE DONNA EDWARDS TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader, is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the distinguished Speaker for recognizing me for 
this delightful opportunity.
  Madam Speaker, you will appreciate this as much as anybody in this 
House. I was elected in a special election on January of 1981, actually 
May of 1981. The Maryland delegation had eight members. Fifty percent 
of the members of the Maryland House were women, Mrs. Holt, a 
Republican, Mrs. Spellman, my predecessor who had a cardiac arrest and 
her seat was declared vacant, Mrs. Byron, a distinguished wife and 
daughter-in-law of two Members of Congress, and actually there were 
four Byrons that served in the Congress of the United States, and 
Barbara Mikulski, were all members of the Maryland delegation.
  It was a wonderful delegation. One by one, those women left for one 
reason or another. Senator Mikulski, of course, became the first woman 
elected to the United States Senate without a relative preceding her.
  One by one, they were replaced by a male. Those were good males, I 
want you to know. But our delegation became an all-male delegation. It 
was, to that extent, not fully representative of the people of our 
State. We have been advantaged now, not only because Marylanders have 
elected an extraordinary individual to serve them. She is a highly 
educated individual. She traveled throughout the world. Her father 
served in the Air Force. She is well educated. She didn't go to the 
University of Maryland, which was a lamentable fact, but she went to a 
great school, Wake Forest University. She got her law degree in New 
Hampshire. She has served the community well and has served citizens' 
organizations well.
  So in a very real sense, she has been a representative for a very 
long period of time. This day, however, she begins her career as a 
representative elected by the constituents of the Fourth Congressional 
District.
  Madam Speaker, I know that I speak on behalf of yourself, on behalf 
of all the Members of the House and certainly on behalf, Donna, of the 
Maryland delegation, we are extraordinarily proud that you have joined 
us. Our delegation will be stronger, better and more representative 
because of that. And this institution will be stronger for the strong 
advocacy that you will bring on behalf not just of the people of the 
Fourth Congressional District, but the people of this Nation.
  Ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply honored to introduce to you a young 
woman to whom some years ago I gave an appointment to the United States 
Air Force Academy. She determined that she was going to go to Wake 
Forest. But she has been my friend for a long time. Ladies and 
gentlemen, the newest Member of this body, Donna Edwards from the 
Fourth Congressional District.
  She is a mother, lawyer, and long-time community activist and 
organizer.
  Born in Yanterville, North Carolina, she moved frequently as a child.
  Her father was in the Air Force, and she traveled throughout the 
country and world.
  She graduated from Wake Forest University and later the Franklin 
Pierce Law Center (in New Hampshire).
  Before attending law school, she worked as a contractor for Lockheed 
Corporation at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
  After law school, she clerked for a superior court judge in 
Washington, co-founded the National Network To End Domestic Violence, 
and became executive director of the Arca Foundation, which gives 
grants to civic groups, organizations that study the media, and public 
policy groups.
  She helped lead the fight to pass the Violence Against Women Act, 
providing comprehensive funding to shelter and offer services to 
victims of domestic violence and their children.
  The Washington Post has called her ``bright'' and ``tough-minded'' 
and recently said: ``Poised, persistent and principled, she would make 
a fine representative for the fourth district'' of Maryland.
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Madam Speaker, Leader Boehner, our majority 
leader and the dean of our delegation of the great State of Maryland, 
our Senators, Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, thank you. I'm so glad 
that you could be here today, and to our entire delegation from 
Maryland, I am humbled and honored to be here in the people's House. 
And I want to thank my mother, Mary, and my sisters, Janice, Bonnie and 
Rhonda, my brother, Michael, and my son, Jared, for being here with me 
today and being so supportive of me.
  As I swore to defend and protect the Constitution of the United 
States, I recall the oath that my brother, John, took when he was just 
18 years old, joining the United States Air Force at the height of the 
Vietnam War. And most especially I thought of my father, John Edwards, 
who swore the same oath when he joined the United States Air Force as a 
young man and served in a career of great honor, dignity and service to 
this country.
  And what I thought is that I am so proud to be able to take that same 
oath to serve the people of the Fourth Congressional District and to 
serve the United States Congress and the people of this country.
  I'm standing here today on a very historic day, Juneteenth. And as 
the first African American woman to represent the great State of 
Maryland here in this Capitol and on the shoulders of all of our 
forefathers and foremothers who took that journey to freedom, I am so 
proud and humble to be here with my constituents throughout the Fourth 
Congressional District, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, united 
across race, religion, class, income, heritage and culture and all of 
the things that are the false lines that divide us. But we're united as 
a congressional district, and we're as united as we can be as a 
country. And in some micro way, in our Fourth Congressional District, I 
think that we're fulfilling the dream of this entire Nation.
  Last February in Maryland's Fourth District, we sent a strong message 
that it's time for a change across the Potomac and up to this Hill. And 
this past Tuesday, they sent another message. They said ``change can't 
wait until next year.'' And so today I'm an agent of change and an 
agent of their mandate. And America's profile, though slightly 
tarnished around the world and with our economy teetering slightly here 
at home, we can only hope that we don't wait for that change to happen 
until next January, that my constituents have said to me, we can't wait 
for change to begin. We can't wait 6 months to do something about 
foreclosures forcing thousands of Marylanders, thousands of people 
across this country and in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties away 
from their homes. And we can't wait 6 months to address skyrocketing 
costs of gas and groceries while we engage in short-term solutions that 
abound without focusing on the long-term solutions for alternative 
energy and things that really will propel us through this 21st century.
  I just want to say in closing that our brave servicemen and women, 
many of them like my brother and my father, can't wait for change 
either. And people do need help now. And so, more than anything else, I 
want to join with you in making that change happen. I know that this 
House is filled with an awfully lot of really good-hearted people who 
represent congressional districts just like mine across the country. 
And they're asking us to come together. And I want us to answer that 
call together. And so I'm here with my sleeves rolled up, and I'm ready 
to work. And I'm ready to get started, just as you are, in serving the 
people of the Fourth Congressional District and this country.
  Thank you very much.

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