[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16784-16785]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     GEORGE C. MARSHALL POST OFFICE

  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 5605) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 47 East Fayette Street in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, 
as the ``George C. Marshall Post Office''.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5605

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. GEORGE C. MARSHALL POST OFFICE.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 47 East Fayette Street in Uniontown, 
     Pennsylvania, shall be known and designated as the ``George 
     C. Marshall Post Office''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``George C. Marshall Post Office''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Driehaus) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.


                             General Leave

  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Ohio?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, I now yield such time as he may consume to 
the author of the legislation, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Critz).
  Mr. CRITZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5605, which would rename 
the facility of the United States Postal Service in Uniontown, 
Pennsylvania, after its most famous son, George C. Marshall, Jr. Most 
notable for the Marshall Plan, he was born on December 31, 1880, in the 
coal hills of southwestern Pennsylvania. Marshall was commissioned as a 
Second Lieutenant in 1902, following his graduation from the Virginia 
Military Institute. He quickly rose through the ranks and was appointed 
Chief of Staff of the Army in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 
Marshall inherited an Army on the cusp of a Second World War and 
oversaw the largest military expansion in U.S. history. In 1944, he 
became the first American General to be promoted to a five-star rank, 
the newly created General of the Army.
  Marshall resigned his post of Chief of Staff of the Army in 1945 and 
devoted himself to international security and peace. Between 1945 and 
1946, he served as the envoy for President Truman in China to 
peacefully resolve a conflict between the nationalists and the 
communists. President Truman appointed him as Secretary of State in 
1947, where he oversaw the Marshall Plan, the $13 billion economic 
recovery plan that was instrumental in the rebuilding of Europe. For 
his efforts, Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize. He retired from 
the State Department in 1949 and became the president of the American 
Red Cross. In 1950, President Truman appointed Marshall Secretary of 
Defense. During his tenure he oversaw the formation of a United Nations 
international force that turned back the North Korean invasion of South 
Korea. He retired from public life in 1951 and passed away on October 
16, 1959.
  Mr. Speaker, George C. Marshall had a profound impact on the 20th 
century, not only here in the United States, but across the globe. This 
year we celebrate the 130th anniversary of his birth, and renaming his 
hometown post office is a fitting and worthy tribute to this great 
soldier, general, secretary and true American statesman.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  At this time I would like to yield to the gentlelady from North 
Carolina.

                              {time}  1430

  Ms. FOXX. I thank my colleague from California for yielding.
  Certainly, Mr. Speaker, I think that General Marshall was a great man 
and deserves recognition. In fact, he received a great deal of 
recognition during his lifetime. He received the Nobel Prize.
  However, this Congress has shown an unfortunate propensity for 
bringing up bills that are not exactly high priorities in the minds of 
the American people. Yet our colleagues across the aisle, Mr. Speaker, 
are not even trying to deal with legislation that the American people 
do want and are clamoring for. The failed trillion-dollar stimulus, the 
government takeover of health care, and billions of dollars in bailouts 
were all pushed through by Democrats in charge; but when it comes to 
making a budget or to staving off the largest tax increase in American 
history,

[[Page 16785]]

these Democrats are sitting on their hands. It would be a travesty for 
this body to adjourn this week and to leave a $3.9 trillion tax 
increase looming over the heads of American families and small 
businesses.
  Mr. Speaker, we stand here today with more than 30 Members of your 
own party who are making a simple request: let us have a full and open 
debate before you impose those job-killing tax hikes on the American 
people. Give us an up-or-down vote, and let the will of the American 
people have its way. Let's stop frittering away our time.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, I would just remind the Members that this 
is a consent agenda, an agenda for which Republicans and Democrats have 
come together and for which the Members are not here to cast votes. 
They will be here tomorrow for our votes for the week. This is an 
opportunity for Members of both sides to bring legislation forward 
which we have recognized, certainly throughout my year and a half in 
Congress, and it is due to the bipartisan nature of the work that is 
done in Oversight and Government Reform, which we should be proud of.
  So I don't apologize for bringing these bills to the floor today. I 
think the Republicans have made laudable efforts here, and I think we 
have made laudable efforts here. I would like to remind the Members 
that this is a consent agenda which has been agreed upon by both 
parties.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BILBRAY. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Marshall was not a perfect man. He made mistakes. 
Those of us who have studied history know the fact is anyone who does 
very much is going to make mistakes; but Marshall, obviously, was a 
very, very noted figure in history.
  I think, if nothing else, when we talk about naming something after 
someone, we have got to remember we are not doing it for that person. 
We are not honoring that person as much as we are inspiring future 
generations to try to live up to an idea. So even though Mr. Marshall 
might have made mistakes and was flawed, overall he is still a role 
model to present for future generations.
  I am not going to ask how old the Speaker was in 1959, Mr. Speaker, 
but the fact is Mr. Marshall passed away. It is sad that we have waited 
this long and that so many generations have grown up in this community 
who have not recognized that Marshall was a hometown boy. Maybe every 
time, in having gone to the post office, some grade school child might 
have been able to have been inspired to think big, to have tried 
harder--and, yes, even having failed sometimes.
  As we go through all of these consent items, one of the things I 
would ask us to consider is, as I am sure the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina has said: What about the things that we aren't doing? We have 
got to recognize that. A lot of the frustration out there is that we 
are naming a lot of post offices. Yet I think this one is appropriate.
  As my cousin says, who is actually a former Democratic Congressman 
from Las Vegas and a member of the commission that handles these post 
offices, if we don't get together in Washington and talk about how we 
are going to continue to provide the money and the resources to keep 
these post offices open, we will have the right to name them, but will 
they be around to inspire future generations? Will our actions actually 
have the staying power if we don't talk about those tough things like 
the budget, like the financial crisis, and like many other things that 
we have basically swept under the rug?
  I think that this is an appropriate bill at this time, but there is 
the frustration that we are doing these bills again and again and 
again; and it seems we are not addressing or finding bipartisan support 
on a lot of other things that the American people would like to look 
at, which is why I brought up Mr. King's bill, because it is one of 
those little things that, too bad, sadly, leadership will not consider.
  I mean, we just had a case last week. Rather than talking about 
eliminating the tax deduction for the employers of illegal immigrants, 
they had a comedian at a hearing, and I think a lot of people were very 
embarrassed--Democrats and Republicans. I guess, if there were a 
bipartisan response last week, it was: My God, have we allowed things 
to get to this point? I appreciate good comedy, obviously, while 
serving in Congress, but I think that there are mistakes we have made.
  This bill should pass, but, sadly, we should be talking about a lot 
of other issues that are not even allowed to come to the floor, Mr. 
Speaker, which the American people want us to work on. I hope that we 
will be able to get leadership, especially the majority, to sit down 
with the minority and to ask, Okay, where are those substantive issues 
that we can agree on? and do that. There are little things that could 
make a lot of difference, like Mr. King's bill, which would eliminate 
the tax deduction for people who are exploiting illegal labor.
  At this time, again, I would support the bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. DRIEHAUS. Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the gentleman for his 
support in the legislation before us. I urge my colleagues to join me 
in supporting this measure.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Driehaus) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 5605.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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