[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7080]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  RECOGNIZING MAJOR SPEROS KOUMPARAKIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I would like to yield for him to conclude 
his remarks to the very distinguished chairman of the House Democracy 
Partnership and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I thank the gentleman. I will be very 
brief, but I do want to add a word.
  Mr. DREIER. Absolutely. I would say that the gentleman has used all 
of my talking points, so the challenge for me will be following the 
completion of his remarks.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. The gentleman is never at a loss for 
talking points. I am assured of that. We do need to say something, and 
I want to do it, acknowledging Major Koumparakis's wife Bree, who also 
deserves our gratitude and our respect for supporting her husband 
through 3 long years of early hours and frequent travels and an 
uncertain schedule. She shows a lot of the same dedication and 
selflessness that the major himself does. And we are just hopeful that 
this new assignment in Buenos Aires is going to offer her some light at 
the end of the tunnel, just as it will the major.
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and let me just say 
at the outset that it is very important to note that Major Koumparakis 
is going to be going to Buenos Aires by way of California. He is going 
to be going for language training to Monterey, California.
  Let me say that my very good friend, Mr. Price, has talked about the 
importance of Speros' work in dealing with the missions that have been 
put forth by this House, and specifically the House Democracy 
Partnership. And I would just like to say that when we look at the work 
of our partnership, Madam Speaker, one of the very important things to 
note is the fact that we have gone to, as Mr. Price indicated, some of 
the most troubled spots in the world. When I think about trips to Ulan 
Bator, Mongolia; Monrovia, Liberia; Nairobi, Kenya; and clearly Kabul, 
Afghanistan, the notion of congressional travel is one where I think 
the perception is that most travel takes place in other spots, when in 
fact this House Democracy Partnership has been focused on a very 
important mission.
  Four years ago this spring when I had the privilege of beginning with 
Mr. Price this partnership and took on the task of putting together the 
countries with which we were going to partner in working to build the 
parliaments, I at the very outset looked to the United States Marine 
Corps. Now for full disclosure, I have to say I am very partial. My 
father, sometimes I regretted this, Madam Speaker, but my father was a 
drill instructor in the United States Marine Corps. I regretted it the 
first 18 years of my life especially, but I survived it. One of the 
things that happened when I first had the opportunity to chair the 
House Democracy Partnership, I made the decision that we wanted to have 
the United States Marine Corps play the important role of orchestrating 
and leading with the assistance that only they could provide these 
efforts.
  Frankly, as we looked, Madam Speaker, at the task that was before us, 
it was very appropriate for the United States Marine Corps, and up 
until now with the departure of Deputy Director Koumparakis, among 
other great people who have served in the past, to take this task on 
because the United States Marine Corps are in fact on duty in embassies 
throughout the world. They are on the frontline in those embassies and 
play a very important role. And I happen to believe--well, I will say 
this. Many of the other branches, with all due respect to every single 
one of them, approached me and said that they wanted to play a role in 
doing this. And I said the answer was yes, they could, as long as they 
enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
  So I can't say enough about Speros Koumparakis and the work he has 
done and the effort that the United States Marine Corps has put into 
especially the House Democracy Partnership.
  What we have done, Madam Speaker, as Mr. Price said, 15 countries, 15 
countries around the world, new and re-emerging democracies, where we 
have had the task of trying to help them take these fragile democracies 
and build their parliaments. When we think about it, it is very 
important to recognize that our relationship is so often simply with 
the head of state. But if we are going to build up democratic 
institutions, there is none more important than parliaments that have 
independence and a very, very good grasp and an opportunity for 
oversight at the executive branch. And Speros regularly understood that 
and played a key role in making sure that the House Democracy 
Partnership could complete its mission.
  And so, Madam Speaker, I simply want to join with my colleague, Mr. 
Price, in extending congratulations to Speros and to Bree. I know they 
are going to continue that very fine service to the United States of 
America in their work both in California and in Buenos Aires, and we 
look forward to getting great reports on him.

                          ____________________