[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17744-17745]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             EXPRESSING THANKS TO CHAIRMAN EMANUEL Cleaver

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Watt) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WATT. Mr. Speaker, I want to join with my colleagues in 
expressing thanks and giving praise to our outgoing chair of the 
Congressional Black Caucus. He's not leaving Congress, he's just 
leaving the chairmanship of the Congressional Black Caucus.
  I don't usually come over here for these 5-minute speeches or 1-
minute speeches, but today I thought I would make an exception to say 
some things about our outgoing chair.
  I want to make two points. First of all, contrary to the perception 
that's out in the world, there are no bad people in this body. All of 
us are good people who are here to serve the American people, and our 
constituents in particular. I characterize us as all good guys--and 
that includes female in that good guys category too. But then there are 
people who because of their particular qualities I would put in a 
category of really, really, really good people. It doesn't take long to 
detect those people; it comes through in their manner, in the way that 
they deal with their colleagues and the way that they consult and 
console you when you really need consultation and consolation; and the 
way they give you advice or fail to give you advice or don't give you 
advice when you either need it or don't need it. They're not in the 
way; they're just really, really, really good people. That's the 
category in which I

[[Page 17745]]

would put our outgoing chair, Chairman Emanuel Cleaver. And his 
leadership has been outstanding, but it's not that that I came to 
praise.
  The second thing I really want to emphasize about him is that the 
question I get most from constituents is who's doing something inside 
you all's institution to make you all more compatible with each other? 
So every week I look forward to getting in my intra-Congress mail this 
letter that our outgoing chair sends to every Member of this body, just 
one or two or three paragraphs, one page--never longer than one page, 
just giving us some sage wisdom and advice about how to be nicer to 
each other, how to soften our edges, how to work better together to 
achieve the aspirations of our constituents and of our Nation.
  Those are the little things that people out in the public never see 
or hear about, and Chairman Cleaver has set that example. Sometimes I'm 
sure he feels like he's a voice in the wilderness by doing that, but 
every single week each of us gets this special appeal from Emanuel 
Cleaver to be what we should be, stewards of our country, and to do it 
in a way that does not demean our institution and demean each other, 
and to advocate for what we believe, but to do it in a way that is more 
human and kind.
  So I want to join with my colleagues in thanking him for his 
leadership, but most of all I want to thank him for the tremendous role 
model he has been for our institution to try to make our institution a 
better place in which to serve and to try to make each of us better 
Members of this institution.

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