[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2307]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              COMMEMORATING THE LEGACY OF JEANNETTE RANKIN

  (Ms. EDWARDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of March as 
Women's History Month and to commemorate the legacy of Jeannette 
Rankin, the first elected woman to serve in the House of 
Representatives on this day, March 4, 1917.
  Jeannette Rankin furthered women's rights, ensuring universal 
suffrage and protecting the poor. She began her career as a community 
organizer, working in low-income neighborhoods in San Francisco, New 
York, and Washington State, and she witnessed the troubles of women and 
single mothers living in these communities. Jeannette Rankin became a 
strong, natural advocate for giving women a national voice through the 
right to vote.
  Remarkably, Jeannette Rankin was elected to Congress when women still 
did not have the right to vote. The 19th Amendment was passed 3 months 
after she left Congress. As Rankin herself put it, ``We're half the 
people; we should be half the Congress.''
  Today, we must continue to honor her work and legacy. With the 
ongoing budget crisis in mind, it is imperative that we redouble our 
efforts, as she would have, to come to a solution and to take the 
lesson of Jeannette Rankin, to fight for women and the poor who are 
disproportionately affected by sequestration, and to fight for them as 
Jeannette Rankin fought for them so hard.

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