[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10636-10637]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING JOHN DINGELL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Maryland?
  There was no objection.

                              {time}  1910

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased and honored to rise tonight 
to lead a Special Order which honors a great American, a great 
colleague, and a great legislator whose service to this country and to 
this institution have been unmatched. It is appropriate that we rise 
tonight--appropriate particularly in light of the action that was taken 
and has been discussed today on the Voting Rights Act.
  Mr. Speaker, let me observe tangentially that the gentleman from 
Texas said something about cramming something down somebody's throat--
the Voting Rights Act. I will remind my colleagues that it was passed 
388-23 in this House and 98-0 in the Senate in 2006.
  Let me say we honor a man tonight who not only voted for the Voting 
Rights Act in 1965, but has voted for every reauthorization of that act 
since that time. John Dingell came to Congress as a Member in 1955, 
winning a special election to fill the seat held by his father, John 
Dingell, Sr., who himself served from 1933-1955. John Dingell and his 
father have represented the people of southeastern Michigan in this 
House for eight decades. What an extraordinary testimony to the faith 
of their voters and the constancy and loyalty of their representation.
  But very frankly, ladies and gentlemen, John's story in Congress 
actually began earlier than 1955. It really began in 1938, which is to 
say John Dingell, a year before I was born, and I'm one of the older 
Members. He came here as a young House page. We don't have the pages 
anymore, but nearly all of us remember seeing the pages, wide-eyed, 
sitting along the desk up front, sitting in the back, listening to 
speeches and watching floor proceedings as they waited to carry 
messages. That was John Dingell three-quarters of a century ago. The 
House of Representatives has been part of his life, and he has been 
part of it, for 75 years.
  On December 8, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, 15-year-old John 
Dingell was in this Chamber as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt 
stood at the rostrum and asked Congress to declare war against Japan, 
whose forces had just attacked Pearl Harbor on that day to which he 
referred as a ``day that will live in infamy.'' President Roosevelt 
spoke these words:

       With the unbounded determination of our people, we will 
     gain the inevitable triumph.

  Throughout his time in this House, as a page, as the son of a 
Congressman, as a Member himself, as a committee chairman, and as a 
leader on issues of national importance, John Dingell has taught us, 
who have served with him, that America's triumph is only inevitable if 
we bring to bear the unbounded determination of which President 
Roosevelt spoke.
  In John Dingell's record 57 years and 188 days as a Member of 
Congress, he has approached our greatest challenges with his own 
unrivaled determination. In every Congress, for half a century, he 
continued his father's work of introducing legislation to expand health 
care coverage to all Americans, even in the many years when no one 
thought it possible to do so. But John Dingell stuck with it.
  He stuck with it and eventually had the opportunity to help shape and 
vote for the Affordable Care Act, which will extend to millions and 
millions of Americans access to affordable, quality health care. 
Millions of Americans owe John Dingell a debt of gratitude for his 
faithfulness and the advocacy of their best interest.
  John, in fact, was presiding over this House when it enacted Medicare 
in 1965. I told you he voted for the Voting Rights Act in 1965, but he 
presided over the adoption of Medicare. And he helped write the 
Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the 1990 Clean 
Air Act, among many historic pieces of legislation that he has 
authored, fought for, and seen adopted.
  But John has done more in this Chamber than shepherd key legislation 
to passage. He has been an unwavering voice for the working families 
and small business owners not just of southeastern Michigan, but of all 
America. He has been a giant in promoting and preserving the great 
American automobile industry and the millions of jobs that rely on it. 
He has been a mentor and a friend to me and so many current and former 
Members of the House.
  My colleagues, John Dingell is a living link to an era when 
bipartisan compromise was a practiced reality, not just a slogan, not 
just something we say we're going to do, but something that was 
actually done. Members looked to John Dingell for his quick wit, his 
tenacious spirit, his extraordinary knowledge of legislation, and of 
the history of this House, and, yes, his warm heart.
  John loves this House and has always worked to preserve its 
collegiality and its good order. His unrivaled skill as a legislator is 
matched by his sense of decency, his integrity, and his devotion to 
country. And he has never lost that determination that was sparked as 
FDR called our Nation to arms and to service. John Dingell took up 
arms. He served in the United States Army from 1944-1946 as a second 
lieutenant who prepared to take part in the first wave of a planned 
invasion of Japan. Fortunately, that invasion did not occur; but John 
Dingell, as always, was ready, willing, and able.
  John Dingell, my colleagues, as all of you know, has served America 
and its people for most of his life. But it is not the length of his 
service that we

[[Page 10637]]

honor alone. It is even more importantly the quality of his service, 
the depth of his commitment, and the strength of his character that we 
honor tonight, and John Dingell who we honor always.
  We are all better Representatives because of his example. I 
congratulate my friend on 75 years--75 years--in the House of 
Representatives, 57 of them as a Member. John Dingell has, with 
diligence, faithfulness, extraordinary skill and judgment, courage and 
fidelity to God and country, lived up to President Roosevelt's words. 
He has served with unbounded determination, and he has led a triumphant 
life. What an example for us all.
  A triumphant life not because he won every fight, but because he 
never gave up. He never was unfaithful to his oath of office. He was 
never unfaithful to his pledge to support working men and women and, 
yes, everybody in this country.
  My colleagues, John Dingell today is much like Tennyson's Ulysses who 
said:

       We are not now that strength which in old days moved heaven 
     and Earth. That which we are, we are; on equal temper of 
     heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
     to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

  John Dingell, he pledged to his people when first elected to strive, 
to seek, to find, and not to yield.

                              {time}  1920

  And he has, indeed, done all of those. He has kept the faith, and we 
expect him to be keeping the faith for years to come, for that is the 
spirit of my friend, my colleague, a great legislator, a great 
American, John Dingell of Michigan.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield back so Mr. Barrow can have the 
remaining balance of my time.

                          ____________________