[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16821-16822]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            FAREWELL ADDRESS

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)

[[Page 16822]]


  Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform you that I will 
resign as Speaker of the House effective upon the election of my 
successor. I will also resign as Representative from Ohio's Eighth 
District at the end of this month.
  I leave with no regrets, no burdens. If anything, I leave the way I 
started--just a regular guy, humbled by the chance to do a big job. 
That is what I am most proud of. I am still just me, the same guy who 
came here 25 years ago as a small-business man and spent all these 25 
years trying to just be me.
  Now, sometimes my staff thought I was too much like me, but it really 
is the thing I am most proud of. I am the same regular guy who came 
here to try to do a good job for my district and my country.
  Before I go, I want to express what an honor it has been to serve 
with all of you. The people's House is, in my view, the great 
embodiment of the American Dream. Everybody here comes from somewhere, 
and everybody here is on some mission.
  I come from a part of the world where we are used to working. As far 
back as I can remember, I was working. My staff was asking me the other 
day: Well, you know, on November 1st, you're not going to have a job. 
When was the last time you didn't have a job?
  I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it. I 
thought, well, I had to be 8 or 9 years old because I was throwing 
newspapers back then and working in my dad's bar. As a matter of fact, 
I used to work from 5 a.m. on Saturday morning until 2 p.m. for $2. Not 
$2 an hour. $2.
  I never thought about growing up as the easy way or the hard way. It 
was just the Cincinnati way. Our city takes its name from the great 
Roman general Cincinnatus, a farmer who answered the call of his nation 
to lead and then surrendered his power to go back to his plow.
  For me, it wasn't a farm. It was a small business. And it wasn't so 
much a calling as it was a mission--a mission to strive for a smaller, 
less costly, and more accountable Federal Government here in 
Washington.
  How did we do? Here are some facts. For the first time in nearly 20 
years, we have made some real entitlement reforms, saving trillions of 
dollars over the long term.
  We have protected 99 percent of the American people from an increase 
in their taxes. We are on track to save taxpayers $2.1 trillion over 
the next 10 years, the most significant spending reductions in modern 
times. We have banned earmarks altogether. Sorry.
  We have protected this institution. We have made it more open to the 
people. Every day in this capital city there are hundreds of kids from 
the toughest neighborhoods who are finally getting a chance at a decent 
education.
  I am proud of these things, but the mission is not complete. And the 
truth is it may never be. One thing I came to realize over the years 
that I have been here is that this battle over the size and scope and 
cost of our government in Washington has been going on for more than 
200 years, and the forces of the status quo go to an awful lot of 
trouble to prevent change from happening.
  Real change takes time. Yes, freedom makes all things possible, but 
patience is what makes all things real. So believe in the long, slow 
struggle. Believe in this country's ability to meet her challenges and 
to lead the world. And, remember, you can't do a big job alone, 
especially this one.
  So I am grateful to my family, Deb and my two girls. My two girls 
were 3 and 1 when I first ran for office. Now they are a lot older. So 
they have been through a lot. You all know what your families go 
through. It is one thing for us to take the bricks and the boards and 
everything that gets thrown at us, but it is another thing for our 
families. Their skin isn't as thick as ours.
  I am also grateful to all of my colleagues: my fellow leaders, Mr. 
McCarthy and Mr. Scalise, Ms. McMorris Rodgers; and many on my side of 
the aisle, our committee chairs, people I have worked with for a long 
time.
  But I am just as grateful to Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Clyburn, and 
Mr. Becerra and others for all of the work that we have done together. 
Over these last 5 years, we have done an awful lot of work together. 
There was probably more work done across the aisle over the last 5 
years than in the 25 years that I have served in this institution.
  Now, as much as I enjoy working with all of you, some of you still 
could learn to dress better. You know who you are. I saw one of the 
culprits, one of the usual suspects who shows up here once in a while 
without a tie. This morning he didn't look dressed very well, but he 
did have a tie on.
  I am grateful to the people who work in this institution every day, 
whether it is the Reading Clerks or--you know, there are a lot of 
people, thousands of people, who allow us to do our jobs and to help 
make this institution what it is. Whether it is the people you see here 
today or the people in the CAO's office or the Capitol Police or 
legislative counsel, there really are thousands of people who really do 
allow us to do our job.
  I am grateful to my staff. Now, you all know I am a big believer in 
staff. None of us can be what we are without a good staff, and I 
certainly would never have gotten to this job without having built a 
great team. So I really am grateful to my staff. As they like to say to 
each other, once you are part of Boehnerland, you are always a part of 
Boehnerland, and that certainly goes for me as well.
  I am especially grateful to all my constituents and the volunteers 
over the years. That includes a student at Miami University in Oxford, 
Ohio, in 1990, who was putting up campaign signs for me. His name was 
Paul Ryan. I don't think he could pronounce my name back in 1990 when 
he was putting up yard signs for me.
  But, as Cincinnatus understood, there is a difference between being 
asked to do something and being called to do something. Paul is being 
called. I know he will serve with grace and with energy, and I want to 
wish him and his family all the best.

                              {time}  0945

  My colleagues, I have described my life as a chase for the American 
Dream. That chase began at the bottom of the hill, just off the main 
drag in Reading, Ohio, right outside of Cincinnati. At the top of the 
hill was a small house with a big family, a shining city in its own 
right.
  The hill had twists. The hill had turns, and even a few tears. 
Nothing wrong with that. But let me tell you, it was just perfect.
  Never forget, we are the luckiest people on the Earth. In America, 
you can do anything that you are willing to work for, willing to work 
hard at, and anything can happen if you are willing to make the 
necessary sacrifices in life.
  If you falter--and you will--you can just pick yourself up, dust 
yourself off, and go do it again, because hope always springs eternal. 
And if you just do the right things for the right reasons, good things 
will happen.
  And this, too, can really happen to you.
  God bless you, and God bless our great country.

                          ____________________