[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1301-1302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  CONGRATULATING ABIT MASSEY FOR RECEIVING THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA 
                           PRESIDENT'S MEDAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate 
Abit Massey on receiving the prestigious University of Georgia 
President's Award in recognition of his extraordinary service to UGA 
and the State of Georgia.
  Abit is an institution in Georgia. He has served as the head of the 
Georgia Department of Commerce, the UGA Alumni Association, and on the 
board of the Georgia Research Foundation, among numerous other 
prestigious positions.
  In my part of the world, Abit is better known as the dean of the 
poultry industry due to his tireless commitment to and advocacy on 
behalf of the industry. Abit served as the executive director of the 
Georgia Poultry Federation for almost 50 years and now serves as its 
president emeritus.
  One of the most amazing things about Abit is that not only does 
everyone know him, but everyone respects him. He is the dean of the 
State lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol, but he still makes time to say 
hello to everyone he meets and often greets them by name because his 
memory never forgets anyone.
  Abit's service to Georgia and commitment to the State is obvious, but 
I am glad to see UGA recognize that service through bestowing him the 
President's Award. I am honored to recognize this great Georgian and 
hope he continues to work to improve future generations of Georgians.


                       English Language Unity Act

  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of 
H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act, introduced by my friend, Mr. 
King, from Iowa. I am a proud cosponsor of this important and 
commonsense bill.
  The English Language Unity Act establishes English as the official 
language of the United States, requires all official functions of the 
United States to be conducted in English, and establishes a uniform 
language requirement for naturalization.

                              {time}  1815

  A common language creates a shared bond. It strengthens our shared 
cultural fabric and identity. English as the official language does not 
mean other languages cannot be spoken. It simply recognizes that 
officially. We speak the language already spoken and shared by the vast 
majority of the country.
  Failure to have a national language can create costly and burdensome 
translation requirements and create legal confusion. It can also hinder 
new citizens from assimilating quickly.
  The diversity of the United States is one of our strengths. We should 
continue to celebrate the many cultures that make up our melting pot. 
This great country gives us the freedom to share our differences. But 
at the end of the day, we are one Nation and one people. And as one 
Nation, we should speak with one tongue when conducting official 
business.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the English Language 
Unity Act.


              Honoring Dan Summer of Gainesville, Georgia

  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I 
rise to pay honor to a friend and a colleague, Mr. Dan Summer. Dan was 
an attorney in Gainesville. As a young attorney just getting started, 
he was one of the people that I could turn to and ask questions of. He 
was somebody who listened. He was somebody who cared.
  Dan and his wife, Chandelle, ran a firm. Everyone in Gainesville knew 
that if you went to them, you are going to get treated like family and 
have somebody that takes not only the fight for your justice and for 
your fairness, but makes it very personal.
  When Dan passed away recently, he fought all the way to the end. ALS 
took him from us, but his memory is strong.
  What he has meant to Georgia and the legal community will go on for 
many generations. He is one that stood up for rights. Many times when 
others may have disagreed, Dan always stood up for the rights of 
others. Dan was always making it his business to be the protector of 
those in need. Dan Summer is who make Gainesville, Georgia. It is 
people like Dan Summer; his character, his loving kindness, and his 
smile.
  I remember one of the last times that I saw Dan, it was a little bit 
ago. He was walking across the Square in Gainesville. I pulled up, and 
I saw him walking across. I yelled: Hello, and the first thing he did 
was turn around. And I saw that smile. It is Dan's smile, his concern, 
and his life that will be remembered.
  Mr. Speaker, I would encourage all of us to strive for what is better 
in us. Dan Summer is one of those people that meant the world to me. 
His family will experience this loss, but I know they will continue to 
relish the love that he gave to not only his family but to his 
community. With that, I remember Dan Summer.


              Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. Mr. 
Speaker, in the United States Constitution, our Founders cast their 
vision for our Nation whose members would enjoy unparalleled freedom 
because of these basic truths.
  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, today, 
many have lost the pursuit of happiness in favor of the guarantee of 
happiness. They are mistaking what we have as a guarantee in that 
pursuit of happiness. These Founding Fathers believed in individual 
worth and individual rights. While the challenging realities faced by 
citizens of nations that prey on individual and economic liberties 
sometimes remind us of the particular blessings we enjoy, we take these 
rights so often for granted.
  I believe one of the things that is beginning to pervade our society 
today, Mr. Speaker, is a society that does not value life or liberty or 
the pursuit of happiness. In fact, I believe there is an anti-life 
culture that is developing, one that does not value the personhood that 
comes at conception and ends at natural death, the one that says that 
we are made by God in His image, and we have infinite value not based 
on who we are, but based on the fact that He breathed life into us. It 
is an abortion culture, an ending culture, that we are being strangled 
with in the United States.
  Abortion is literally killing generations of promise in our country. 
But yet we have some who really just want to turn their back. They 
believe it is a choice.
  I am so glad, Mr. Speaker, that your family didn't view it that way 
and my family didn't view it that way. Because when you look at life, 
you take life as God has given it to us. And it is only up to Him, who 
gives life, the Maker and Creator of life, that determines the 
potential and the possibilities. Whatever path we go on, He has given 
us that hope.
  In my own family, this became very real for me. I have had many years 
of pastoring, but it happened back in 1992. You see, there was a young 
youth minister and his wife excited about the news that they were going 
to be parents. Everything was great. Everything was moving along. They 
were working. They were doing everything that they thought that they 
were supposed to be doing, until one day my bride called me and said: 
Let's do an ultrasound. We have one last ultrasound. The doctor wants 
to do one last ultrasound.
  I came running back. I was off on a business trip. I got back just in 
time to get there. They were doing the

[[Page 1302]]

ultrasound. Ultrasounds are amazing because they show life--not a 
fetus, not a blob--they show a life in the womb. It starts when God 
breathes it in. If you don't believe me, just take a look.
  Even back then when they started to go around, I could see my child 
whom I had not had a chance to meet yet. Then a little bit later, the 
nurse stopped. She said: I need to go get the doctor. At that point my 
wife looked at me, and she said: Something is wrong. Tears started 
coming down her face.
  I said: Sweetheart, they are just going to get the doctor. He is just 
going to look at it. It is all good. She said: No, something is wrong.
  It came back. The doctor looked and said: I need to show you 
something.
  On a little spot, a little white spot that I could have not told the 
difference of, the doctor told us the words that have now rung for me 
for almost 23 years. He said: Doug, Lisa, your baby has spinal bifida. 
He actually used a big term called myelomeningocele. All I knew was 
something was wrong.
  We spent the next few days in sort of disbelief. We knew this was not 
a mistake. We knew this was not anything except we were supposed to 
have a child, and, undoubtedly, this was just going to be a little 
different. We talked to doctors, and we found out it just continued on.
  Then one day, Lisa went back to school after it had become known that 
we were having an issue and the pregnancy was now going to be high 
risk. One of the teachers came up to Lisa and said: You know you have a 
choice. Lisa looked at her and said: Well, we are going to Atlanta, and 
we are going to have the baby in Atlanta. She said: No, no, no. You 
have a choice. You don't have to keep going.
  At that point, it clicked. This teacher was telling my wife that she 
could kill my baby. Lisa realized it real quickly. Lisa said: You 
realize you are talking about my child.
  When I hear of Planned Parenthood cavalierly talking about a choice 
to kill a baby, it is horrifying.
  In this body, the reconciliation is addressed that we are going to 
continue to because there was a choice made this week. You had a chance 
to vote for life, and if you voted ``no,'' you voted against life. 
Don't try to make it any other thing.
  The country has a choice coming up this year. It can take a culture 
of life from conception to death, natural death, or it can continue to 
value life, as man does, as throwaway, as maybe not good. You see, 
prioritizing and saying this is what we believe is what makes this 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness worth pursuing.
  They told us that Jordan would have trouble. I actually had somebody 
one time in a town hall say: Well, her quality of life may not be good. 
You may have done her a disservice. I choked back my angry tears, and I 
said: You don't know my daughter.
  You see, it is that time of the year when elections come around. My 
daughter just got back home from her job skills training. She is 
looking for a job. She is 23 years old. She is back home. She is going 
out to find where she can make a place in this world. She has a smile 
that will light up a room. Her little chair whips around faster than 
you can imagine.
  I was thinking about even my own election, and my wife looked at me 
the other night, and she said: You know, you realize you got something 
coming up this year. I said: What's that? She said: Your secret weapon 
comes home on Friday. She is daddy's girl.
  You see, life is what you make it. Life is not what somebody else 
says your life is.
  When we have a culture of life, abortion is an abomination to that 
culture of life. It is why we need to continue every day to put forward 
a culture of life on this world, Mr. Speaker. It is why we will 
continue to put forward a culture of life that says we value all.
  When we do that, no one has to ask where Doug Collins stands. Doug 
Collins stands with life. Doug Collins stands with those of all. 
Because I am one who believes that no matter who you see in a day, Mr. 
Speaker, when you look into their eyes, you see someone of infinite 
worth, of infinite value, not because of anything they have done, but 
because of the life that was put into them by their Creator.
  It is abortion that takes that away. It is why I will continue to 
come to this floor as many times as I possibly can and stand for life 
because that is the life, the liberty, and the pursuit of happiness 
that our Founders spoke of.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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