Expressing the condolences of the House of Representatives on the death of the Honorable Jo Ann Davis, a Representative of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged resolution (H. Res. 717) and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, it is with profound sadness that we come to the floor tonight to honor the memory of our colleague and friend, the Honorable Jo Ann Davis, who lost her 2-year battle with breast cancer this past Saturday. She was not only our House colleague; she was our Virginia colleague who represented the First District of Virginia, a district which she proudly called ``America's First District'' because of our country's roots at Jamestown and the many significant events in history which occurred there.

Jo Ann Davis also could have had a first next to her name because she was the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Virginia in 2000 to succeed our late colleague Herb Bateman. But that historic aspect of her career in Congress was not important to her. Representing her constituents and being the best Member of Congress she could be for the people of her district, that was what was most important to her.

Her career in elected office spanned 10 short years, from her first election in 1997 to the Virginia House of Delegates to her four elected terms in the House beginning in the year 2000.

But over that decade she made her mark as a deeply caring and very hardworking public servant who believed in common sense and conservative ideals. In remembering Jo Ann's work in Congress, there are several thoughts I would like to share.

She battled to the end with courage and grace in her fight against breast cancer. When she was first diagnosed in 2005 with the insidious disease, she announced it publicly to encourage other women to beware of the disease. Her bravery and personal strength were a source of inspiration to many. She was a person of honesty, integrity, and very strong moral conviction in representing her district and living her life. And she had a very strong commitment to the Lord. She was a dedicated and tenacious fighter for her beliefs, and the importance of her faith was obvious in the way she cared for and treated others and in the way she did her job.

She was a tireless and passionate advocate for the First District in Virginia, working to protect the military interests in her district and Navy shipbuilding in Newport News. She cofounded the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus as she worked to provide for the defense of our Nation.

But as important as that work was for Jo Ann, protecting the interests of men and women in uniform, their families, and veterans was priority number one.

She also worked hard for other local interests, such as the removal of the ``ghost fleet'' of obsolete, environmentally hazardous ships from the James River; better regulation of the amount of trash coming into Virginia; and protecting the resources of the Chesapeake Bay.

This House and this Nation will miss Jo Ann Davis and her dedication to public service. I want to express my sincere condolences to her staff, both in Washington and in her district, who can be proud of their work by her side for the people of America's First District. Jo Ann Davis had an outstanding staff, and I want to thank the staff.

I also want to join with my colleagues in expressing profound sympathy to Jo Ann's husband, Chuck; and their two sons, Christopher and Charles; and a granddaughter.

In remembering Jo Ann Davis and her life of service to others, I am reminded of the words of Scripture where it says: ``Well done, good and faithful servant.''

Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record a news article and editorial from the Newport News Daily Press about our late colleague, the Honorable Jo Ann Davis.

[From the dailypress.com, Oct. 8, 2007]

The Unlikely Politician--The Self-Described Country Gal Preferred

Horses to the Capitol Hill Party Circuit

(By David Lerman)

She was, by her own admission, an unlikely politician.

Virginia Rep. Jo Ann Davis, who died of breast cancer

Saturday at age 57, was more at ease with her beloved horses

on her Gloucester farm than the cocktail party circuit on

Capitol Hill.

The self-described country gal and former real estate agent

fell into a congressional career almost by accident. It took

church connections, perseverance and the sudden withdrawal of

the leading Republican Party favorite to propel Davis to the

office she first won in 2000.

``I could have cared less about politics,'' she recalled in

a 2003 interview. ``I did not know there was a Republican

Party committee in Virginia.''

But since becoming Virginia's first female Republican

member of Congress, Davis learned her role quickly and, many

agreed, managed to make the 1st District House seat her own:

When obsolete, environmentally hazardous ships started

mushrooming in the James River off Fort Eustis, Davis fought

for federal funding to speed up their removal--and made

significant progress.

When state and local officials complained about the barrage

of trash coming into Virginia landfills from other states and

littering state highways, Davis pushed for legislation to

limit interstate waste.

While that effort stalled, she won approval of a measure

establishing a series of random safety inspections for waste

haulers.

When military personnel and federal employees complained of

inadequate benefits, Davis won passage of legislation

increasing the life insurance benefits paid to survivors of

military members killed on duty.

And when Pentagon budgets forecast a steady decline in the

size of the Navy's fleet, Davis sounded the alarm.

A staunch advocate for the thousands of shipyard workers in

her district, she co-founded the Congressional Shipbuilding

Caucus and pushed legislation, albeit unsuccessfully,

mandating a larger fleet.

``At a time when people have such a negative impression of

Washington, Jo Ann Davis was a refreshing reminder that there

are people here who do their best for their constituents,''

said Christopher Connelly, her chief of staff.

``A lot of the issues she worked on were local issues. She

didn't get lost in the Washington glamour.''

While seldom a major player on national policy matters,

Davis won respect from Republicans and Democrats alike for

her ability to delve into local concerns and to stay true to

her beliefs.

``While we had different political loyalties, we had no

differences in our efforts to work together for the Hampton

Roads area,'' said Rep. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, D-Newport

News.

Davis'' rise to political power was as unconventional as it

was unlikely.

Unlike her predecessor in office, the late Rep. Herbert H.

Bateman, Davis lacked the traditional credentials and years

of political grooming that typically foreshadow a

congressional career.

No prestigious university or law-school degree appeared on

her resume.

The daughter of a Hampton city bus driver, Davis came from

modest roots that stood in contrast to those of many of her

wealthier colleagues in Congress.

After graduating from Hampton Roads Business College in

1971, she went to work as an executive secretary for a real

estate firm before becoming a stay-at-home mom.

She later got her real estate license and opened Davis

Management Co. in 1988, followed by Jo Ann Davis Realty in

1990.

All the while, Davis was becoming a deeply religious

person.

When her mother-in-law suffered a fatal heart attack, Davis

has said, she had a born-again experience and then joined the

Assembly of God church.

Through her church, Davis met Brenda Pogge, a fellow real

estate agent and local GOP activist, who encouraged her to

enter politics and invited her to her first Republican mass

meeting.

``She was my sister in the faith,'' Pogge said. ``She was

my friend, my boss and then my congresswoman. Jo Ann was such

a role model.''

In 1997, at Pogge's steady urging, Davis reluctantly agreed

to challenge a 15-year Democratic incumbent in the General

Assembly and won, despite being outspent roughly 3 to 1.

In 2000, when Bateman announced his retirement and then

died in office, Davis launched her upstart campaign for

Congress.

The odds seemed stacked against her because of formidable

opposition for the Republican nomination, led by former

Newport News Mayor Barry DuVal.

But when DuVal withdrew from the race, Davis had an

opening. She faced a grueling five-way party primary but

emerged victorious with 35 percent of the vote.

Her general election victory was then little in doubt

because of the 1st District's strong Republican tilt. She

easily won re-election repeatedly, as she did last year.

Because of her faith, Davis has said, she remained an

outspoken conservative voice on social issues.

She co-sponsored a constitutional amendment banning gay

marriage and took a purist position on abortion, opposing it

even in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is

endangered.

``It's just who I am,'' she once said. ``I believe what I

believe. I didn't know I was called a right-winger.''

If there was a historic aspect to Davis' career, it was in

her becoming the first Republican woman to win a House seat

from Virginia. Former Rep. Leslie Byrne of Fairfax was the

first Democratic woman.

But Davis bristled at such gender-based distinctions, which

she regarded as irrelevant. ``It shouldn't matter if you're

male or female,'' she once said. ``I'm just a member of

Congress, like they are.

``No different.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time to the gentlewoman from Virginia, Thelma Drake.

I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes).

I yield such time as he may consume to Mr. Lincoln Diaz- Balart.

I am going to yield to Mr. Cantor. We have been told we can do one more, but we will resume after the votes for anyone that is interested and is listening. But before we go to the votes, I recognize Mr. Cantor from Virginia.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in mourning the loss of one of the Commonwealth of Virginia's finest public servants, Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis. She was a good friend and a tireless advocate for America's First District, as both she and the late Congressman Herb Bateman referred to the First Congressional District of Virginia.

Jo Ann was a self-made woman who came from modest roots. Born in North Carolina, she grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where her father was a city bus driver. She graduated from Hampton Roads Business College in 1971, received her real estate license in 1984, and received her real estate broker's license 4 years later. She was a successful business woman, having opened Davis Management Company in 1988 and Jo Ann Davis Realty in 1990.

Mr. Speaker, Jo Ann was not a career politician and probably never imagined that she would run for office and end up serving in the United States Congress for over 6 years. In 1997 she was reluctantly convinced by her friends to run for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. When our late colleague Herb Bateman announced his retirement from the House, Jo Ann mounted an underdog campaign. Notwithstanding the fact that she was outspent by a margin of 40 to one in the primary, she prevailed; and in November, 2000, she became the first Republican woman from Virginia elected to Congress.

While we had different political loyalties, we had no differences in our efforts to work together for the citizens of Hampton Roads. Jo Ann's service on the Armed Services Committee directly mirrored her commitment to the thousands of military personnel in her district. One of her first pieces of legislation that she introduced passed in 2001. It increased the amount of life insurance benefits for survivors of members of the U.S. Armed Forces killed in active duty.

Jo Ann was also a tireless advocate for the thousands of shipbuilders in her district that worked at Northrop Grumman Newport News, and she cofounded the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus with Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi. That caucus has made a compelling case to the Department of Defense that it is pivotal for our national defense that the Navy spend more money on shipbuilding. In the last Congress, she was instrumental in efforts to secure funding for the refueling of the USS Carl Vinson. Without Jo Ann's hard work, the Hampton Roads area might have lost billions of dollars in economic revenue tied directly to that aircraft carrier.

Jo Ann placed a high priority on the removal of ships in the so- called James River ``Ghost Fleet,'' which posed a major environmental threat to the James River and the Chesapeake Bay; and as a result of her leadership, many of those ships have been removed. Together, we have worked to secure Federal funding for the Achievable Dream education program in Newport News to ensure that at-risk children have the best opportunity to succeed in school.

Mr. Speaker, every Member of this body was saddened to learn that Jo

Ann developed breast cancer in 2005 and even more so when the cancer returned this year. The sadness is especially felt by members of the weekly Congressional Prayer Breakfast, which Jo Ann and I regularly attended. Despite her personal battle with cancer, Jo Ann did not retire from Congress. She stayed and fought her cancer and continued to represent the people of the First District to the best of her ability until the very end. Learning from her own experience with cancer, she has encouraged her colleagues and her constituents to get screened regularly for all types of cancer.

Mr. Speaker, the Hampton Roads delegation has lost a tremendous advocate for the interests of our region. I want to extend my deepest sympathies to her husband of 33 years, Chuck Davis; their two grown sons, Charlie and Christopher; their granddaughter; and her wonderful staff with whom my staff has worked so well over the years. America's First District and the U.S. House of Representatives have lost a true friend and advocate with the passing of Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri, the chairman of one of the committees that Jo Ann served on and a past president of the weekly Congressional Prayer Breakfast (Mr. Skelton).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Ms. Pelosi.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlemen from Virginia, Mr. Wolf and Mr. Scott, for leading this tribute to a great and courageous woman, Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis.

I had the opportunity first to meet Jo Ann Davis when she was a member of the Virginia General Assembly. She showed there the same courage, determination and hard work that she has shown here during her service in the United States Congress. Right through to her final week here, she was still working for the people of the First Congressional District of Virginia. She was very proud of her representation of those great people and often talked about her district as being America's First Congressional District because it contained Jamestown and Yorktown and Williamsburg, and worked very hard for the past year or more as we prepared for this year's celebration of the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown.

She also was a member of three very important committees here in the Congress, the Armed Services Committee, the International Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee, all very much related to our Nation's national security and working with other countries around the world in our war against terror and was very, very dedicated to our Armed Services, the men and women who served there and our veterans. She stood up for them time and time again.

When I arrived at my office today, I found in my in-box a copy of a bill that she introduced just last Tuesday, October 2. It may well be the last bill that she introduced in the Congress, House Concurrent Resolution 222, cosponsored by myself and all the other Members on both sides of the aisle, commending the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center in her district, on the celebration of its 90th anniversary later this month.

I can think of no better tribute to Congresswoman Davis and to the men and women of the NASA Langley Research Center, the premier aeronautic space and research facility in the country. I would commend to the Speaker and to the chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology where this bill has been referred to pass it, not only in tribute to those great workers at that great facility, but also a tribute to a great Member of Congress, Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis, who worked in this body in a very bipartisan spirit.

Every month the Virginia congressional delegation meets, both the Senators and the House Members, the Republicans and the Democrats, in a bipartisan fashion. We talk about the issues that we are dealing with here in the Congress, particularly those that have a great impact on the Commonwealth of Virginia.

She was an active and vocal participant in all of those discussions looking after the interests of Virginia and her congressional district. But she also loved to get away from here to her home in Gloucester, to her horses, to her family, her wonderful husband, Chuck, her children and grandchildren, where she was when she passed on at the end of last week.

We will all miss her. Our hearts go out to her family, to her constituents. It is my hope that we will all take heart from this brave and courageous woman to her last days serving the people of her district with distinction and courage and great honor and determination.

Mr. Speaker, I, like so many others, rise today to pay tribute to Jo Ann Davis and to offer my sympathies to her husband, Chuck, and her family.

By now, you begin to hear a pattern that reflects very accurately the life of Jo Ann. And you hear many people stand up and saying the same thing, that she was our friend, and like so many others, we will miss her.

I spent a lot of hours talking with Jo Ann in this corner and in the Armed Services Committee, and I remember reading one account in one of the papers that said that she was born of ``modest'' means. But if you listened to Jo Ann, she was born poor. Jo Ann never went to a 4-year college, but she had more wisdom than you could ever see reflected in a diploma, and one mistake you could never, ever make with Jo Ann Davis was to underestimate her.

I still remember how she used to talk that so many people felt that she could never put herself through real estate school, and she proved them wrong. I remember her talking about how, that as a wife and mother, many people didn't feel that she could become a successful Realtor, and she proved them wrong.

I remember when she was first running for the House of Delegates meeting with her and talking with her and she told me that people didn't think she could win, and she proved them wrong. And then, like my good friend from Virginia, Congressman Scott, said, when she was running for Congress, she was a 40-1 financial underdog and nobody thought she could win, and she proved them wrong.

Who would have ever thought she would have served on the Armed Services Committee, been the ranking member of one of the subcommittees, that she would serve on the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, and as so many people mentioned, she became a national leader on shipbuilding and defending the shipbuilding trade.

She was a tireless advocate for our veterans and men and women in uniform. She loved her husband, Chuck, and firefighters and would stand with firefighters in almost every issue that they brought forward, both in the Virginia House of Delegates when she served there and here in Congress.

She loved her family, and she was proud of them. And she loved her constituents, and she fought for them. And nobody, and I emphasize ``nobody,'' ever told her what to do. She always did what she thought was right for Virginia, and what she thought was right for the country.

And two final things that I think you don't hear people reflect here today, but we need to just mention, she loved horses. And I remember her and I talking many times about the fact that we were probably two of the only Members of Congress that actually had to go home on weekends and clean out horse stables; and yet Jo Ann was the kind of person that was humble enough not only to do it, but to love it.

But above everything else, I am absolutely convinced that she would also want us to say today, and this is what Congressman Wolf alluded to a little bit earlier, that she absolutely loved, above anything else in her life, her faith in Jesus Christ. And I have no question that today she has heard those words that Congressman Wolf mentioned, and that is, ``Well done, good and faithful servant.''

I thank my colleague for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I, with great sadness, rise to pay tribute as well to our dear colleague, Jo Ann Davis.

As other women in the Congress know, there is a sisterhood among many women Members. This weekend, we lost one of our sisters to a disease that has fostered another kind of sisterhood throughout the Nation, breast cancer. And while Jo Ann would have chosen to confront her disease in private, she bravely and valiantly decided

to take her experience to improve the experiences of other women in that sisterhood. She did so by advocating for the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act and other legislation that would improve the lives of those who suffer from this disease.

I was also proud to work with Jo Ann on the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act. Together we worked, one from the west coast and one from the east, to extend to Federal firefighters the same presumptive disability rights offered to most city and State firefighters. I enjoyed working with Jo Ann on this issue, especially as she showed so much her dedication to firefighters and their families.

I will, however, most fondly remember the many mornings I and several others spent with Jo Ann at prayer breakfast on Wednesday mornings at the C Street House, as we will gather in sadness and sorrow tomorrow.

We were bound together, several of us, through personal experiences with cancer. And when amongst our fellowship Jo Ann was first diagnosed, we supported her with prayer; and then as she regained her strength, we rejoiced. But as so often and tragically happens with this dreaded disease and others, there was a relapse. And we have been much in prayer, as all of us have, for her recovery, but it was not to be.

You know, she and I had our differences in the direction of policy, but we certainly shared in our desire to let our faith serve as a guide for our work in Congress. And she was a very strong, principled person whose convictions and certainty of her faith shown through everything that she did.

I know we're going to honor our dear departed colleague by following in her strong example, by calling on our faith to serve as the motivation for our work here in Congress the way that she did. We may not measure up to her strength, but we have a role model in her. And I also hope that we, as a Congress, will serve to honor her memory by redoubling our efforts to remove the scourge of cancer through support for prevention, for following her example of reaching out, through education outreach and awareness, and for increasing research dollars so that we can more effectively prevent and treat this disease.

I join my colleagues in paying tribute to Jo Ann Davis today and offering our condolences to her family, her staff and her constituents in this time of their sorrow. We will miss Jo Ann Davis dearly.