Rural Colorado Water Infrastructure Act

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to support this resolution authorizing the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the distinguished former Senator, Edward Brooke.

Edward Brooke, III, was born here in Washington, D.C., in October of 1919. He graduated from Dunbar High School

and attended Howard University, graduating in 1941. It was after the attack on Pearl Harbor that he served with the 336th Combat Infantry Regiment, fighting in the Italian campaign and earning a Bronze Star in 1943.

After the war, he earned two law degrees from Boston University Law School, serving as editor of the Law Review. It was while practicing law in Boston that he ran for but was defeated twice, attempting to serve in the Massachusetts Legislature, and then once again trying to become secretary of state. But he was undeterred.

In 1961, he chaired the Boston Finance Commission, charged with rooting out corruption, and was then elected attorney general the next year. He was the first African American in this country to serve as a State attorney general, and was then reelected to the post in 1964.

In 1966, he ran for Senator in Massachusetts as a Republican. He was successful and his election was historic. When Vice President Hubert Humphrey administered his oath of office, Senator Brooke became the first African American Senator in the United States Senate since 1881 and the first African American popularly elected to the Senate in our Nation's history. He served in the Senate from 1967 to 1979.

During his tenure in office, he drew from his war experience and was a tireless proponent of equal justice under the law. His regiment in World War II had only been comprised of African Americans, and he was quoted as saying, ``In every regard, we were treated as second class soldiers, if not worse, and we were angry. I felt a personal frustration and bitterness I had not known before in my life.''

But rather than remain bitter, he served with great honor in the various offices to which he was elected. While in office, he was appointed by President Johnson to serve on the famous Kerner Commission, was a cosponsor of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and fought for the renewal of the historic Voting Rights Act.

After his service in the Senate, he chaired the National Low Income Housing Coalition, he practiced law, and served on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Commission. I was honored to serve with Senator Brooke on that commission almost 20 years ago. The work we did was immensely important in attempting to ascertain fundamental justice, an historic record for those Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. Senator Brooke's presence was immeasurable in the process of bringing the legislation to completion.

Senator Brooke had a fiercely independent mind and he garnered respect from persons holding all philosophical persuasions. Senator Kennedy and Representative Holmes Norton both sponsored resolutions granting this Congressional Gold Medal. It is my distinct pleasure to join them in honoring Senator Brooke.

As a fellow Republican, I humbly and proudly share his philosophy. Reflecting on his time in public service, he once stated, ``I was proud to be a Republican, but my ultimate loyalty was to certain goals and ideals, not to party.''

Mr. Speaker, one week from today we will honor an extremely worthy man in the rotunda. His life, his commitment, his perseverance, his dedication, they all serve as an example and an inspiration for us to emulate.

I thank my chairman for bringing this to the floor. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important authorization.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that I enjoyed the remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern). I would just make one correction. He said that Senator Brooke was a Republican. As far as I understand he still is a Republican. And one of the things I was looking forward to when I was first elected in 1978 was joining people in my party such as Senator Brooke and having an opportunity to work with him.

I was saddened in 1978 when he lost for reelection at that point in time, but then was privileged to work with him on that national commission. And I found him to be a gentleman above all, a real gentleman with a soft-spoken manner who listened to what others had to say, did not put himself out front, but tried to get to the business at hand in a very intelligent, very dedicated, very persistent way.

So this is truly an honor, not only for him, but for this Congress that we are recognizing the service of this great American at this time and that we're doing it with the congressional honor, and that we will have this here in the rotunda of the United States.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

I thank the gentleman not only for yielding, but for his work in bringing this matter to the floor, and I associate myself with his remarks and with the remarks of my good friend on the other side of the aisle.

Seldom do we get an opportunity to applaud and find an appropriate way to recognize a truly historic figure. That is what we are about to do a week from today when we give our highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, to former Senator Edward W. Brooke.

Senator Kennedy would very much have wanted to be present next Wednesday. He quickly gathered his two-thirds of the signatures on his side to give the medal to Senator Brooke, the first African American to be popularly elected to the United States Senate. We are aware that there were African Americans in the Senate during the Civil War, but that was before the South had come back into the Union. So 100 years or so were to go by before another African American was to be elected.

But what an improbable man; a Republican from the then Democratic, still Democratic State of Massachusetts, where only 2 percent of the residents were African American. It is a tribute to the State of Massachusetts, to be sure. It is a tribute to the Republican Party that a man of this quality would step forward.

My interest, of course, comes from his roots. Senator Edward Brooke was born and raised in the District of Columbia. He is who he is because he was born in the segregated District of Columbia, overcame those barriers and went on to see his life for what he could make of it.

Senator Brooke is going to be 90 years old 2 days before the Congress awards this medal. He is in extraordinary shape. I love to hear him talk, because he talks with such eloquence, as if he were still on the Senate floor. But it should be known that Senator Brooke has had breast cancer, and obviously he has some of the infirmities associated with age. Among those, however, is not his signature modesty.

He has worked diligently for the D.C. House Voting Rights Act, which we are close, if we just continue, to finally getting this year. He called some of his friends, his fellow Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and I thought it would be quite appropriate to give him the medal now in the year that we are seeking to pass the D.C. Voting Rights Act, which he cosponsored time and again when he was in the Senate.

So, his modesty notwithstanding, we started down this road, got our two-thirds in the House as well, and we are about now to welcome this historic figure home again. Remember, we have had only three African American Senators and the first African American President, and he is going to be here, because he recognizes the historic significance of Senator Brooke's life.

You should know, however, that this man came through the fire to where he is. Yes, he was born to parents who worked in the government and educated their children, but he went off to fight in World War II in the 366th Combat Infantry Regiment, which was a segregated regiment. He advanced to be a combat decorated officer. He went to law school at Boston University School of Law and edited their Law Review, and that is how they got the prize that is Edward Brooke there in the first place.

Not only was Edward Brooke the first African American to serve in the Senate, Senator Brooke began by breaking barriers. He was the first African American in the United States to be elected as State attorney general and the first to be elected to statewide office.

Here is a man that made the most of whatever office he had. That was the time of the famous ``Boston Strangler'' case, and Senator Brooke adopted a very broad notion of his role as attorney general and the State's chief law enforcement officer by bringing the county district attorneys together, the fragmented police forces, and coordinating the multiple jurisdictions to successfully conclude that massive investigation.

It was 1966 that he prepared to come to the Senate. We were just passing the civil rights laws which he, himself, helped engineer; and in 1967 he came to the Senate, and the list of laws he is responsible for is indeed long: his leadership on the 1968 Housing Act; his leadership in the battle to uphold the Voting Rights Act; the Brooke amendment, providing that tenants of public housing pay no more than 25 percent of their income for housing; his leadership on the creation of Washington's Metro system, which most of the staff here use, and much more.

Senator Brooke has written his autobiography, published in 2007, ``Bridging the Divide, My Life, Senator Edward W. Brooke.'' It certainly would be a marriage of historical events if we were, as I believe we will, to pass the D.C. Voting Rights Act in this very year that Senator Edward Brooke, who championed the rights of the city and of all Americans, is honored here.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. Con. Res. 43, a resolution authorizing the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to former Massachusetts Senator Edward W. Brooke III.

There are few individuals more deserving of a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award of national appreciation from the U.S. Congress, than my friend, the former Senator of my state, Ed Brooke.

Throughout Senator Brooke's life, he has worked to bridge the great divides in our country.

In 1966, in the crucible of racism, prejudice, and segregation, Senator Edward W. Brooke stood as an embodiment of the change our country needed to move beyond the dark legacy of racial discrimination and prejudice in America. The first popularly elected African-America Senator, Senator Brooke's election stood as an example of what our nation could be when he noted that the voters of Massachusetts saw beyond skin color to ``judge you on your merit and your worth alone''.

When asked to comment on what many considered to be an improbable electoral victory, Senator Brooke responded by saying he was committed to ``unite men who have not been united before.'' Throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Senator Brooke did just that. Senator Brooke sought to reduce the economic and racial division in our country, particularly in the area of U.S. housing policy. Senator Brooke co-authored the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, or national origin. Still, to this very day, the Fair Housing Act remains a cornerstone of our housing policy.

On all issues of justice and equality, regardless of sex, race, or religion, there has been no stronger advocate. When Title IX of the 1972 Education Act was in jeopardy in the Senate, Senator Brooke took the lead to ensure that women and girls would be guaranteed equal educational opportunities. When the extension and expansion of the Voting Rights Act came before the Senate in 1975, it was the respected voice of Senator Brooke that helped to garner an extension of the Voting Rights Act. Whenever there was an opportunity to protect and defend the fundamental civil rights of Americans who had suffered from discrimination, Senator Brooke was there, serving as a powerful voice for justice.

Thirty years later, Senator Brooke's legacy is reflected by an America that is very different from the nation that existed when he first arrived in the Senate, an America which has made enormous progress in breaking down the barriers of racial discrimination and inequality that once divided our nation.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I stand to support and recognize a great leader, who never lost his passion for bridging our nation's divides by uniting men and women under the belief that we all are created equal.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 43) authorizing the use of the rotunda of the Capitol for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to former Senator Edward Brooke.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous matter on the resolution under consideration.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this measure allows for a Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for the first elected African American to the Senate, Edward Brooke. Senator Brooke was first elected from Massachusetts to the Senate in 1966 and served two terms.

While a Member of the Senate, Brooke championed extension of the Voting Rights Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and women's rights. Most notably, he fought to retain Title IX of the 1972 Education Act which guarantees equal education opportunity for girls and women. He also was a champion of affordable housing, resulting in the 1969 amendment to limit the amount of out-of-pocket expenses for public housing tenants.

After Senator Brooke's defeat in 1978, it would be 14 years before the second African American would be elected to the Senate.

I congratulate Senator Brooke on his service, and I urge all Members to support the resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

I will yield the gentlewoman 2 more minutes.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).

Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of S. Con. Res. 43 and yield back the balance of my time.

I just wanted to come to the floor as a native of Massachusetts to say how proud I am that we will honor Edward Brooke with a Congressional Gold Medal. And I am proud of all the accomplishments of Senator Brooke. He was a Republican, and I'm a Democrat and I come from a family of Democrats. But my very first vote when I was eligible to vote was for Senator Brooke. And I voted for him in spite of the fact that he was a Republican.

I voted for him because I believed in him and I believed in what he stood for. I admired his being a champion of civil rights, of human rights. I admired his work on the Voting Rights Act and so many other areas. He was a historic figure, it has been pointed out the first popularly elected African American to serve in the United States Senate. But he was a man who had the common touch and who represented the people of Massachusetts with great dignity, and I am proud that my first vote was for Ed Brooke. I look forward to being there when he is honored.

But I wanted to just say, as somebody from Massachusetts, that this is a really special tribute for an extraordinary man. And I am very proud that this House is doing that.