To designate the federally occupied building located at McKinley Avenue and Third Street, SW., Canton, Ohio, as the "Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse".

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1687) to designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at McKinley Avenue and Third Street, SW., Canton, Ohio, as the ``Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse,'' as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 1687.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill I introduced, H.R. 1687, as amended, and urge its quick passage.

This bill designates the building located at McKinley and Third Streets, S.W., Canton, Ohio, as the Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse. The bill has strong, bipartisan support.

While I know Congressman Regula as my predecessor, many of you on both sides of the aisle were also fortunate enough to call him a colleague, a mentor, and a friend. He was a true steward of his district and earned every accolade from his constituents, who knew him only as Ralph. He combined a unique blend of procedural acumen, hard work, and collegial personality in rising to a position of leadership on the House Appropriations Committee. All the while, he never forgot where he came from, consistently setting the standard and making sure that his constituents received the assistance they needed with their problems.

As a former teacher and principal, Ralph was a leader in pushing to improve our students' reading skills, develop teacher training, and increase Pell Grant funding. He also increased by millions of dollars the amount of Federal money committed to research in fighting cancer, heart disease, and birth defects.

Ralph was a leader in alternative energy. And he was an early champion of fuel cell technology, helping my district earn a reputation as a national leader in fuel cell research and development.

Congressman Ralph Regula served with distinction and represented the 16th District of Ohio for over 30 years--in fact, it was 36 years. He is a native Ohioan, born in Beach City, Ohio, on December 3, 1924. After high school, Congressman Ralph Regula served in the United States Navy with distinction and honor in World War II. He later graduated from college and earned his law degree in Canton, Ohio, at William McKinley School of Law. He went on to become a lawyer and later a State legislator.

He was first elected to Congress in 1972 and served 18 consecutive terms, retiring last year to spend more time with his lovely, lovely wife, Mary, and college sweetheart, as well as their three children and four grandchildren.

As much as I wish to claim this as an original idea, I have to give thanks and credit to Senator Sherrod Brown, who first introduced this legislation last December before I was sworn in.

It is appropriate that we honor Congressman Ralph Regula with this bill because in many ways this building would not exist without his efforts, having laid the groundwork for it many, many years ago.

The Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse will continue Ralph's legacy, serving Stark County for many years to come. It is most fitting and proper to honor Congressman Regula with this designation.

I support this bill, as amended, and urge its immediate passage.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano).

(Mr. SERRANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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

I wish to thank the gentleman from Ohio. His remarks were not only appropriate, they were well-guided in terms of what Mr. Regula meant not only to our part of Ohio, but what he meant to America.

Campaigning through the district and having the occasion to work with Congressman Regula while I was in the State legislature, people knew him not as a conservative, not as a liberal, not as a Democrat or Republican, but just as Ralph. And that type of leadership, that type of portrayal of American politics is what we should all rise to emulate. He was a man of his word, a man of integrity, and a man who believed in the Constitution. And he told me, he said, When you go to Congress, John, make sure that you protect the Constitution and, in particular, the fact that we own the checkbook, we write the checks, we appropriate the money, we here in Congress are responsible for the taxpayers' dollars. He was responsible for millions and millions of dollars coming back to the State of Ohio, whether it was research in fuel-cell technology or whether it was the First Ladies' Library that his wife had such a brilliant idea to anchor in our part of Ohio and the Midwest, or just funding for all the medical research that we're doing in our State, he was a leader. And he believed in the innovation and creativity of the American people, and in particular of all Ohioans. He was a man of great integrity, and someone who obviously I, as Congressman LaTourette said, would not be able to replace, but certainly respect as his successor.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield to the gentlelady from California, our Speaker of the House of Representatives, Speaker Pelosi.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I concur with the Speaker's eloquent remarks, especially about Mary, who champions women in their role in politics. And for my two daughters who are sitting behind me and the ones I have at home, she has been a shepherd for all in the 16th District as well as our country.

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

Mr. Speaker, just a few more comments and I think we will be wrapping this up very soon.

To piggyback on what the gentleman was suggesting, as I said earlier, Ralph was not known as a Democrat or a Republican, a conservative or a liberal; he was just known as ``Ralph.'' I remember, in some closing remarks at a recent banquet that we were at, I was telling folks, and I feel at liberty to say this, I'm a freshman Member here, that this collegiality that we are sharing right now becomes few and far between at times and we need to return this Chamber, this body, our dialogue to that kind of respect for each other, where we may disagree on ideas, as Democrats and Republicans, we both believe in the end goal. And like a married couple, we may argue about how we get to the end destination, taking this exit ramp, that road, but at the end of the day, like a married couple, we always end up where we need to go. And we need to respect that. And I think that this bill respects the service of Ralph Regula and his contributions to northeast Ohio, and in particular what it will mean to the people of Stark County who go there to find relief and find help from their government. And every day they walk into that building, that building that's being built right now, they will see his designation, his name, and it will be a remembrance of what he meant.

Just one last comment, Mr. Speaker. This district that I am currently representing and serving in is, by all measures, arguably a swing district. It has Democrat and Republican registrations, even Independents inside the race. But yet he held this district for 36 years, and the Congressman before him held this district for 18 years, and the other Federal building in the city is named after him, Frank T. Bow. And so what this says is that the people of northeast Ohio, in particular the 16th District, they respect legislators, they respect Congressmen like Ralph Regula and his predecessor because they believe in our greatest asset, which is our people.

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

Mr. Speaker, at this time I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Thank you, Mr. Diaz-Balart, for the recognition. And I want to thank Mr. Boccieri of Ohio for introducing this piece of legislation.

Mr. Boccieri--I can't call him Congressman Regula's replacement because nobody can replace Congressman Regula, but he is his successor. And, unluckily, I also happen to be his successor as the dean of the Ohio Republican Delegation because in the last two elections you guys have wiped everybody out, and at eight terms, I'm the head guy on our side in the State of Ohio.

But, as has been mentioned, Ralph served 36 years here. And 36 years is the longest that any Republican Member of Congress has served from the State of Ohio. He had a lot to do, and I think Mr. Petri is going to talk about his work with the parks when he was the chairman of the Interior Subcommittee, but Ralph's real gift, when it came to our side of the aisle at least, back in happier days--and Mr. Boccieri, happier days are when the Republicans were in the majority, that definition. Ralph guided us. And if you looked at the Ohio delegation back in the 1990s, most of us were the chairmen of full committees. We had two cardinals, Mr. Regula and Mr. Hobson of Springfield. And that was all Ralph's doing. He made a commitment to make sure that there was an Ohioan on every committee that mattered.

When I was elected--I'm a lawyer by training--I said, Ralph, I think I would like to be on the Judiciary Committee. And he said, What are you, nuts? We need a Republican from Ohio on the Transportation Committee. And he put me there, and it was one of the happiest times of my life.

There are two things that I want to talk about. Mr. Serrano is right about his observations, but I came in the Class of 1994, so I'm one of those Republican revolutionaries that created the first majority since 1954. And Mr. Speaker, you may remember--and others may remember--that at that time there was a lot of rhetoric in this Chamber and there were some things that became targets. And parks became targets. But what I will always remember is that it was the desire on my side of the aisle to zero-fund things like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. And I thought that was misguided, and Congressman Regula, as the chairman of the Interior Subcommittee, also felt that that was misguided. And as a result, although those agencies saw reductions during that time, they were never zeroed out. And I think in this appropriation cycle we will finally get back to the level of funding that they received prior to 1994.

I will tell you that a few years before Congressman Regula's retirement he was in line as the most senior guy to become the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. And he worked very hard at that. He created an organization called CARE, and worked hard--raised a lot of money in what you had to do and all that other business--and he was denied that honor, that opportunity. I will tell you that, in my mind, it had a lot to do not with the quality of the other candidates, who were both excellent. It had a lot to do with the fact that Ralph had angered people back in the 1990s because he wouldn't eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, he wouldn't eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities, he wouldn't agree to shut down the Department of Education. And as a result, even though Ralph had a long and distinguished career here, I think he was punished.

The other thing I want to say about Ralph is his partner, his life partner, Mary--Mary, of course, is the brains behind the First Ladies' Library. Mr. Speaker, if you ever happen to be traveling through the State of Ohio and you have to take a restroom break or you have to get off and get a soda, stop at the First Ladies' Library, because it really is an amazing creation that wouldn't be in existence today if it wasn't for Mary Regula, with the support of her husband, Ralph Regula.

So, Mr. Boccieri, I again want to thank you very much. This is an amazingly wonderful bipartisan effort on your part, and Senator Brown, who you mentioned, to name something after somebody who really deserves to have something named after him. I never have served with a finer public servant than Congressman Regula. I know that that building will make him proud, and it should make the citizens of Canton, Ohio, proud as well. And I thank you for honoring my friend.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him for giving us this opportunity to come to the floor to sing the praises of our former colleague--we always will have him as a colleague in our hearts, but former colleague on the floor, Congressman Ralph Regula of Ohio.

As many of you know and as has been acknowledged, Ralph Regula served in the House with great distinction for 38 years of service, 38 years of service and not only service, great leadership. Last year we sadly said good-bye to him, but now tonight we will honor him by creating a longstanding testament to his leadership, designating the courthouse and Federal building in his hometown of Canton as the Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse.

I want to acknowledge Congressman John Boccieri for his work in shepherding this legislation through Congress and for doing an exceptional job, I believe, following in the footsteps of Ralph Regula in representing Ohio's 16th Congressional District.

Congressman Regula's entire life was devoted to public service and still is. He was a distinguished Navy veteran of World War II. He served our country in that way, and he served in both the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives as well as the State Board of Education. And aren't we fortunate that when he came to Congress, he was already an experienced legislator with a strong commitment to educating our children.

Thirty-eight years. Imagine that. Some of our Members weren't even born when Ralph Regula came to the Congress. Thirty-eight years in the House of Representatives, earning the distinction of being the second- longest-serving Republican in the Congress.

Congressman Regula's leadership benefited our entire Nation. It was a personal privilege for me to work with him on the Appropriations Committee. I saw firsthand his leadership, his knowledge of the issues, the respect that he commanded for all who came before him and the respect he had from both sides of the aisle.

I personally am grateful to him for transforming San Francisco's former Army base--he was very much a part of doing that--the Presidio, into one of our Nation's premier parks, and we have honored him on many occasions in San Francisco, most recently at Fort Baker.

None of us can come together and talk about Ralph Regula without talking about Mary Regula because they

served here in Congress as a team. Ralph would be the first to say that it was the love of Mary and their three children and four grandchildren that made his leadership possible. And we all know that Mary is the one who made a decision that we would have a National First Ladies' Library in Canton, Ohio, to honor the contribution to our Nation of the First Ladies of America. It's a phenomenal thing. She had an idea, she executed it, and now people can visit and see that important part of American history thanks to Mary Regula.

Today we honor a great congressional leader, a great friend to all of us, and a great man. I urge all of my colleagues to understand the privilege that we have of expressing our appreciation for Ralph Regula's leadership by supporting this legislation, and I join my colleagues from Ohio on both sides of the aisle for the honor that we are paying to Ralph Regula tonight. And I again thank John Boccieri for shepherding this through the Congress.

I thank my colleague for yielding. I thank the previous speakers, particularly the Speaker of the House for taking the time from her busy schedule to come down here to honor a distinguished colleague on the occasion of naming the Federal courthouse in his hometown after him, and that's the gentleman I had the privilege of serving with for nearly 30 years and getting to know and one whom I admire a great deal, and that is Ralph Regula.

You've heard about the spirit with which Ralph Regula approached his responsibilities as a legislator. It was positive. He worked with all Members of this body, and he did what he thought was in the best interest of this country and this institution.

You learn a lot about Members of this body when you visit their districts. And my wife and young daughter and I had the habit, as we would drive back to Wisconsin for the August break, of picking a different route across the country and taking a few extra days and stopping to see historic and interesting places and making it an educational and fun thing rather than just an ordeal to go across the country. And one year we decided to go through and visit John Seiberling, another colleague in Akron, Ohio, from a distinguished family, Seiberling Tire and all that, and he had his home which they had lost in the Depression, Stan Hywet, which is one of the largest private homes in the United States.

And in the course of doing that, he took us through the thing, and I discovered that he and Ralph Regula had worked together for many years to create what is now, I believe, the largest national park east of the Mississippi, the Cuyahoga. I know they were both tremendously proud of that. It was a wonderful opportunity for that area of Ohio because there are large cities on various sides of this and it provides recreational and other opportunities for a large population. And if they had not acted when they did, it might not be there today. It was done by those two Representatives working as best they could with colleagues in both political parties and will stand, I think, as a lasting monument to their joint efforts on behalf of our country and certainly the people of their region in Ohio.

Ralph and Mary were and are a great team. And one other thing I think I might mention, Ralph is kind of a gentleman farmer, I guess, and he used to spend a lot of time working there, and he loved his grandchildren and family and all of that. But Ronald Reagan was kind of a gentleman farmer, too. He had this ranch out in California where he cleared brush and was trying to develop it. And it turned out that he and Ralph were talking over at the White House for some reason about some other things, and Reagan discovered that Ralph was going back to work on some fencing on his farm and he asked him if he could explain how he did it. So Ralph came back to a meeting afterward and said that Reagan had taken careful notes and everything else and then a week or two later gave him, I think, a signed copy of the instructions that Ralph had given to him, that it was a good fence.

Ralph did a great job and it's an appropriate honor. I strongly support the passage of this legislation.

I thank the gentleman.

Today, I rise in support of H.R. 1687, legislation to bring well- deserved recognition to Congressman Ralph Regula, who was first elected to Congress in 1972.

Congressman Regula retired in January of this year after serving in Congress for 18 consecutive terms. He had a wealth of experience on the House Appropriations Committee, serving as chairman of both the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee and the Interior Subcommittee.

When I assumed the chairmanship of the House Financial Services Appropriations Committee in this Congress, Congressman Regula was the ranking member, and he was a mentor and a partner. I learned a lot about how to be an effective chairman from Congressman Regula by watching him in action and talking to him as my ranking member.

As a Member from an urban district, New York City, I also learned a lot about him and about farming. And I must tell you, I learned something that may sound funny to some folks, but I learned the difference between jelly and jam, and he was an expert on the subject. What I most treasure is his friendship because Congressman Regula was a true and generous friend to me.

The designation of this Federal building and courthouse in Canton, Ohio, as the Ralph Regula Federal Building and United States Courthouse is an appropriate honor for this man who has devoted his life to public service. He served in the Navy, was a lawyer, a member of the Ohio State Board of Education, the Ohio House of Representatives, and the Ohio State Senate before joining Congress and beginning his many years of distinguished and dedicated service on behalf of his constituents of the 16th Congressional District of Ohio.

We are doing something really good today; we are honoring a man who deserved this. And let me just conclude by saying this: I imagine when we leave here--when the day comes that I leave here--you want to be remembered for your work, but I think more than that you want to be remembered by your colleagues as how you treated them and how you interacted with them. Ralph Regula was a gentleman. Ralph Regula was a colleague. Ralph Regula never had anything nasty to say about anyone. And as I said before, coming from a community where I came from and coming from a community where he would tell me about driving his pickup truck and going out to his farm, it was two different worlds, and yet I learned to admire him, to love him, and to respect him.

And so today I wanted to join this celebration to say thank you to him. And I know, Mr. Speaker, it's somewhere outside the rules of the House to speak to a TV audience or to people in the gallery, so I won't do that, but I suspect that Congressman Regula is watching us today and needs to know that we care about him, that we care a lot, and that this is an honor, one of many, that he truly deserves.