To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 151 North Maitland Avenue in Maitland, Florida, as the "Paula Hawkins Post Office Building".

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that Ms. Norton, the gentlelady from the District of Columbia, is here today. She chairs one of the important subcommittees of Oversight and Government Reform. It's been my honor to serve on that committee for some 18 years. I think most of that time she has been here and has done a great job in representing the citizens of the District of Columbia.

Paula Hawkins would be very proud that Ms. Norton is here today; and I have served with the two of those individuals, both Paula Hawkins and Eleanor Norton. There are many similarities. They are very determined women, very accomplished women, and women who love the people they represent and do a great service for them.

I had the distinction of being the chief of staff for Senator Hawkins from 1980 to 1985. Before that, I knew her in Florida in the community of Maitland. I lived in Maitland Shores. She lived down the street in the city of Maitland. Paula Hawkins was a wonderful lady, a great human being, a patriot, and she really broke a number of the glass ceilings and barriers for women.

I might say, among her accomplishments, she was the first woman elected statewide in the history of the State of Florida, and she did that on her own. She started, actually, in her community, working on some local issues, and she took those local issues to her fellow citizens at city hall. She had their voices heard. And she wasn't elected to any position, just an active community leader. From that, she ran unsuccessfully for the State legislature. But when people saw her talent, they knew that this individual was a fighter for the people.

In fact, she gained the reputation when she got elected statewide to the first office as the ``fighting housewife,'' ``the Maitland housewife.'' She was known affectionately as ``the Fighting Maitland housewife'' during her entire lifetime, even when she was a Member of the United States Senate because she fought for the people in her community, and she didn't take any hostages. She represented them well. She had her principles, and she had her philosophy. She never wavered. I think her personal morality--she is a member of the Church of Latter- day Saints,

a Mormon, strong in her beliefs, strong in her philosophy, and I think that was also a guiding light for Paula Hawkins.

Along her side during that entire journey was a wonderful individual, Gene Hawkins. Gene survived her. She passed away, as Ms. Norton said, December 3 of last year, but her memory and her achievements do live on. Not only, as you heard Ms. Norton describe, was she elected statewide in the State of Florida, but also was the first United States female Senator in her own right--no family member preceded her--and that was quite an accomplishment. We think that now, some 30 years ago; but it was an accomplishment even in 1980 when she achieved it.

When she came to Congress, she set her path, and she had her priorities, and one of those priorities were our children and youth. In fact, they committed to her care a committee that was called, I believe, Family, Youth and Drugs because she was interested in family, she was interested in youth, and she was very dedicated to doing away with the scourge of illegal narcotics.

Now, some people who get involved in committee work make their mark. Paula Hawkins set the mark. She passed, as everyone knows in the country, the national missing children's legislation. She knew that missing and exploited children were a national problem, but not a national priority. I remember when she said, It's amazing that an automobile, a refrigerator can be quickly identified by our law enforcement folks but missing children could not. So she set up the mechanism that long survives her in a national missing children's center that President Reagan opened on June 13, 1984.

There are many accomplishments too, and I'm anxious for this legislation to be heard in the other body. Simple things like there wasn't a Senate daycare center, and that daycare center is still operating today. So not just Members of the Senate--and many of them are far beyond the age of having children eligible for daycare--but there are many hundreds of employees and staff who do have young children, and Paula Hawkins saw that their needs were taken care of. Just a small thing.

There's dramatic legislation. Most people would never know today, almost all of the labor legislation--she was on the Labor Committee in the Senate. But it was interesting to watch her because, being a male and, you know, sometimes men think a little bit differently than women. You don't think of all the problems that women have. And at that point in life, she became their champion.

So the labor laws in this country even today reflect her influence, simple things like trying to make certain that a single woman had some way to get to work, some simple way to care for the child, some consideration for the special concerns and needs of women who want to be productive in our society. And even the laws today have the mark of a great United States Senator.

So, today I know many people are focused on the death and loss of Senator Byrd, and many of us who got to know him mourn his loss and his many contributions. Paula Hawkins wasn't here as many terms as Senator Byrd. He was here for nearly half a century. Paula Hawkins was here for only one term, but her deeds and her good works prevail even to this day.

So to her husband, Gene, to her daughters, Genean and to Kelly and to Kevin, her son, we're excited about having in their community, in Paula's community, the Maitland Post Office just down the street from where she lived for many years, a small remembrance. And it is fitting that when we do remember folks like Senator Hawkins, that the public can enjoy their memory. So on the Maitland Post Office will be a plaque dedicating that building and that postal facility to the memory of a great American leader, former United States Senator Paula Hawkins.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Again, I am pleased that Ms. Norton would be here today and honor the memory of my friend. I had the opportunity, as I say, to have worked with Senator Hawkins, both as she built the Florida Republican Party from precinct to the State level, as she built her reputation and service to not only the community of Maitland, of Winter Park, central Florida, Florida, the State, and the Nation, but it is fitting that we do take this step today to name this structure in her honor, a small token of our appreciation for her dedication, her service, her patriotism.

In closing, let me just say that the gentlelady from the District of Columbia probably knows some about my traits. But I have to tell her, in closing, that the one thing I learned from Senator Paula Hawkins is persistence. It beats power. It beats position. It beats wealth. It beats all the cards that may be dealt to you in a positive or negative fashion. But persistence, and I think the gentlelady knows what I mean, that I am a persistent person, and now she knows the rest of the story as to where that persistence came. And it was from the lady we honor here today, Senator Paula Hawkins.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5395) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 151 North Maitland Avenue in Maitland, Florida, as the ``Paula Hawkins Post Office Building''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

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

On behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am pleased to present H.R. 5395 for consideration. This measure designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 151 North Maitland Avenue in Maitland, Florida, as the Paula Hawkins Post Office Building. H.R. 5395 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Florida, Representative John Mica, on May 25, 2010. It was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform which waived consideration of the measure to expedite its consideration on the floor today. It enjoys the support of the entire Florida delegation.

Paula Hawkins was a Republican Member of Congress who served a single term as a Senator from Florida, fighting to protect children and blazing a trail for women. Paula Hawkins was born on January 24, 1927, in Salt Lake City and passed away on December 3, 2009, at the age of 82. Paula Hawkins was the eldest of three children born to Paul, a naval chief warrant officer, and Leone Fickes. In 1934, the family moved to Atlanta, where her father taught at Georgia Tech. Her parents split when Paula was in high school, and Leone and the children returned to Utah. She finished high school at Richmond, Utah, in 1944, then enrolled at Utah State University. On September 5, 1947, Paula Fickes and Walter Eugene Hawkins were married and moved to Atlanta. The couple had three children before moving to Winter Park, Florida, in 1955, where Paula Hawkins became a community activist and Republican volunteer.

Ms. Hawkins was the first woman elected to a full Senate term without being preceded in politics by a husband or father. She was also the first woman to be a Senator from Florida. While in the Senate, she was the leading sponsor of the Missing Children's Act of 1982, which requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to enter descriptive information on missing children into a national computer database that can be used by law enforcement agencies across the country.

With incredible courage, she shocked her colleagues by disclosing in a congressional hearing that she had been molested as a child by a neighbor. Besides her daughter Genean and her husband, both of Winter Park, her survivors include another daughter, Kelly McCoy, also of Winter Park; a son, Kevin, of Denver; a sister, Carole Fickes of Sacramento; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great grandchildren. Paula Hawkins was truly an inspiration to Members of Congress and to women everywhere. I therefore urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman from Florida for his kind and generous comparison of my service with that of Paula Hawkins. She was much admired for the breakthroughs that her service represented.

I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I can only say that the gentleman from Florida learned all too well the lessons of persistence from Senator Paula Hawkins. And may I say, as well, whenever the gentleman from Florida is right in his persistence, he will find the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia right there beside him and in his corner.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the following postal-naming bills en bloc: Calendar Nos. 489, 490, and 491--S. 3567, H.R. 5278, and H.R. 5395.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, with no intervening action or debate; and that any statements relating to the bills be printed in the Record.