Providing for the acceptance of a statue of Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 27) providing for the acceptance of a statue of Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution 27, providing for the acceptance of a statue of Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol.

President Gerald R. Ford was a distinguished Member and minority leader of this Chamber, a man of the House. He was Vice President of the United States and our 38th President. A proud citizen of the great State of Michigan, President Ford served this Nation at a time of great national pain and turmoil. He ably served and helped us heal our wounds.

This resolution allows, at the direction of the people of Michigan, the Rotunda to be used for a ceremony in President Ford's honor on May 3 of this year. It also allows for the statue to be permanently displayed as part of the prestigious and historic national Statuary Hall collection.

Mr. Speaker, this concurrent resolution, introduced by my colleague from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and cosponsored by the other members of the Michigan delegation, should garner overwhelming bipartisan support. So I thank Mr. Upton for introducing it, and I urge all my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 27.

House of Representatives,

Committee on House Administration,

Washington, DC, March 10, 2011.

Hon. John Boehner,

Speaker of the House, House of Representatives, Washington,

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and the original sponsor of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from the State of Michigan (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga).

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

Mr. Speaker, President Ford was a wonderful person, as everyone has said here. He was a remarkable man. And one of the most remarkable things about him was the humility with which he carried himself through his entire life.

An All-American football player, he was criticized for being clumsy by the national press at times, when in fact it was because he had a trick knee as a result of injuries that he suffered. But he never complained about that.

I'd like to just mention one little anecdote that I think brings to the attention of people what a genuine person he was. We all know that President Ford took a rather controversial, and I would say courageous, act in granting a pardon to President Nixon because he thought it was best for this country.

Now, some time thereafter, my father actually happened to be the physician attending to former President Nixon when he was suffering from his phlebitis attack which led to a near-death occasion while he was at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

President Ford heard about that, and President Ford was en route to California, and he immediately summoned his aides to him on Air Force One and said, I want to go visit Richard Nixon. His staff replied, Mr. President, we would advise against it. You've already received political heat for pardoning Mr. Nixon. And a personal visit like this would draw attention to that, and we would recommend against it.

In response, Gerald Ford said, Richard Nixon is my friend; he is in trouble. I want to see him.

So his aides then said, well, Mr. President, perhaps he is not well enough to see you. And President Ford said to his staff, call his doctor, call Pat Nixon, ask whether it would be good for me to visit him, and I will abide by their decision.

They called up and talked to Mrs. Nixon, who then called my dad and asked whether it would be a good idea. And my dad said it might be the best thing for his health that could happen. And when that was told to Gerald Ford, he said, make it happen. And he did. He came and he visited Richard Nixon at the hospital. After it was over, he turned to his aide, his Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney, and said, that's as close to death as I've ever seen anybody, because President Nixon was very, very sick at the time.

My dad called me up after that was over and said, this was a wonderful visit. It will help the health of President Nixon. And then he said to me, this--probably politically incorrect to say today, but my dad said, That President Ford, he's a real man's man. What he meant by that was he was a genuine person who, irrespective of the political consequences, decided to go forward with what most people would consider to be a genuine act of friendship, trying to help a friend in need, a friend who was in difficulty and, in fact, almost on the doorstep of death.

But that was Gerald Ford. He acted the way we would all hope that we would act, without concern for the consequences politically. Gerald Ford was, in fact, a man's man.

Mr. Speaker, I would urge our colleagues to support this resolution so that we might have the presence of Gerald Ford's statue here in our Nation's Capitol so that generations from now children can come and visit and ask questions about who that man, President Ford, really was, and perhaps they will get the real picture.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

I appreciate the chairman, the gentleman from California, allowing me this opportunity to speak in favor of House Continuing Resolution 27.

Mr. Speaker, this is a special opportunity for me, as a freshman Member of this body, in many different ways. First and foremost, it's special to me because growing up in west Michigan, my hometown of Zeeland was represented by the gentleman who went from Congressman to Vice President to President Ford at various times. And my father, who was a city councilman for many, many years during that time, actually had an opportunity to work with him and have a bit of a relationship. So I grew up around the dining room table with this lore about

Gerald Ford and what it meant to be involved and to give back to your community.

The second reason why it was very important to me was because of that time and that era. Being born in 1969, some of my earliest memories surrounded that turmoil of Vietnam and of Watergate, and of that time when, at the time then-Congressman Ford becoming Vice President and then becoming President of the United States. It very much shaped me as I was interested in the political process.

The third thing that really makes this special to me was, later on, just prior to this, I was granted the privilege of serving my community in the Michigan House of Representatives, where I voted to replace Zachary Chandler, who had been a Governor, and the statue that represented him, I voted to replace that with Gerald Ford. Now this was absolutely nothing against Governor Chandler. He was a great man in and of himself at the time. He was an abolitionist, fought against slavery, and many other things. But we felt this was such a special opportunity to grant to President Ford. So it was really an honor to be able to do that.

The other couple of things that make this special for me is, I had the opportunity to attend his funeral here at the National Cathedral. It was a very moving time. It was especially interesting to see people from both sides of the aisle talk about him with such respect and the way that he handled himself as such a gentleman. Even though he was tough, he came in and did it in a very respectful way. And I thought that was a true honor. I then that same day flew back to Grand Rapids and was able to pass in front of his casket at the Gerald R. Ford museum in downtown Grand Rapids, where there were literally hours and hours and hours of lines. I literally stood in line for over 4 hours at midnight as this line, through the entire night, snaked past his casket to pay honor and respect. Then the next day, as the burial was happening, crowds of tens of thousands of people literally lined the streets in honor of this man and Mrs. Ford as well.

And now we arrive at this point, the true honor of being able to be in this body, to have been an original cosponsor of this legislation, to be able to be here to witness the placing of this statue here in this great Capitol, a place where his heart really lied, a place where he served as minority leader for a number of years in this very Chamber. And it's truly an honor to be here and to be a part of this historic time. We are so thankful that we can pay honor and respect to this wonderful man who served his country nobly.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in very strong support of this House Resolution that is going to help put a statue of President Gerald R. Ford in the United States Capitol Rotunda.

Mr. Speaker, before I came to the Congress, I had the great honor and privilege of serving as Michigan's secretary of State. And sort of an odd appendage of that job was serving as our State's official historian, so we did all the historic markers. I tried to get around the State of Michigan to go to some of the dedications, particularly the ones that I thought were so outstanding. I recall with such a great amount of pride having the historic marker dedicated for Gerald Ford's boyhood home. A couple of young people had bought the home and completely refurbished it to the period when Gerald Ford was there. And so we are standing there on the porch of his boyhood home in Grand Rapids, and there was a very large crowd assembled of family, friends, neighbors, and others that were there to see the President, who came, both the President and Mrs. Ford came that day.

I had just gotten elected as the secretary of State, and here I was introducing him to this crowd of people there. He couldn't have been more humble and more enjoyable to listen to because he was talking about playing football out in the streets there, and how much he enjoyed that and the rough and tumble of playing football then. And of course then he went on to a couple of national championships at the University of Michigan. Go Blue!

But from there, you think about where he came from and what he achieved in his life, and really I think the humility and the honor that he had that took him from playing football, from those streets to a couple of national championships, and then to a historic and very remarkable and impactful legislative career, serving here in this House, in this Chamber, and then on to be the Vice President of the United States, and then the President of the United States. It is really an American story. It's just an American story, a true American success story.

President Ford took over the presidency at a time when our Nation was reeling from the nightmare of Watergate, looking for somebody to give us some stability, some normalcy during those terrible times when the honor and the dignity of the Office of the President had been so severely damaged. And he managed to repair America's faith, I think, in our leaders because he was so clearly an honest man, a true American patriot, an honorable man. He was the right leader at a very difficult time in our Nation's history. He reflected so well the humble and the patriotic, honest people of the great State of Michigan.

So, Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution. I think this statue of President Gerald Ford joining the other statues in Statuary Hall is certainly a fitting and appropriate thing. It reflects the will of the people of Michigan and I think is an honor that is long overdue to President Gerald R. Ford.

I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California for her kindness in yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be one of the sponsors of the legislation before us. I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 27, a resolution providing for the acceptance of a statue of the Honorable Gerald R. Ford from the people of Michigan for placement in the United States Capitol. It is an honor to be lead sponsor on this resolution with my dear friend and colleague across the aisle, Mr. Upton. It is a fitting tribute to the bipartisanship and the decency that Gerald Ford espoused as a Member of the Congress for 25 years, and then as Vice President and then President of the United States, that the resolution has the support of the entire Michigan delegation and of the people we in the Michigan delegation serve here in the Congress.

The people of Michigan chose a fine President, wise legislator, and a decent and extraordinary man to serve as one of the two statues representing the people of Michigan in the United States Capitol. Millions of people each year will have the privilege of viewing the statue and be reminded of the thoughtfulness, courage, and sincerity with which he led the Nation during his Presidency. Indeed, much like today, President Ford took office at a time of divisiveness and uncertainty, and he helped to heal our Nation and to bring us together.

I was fortunate to serve with President Ford in the House of Representatives. And though we disagreed on many issues, I was always able to say that I and my colleagues here respected President Ford for his decency, and for his ability and desire to bring all people together at the table and to form consensuses across the aisle. When he became President, the Congress helped work with him to enact a number of bipartisan laws, such as the Privacy Act, the Federal Elections Campaign Act, the Housing and Community Development Act, which established the Community Development Block Grant program, and many others.

President Ford and I worked particularly closely during his presidency on energy matters. He was an honorable man whose word was good, and his administration always kept in mind the best concerns and the best interests of the people of the United States. During that administration, we passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, EPCA, which established the Nation's first fuel-economy standards.

At a time when our country is deeply divided, I am pleased to have this moment to reflect on Gerald Ford's legacy. He never abandoned his beliefs, and he never based his decisions on anything except the best interests of the Nation. He once said that ``our great Republic is a government of laws, not men.'' It is wise that we should remember these good words and pay tribute to Gerald R. Ford by accepting his statue in the halls of this great institution. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for this resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, Gerald R. Ford, Republican of Michigan, served as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973 and also served as House minority leader from 1965 until he was nominated by the President and confirmed by Congress to serve as President Richard Nixon's Vice President. Representative Ford was a highly respected Member who was well-liked by his colleagues. He was the first person actually selected to fill a vacancy in the Vice Presidency under provisions of the 25th Amendment.

Upon President Nixon's resignation in 1974, Mr. Ford assumed the Presidency and served until January 20, 1977. He is the only person to have served as President without first having won a national election.

Mr. Speaker, Title 2 of the United States Code allows each State to have no more than two statues of their choosing to represent their State in the national Statuary Hall collection in the U.S. Capitol. The Ford statue, like that of other former U.S. Presidents, will be displayed in the Capitol Rotunda following the presentation ceremony on May 3, 2011.

H. Con. Res. 27 follows the customary practice of accepting the statue into the collection and setting the date for use of the Rotunda for the ceremony. I urge all Members to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have the honor to yield such time as he may consume to the dean of the Democratic Caucus, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.