To provide for the placement of a statue or bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the United States Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 497) to provide for the placement of a statue or bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the United States Capitol.

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

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

I rise in support of H. Res. 497 and the placement of a statue or bust of Winston Churchill here in the United States Capitol. Winston Churchill was unique. An inspiration to millions around the world during World War II, Winston Churchill's eloquence and courage brought hope to those bound under the weight of tyranny and war.

His prose and his voice were direct and succinct. Churchill believed in calling things by their rightful names. When he secretly met with President Roosevelt in August of 1941 and signed the Atlantic Charter, Churchill made sure that it referred specifically to ``Nazi tyranny.'' Always a straight shooter, Churchill called it like it was. In retrospect, many people think that it's easy for that kind of nomenclature to be used, but at the time, it was unique. During the 1930s, when voice after voice cautioned against taking too strong a stance against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill refused to ignore the gathering storm.

In 1982, Mr. Speaker, I was a young, second-term Member of this House. But I, like millions of Americans, was inspired that year by the actions and words of our 40th President, who traveled across the Atlantic in June of that year to address Parliament. He did so out of an appreciation of the common liberty-loving and natural rights- affirming heritage Great Britain and the United States had shared, and which he thought must be protected at all costs.

And as he should have, President Reagan quoted frequently from Churchill that day, for there was no other statesman in the 20th century who had thought, who had contemplated, who had written, and who had taught us about war, about the motives of man, and about the causes of and necessities present for civilization to survive. That is why Churchill's hatred of tyranny burned so deep, and why his warnings about oppression before and after the war were so prescient.

Mr. Speaker, during the long dark night of war in 1940 and 1941, before the United States was there to aid its ally, Britain suffered the horrors of attack after attack, as all others on the continent had fallen and it was left alone, separated only by the channel from utter destruction.

During Nazi bombing attacks on London, the great and majestic St. Paul's Cathedral was badly damaged. It looked like it would crumble in flames, but it did not. One of the most inspired images of the war is of St. Paul's with smoke billowing all around it, standing tall, refusing to fall, and reminding us of the things for which Britain was fighting. And like that image, Winston Churchill's example does the same, and so much more.

Almost 70 years ago to the day, Prime Minister Churchill risked his life in a U-boat attack in a secret voyage across the Atlantic. On December 26, 1941, in an address to a joint session of Congress, he said: ``I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice, and in peace.'' This is a charge to which I hope this Congress will still aspire.

Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the author of this resolution and distinguished Speaker of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Harper), the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Elections for the Committee on House Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), a distinguished member of the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.

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

Returning to the subject at hand, we have the great portrait of General Lafayette here in the House Chamber, one of seven honorary citizens of the United States, Winston Churchill being another.

Winston Churchill was, as is evident, one of the great men of the last century, one for whom inspiration was a way of life, and one who, as the Speaker said just a few moments ago, was the best ally that the United States has ever had.

As a young boy, having been born somewhat after World War II, I remember with fascination seeing this figure on television. He seemed to remind me of every newborn baby I've ever seen. They all look like Winston Churchill without the cigar. You wondered what was it that made this man great. And you began to read history. You began to talk with your father who had served in World War II about what this man was, and you realized this was someone who, in his youth, was involved in cavalry charges, and in his oldest age, was leader of a country at the beginning of the thermonuclear world.

Talk about the span of time and the span of greatness and the ability to perceive, through all of that time, despite his mistakes, being a fallible man, perceive the greatness of the individual and the opportunity that democracy gives to individuals as no other form of government does.

At the time when he criticized Nazi Germany, it was not something that all then said. The late Christopher Hitchens, in an April 2002 article in ``The Atlantic,'' said this:

But alone among his contemporaries, Churchill did not

denounce the Nazi empire merely as a threat, actual or

potential, to the British one. Nor did he speak of it as a

depraved but possibly useful ally. He excoriated it as a

wicked and nihilistic thing. That appears facile now, but was

exceedingly uncommon then. In what was perhaps his best ever

speech, delivered to the Commons 5 days after the Munich

agreement on October 5, 1938, Churchill gave voice to the

idea that even a ``peace-loving'' coexistence with Hitler had

something rotten about it. ``What I find unendurable is the

sense of our country falling into the power, into the orbit

and influence of Nazi Germany, and of our existence becoming

dependent upon their good will or pleasure.''

That was an uncommon statement at the time. That was a courageous statement at the time. That was a visionary statement at the time.

It is to honor that vision, it is to honor that ally, it is to honor that person who was dedicated to the best of Western civilization, who was one who stood with very few at a time when that civilization was threatened as never before.

Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be on the floor to offer this resolution to allow for, to authorize, a statue or bust of Winston Churchill here in the United States Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time as I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Winston Churchill, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, is one of the foremost world figures of the 20th century. He was renowned for leading his nation through most of World War II. And in addition to his well-known oratory skills, Churchill was a talented writer and painter. And he's the only British Prime Minister to receive the Nobel Prize in literature for his numerous works, including the six-volume set ``The Second World War.''

Churchill served in the British House of Commons and as a Cabinet Minister in several posts before being selected as Prime Minister in 1940. A great ally to the United States during World War II, Churchill was the architect of the Grand Alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union. He forged a strong relationship with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the two had numerous historic meetings shaping the direction of the war and what came after it. One such meeting resulted in the creation of the Atlantic Charter, which later led to the creation of the United Nations.

As with other historical figures, Mr. Speaker, Churchill's life was fraught with complexity and contradictions. He held antediluvian views with respect to race, for example, which was long a point of contention with respect to the peoples of India and his relationship specifically with Gandhi.

During World War I, he was First Lord of the Admiralty; and it was he who set in motion the failed assault at Gallipoli in a futile effort to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople in hopes of securing a sea route to Russia. That failure forced him out of the government, and it was years before he would return warning of the threat Hitler presented in Germany.

That ability to define injustice and pursue actions with clarity of purpose in the absolute face of evil no matter what the consequences is one of the traits that helped him transcend his human flaws and foibles and enter the ranks of the great statesmen of the 20th century.

He stood alone in the 1930s, issuing jeremiad after jeremiad about the Nazi threat; and his peers were heedless, tragically heedless, of his warning. His years in the political wilderness then showed consummate courage and resolve. He never lost the clarity of recognition of evil, and in fact that extended into a decade later when he warned in a Missouri speech about Stalin's Iron Curtain.

In recognition of his contributions to our Nation and our international alliances, Churchill was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. And it is fitting that we now recognize the 70th anniversary of his address before a joint session of Congress, mentioned by Mr. Lungren of California, by requesting to have a statue of him displayed here in the Capitol.

If would not be the first time Churchill's life work has been honored in this

Capitol. A bronze statuette of Churchill presented to the Joint Committee on the Library was in fact placed in Statuary Hall from 1985 to 1986, and it has since been on display in the Ways and Means Committee of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I support the resolution honoring a great American ally, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

I yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise today in support of H. Res. 497, providing for the placement of a statue or bust of Sir Winston Churchill in the United States Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, much has been said and written about Winston Churchill. Most prominently, he served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 through 1945 and again from 1951 through 1955. But he was so much more.

During the 20th century's darkest hour, Winston Churchill warned of the approaching evil, stood tall when it arrived, and inspired his citizens and ours, and liberty-loving people around the world, to fight, to persevere, and to never surrender before victory was assured.

He knew that the long road of our humanity-affirming progress could not end and was not going to end in defeat to tyranny.

Mr. Speaker, we are, in fact, one week away, as has been said, from the 70th anniversary of Churchill's address to a joint session of Congress. On December 26, 1941, with our Nation still in shock after the attack on Pearl Harbor and simultaneous defeats and setbacks across the Pacific, and more than 2 long years since the invasion of Poland, Prime Minister Churchill, as this resolution reminds us, said: ``Sure I am that this day--now we are the masters of our fate, that the task which has been set us is not above our strength, that its pains and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause and an unconquerable willpower, salvation will not be denied us.''

Mr. Speaker, World War II was a cataclysmic conflict which engulfed the world in 6 long and bloody years and took approximately 60 million lives.

Whole continents were engulfed in flames. Europe as we knew it was overrun. Poland, Belgium, France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Greece, and many others all were conquered by the Nazi inferno, until only Britain stood alone. And in those days, Churchill, his people, the heroic Royal Air Force, and the courage summoned from the depths of their character rose to meet the evil face to face.

Mr. Speaker, Winston Churchill was made an Honorary Citizen of the United States by an act of Congress in 1963. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1969. His strength, fortitude, and resolve have stood, and will forever stand, the test off time; and his life and example will be one of those guiding lights to which we always look in troublesome days, whenever they should appear.

It is more than appropriate to have a statue or bust of Sir Winston Churchill in our great Capitol, and I support H. Res. 497.

Mr. Speaker, Winston Churchill, born to a British father and an American mother. Winston Churchill, to me, is the person of the 20th century that is an example of a leader that motivated the free world in its defeat of the tyrants of tyranny.

His importance to us here today is not only because he served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 when our two nations battled together to save civilization from the grips of the Nazis and the Japanese, but also because of his steadfast unwillingness to ever surrender. He still serves as a guiding light to America and to free peoples throughout the world.

In World War II, during the Battle of Britain, London endured systematic bombing by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights, which destroyed or damaged over a million London homes and killed more than 40,000 British citizens. To bolster resolve among the British people, Winston Churchill gave the following speech:

``Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all of the apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

``We shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France; we shall fight on the seas and the oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.

``We shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing grounds; we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills.

``We shall never surrender.''

Mr. Speaker, history shows Britain never did surrender. And along with the United States and the rest of the Allies, they defeated tyranny and the zeal of the Nazi to enslave peoples in the East and the West.

Today our country faces many daunting problems. The world is still a very dangerous place, and there are those who would snuff out the flame of freedom. We can learn from the resolve of Winston Churchill. Our Nation will get through tough times, both home and abroad, just as the Allies did in World War II.

Americans need to be strong and courageous, not timid and weak; work together and remember, as Churchill so eloquently encouraged the British people in 1940, that some things are worth fighting for. And, Mr. Speaker, America is one of those noble ideals.

And that's just the way it is.

I thank the gentleman and the Speaker and the chairman for their kindness and recognition for 2 minutes today.

Coming in from Houston, I had the privilege of being with Reservists that

visited one of my hospitals that serves military families and, of course, the soldiers and veterans. They serve them on the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder.

I say that because it was a feeling of warmth and family, first acknowledging, as I wear this yellow ribbon, of those who have come home and those who have done their duty.

I believe that the acknowledgment of Sir Winston Churchill is an appropriate action for this Congress, but really on behalf of the American people. And I read quickly this quote in brief of his words: ``Sure I am that this day, now, we are the masters of our fate; that the task which has been set us is not above our strength.''

Although this was in the context of World War II, I plead with my colleagues who are all arriving back by train, bus, airplane, and car, that this is a time that is within our strength to not, in any way, yield to the tasks and not accomplish on behalf of the American people. We are masters of our fate.

We have before us the Senate conference on the payroll tax and employment extension. Vote on it. Vote together in a bipartisan manner. Realize that there are differences, but that we have another day, as was devised by the Senate, by February, to be able to debate this issue.

The American people thought this was settled.

People who are hungry for payroll tax relief, $1,000; people who are looking for the unemployment extension; those who are getting $1,000, those who would be beneficiaries of the 400,000 jobs, and those who will be beneficiaries of the unemployment extension that will help them pay their mortgage or help them pay their rent or food or the necessities of life, putting those monies into the economy, the American people thought we were finished, thought we had compromised, thought we had risen to our higher angels.

And so, if our soldiers and those who are returning can do their job, I'm pleading, in a bipartisan manner, let us vote for the Senate bill. Let us move this forward, and let us realize that we are the masters of our fate.