To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the "Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office".

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the U.S. Virgin Islands and quasi-Brooklynite for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues' support for H.R. 5238, the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office designation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of a former colleague, a groundbreaking legislator, who is credited and lauded for being a forerunner of the progressive political movement in Brooklyn, New York, my predecessor, the Honorable Major Robert Odell Owens.

Congressman Owens served in this body from 1983 to 2007, and he served in both Brooklyn's 12th and 11th Congressional Districts of New York. Congressman Owens still brings to memory for many the fond recollections of his groundbreaking legislative accomplishments as a senior, longstanding member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mr. Owens spent 8 years in the New York State Senate before he was elected to serve in Brooklyn, New York's 12th Congressional District, a seat previously held by the Honorable Shirley Chisholm, his predecessor.

Mr. Owens then went on to serve his community for over two decades. Through his committee work and work with the Congressional Black Caucus' Education Brain Trust, Major Owens became known as the Education Congressman, but he was also deemed with another moniker, the Rapping Rep, due to his ability to intertwine his political perspective into rhythmic poetry.

Mr. Owens will always be remembered for the legislative victories he achieved on the Hill, and his spectacular fight, particularly for the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, for which he is credited with its passage.

His accomplishments in Congress are vast, and many are stemmed from his lifelong passion for education, community development, and equality. Mr. Owens' passion for education began during his career in librarianship where he served as the community information librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library for a decade.

His friends and fellow activists in the Brooklyn community note that Mr. Owens was known to place collections from the Brooklyn Public Library in local stores, restaurants, laundromats, and more because his passion lay within sharing knowledge and resources to those who may not have immediate access to it.

Mr. Owens was one of the founders of the New York Social Responsibilities Roundtable which was an organization that is now a part of the New York Library Association. Their mission is to create a central position for libraries and librarians in the battle for civil rights, social justice, peace, and ever-improved public access to education and information.

Congressman Owens' dynamic passions for public education, information sharing, equality, and civil rights became driving forces for him to run for Congress as a former head of the Congress of Racial Equality.

His legacy in Brooklyn led him to become a continued featured speaker at the White House Conference on Library and Information Services, as well as a recipient of the American Library Association's highest honor: honorary membership.

Fittingly nicknamed the Librarian in Congress, Mr. Owens was dedicated to helping communities of color receive access to information resources through local public libraries.

Mr. Owens was a pillar within the United States Congress as an advocate for Americans with disabilities, social justice reform, library funding, education reform, as well as development in public schools and libraries to ensure that underserved communities did not lack access to information and education resources.

As a young public servant myself, I was inspired by Mr. Owens' work with the disabilities activists who often visited his office and eventually provided testimony before Mr. Owens' House Subcommittee on Select Education where he fought to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA.

Today, Brooklynites benefit from public library resource initiatives because of his advocacy for funding. The ADA still stands as a law to prevent discrimination against Americans with disabilities, as it guarantees to create equal opportunity for the special needs community.

To this day, my colleagues and I work to protect this law at all costs, thanks to Congressman Owens' dedication to ensure that this law was enacted. I am so proud to be his successor.

H.R. 5238 would designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.

Congressman Owens will always be remembered in the district that he represented, and I am extremely pleased that the House will consider this bill in honor of his rich legacy and contributions to our great Chamber.

As I continue the distinct honor of representing the Ninth Congressional District of New York, I look forward to commemorating the life, memory, and integrity of our former House colleague, Congressman Major Robert Odell Owens, my trailblazing predecessor.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5238, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the ``Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.''

Mr. Speaker, this bill is an opportunity for us all to pay tribute to a great American, a fighter for justice and equality, one of the most passionate advocates for educational opportunity, and a man who served in this body with distinction, Major Owens of New York.

Major Owens was born June 28, 1936, in Collierville, Tennessee.

He was educated at Morehouse College, from which he received his baccalaureate degree, and Atlanta University from which he earned a Master of Science degree.

Major Owens later moved to New York where he worked as a librarian before accepting an appointment from Mayor John V. Lindsay to serve as Director of the New York City Community Development Agency.

He also served as a faculty member in the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College.

In 1974, Major Owens was elected to the New York State Senate and was reelected to serve a second term in 1978.

In 1982, Major Owens won a competitive primary to fill the seat of retiring Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the House of Representatives and the first woman ever to seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

As the Member of Congress for the 11th Congressional District of New York, Major Owens represented a diverse district centered in Brooklyn, including low income areas of Brownsville and parts of Bedford- Stuyvestant, the large Hasidic community of Crown Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and the more affluent neighborhoods of Park Slope and Prospect Park.

Affectionately known as the ``Education Congressman'' by his constituents, Major Owens fought tirelessly throughout his twelve terms in Congress to protect and expand educational opportunity for all Americans, especially those from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

As he often reminded his colleagues in the House, education was ``the kingpin issue.''

In an article he published in Black Issues in Higher Education, he wrote: ``We have to believe that all power and progress really begins with education.''

Major Owens served on the House Committee on Government Reform and the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

As the Ranking Member on the Education and Workforce Subcommittee for Workforce Protections, Congressman Owens helped lead the fight for minimum wage increases, blocked the attempt to eliminate cash payments for overtime, fought against efforts to roll back or repeal Davis- Bacon, and to weaken the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

As Chairman of the Education Subcommittee on Select Education and Civil Rights (1988 to '94), Congressman Owens was one of the earliest and strongest supporters of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which was enacted into law in 1991.

In recognition for his work to pass the ADA, Major Owens was awarded an honorary degree by Galludet University, the world's premier higher education institution serving deaf an hard of hearing people.

Major Owens loved serving in this body and he was a valued member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus.

As Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force on Haiti, he led the successful three-year fight which restored the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Mr. Speaker, Congressman Owens was a legislator's legislator.

Major Owens touched so many lives in so many helpful ways that he will always be remembered by people he served so ably and selfless for more than thirty years.

H.R. 5238 will honor the memory of this great man by enshrining his legacy on a public building in his district.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 5238, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the ``Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.''

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5238) to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the ``Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office''.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5238, a bill to name the post office at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, after Major Robert Odell Owens.

Major Owens led a life of public service, beginning as a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. At around the same time, Owens became a member of the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, where he worked to fight racism and discrimination in New York City.

From 1975 to 1982, Owens served as New York State senator. In 1982, Owens won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he went on to serve 24 years as a representative to the citizens of New York City.

In Congress, Owens fought passionately for many causes, including education policy. He was active in the Congressional Black Caucus Education Brain Trust, promoting reading, science, and math education.

This bill would honor Congressman Owens' service by naming a post office in Brooklyn in his name.

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

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleagues in consideration of H.R. 5238, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1234 Saint Johns Place in Brooklyn, New York, as the Major Robert Odell Owens Post Office.

This is particularly important to me, as Congressman Owens was my Congressman as a child growing up, and Saint Johns Place was the street on which my mother lived when she came from the Virgin Islands to live in New York City.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), and from that great place called Brooklyn, to tell us more about Congressman Owens.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I urge passage of H.R. 5238, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5238 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.