To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 340 South Loudon Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland, as the "United States Representative Elijah E. Cummings Post Office Building".

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, reported and found truly enrolled bills of the House of the following titles, which were thereupon signed by the Speaker pro tempore, Mr. McHenry, on Friday, December 20, 2024:

H.R. 663. An act to amend the Indian Child Protection and

Family Violence Prevention Act.

H.R. 1607. An act to clarify jurisdiction with respect to

certain Bureau of Reclamation pumped storage development, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 1727. An act to amend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

Development Act to extend the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal

National Historical Park Commission.

H.R. 2468. An act to require the Secretary of the Interior

to convey to the State of Utah certain Federal land under the

administrative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management

within the boundaries of Camp Williams, Utah, and for other

purposes.

H.R. 3324. An act to extend the authority to collect

Shasta-Trinity Marina fees through fiscal year 2029.

H.R. 4094. An act to amend the Central Utah Project

Completion Act to authorize expenditures for the conduct of

certain water conservation measures in the Great Salt Lake

basin, and for other purposes.

H.R. 4385. An act to extend authorization of the

Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991.

H.R. 4467. An act to direct the Under Secretary for

Management of the Department of Homeland Security to assess

contracts for covered services performed by contractor

personnel along the United States land border with Mexico,

and for other purposes.

H.R. 5646. An act to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965

to require institutions of higher education to disclose

hazing incidents, and for other purposes.

H.R. 5770. An act to reauthorize certain United States

Geological Survey water data enhancement programs.

H.R. 6826. An act to designate the visitor and education

center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine

as the Paul S. Sarbanes Visitor and Education Center.

H.R. 6843. An act to expand the boundaries of the

Atchafalaya National Heritage Area to include Lafourche

Parish, Louisiana.

H.R. 7177. An act to amend title 28, United States Code, to

consolidate certain divisions in the Northern District of

Alabama.

H.R. 7213. An act to amend the Public Health Service Act to

enhance and reauthorize activities and programs relating to

autism spectrum disorder, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7332. An Act to require the Secretary of the Interior

and the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain Federal

land to the State of Utah for inclusion in certain State

parks, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7524. An act to amend title 40, United States Code, to

require the submission of reports on certain information

technology services funds to Congress before expenditures may

be made, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8219. An act to require the Secretary of the Interior

to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility

of designating certain land as the Lahaina National Heritage

Area, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8413. An act to provide for the conveyance of certain

Federal land at Swanson Reservoir and Hugh Butler Reservoir

in the State of Nebraska, and for other purposes.

H.R. 8663. An act to require the Science and Technology

Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security to develop

greater capacity to detect and identify illicit substances in

very low concentrations.

H.R. 9566. An act to require governmentwide source code

sharing, and for other purposes.

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, further reported and found truly an enrolled bill of the House of the following title, which was thereupon signed by the Speaker on Saturday, December 21, 2024:

H.R. 10545. An act making further continuing appropriations

for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, and for other

purposes.

Kevin F. McCumber, Clerk of the House, further reported and found truly enrolled bills of the House of the following titles, which were thereupon signed by the Speaker pro tempore, Mr. McHENRY:

H.R. 82. An act to amend title II of the Social Security

Act to repeal the Government pension offset and windfall

elimination provisions.

H.R. 670. An act to direct the Secretary of Health and

Human Services to establish a website to promote awareness of

available resources for individuals with disabilities, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 1318. An act to authorize the location of a monument

on the National Mall to commemorate and honor the women's

suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment to

the Constitution, and for other purposes.

H.R. 1555. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 2300 Sylvan Avenue in

Modesto, California, as the ``Corporal Michael D. Anderson

Jr. Post Office Building''.

H.R. 1823. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 207 East Fort Dade Avenue in

Brooksville, Florida, as the ``Specialist Justin Dean Coleman

Memorial Post Office Building''.

H.R. 2997. An act to direct the Secretary of the Interior

to convey to Mesa County, Colorado, certain Federal land in

Colorado, and for other purposes.

H.R. 3354. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 220 North Hatcher Avenue in

Purcellville, Virginia, as the ``Secretary of State Madeleine

Albright Post Office Building''.

H.R. 3391. An act to extend the Gabriella Miller Kids First

Pediatric Research Program at the National Institutes of

Health, and for other purposes.

H.R. 4136. An act to name the Department of Veterans

Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, as

the ``U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial VA Clinic''.

H.R. 4955. An act to name the community-based outpatient

clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Monroeville,

Pennsylvania, as the ``Henry Parham VA Clinic''.

H.R. 4984. An act to direct the Secretary of the Interior

to transfer administrative jurisdiction over the Robert F.

Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus to the District of Columbia

so that the District may use the Campus for purposes

including residential and commercial development, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 5103. An act to require the Director of the Office of

Management and Budget to approve or deny spend plans within a

certain amount of time, and for other purposes.

H.R. 5443. An act to establish a policy regarding appraisal

and valuation services for real property for a transaction

over which the Secretary of the Interior has jurisdiction,

and for other purposes.

H.R. 5867. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 109 Live Oaks Boulevard in

Casselberry, Florida, as the ``Colonel Joseph William

Kittinger II Post Office Building''.

H.R. 5887. An act to amend chapter 3 of title 5, United

States Code, to improve Government service delivery, and

build related capacity for the Federal Government, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 6062. An act to restore the ability of the people of

American Samoa to approve amendments to the territorial

constitution based on majority rule in a democratic act of

self-determination, as authorized pursuant to an Act of

Congress delegating administration of Federal territorial law

in the territory to the President, and to the Secretary of

the Interior under Executive Order 10264, dated June 29,

1951, under which the Constitution of American Samoa was

approved and may be amended without requirement for further

congressional action, subject to the authority of Congress

under the Territorial Clause in article IV, section 3, clause

2 of the United States Constitution.

H.R. 6116. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 14280 South Military Trail

in Delray Beach, Florida, as the ``Benjamin Berell Ferencz

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6162. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 379 North Oates Street in

Dothan, Alabama, as the ``LaBruce `Bruce' Tidwell Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 6188. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 420 Highway 17 North in

Surfside Beach, South Carolina, as the ``Nancy Yount Childs

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6244. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1535 East Los Ebanos

Boulevard in Brownsville, Texas, as the ``1st Lieutenant

Andres Zermeno Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6395. An act to amend the Energy Act of 2020 to

require the Secretary of the Interior to include the

Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultations

regarding designations of critical minerals, elements,

substances, and materials.

H.R. 6492. An act to improve recreation opportunities on,

and facilitate greater access to, Federal public land, and

for other purposes.

H.R. 6633. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 9355 113th Street in

Seminole, Florida, as the ``Army SSG Ryan Christian Knauss

Memorial Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6750. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 501 Mercer Street Southwest

in Wilson, North Carolina, as the ``Milton F. Fitch, Sr. Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 6810. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 518 North Ridgewood Drive in

Sebring, Florida, as the ``U.S. Army Air Corps Major Thomas

B. McGuire Post Office Building''.

H.R. 6852. An act to designate Holcombe Rucker Park, in

Harlem, New York, as a National Commemorative Site, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 6983. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 15 South Valdosta Road in

Lakeland, Georgia, as the ``Nell Patten Roquemore Post

Office''.

H.R. 7158. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 201 East Battles Road in

Santa Maria, California, as the ``Larry Lavagnino Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7180. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 80 1st Street in Kingsland,

Arkansas, as the Kingsland `Johnny Cash' Post Office''.

H.R. 7365. To provide PreCheck to certain severely injured

or disabled veterans, and for other purposes.

H.R. 7385. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 29 Franklin Street in

Petersburg, Virginia, as the ``John Mercer Langston Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 74l7. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 135 West Spring Street in

Titusville, Pennsylvania, as the ``Edwin L. Drake Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7507. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 203 East 6th Street in

Lexington, Nebraska, as the ``William E. and Elsie L. Barrett

Post Office Building''.

H.R. 7508. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1285 Emancipation Highway in

Fredericksburg, Virginia, as the ``Gladys P. Todd Post

Office''.

H.R. 7606. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 1087 Route 47 South in Rio

Grande, New Jersey, as the ``Carlton H. Hand Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7607. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at Block 1025, Lots 18 & 19,

Northeast Corner of US Route 9 South and Main Street in the

Township of Middle County of Cape May, New Jersey, as the

``George Henry White Post Office Building''.

H.R. 7893. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 306 Pickens Street in

Marion, Alabama, as the ``Albert Turner, Sr. Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 7938. An act to amend the Klamath Basin Water Supply

Enhancement Act of 2000 to provide the Secretary of the

Interior with certain authorities with respect to projects

affecting the Klamath Basin watershed, and for other

purposes.

H.R. 8012. An act to establish the Jackie Robinson Ballpark

National Commemorative Site in the State of Florida, and for

other purposes.

H.R. 8057. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 9317 Bolsa Avenue in

Westminster, California, as the ``Little Saigon Vietnam War

Veterans Memorial Post Office''.

H.R. 8641. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 401 Main Street in Brawley,

California, as the ``Walter Francis Ulloa Memorial Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 8666. An act to amend title 28, United States Code, to

authorize holding court for the Central Division of Utah in

Moab and Monticello.

H.R. 8667. An act to rename the community-based outpatient

clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Cadillac,

Michigan, as the ``Duane E. Dewey VA Clinic''.

H.R. 8717. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 20 West Main Street in

SantaQuin, Utah, as the ``SGT Bill Hooser Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 8841. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 114 Center Street East in

Roseau, Minnesota, as the ``Floyd B. Olson Post Office''.

H.R. 8868. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located 609 Portsmouth Avenue in

Greenland, New Hampshire, as the ``Chief Michael Maloney Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 8909. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 82-6110 Mamalahoa Highway in

Captain Cook, Hawaii, as the ``Army 1st Lt. John Kuulei

Kauhaihao Post Office Building''.

H.R. 8919. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 151 Highway 74 South in

Peachtree City, Georgia, as the ``SFC Shawn McCloskey Post

Office''.

H.R. 8976. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 20 West White Street in

Millstadt, Illinois, as the ``Corporal Matthew A. Wyatt Post

Office''.

H.R. 9076. An act to reauthorize child welfare programs

under part B of title IV of the Social Security Act and

strengthen the State and tribal child support enforcement

program under part D of such title, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9124. An act to name the Department of Veterans

Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Auburn,

California, as the ``Louis A. Conter VA Clinic''.

H.R. 9285. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 39l3 Leland Avenue Northwest

in Comstock Park, Michigan, as the ``Captain Miguel Justin

Nava Post Office''.

H.R. 9322. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 675 Wolf Ledges Parkway in

Akron, Ohio, as the ``Judge James R. Williams Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 9421. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 108 North Main Street in

Bucoda, Washington, as the ``Mayor Rob Gordon Post Office''.

H.R. 9487. An act to amend the Legislative Reorganization

Act of 1970 to authorize the Legislative Counsel of the House

of Representatives to designate more than one of the

attorneys of the Office of the Legislative Counsel as a

Deputy Legislative Counsel, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9544. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 340 South Loudon Avenue in

Baltimore, Maryland, as the ``United States Representative

Elijah E. Cummings Post Office Building''.

H.R. 9549. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 125 South 1st Avenue in

Hillsboro, Oregon, as the ``Elizabeth Furse Post Office

Building''.

H.R. 9580. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 2777 Brentwood Road in

Raleigh, North Carolina, as the ``Millie Dunn Veasey Post

Office''.

H.R. 9592. An act to amend title 44, United States Code, to

modernize the Federal Register, and for other purposes.

H.R. 9600. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 119 Main Street in Plains,

Georgia, as the ``Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Post Office''.

H.R. 9775. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 119 North Anderson Street in

Elwood, Indiana, as the ``Officer Noah Jacob Shahnavaz Post

Office Building''.

H.R. 10065. An act to designate the facility of the United

States Postal Service located at 802 North Tancahua Street in

Corpus Christi, Texas, as the ``Captain Robert E. `Bob'

Batterson Post Office''.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland, the ranking member, for his kind and overly gracious remarks.

Mr. Speaker, in his absence, I thank Chairman Comer who made a commitment several months back that we would get to this point and for his cosponsorship of this bill. I thank my other colleagues from the State of Maryland, some of whom will be speaking today.

I rise in obvious support of this, encouraging Members of this body to embrace it and to say that the diligence and the collective commitment to your word to get us to this point means a lot to me. It is not lost on me. It is not lost on the people of the State of Maryland.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation designates the United States Postal Service facility, as you heard, located at 340 South Loudon Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland, as the United States Representative Elijah Cummings Post Office Building.

This legislation will bestow, I believe, a very fitting honor on a former chair of the Oversight Committee, former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and, most importantly, an unwavering servant of the people in the House that we now all serve in.

His legacy, in many respects, lives through the work that he has done, and this legislation will ensure once and for all that his name will continue to be called by the people that he so dutifully served.

Mr. Speaker, Elijah Cummings, as was noted a moment ago, was born on January 18, 1951, to Ruth Elma and Robert Cummings, two South Carolina sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore in search of more opportunities during the period of the Great Migration.

Elijah's parents worked long and hard, as did many parents in that era, because they were up against so many things coming out of the Great Depression and out of a period of war that our Nation found itself in.

They worked and also served as preachers of a local church that both of them founded. With their teachings, his parents instilled in Elijah a sense of faith, justice, and morality that would go on to exemplify his four decades of public service.

While they were not formally educated in the traditional sense, Elijah's parents made certain that all of their children understood the importance and the essence of education. He tirelessly worked, as many of you know, over and over again to earn his Phi Beta Kappa key at Howard University and his juris doctorate degree at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Elijah knew that his story would ultimately illustrate the power of hard work and perseverance, and he always did that in a sense of believing that it would be the kind of message that young people who might be lost in many different ways would find a way to latch onto.

His values instilled in that generation, we believe, a whole new sense of public service. As a young lawyer in 1983, Elijah was elected and served with distinction in the Maryland House of Delegates. I might say, his personal credibility and relationships with members of that body existed then, and they still exist now.

He has, in many respects, given us the sort of model and the sort of example that we all talk about and many of us strive to attain.

In 1996, Elijah won his first of 12 elections to this body, assuming the seat that I had voluntarily vacated to head up the presidency of the NAACP.

Elijah's sense of fairness, his respect for others, and his relentless efforts to make life better for all people won him the respect and the admiration of his colleagues on this side of the aisle and his colleagues on that side of the aisle.

He and I were friends for 42 years up until the day of his death, and so I carry with me a lot of memorable moments of his congressional career, of the time that we served together on the board at Morgan State University, and as our people will tell you, as part of our organizations, our time together learning politics in the street, finding a way to organize and make a real difference.

He was the only person that I know of who continued to remind us that we could be better than this. I am so glad that Mr. Raskin brought that up.

Mr. Speaker, I am hoping I might get an additional 30 seconds here. I would like to conclude. I know we are running out of time.

Mr. Speaker, in this time of national division and in this time of great partisanship, I am reminded of when we went through similar periods, and it was always Elijah Cummings on this side of the aisle and others who would remind us that we really were better than this, that we really did have a higher calling.

For me, personally, as a friend, as a former colleague, and as someone that

I admired--even though he would tell you he admired me, I admired him even more--it is just a great honor to bring this bill forward. I would ask that it is adopted today, and I thank all of those Members who supported this, both Democrats and Republicans, and the sponsor.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very proud support of H.R. 9544. It is a proud day for people of Maryland. It is a proud day for the House Oversight Committee.

It is a proud day for the United States Congress that we have the opportunity to vote on a post office named after the late, great chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings.

Mr. Speaker, Elijah Cummings was a favorite son of Maryland who devoted his life and his career to making the government an instrument of the common good for everyone and uplifting everybody in our society together. He was always seeking that higher ground, always telling us in the midst of debate and discussion we are better than this, that we can always lift ourselves higher to find unity and consensus around the values that make our country great.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Mfume), who is both his predecessor and his successor in office.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the former distinguished majority leader of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 10 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Ocasio-Cortez), the vice ranking member of the Oversight Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for those beautiful remarks.

Elijah Cummings was a great Representative for the people of Baltimore and for the people of Maryland. He was a great leader, and he was a great teacher, too.

I remember when I was in my third term in office, and I had started off here on the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee, to which Chairman Cummings had recruited me. I was also on the House Administration Committee. Then, I had an invitation to go on the Rules Committee, but I was afraid that I might be overextended.

I went and sat right over on the floor next to Chairman Cummings where he liked to sit, and I told him that I was afraid that I might be overburdening myself with too many committees. He turned silent for a moment, and then he said: ``Raskin''--he spoke very sharply to me at that moment. I had never heard him use that tone of voice. I said: Yes? He said: You are never too busy to do that which you ought to be doing.

I never forgot that, and I have used that line for a lot of other colleagues. People will complain about being tired and exhausted and so on, but we are never too busy to be doing that which we ought to be doing.

Congressman Mfume, with this visionary legislation, is setting up a post office at 340 South Loudon Avenue in Baltimore that will be graced with the name of the great Elijah Cummings. How fitting that is, a place where people go to send letters and messages, because another thing I remember Chairman Cummings always saying was that children are the ultimate message that we send to future generations of people who we will never meet. He meant we have to invest in children and young people because they will end up defining a world that will long outlast and outsurvive us.

I hope that post office lasts forever, and I hope when parents take their kids to that post office to mail their letters, they will be able to tell them that there was once a great man named Elijah Cummings whose whole life repays a lot of study for all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I urge all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 9544, legislation in honor of a true American hero, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we are better than this. Surely, all of us ought to be saying that to ourselves as we conclude this Congress. We are better than this. You will hear that said so often when we talk about our friend, Elijah Cummings.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this legislation. The Old Testament tells us of a man long ago who saw injustice, wrongdoing, and suffering and devoted his life to banishing these evils from his native land, a man who kept an enduring faith not only in God, but in his fellow men and women, a man who inspired that same faith in the people around him. That man was Elijah the prophet.

The Elijah I served with in Congress for nearly 23 years was my dear friend Elijah Cummings. He was like Elijah the prophet. He possessed a moral clarity that guided him in every part of his life.

Whether it was protecting voting rights, alleviating poverty, expanding civil rights, or promoting justice, Elijah Cummings demonstrated principled tenacity and boundless energy when standing up for the causes in which he believed. He believed in this House's ability and sacred responsibility to better our Republic and the lives of each and every one of our citizens.

It was because of that belief that he held all who served in this House to such a high standard of ethics, the same standard to which he held himself.

When he believed this institution was falling short of that standard, he would demand of us, as I said at the beginning and will repeat again: ``We are better than this.''

Frankly, as we sit in these extraordinary seats given to us only through the hands of our neighbors and friends in our districts, when we have the opportunity to make a decision, we ought to have resounding in our head that someone will say when we act that we are not better than this but we are what we have done. We need to be better.

No place benefited from Elijah's principled leadership more than his hometown. He was a true son of Baltimore.

Mr. Speaker, he was a true son of Baltimore, the city of grit, of opportunity, of hard work, and, as they would say of themselves, of charm.

He loved his city, and his city loved him in return.

Naming this post office after him pays tribute to his lifelong devotion to Baltimore, to democracy, to justice, to the average person, to every person, to his brothers and sisters, and to his country.

Mr. Speaker, we lost Elijah far too early. His memory continues to guide us. His example is one to which all Members of this institution, all Members, all Americans, and all people ought to aspire.

Attaching his name to this post office will serve as a reminder to all who seek, in his words, ``not just common ground, but higher ground.''

Mr. Speaker, I certainly support this legislation to pay tribute to the giant Elijah Cummings.

I have so many memories of Elijah. The first memory I have is that we both represented Baltimore for many years together. I started to notice that he and I, even though we represented different parts of Baltimore, there would be events that were for the benefit of the entire city, and we would always be showing up at those together. It gave me great pride because I felt like that showed we had some shared values about what was important. His leadership in those places was unrivaled.

A second observation I have is that--and certainly Kweisi knows this intimately--Elijah was always the person who the family wanted to come to give the eulogy at the funeral. It was because oftentimes he had a deep connection to the family that made a difference. They also knew that he would articulate what that person had meant to the community better than anybody else could. It was always an inspirational time when you would sit there and hear those powerful words with that powerful voice kind of enveloping you.

The thing I remember most is the story he would tell about when he was sworn in and his father was sitting up in the gallery. Many of us know this story. His father began to cry. Afterward, Elijah went to him and said that he noticed that he was crying. He had never seen his father cry. He observed that not even when his own mother died had his father cried. He asked why he had been crying. His father said: You think it is because you became a Congressman, don't you?

Elijah said yes. His father said no, that was not the reason, although he was very proud of him. He said that he was crying because, looking at Elijah, he could see what he could have been.

That is an observation that many generations of Americans who encounter barriers could make looking at the success of the next generation and the generation beyond, ``I see what I could have been,'' and how emotional that is. Elijah was representing all of those generations, but in the same way, they were saying that those children and grandchildren could look at an Elijah and say not that is what I could have been, but that is what I can be. This is why he made such a powerful difference in the lives of so many.

If we could all reach a little bit for the kind of service that Elijah Cummings gave to this country, the world would be a better place.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Mfume for leading this effort to pay tribute to our former colleague, our former friend, a giant, Elijah Cummings.