Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my friend and colleague, Mr. Kilmer. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House for the last time as a Member of this historic symbol of our democracy. It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve my…
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my friend and colleague, Mr. Kilmer.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House for the last time as a Member of this historic symbol of our democracy.
It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve my hometown and the people of mid-Michigan in Congress. I am so grateful to my constituents for putting their trust and faith in me to represent them for the last 12 years.
Every day that I have been in public service, I have been focused on doing what I can to improve the lives of the people back home. I am so very proud of the work that we have been able to accomplish together to make Michigan a better place.
I am particularly proud of what we have done to revitalize our manufacturing base and to bring jobs back to this country. As I have said a few times in this Chamber, I am from Flint, my hometown, so I know firsthand about how unfair trade deals and the lack of industrial policy has hurt working families in the communities that I represent.
In Congress, I got to work. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I helped to replace NAFTA with a better deal for America's workers. Under a Democratic Congress, we passed new laws like the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law to incentivize us to make things in America. Those manufacturing policies strengthen our manufacturing and our U.S. supply chains. The real important aspect of that is it has grown our local economy.
These laws have worked. Already in mid-Michigan, we have seen major companies expand and invest like SK siltron in Bay City, Hemlock Semiconductor in Saginaw, and NanoGraf right in my home county, Genesee County. These companies are hiring hundreds of workers to produce American-made semiconductors, advanced manufacturing chips, and electric battery materials to help ensure that America leads the way in manufacturing in the 21st century.
To lower costs for families, again, I got to work passing new laws to put more money in the pockets of hardworking Michiganians. We authored the electric vehicle tax credit. We expanded the child tax credit to lower costs. In fact, I consider the refundable tax credit, the child tax credit, to be perhaps the best vote I have cast in my career in public office.
We all come to Congress with our own priorities. Revitalizing mid- Michigan manufacturing was certainly one of mine. The beauty of public service is that we are always learning something new from the people that we work for, from our constituents.
I am very grateful to advocates in my district who first educated me on one of those issues, and that is the issue of PFAS contamination, chemical contamination. Today, most Americans now know the dangers of PFAS to their health and the environment, but back then when we first got started on this, most Members of Congress couldn't even spell PFAS, let alone know what it is.
I first heard from constituents like Cathy Wusterbarth and Tony Spaniola about water quality issues in Oscoda, and we got to work urging faster cleanup of PFAS contamination surrounding the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.
I helped establish with my friend, Brian Fitzpatrick, the first Congressional PFAS Task Force, which brought together Democrats and Republicans around this issue to more urgently address a real public health threat and to ensure that those exposed, and especially our servicemembers, have access to the healthcare that they deserve.
Finally, after years of advocacy, we have made progress. This year, the Biden administration announced the first-ever drinking water standard for PFAS and designated certain PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances to ensure the polluters, not taxpayers, have to pay to clean up that contamination.
There is a lot more work we have to do to deal with cleanup of PFAS chemicals, but I am proud of what we have done and I am proud that we have done it by working together in a bipartisan fashion. I look forward to watching what my colleagues will do to continue to address this really important public health issue.
Of course, throughout my time in Congress, the issue of clean drinking water has defined much of my work. In the richest country on the planet, at the richest moment in its history, drinking water should be something that is a right, not a privilege.
One of my really proudest accomplishments here in Congress was working to provide real relief to Flint families during that terrible Flint water crisis. I worked to replace those lead pipes, expand healthcare services, and to establish the Flint Registry, which gives access to ongoing support for the long-term effects of that terrible crisis.
What happened in my hometown wasn't an anomaly. It was a warning to the rest of the country that we have got to be serious about commonsense regulations to protect public health. From the moment that that manmade crisis began, I knew we had to get to work.
Throughout the crisis, I organized numerous delegations of Members of Congress to come to my hometown of Flint. Democrats and Republicans responded. They came and met directly with the families affected by this terrible crisis. They learned about the decisions that led to the crisis in the first place, and they helped build support for Federal action.
I brought President Obama to Flint to hold a townhall with the families affected. For over 2 years, I worked with the Obama administration to expand Medicaid, Head Start, and healthy nutrition programs for families that really needed those supports because of the exposure to lead.
Because of that work, in 2016, despite the fact that then, like now, I was serving in the minority, I was able to secure $170 million in an aid package to help replace those terrible lead service lines, to create the Flint Registry, and to expand healthcare services.
I will be forever grateful to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, then our Democratic leader, who recognized that a Republican majority needed Democratic votes to pass a year-end budget bill, and she deputized me to go finish the deal. She sent me directly over to meet with Speaker Ryan, and we were able to include that single Democratic priority in that budget bill that provided the aid to the families of Flint.
As I also prepare to leave Congress, I am frequently asked, what will I miss the most. It is not hard to list the things I won't miss. It is also not tough to list those things I will miss the most: the friendships that I have made in this body. I thank my colleagues.
First and foremost, to Michigan's congressional delegation, it has been a real honor to be the dean of our Democratic delegation and to work alongside our two great Senators, Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Gary Peters and to previously be able to work with one of my mentors, the late Senator Carl Levin. We came together to protect the Great Lakes, to support the hardworking men and women of the auto industry, and to clean up that terrible PFAS contamination that I mentioned.
Specifically, to Speaker Pelosi, a masterful legislator, a masterful tactician: Simply put there is no one better in this business or who I have learned more from. I thank her for never forgetting about the people of Flint and always fighting for America's children, to give a punch and to take a punch for those kids. She has done that her whole career.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is a true and honest friend, a classmate
from our 2012 class. We often joke about how the term ``my good friend'' is tossed about in this body pretty loosely, but he is an honest and true friend and an incredible leader for our House Democratic Caucus. I thank him for the trust that he placed in me to serve in the House Democratic leadership and to serve as the co-chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
Hakeem and I came to Congress together, along with an amazing group of people in 2012. They are all friends. We share a special bond. I am especially grateful to three members of my class--one of whom you just heard from--who are not just friends but became my roommates over the years: Jared Huffman from California; of course, Derek Kilmer, my buddy from Washington State; and Ami Bera, also from California. They have not only been roommates, but in that role have helped me get through some of the good times. They also were there as a listening ear to help me get through some of the really tough personal challenges that I faced during my time here in Congress. These are friendships that will last forever.
There are other groups--the baseball team, the guys in the corner, and the indespicables--Congressman Kilmer mentioned them. We will explain that off the record. Two of them are here, Derek Kilmer, of course, and Adam Schiff, a group that we have been able to bond over and strategize with and sometimes just listen to one another. Those friendships will go on and on. Even though Adam is moving over to the Senate, I expect he will still remember our names.
To my chairman, Richie Neal, the chairman of the oldest, and what I think to be the most powerful committee in Congress, the Ways and Means Committee, serving on that committee, especially under the leadership of Richie Neal has been some of the most meaningful work of my career: to pass fair trade deals, to cut the cost of insulin, to protect Social Security and Medicare and to cut taxes for working families, and especially expanding that child tax credit.
Mr. Speaker, it has been one of the greatest honors of my lifetime, of course, to work with the people here.
One of them was a special friend, a person who I was very fortunate to get to know first as a person I admired from a distance but then became a colleague and a true friend. I am, of course, talking about the late John Lewis.
I remember when we first got here how many times we would say to one another: As rough as it was, aren't we lucky we get to go to work every day with John Lewis?
I remember literally sitting on the floor here when John led an effort to call attention to gun violence. It is the kind of good trouble that John was known for. I was happy to participate in that moment, never fully understanding until recently what devastating impact the pain of gun violence can have on families across the country. I am now one of those families. I didn't know it then.
I got to call John Lewis for the last few months of his life every single time that we had a vote on the floor of the House because he designated me to cast his vote for him during the COVID proxy rules. He was too ill to be here.
He gave me this incredible gift to vote for myself and Michigan's Fifth District and then to come to that podium and announce to this Congress that I was about to cast a vote on behalf of the gentleman from Georgia's Fifth District, John Lewis. The person known most for the precious right to vote gave me a gift I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that was the opportunity to carry his vote to the floor of this House.
I thank my extended family, really, my staff. To the dozens of team members, the past and present members of my crew, thanks for your hard work, for your dedication. I have really had the most talented and selfless team, dedicated D.C. and district staff, I could have ever hoped for. They pour their hearts, their souls, and themselves into this work.
I have often told my staff that, while I carry the voting card and wear this pin on my lapel, they serve in Congress. They have done that extraordinarily well.
I especially thank my longtime chief of staff, Mitchell Rivard, who has been with me not just since my campaign but who came to work for me even when I launched my campaign in 2011. He has been with me ever since, on the good days and on the days that were not so good, like being sworn in for first time. Then, he and I were both here in the Capitol on that terrible day, January 6. He has become like family. He has done an outstanding job leading my team, and I am excited for the great things that each of my team members will accomplish as they move forward.
Mitchell and my district director, Jacob Bennett, were with me from the day I came to Congress until the day we packed up the office to go home. The country is really fortunate that they will both continue to serve in this institution.
I want to thank a couple of my other team members who were with me for most of my time here, Jordan Dickinson and Ghada Alkiek, who I have known since they were probably too young to vote. They have been an important part of this experience for me.
I said many times that while I have been elected to lots of different public roles, I have never felt I changed jobs. I just got different business cards and a different toolbox to do my work because my job responsibilities have been the same, which are serving, working for, and representing those people who I work for.
I was first elected to public office when I was 18 years old. Five decades later--hard to believe--I continue to love public service and believe that this important work is that, important and honorable service.
For me, it is time to go home. As I reflect on my time in Congress, I am thinking about the future. I am excited to see that Michigan has elected to be represented by a soon-to-be new Member of Congress, Kristen McDonald Rivet. I know Kristen. She will be a great, commonsense, pragmatic leader for our area. I am especially proud that I helped to elect the first woman ever to represent this district in Congress.
While I am stepping back from public office at the end of my term, I am most definitely not retiring. I am looking forward to a new chapter, continuing to serve Flint and that region but just outside of elected office.
I have a lot of friends to thank for helping me get here, and it is impossible for me to list all of them. I do want to mention one of them.
Larry Rosenthal would have turned 62 today. He has been my friend for almost 40 years, my closest political adviser, my confidant. We lost Larry over the summer. I wouldn't have been a Member of Congress without him. I wouldn't have been as successful as a Member of Congress without him being at my side, and he was there every step of the way. He really was family.
To my family, especially my wife, Jennifer, I say thank you. She has stood by me and given up the most through my public service here. I know, at least I think, she will be glad that I will be home full time. She has put up with a lot.
Thank you, Jennifer.
She has done so while having to deal with her own health struggles. She is my hero.
I am grateful to my kids, to my son Ryan, my daughter-in-law, Ginger, and their children, the two most perfect grandchildren to ever occupy the Earth, Caitlin and Colin.
To my son Kenneth, who lives in New York, and my daughter, Katy, they have put up with my schedule. They have given me the reason and the inspiration to continue to fight on. They have supported and defended me, even when the unfair critics chose to take their grievances to them instead of directly to me.
To my mom, Margaret, my greatest defender, and my late father, Jack, I thank you for all you did to make this journey possible. I was happy to look into this gallery 12 years ago and to see you as I took this oath of office. I miss my dad every day, but I know, when I watched them up there, how proud he was. Thinking of that day still makes me smile.
To my siblings, most especially my late brother, Tim, who we tragically lost this past March, they and their families were always a part of this experience, so much that one of my former staff, Ghada Alkiek, once
coined the term the B.I.C. for my family, the Built-In Crowd.
My family has endured a lot. I wouldn't be who I am, and we couldn't endure the recent pain our family has experienced, without one another.
Of course, I want to mention my late uncle, Dale Kildee, my predecessor in Congress, a mentor and a teacher to me since childhood. He was a man who set an example, an example that I have tried to live up to, that you can fight hard for the things you believe in and still respect the human dignity of everybody around you, even those with whom you disagree.
Thank you, Dale, for that lesson. Congress needs to heed your example now more than ever, and that lesson has been tested even on me. I still remember the chair I sat in and the wall I hid myself behind on January 6, knowing that some of the people who I share this Chamber with contributed to the necessary precondition for that attack.
I have not been able to look at them the same. I have tried to take the lessons that my uncle provided me and continue to treat those people with dignity. It has been a challenge, but it is one I believe I have been able to overcome. I encourage future Congresses to continue to look at Dale Kildee as an example.
Mr. Speaker, I will end where I started, expressing my deepest and most sincere gratitude to the people of my home communities and to the people in Michigan. It has been an honor of a lifetime to be your voice. I did my best. I will see you back home.
Now, Mr. Speaker, for the very final time, I yield back.
