Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the generosity and vision of Mr. Virgil Hall Hodges. Mr. Hodges is a proud alumnus, member of the Board of Trustees, and founding father of the Richard Allen Classic Group. The Richard Allen Classic Group is an 11-year-old advocacy group of men of consciousness and influence who are committed to upholding the social and intellectual mission of our traditional institutions and perpetuating their mission to the masses. Richard Allen Classic Group members remain staunch supporters of education and the quest to close the technological divide that exists in our communities

Mr. Hodges professional career began as a college professor and football coach. He was then recruited to become a government agency administrator, first as Administrator with New York City's Youth Board, then as head of an anti-poverty agency, the Coney Island Family Center. From there he went into state government as a Facility Director at Mt. Morris and later Arthur Kill Rehabilitation Centers of the NYS Drug Abuse Commission. Lastly, to the NY State Department of Labor and retired from the NYS Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission and Institute for Nonviolence.

Mr. Hodges adopted Morris Brown College, a 132-year-old prestigious institution founded by the A.M.E. Church that has produced thousands of professionals and masters of the trades and has dedicated countless hours to the service of others.

Mr. Virgil Hall Hodges is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award as Deputy Labor Commissioner by the NYS Legislature; the Distinguished Service Morris Brown College President and Faculty Award; and the NYS Employees Brotherhood Award; and the NYS NAACP Public Service Award.

I commend Mr. Virgil Hall Hodges for his extraordinary service. His vision as an educator and policymaker has inspired both students and colleagues alike. On behalf of the more than 718,000 residents of Fifth Congressional District, I thank you for your outstanding contribution to our communities and nation.

Mr. Speaker, really I felt compelled to come because let's really talk about what this is. This is the 44th time to try to deny people access to health care. That is what it is.

If you listened to some of my colleagues, you would think that all Americans are being denied health care coverage. Number one, we are talking about 5 percent, and 5 percent is too much. So what the President did today was to say that we are going to make sure that those individuals who have lost their coverage, if the insurance companies will stand up, they will do the right thing.

What this says is that what we know is that there are 36 States, most of them headed by Republicans, that have already decided they didn't want to get involved; they didn't want State exchanges. So they wanted to make sure to deny individuals who have preexisting diseases.

You could come and talk about the people who are saying, Thank you, Mr. President, for the Affordable Care Act. Because of my preexisting condition, I had been turned down by insurance companies. With Affordable Care, that won't happen.

Young people who don't have insurance, up to age 26, they will still be covered because of the Affordable Care Act.

What this is is a process and an attempt to try to end the Affordable Care Act for the 44th time. Let's not do that. Let's give the people the right to health care.

Madam Speaker, I stand in strong support of the Pitts amendment on the House resolution on the farm bill.

The sugar program included in the 2008 farm bill that became permanent in the 2013 House farm bill, contains a harmful restraint on trade and sugar between the 6 months of October and April, which makes it so that the Secretary of Agriculture cannot allow an increase in sugar imports, even if the marketplace needs it.

This detrimental restriction led to record-high prices for both the sugar producers and consumers alike. The higher costs resulted in many manufacturing companies, some are located in my district, struggling or having to even shut down because they are unable to sustain these high costs, killing good manufacturing jobs in the process.

This resolution ensures that the U.S. will not be forced to face higher sugar prices that are two times the world

price because of an erroneous restriction in the current law. These high sugar prices have unfairly cost consumers $3.5 billion a year.

Simply, the U.S. should be able to control these costs and adjust accordingly so that we do not impose unjust costs upon our consumers, especially in these economically trying times.

The bottom line is this: the problem is not Mexico. The problem is an outdated anti-taxpayer, anti-consumer, anti-business sugar-reform program. The Pitts resolution will help restore some balance to the program and remove artificial pressure from the current government intrusion into the marketplace, which is what we are looking for here.

What will the Pitts resolution do? It will help fix our broken sugar program by, one, allowing sugar farmers to retain their commodity program; two, to help ensure taxpayers will be less likely to have to pick up the tab for this program; and, three, help to ensure that hundreds of thousands of good manufacturing jobs and sugar industries will be less threatened.

I urge support of the Pitts resolution. It is a commonsense approach.

You know, many Americans were born at night, but they weren't born last night. You can't fool them. There is an old saying: You can run, but you can't hide.

We're here for one reason. The members of the majority party don't like the Affordable Care Act, and that's the whole reason we're here. They want to stop the Affordable Care Act. It has nothing to do with anything else. So all of America is held hostage because they do not like the Affordable Care Act.

But you can run, but you can't hide. You can't hide from the fact that you closed down the government. You can't hide from the fact that by just now suggesting you put a few up, that all of the government is not shut down. We need to open up the entire government.

You can run, but you can't hide.

Mr. Speaker, the politricks have to stop. The politricks have to stop.

Today, I looked at one of my leading New York papers and this is the headline. This is what they are thinking of this House. The politricks have to stop. The divide and conquer mentality has to stop.

Why is it politricks? Look at what's really taking place here today and has been taking place over the last few days. We should be just, as other Congresses have done, passing a clean CR bill so that we can continue the government moving. But what do we do? We bring up issues that have nothing to do with the continuing resolution.

The first trick: repeal the Affordable Care Act. The second trick: delay the Affordable Care Act. The trick after that: delay the individual mandate. Then next you hear something: end the medical device tax. Then the next thing is: go to conference--something that Democrats have been asking for on budgetary issues since April. And now this piecemeal approach.

It's politricks, folks. It's divide and conquer. It's trying to take key issues from key individuals and make them decide whether you want to go this way or that way. It's making individuals try to decide in the Federal Government who is more important than the others.

You've got individuals working in the same divisions; some won't get paid, others will get paid. It's a divide and conquer mentality that could destroy the Nation. This Nation is supposed to be one together. United we stand. Don't divide this country. Don't pick winners and losers. Send all of Americans back to work.

Eight hundred thousand did not work today. Don't just pick a few and say you should go back to work. All of them should go back to work. They are all American citizens.

Let all of Americans free. Don't hold them in bondage, don't keep them back. Free them all. Don't go piece by piece. They all want the same thing. Their bills have to be paid.

I have to tell some of mine on my staff, for example: If you happen to get sick, you can't get paid. That's not what this country is supposed to be about.

The world is looking at us. We travel the world trying to show examples of democracy every place else, yet we're undercutting the greatest democracy in the world today over the last couple of days. We've got procedures that were put in place by the Founding Fathers. We are undercutting how they said we should do it.

Let's not divide. Let's bring this Nation back together. Let's send all of our workers back to work. Let's have a clean CR bill, and let's vote on that.

Mr. Speaker, first, let me thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for providing leadership and working together to get this bill done in a bipartisan manner.

This is a bill where everybody had their input and everybody gave some and everybody said what was involved, and we were able to come up with a bill that is a compromise bill that's in the best interest of all of us, especially the men and women who serve us in the State Department abroad.

There's generally two groups of individuals that we have a huge responsibility for. They are our men and women on the battlefield, who are in the military. We need to make sure that they have everything that they need for their protection and their success in their mission. Likewise, the men and women who serve as our diplomats, what huge and important jobs they have. We have an absolute responsibility to make sure that we give them everything that they need to make sure that they're secure so their missions can be successful.

That's what this bill does. It looks at the security issue in a manner to make sure that our embassies are safe and secure. For example, it establishes working groups to ensure that new or reopening posts are provided the necessary security measures and funding. We had some before that had to be closed. We want to make sure we look at it and focus so that they get what they need.

It requires a strategic review of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to ensure that its missions and activities are meeting current and projected needs. That's tremendously important. And it authorizes the State to utilize best value rather than lowest cost for security guard contracts at high-risk and high-threat posts.

Furthermore--which I think is absolutely key--it gives full authorization for the National Endowment for Democracy, of which I once sat as a board member, to support the work of the four affiliated core institutes, including the National Democratic Institute and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, to develop

independent media, human rights protections, and other democratic institutions, values, and processes around the world. This is great work. This is work that will help democracy flourish throughout this place that we call Earth, making it a more peaceful and better place for us all to get along.

As we've seen recently, we've come a long way in the last 4 weeks in moving diplomatically and trying to resolve issues together. If we give our diplomats the kind of protection they need, then I believe that we can make sure that this place we call Earth is much safer tomorrow than it is today.

I thank, again, the chairman and the ranking member for the manner in which they have worked to resolve and bring this bill to the floor, and urge my colleagues to vote for it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2449, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I'd like to begin by thanking my good friend, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, and the ranking member, Eliot Engel, for their work on this bipartisan legislation.

The current U.S.-South Korea civil nuclear cooperation agreement, also known as a ``123 agreement,'' allows the U.S. and South Korea to work together on peaceful uses of nuclear energy. That agreement is set to expire next year. Because our two countries have not yet completed negotiations for a new agreement, H.R. 2449 allows a 2-year extension of the existing agreement to provide more time for the two sides to come to an agreement.

An extension would help ensure that there's no lapse in our ongoing civil nuclear cooperation, preserving stability and predictability in our joint commercial activities. South Korea is a vital economic and security partner of the United States, and passing this bill would help ensure that we maintain the strongest possible relationship with our trusted ally.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2449 enjoys wide bipartisan support. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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

In closing, let me again thank the chair and the ranking member for their hard work. I listened to the chair talk about his trip and what he and the ranking member observed, as well as the information they brought back to the subcommittee and the committee. It is so tremendously important. It highlights the importance of our great ally, South Korea.

We recently passed a trade agreement with South Korea because we worked together and were able to create jobs through that trade agreement, not only in South Korea, but here in America. This is an example of what can be accomplished when you work together and try to make sure there's no lapse in our ongoing civil nuclear cooperation. It shows that we can work collectively to make sure individuals use nuclear forces for the good of mankind and make sure that there is power in their communities.

I'm delighted today to join in a strong bipartisan manner to support H.R. 2449. I ask all of my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 2449, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

This bipartisan legislation creates a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. Housed at the State Department, the Special Envoy would be responsible for monitoring and combating acts of religious intolerance, engaging with foreign governments to address laws that discriminate against religious minorities, and working to ensure that the unique needs of religious minority communities are being addressed.

This bill is important because religious minority communities all around the world--particularly in the Near East and South Central Asia--are facing increased attacks and persecution. For example, Egypt's recent governments have failed to prevent, investigate, or prosecute crimes against members of religious minority groups, especially Coptic Christians. Churches have been burned to the ground and numerous Christians murdered.

Iraq used to have a significant number of religious minorities. These groups have been subject to escalating violence, persecution, and discrimination for their religious beliefs, and today they comprise only about 3 percent of Iraq's population. By some estimates, half of Iraq's Christian population has fled since 2003.

In Iran, the arrest and harassment of members of religious minorities, including Sunni Muslims and Christians, continues to rise. In one notable case last year, an Iranian-American Christian pastor was imprisoned for threatening Iranian national security. And what was his crime? Helping to set up small churches in people's homes. Iran's minority Baha'i community is particularly harassed, punished, imprisoned, and even killed simply because of their religion.

This past August, a Baha'i community leader in Bandar Abbas, Iran-- Mr. Ataollah Rezvani--was found murdered in his car on the outskirts of the city, shot in the back of the head. He had been the subject of threats and pressure from agents of the Ministry of Intelligence, and until shortly before his death he had been receiving menacing phone calls from unidentified persons. There is little doubt that his murder was religiously motivated. Until now, the Iranian Government has not begun a formal investigation into his murder or the murder of many other Baha'is that have been killed in recent years. It is past time for the Iranian Government to move immediately to seek justice for the cruel deaths of its Baha'i citizens. I wish these were isolated cases, but countless other examples exist, from Afghanistan to India to Saudi Arabia.

We indeed are fortunate to live in a country that was founded by religious refugees on principles of tolerance. But it is important that we do everything we can to ensure that religious minorities elsewhere in the world enjoy the freedoms and protections they deserve--the freedoms and protections enjoyed by all Americans. Appointing this Special Envoy would be an important step in that direction, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentlelady an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

In closing, let me thank the authors of this bill, Mr. Wolf and Ms. Eshoo, for your dedication, your focus, and your hard work.

It would seem that in the year of our Lord 2013 we would learn religious tolerance by now all over the world, we would have learned that it is the right thing to do to be patient with individuals who might believe different than we do, to allow them their way of life so that they can prosper and grow and pray in their own beliefs. Unfortunately, that's not true. For all of us, we should be concerned wherever religious tolerance is not adhered to.

I recall the words--and why it concerns us--Dr. King said once that ``injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'' If we allow minorities who believe differently than we do anywhere to think that it is okay, and we are not going to use whatever diplomatic or other forms of relationships that we have to try to have religious freedoms, they're mistaken. We must not allow our voices to be silent, we must speak aloud in clear language, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield myself such time as I may consume to explain that this legislation would require the Secretary of State to develop a multiyear strategy to bolster the Organization of American States, OAS as we know it, and improve the performance and the process for managing the budget and the personnel at the OAS.

When it was founded in 1948, it was the sole multilateral body in the Western Hemisphere. As the premier hemispheric organization, the OAS' key institutional documents--its charter, the American Declaration of Rights, the Inter-American Democratic Charter--enshrine values that are the foundation for political systems in the Americas.

Since its founding, the OAS has accepted too many mandates from its member states, resulting in a loss of international focus, and in turn has reduced, frankly, the organization's effectiveness. This bill seeks to push the OAS to refocus on those two core principles of promoting democratic governance and institutions and resolving regional disputes.

This push comes as other regional bodies are competing with the OAS for regional influence. There is the Central American System of Integration, the Union of South American Nations, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which includes Cuba but excludes both the United States and Canada.

Many of these political bodies do not represent our values. Most exclude the U.S. Many are used by governments in the region to undermine the U.S., thus undermining U.S. diplomacy in the hemisphere.

In order to maintain the OAS as an influential, positive force and to defend U.S. engagement, it is important that the U.S. spearhead an effort to reform the OAS and address its many administrative challenges.

This bill calls on the administration to develop a strategy that helps the OAS focus on its core mission, shed nonessential programs, install a results-based budgeting process, and adopt transparent, competitive personnel practices.

Additionally, this bill was strengthened in committee to recognize that it is not politically or financially viable for any OAS member state, including the United States, to pay more than 50 percent of the institution's assessed fees.

I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

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

I rise in strong support of S. 793, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, the OAS remains the premier regional forum for the countries of the Americas to conduct multilateral business, an important aspect of U.S. relations with its neighbors.

The bill before us today seeks to support the organization, particularly with respect to democracy promotion and the protection of human rights.

The version we are poised to pass today in the House adds an important provision to the bipartisan Senate bill introduced by the Senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This new provision requires the State Department to examine ways to ensure that in the future no OAS member state pays more than 50 percent of the regular budget.

Currently, based on a legacy fee structure from a different era, the U.S. does pay more than 50 percent, with a series of distorting results.

A modernized OAS would benefit from a more egalitarian fee structure. The new provision asks State to lay out a roadmap to achieve such a fee structure, and hopefully opens up the conversation with our fellow member states in the OAS in the spirit of consensus and partnership.

I would like to thank Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel for working, truly, again, as we have done and seen time and time again on the Foreign Affairs Committee, really working in a bipartisan manner on this bill. We know sometimes it is not easy, but they have managed to do it. I thank them for that.

I urge my colleagues to support it, and reserve the balance of my time.

I have no further requests for time and am ready to close, and so I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me just state again about the hard work of Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel and their working in a bipartisan manner to get this bill done. It's difficult at times when you have different views on different issues; but I think that, when you have individuals working together across the aisle who are trying to come up with the appropriate compromise for an organization that is needed to have the strength to protect human rights and to make sure there is democracy, working together to get them on the right track, as Mr. Royce has indicated, is important. To also have the other body, the Senate, working with us so it's bicameral is a tremendous effort, I think, on both sides in trying to make sure that we have an organization in our hemisphere that is doing the right thing, and we've got to do it on a continuous basis, being sturdy, being forceful but also being bipartisan.

Let me just finally say that the manner in which this bill has come together is the manner in which I wish many bills could come together on this floor and in working with the other body.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today I urge my colleagues to support House Resolution 222, recognizing the long-term partnership and friendship between the United States and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, working together towards peace and security in the Middle East. I would like to recognize the bipartisan support of my colleagues, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel. This resolution comes at a time of extreme unrest and conflict in the region.

Since taking up the post of our country's top diplomat in February, Secretary of State John Kerry has traveled to Amman over six times. Close cooperation between our two nations is critical to meet the challenges of the Middle East region. Jordan plays a key role as the host and mediator in Middle East peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Jordan has maintained full, normalized diplomatic relations with Israel for almost 20 years since signing the historic 1994 Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty. As an advocate for progress in the Middle East peace process, Jordan is a stabilizing force for the region.

The horrific violence in neighboring Syria threatens to destabilize an entire region. The al-Assad regime continues to fuel a humanitarian crisis through attacks against innocent civilians. Over 100,000 Syrian lives have been lost and approximately 1.8 million refugees have fled Syria. Jordan is hosting over half a million refugees, which is almost 10% of Jordan's population. The government of Jordan is partnering with the international community to care for the needs of this vulnerable population, providing shelter, food, water, health care and education. The burden of caring for such a large number of refugees places enormous economic and social pressures on the country.

The United States has enjoyed a strong alliance with Jordan for over six decades. The Jordanians work closely with the United States in multiple areas, from cooperation in regional and global counterterrorism efforts, to economic development and humanitarian assistance. King Abdullah II is an advocate for modernization in the Arab world, and recognizes the potential opportunity for political reform in Jordan. U.S.-Jordan relations are a key element of U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. I am pleased to offer this resolution commending the people and Government of Jordan for their continued friendship with the United States and commitment to peace, security and stability in the Middle East.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to remove my name as a cosponsor of H.R. 580.

Mr. Speaker, I tell my colleagues on the other side it's time to stop chasing the ghost; 38, 39 times in trying to repeal ObamaCare? Give up chasing the ghost.

I also tell my friends stop being confused by the facts. The facts are, as The New York Times indicated today in New York, that the cost of health care insurance, because of the Affordable Care Act, will go down 50 percent. The fact is, as Mr. Levin has indicated time after time, that preventive care will be available for all Americans. The fact is that you will not be discriminated against because you're a woman. The fact is the American people want the Affordable Care Act.

How do I know? They reelected President Obama again, understanding that President Obama stood for health care for all Americans and bringing down the cost of health care in America. That's what this is about.

Thirty-eight times? Give up chasing the ghost.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in strong opposition to the farm bill rule and the underlying bill because it hurts the working poor, it leaves children without food, and it hurts seniors on an everyday basis.

I want to thank the gentlelady from California for all of her hard work.

I rise to support H.R. 1564, which I cointroduced with my colleague, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt). This bill will ensure we maintain strict auditing standards without imposing overly burdensome and ill-conceived rotation requirements on our public companies.

I also want to point out the hard work the gentlelady from California put in with regards to the GAO study and why it is important so that we can continue to make sure that our markets are strong and sturdy; and that amendment, as she so indicated, is what enabled us to have a unanimous agreement coming out of our committee. It was us working together across the aisle to make sure that that happened. I think it was good for our markets. It helps to remove the uncertainty that the markets certainly would have right now had we not had this removed and had this study going forward.

I think it's important for me to emphasize that this bill does not, first, weaken our auditing and accounting standards which were reinforced 10 years ago under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and that this bill does not weaken--nor do I want to weaken--or remove the regulatory powers of PCAOB, but we do want to remove the uncertainty.

This bill does not, in any circumstance, provide an opportunity for more fraudulent accounting gimmicks. In fact, I want to remind my colleagues that we have supported and we have enacted here in the United States one of the toughest pieces of legislation against accounting fraud and that our existing laws already embrace the concept of rotation by requiring the replacement of the lead auditing partner. This selective rotation ensures that the opinions and interpretations of the reviews remain unbiased and do not remain under the authority of the same individual for prolonged periods. This provision puts us ahead of most developed countries when it comes to antifraud accounting rules, and I believe that it remains the right and smart approach.

Imposing mandatory rotation of the entire auditing firm in the industry where companies often have none or, at best, one or two credible options to rotate to is simply unworkable, it is disruptive, and it imposes undue expenses on our public companies. In fact, studies conducted here in the United States show that requiring mandatory rotation would increase cost by 20 percent in the subsequent year and an additional 17 percent cost for selection process alone. In addition to cost, it is possible that it may actually force public companies to select less credible auditing firms that may not have the required expertise, or it may encourage the auditing firm to charge excessively high fees because mandatory rotation may impose the selection of the single remaining qualified auditing firm.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated before, we did not introduce this bill simply because we're against the principle of rotation; but, rather, we introduced this bill because imposing rotation at all costs, by any means, regardless of market conditions, would simply be irresponsible and detrimental.

Many of my colleagues, me included, do favor a more competitive auditing industry where companies can have more choices in selection of their auditing firms. Eventually, market conditions may evolve and we may have new auditing firms that emerge and gain the confidence of marketers and investors. As that happens, firm rotation, I believe, will naturally happen through market forces, but not through legislation. It is for that reason, Mr. Speaker, that I urge my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 1564 and to support this commonsense regulation of our auditing industry.

I thank both the chairman and the ranking member and my colleague, Mr. Hurt, who cosponsored this, for bringing this piece of legislation forward.

I want to thank the gentleman for organizing the opportunity to say thank you. First, thank you to God for sending us Bill Gray. Thank you to God for having an individual who understands who he was, where he came from, and how he got here, and never forgetting about those least than he. Bill Gray knew what his purpose

was in life. Many individuals go through this thing that we call life and never find out what our purpose is. But all you have to do is to look at the works of Bill Gray, and you know his purpose was to serve people, to serve people who needed a hand up, to serve people who sometimes are forgotten about, to serve people to make sure that their tomorrow was better than their yesterday.

When I think of Bill Gray, one of the first things that I was told when I got elected to Congress, by an individual who looked up to him, my predecessor, the Reverend Floyd H. Flake, said that Reverend Gray inspired him because, like Reverend Gray, Reverend Flake had a large congregation.

And he understood how he could take that skill, being a minister, and help the masses.

In fact, I can recall a statement made by Representative Gray when he was appointed, when he was elected the chair of the Budget Committee. They asked him, What do you know about budgets?

He said, Have you ever been the pastor of a Baptist church? And he showed that he did understand budgets and money, and how to deal with it, and he did it in such a masterful way.

He also understood the world, and the global world. Even the last few conversations I had with him were about the world, were about going out to countries, whether they be on the continent of Africa or right here in North America, whether it was in the Western Hemisphere, and how he could help people, all people, but especially people of African descent, so that they too can rise and see and accomplish all that they could be.

So death is always--and I send my condolences to the family--it's a sad thing. But when one has had such a stellar life, when one has made the kind of contributions, it's a celebration. It's a celebration that we need to thank God for, and we need to thank the fact that God sent him here so that he could be that bright and shining star for all to see and many to follow.

He leaves a legacy for us to follow. We will follow. We will miss him, but we thank him for his service to mankind.