Rodney Davis

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. When Americans from across the country come to visit their Capitol, they are greeted by statues of some of the most influential men and women in our Nation's history: American trailblazers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, who happens to hail from my home State of Illinois. I am proud to serve as the Representative of our 16th President's former home, tomb, and the old State Capitol where President Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in 1858. In that speech, Lincoln spoke out against slavery, including the Dred Scott decision, and delivered one of his most profound statements.

I will quote the President, ``A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.''

While I am proud to hail from the land of Lincoln and see him, among others, who have fought for freedom represented in our Capitol, I also recognize that there are some symbols that were donated nearly 100 years ago that are not representative of our Nation today, a Nation that learns from our past and continues to strive to be a more perfect Union.

For anyone watching today's floor debate, it probably sounds familiar. That is because we voted at least twice in the last 2 years on legislation that would remove the bust of Roger B. Taney from the Old Supreme Court Chamber, and it is a move that I support, but previous legislation has gone nowhere in the Senate because its scope was much larger and aimed to remove several statues beyond that of Mr. Taney.

While I can appreciate that the bill before us today is more narrow in scope and that we are continuing the important discussion about which statues belong in the U.S. Capitol, I am disappointed that this bill didn't go through regular order and didn't go through the regular legislative process and come before the Committee on House Administration that is the committee that has jurisdiction over this issue.

Furthermore, this bill directs the Joint Committee on the Library to carry out the removal of the Taney bust. I point out, though, how antiquated the Joint Committee on the Library has become. It only meets once per Congress to organize, and any actual work of the committee is carried out by the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Rules Committees. Moving forward, I think we need to examine the effectiveness of the joint committee remaining in its current form.

I support removing the bust of Taney and believe statues like his only divide us as a Nation and do not represent the freedoms so many Americans have fought and died for.

It is also important to take a moment to reflect on the fact that for the past 1,005 days, these halls, while getting more people more recently, have been largely closed to the public. And many Americans have not had the opportunity to come visit their Member of Congress nor appreciate all the history, the art, and the statues that are displayed in the Capitol.

That being said, I look forward to the people's House fully opening come January 3 under a new majority.

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

Mr. Speaker, before my good friend from Maryland leaves the floor, I want to ensure that something is entered into the Congressional Record.

That I, Rodney Davis from Illinois, was minus 3 years old when my good friend, Mr. Hoyer, was sworn into the Maryland State Senate. To have a friend like Steny Hoyer, to be able to go out, like I am here in a few weeks, knowing that you have a bipartisan piece of legislation like this that is going to make Taney a gone-y when it comes to the statues here in the U.S. Capitol, and to know that we are talking and being able to have that bipartisan conversation is what I came here to do.

Steny, I know I am not supposed to address you here, but I am glad to yield to you if you would like to say something.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for his friendship.

I thank him for sparring with me over many issues over the years. We have had a great time with that. There is one thing I know about Leader Hoyer and a lot of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle here, they have a great sense of humor. They enjoy the ability to get to know one another on a humorous, friendly level. That allows us, in my opinion, to be able to get to know each other better, to govern together. Today is going to be a great example of that.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I am still waiting a bit. I sent a text to my colleague from North Carolina, who is supposed to come down. I apologize if this extends the votes this evening, but I don't think we will know the difference between 10:30 and 10:35. We will be all right.

This is a day, too, that I remind my colleagues and say thank you for working with the Senate to narrow the scope of this bill to the egregious statue that we talked about today, and that is of Roger Taney.

Roger Taney helped create in our Nation's history one of the most disgusting Supreme Court decisions that we have ever seen.

But in the end, it was the leadership of people like Abraham Lincoln, who represented my great State of Illinois and some of the counties that I currently represent right here in this institution, it was his leadership that he learned here in the House that he was able to then take on his path to become President at the most consequential time in our Nation's history.

The history of Abraham Lincoln and the leadership it took from him and the dedication it took to end the vile practice of slavery in this country, it is leadership and that historical lesson that we need to continue to teach for generations to come.

My colleague from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) talked about teaching about the bad decisions of people like Roger Taney in courts all across this country and institutions all across this country decades and centuries ago. They belong in our textbooks, and they belong in our history lessons.

This is my fear, Mr. Speaker. My fear is that we are forgetting that even the darkest parts of our Nation's history, the darkest parts of the Civil War, the darkest parts of world history, need to be taught, or many in future generations will forget how far we have come.

They will forget how, right now, the leadership and the dedication of so many people like Thurgood Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, and so many others that have served here in our government and throughout this country put us where we are today, where we have the most diverse Congress in our Nation's history.

We are the House that is representative of the people. Diversity is seen everywhere you turn here in this institution and on this floor.

That is, in part, because people stepped up like Abraham Lincoln after the dreadful Dred Scott decision and said enough is enough and corrected bad parts of our history.

But now, in today's day and age, you see people who didn't get the textbooks that taught all the history, didn't get the history lessons that they needed, defacing and destroying statues of Abraham Lincoln. Wow.

We have to be very careful that we don't let political correctness and uneducated decisions be put forth that will then inspire individuals to think that somehow every great leader in our Nation who is remembered with a statue in communities, even outside this Capitol and throughout our great Nation, are part of a problem. We need to do a better job.

That is the reason we need to open this Capitol back up. Part of the best education to understand our Nation's history is allowing Americans to get back into our hallways to be able to see the statues that we debate about here on the floor.

We can't educate the future leaders of America on the history of our government if they can't see, feel, and touch the history that exists right here in our Capitol.

Today, this bill that we are going to pass is a good thing. Tomorrow, and long after I am gone, my fear is that we will continue to have legislation put forward that will, unfortunately, go a lot further than removing the bust of Roger Taney. Let us, as Americans, be very careful.

Mr. Speaker, I see that my colleague has another speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is inspiring to hear my colleagues from both sides of the aisle throughout any debate talk about their passions, talk about what matters most to their constituents. Mr. Green has always been passionate about what matters most to his constituents, as I hope I have been over the last 10 years.

Mr. Speaker, I have to apologize. This might be one of the last times that I stand up and offer remarks on the House floor. A lot of my colleagues here must have been praying together because finally, finally, I have lost my voice. I sound like Peter Brady from ``The Brady Bunch.'' My apologies.

I am so thankful for the friendships that I have been able to make over the 10 years that I have served in this institution. But I want to make sure that I address some issues that we are talking about today in regard to statue removals, in regard to how we ensure that history, even all the darkest parts, are taught to all Americans, because that is the way we learn.

I learned, because I lived it, Abraham Lincoln's history. I take for granted what we have available in my district that epitomizes the strength of Abraham Lincoln.

If you ever want to see our Nation's history in action, I invite you. Come to my district, and I will take you to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, where many of my colleagues that have come and taken me up on that offer have been able to walk into a room and see an original copy, an original. They didn't have Xerox machines or copy machines back then. They had to handwrite the original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation.

That is what Abraham Lincoln means to our Nation's history and society's history and the ills that even existed after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

We have to do better in this country. We can do better, and we are doing better. But in the end, we live in the greatest country in the history of the world that sends the most diverse people to our Nation's Capitol to stand here and debate freely how to govern our great Nation.

We will fight, and we will argue, but in the end, we will shake hands, disagree, walk away, and understand that we are better because we are not separated. We are not just Republicans and Democrats; we are Americans.

When tragedy hits the country, we come together in this House, and we stand together as Americans. I hope that continues even in the more polarizing environment that we have seen in this House in my lifetime.

I want to make a prediction that I hope doesn't come true. I hope that we can change that by setting an example in this House. I hope we don't try to continue to separate ourselves. I predict there will come a day when people will be allowed into a restaurant based upon their political affiliation or not. That is sad. I hope I am wrong.

I see so many opportunities in our Nation right now that are taken by those who don't want us to believe in each other. They are taken away by social media posts that will continue to try and divide us.

I came here 10 years ago and got the ability to have dinner when I was in freshman orientation in Statuary Hall. I looked down and saw the plaque that sits in Statuary Hall that says Abraham Lincoln, his desk sits here, when he served one term in the House of Representatives.

It hit me that day. It sent chills that I have some pretty big shoes to fill, representing some of the same geography that Abraham Lincoln did when he was here centuries ago.

I knew we had a lot of work to do, and I will tell you, this institution has done big things over my decade serving here.

There are things like this, though, that I hope send a message to our Nation that we will stand up against those parts of our Nation's history like Roger Taney, the most dreadful parts of our Nation's history.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone, especially my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, to please ensure that history continues to be taught in our Nation's schools, that we learn about people like Roger Taney so that people in America don't repeat the same disastrous decisions that we saw happen with the Dred Scott decision.

Mr. Speaker, I think I have said enough. I support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Chairperson Lofgren of the House Administration Committee, for her work on this legislation. I will tell the chair that while we didn't always agree on issues coming in front of our committee, and we didn't always agree on how to run this institution, I always enjoyed being able to serve with her. It may not be reciprocated, but that is okay.

But in the end, you have a great team that I really enjoyed working with. I sincerely hope that this institution becomes less polarized. I certainly hope this institution becomes an institution where we can all govern together and make this country even greater than it is today.

Vote for this bill.

Let's get rid of Roger Taney.

Let's make him a gone-y once again.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate my friend

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3875, the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022, which amends the Stafford Act to include a section on natural disaster risk assessment.

This bill's intent is to make the public more aware of the inherent risks of disasters that may affect their communities.

It directs the President, or FEMA, to maintain a publicly available risk assessment program that shows what hazards pose the most threat to communities. It also directs the President, or FEMA, to provide financial or technical assistance to communities in designated community disaster resilience zones.

Establishing these zones will help communities, States, and the private sector better plan investments in mitigation.

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

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining?

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

My colleague, the chair of the subcommittee I have been blessed to serve on as ranking member, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I thank her for working with us in a bipartisan way to move this bill forward.

Disaster resiliency matters in a district like mine that encompasses the Illinois and Mississippi River Basin. We see disasters on a regular basis. In fact, when I got to this institution 10 years ago, one of the first votes I had to make was on funding Superstorm Sandy relief. I remember saying the first time that I had a chance to talk about disaster assistance, as a brand new freshman, my comments were if the Federal Government should do something right, it is helping communities recover from disasters that they had no control over.

This is another good bipartisan step to making sure that happens in communities all across this Nation, from Montana to Washington, D.C., to Illinois and elsewhere.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this fine piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.