Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, but with profound gratitude, to honor the life and legacy of one of Southwest Georgia's most devoted public servants, the Honorable Russell Thomas, Jr., former Mayor of Americus, Georgia, who departed this life on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, at the age of 91. A memorial service celebrating his extraordinary life will be held on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at Americus First Methodist Church, with Reverend Tom Dowdy and Reverend Daryl Brown officiating.

Russell Thomas, Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 22, 1934, to Dr. Russell Thomas and Margaret Camp Thomas. In 1939, the family returned to Dr. Thomas's hometown of Americus, and from that day forward, Russell Thomas and Americus, Georgia belonged to one another. He graduated from Americus High School in 1952, earned a degree in Agricultural Management from Auburn University, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and completed his military service as a medic in the United States Army Reserve.

Mayor Thomas built his career in agriculture and forestry, owning Thomas Farms, Inc. with his family and founding or co-owning Americus Creosote Company, T&T Logging, and Georgia Forest Products. But to Russell Thomas, the land was never merely a business. Long before conservation of the longleaf pine ecosystem became a national cause, he was protecting the native longleaf stands at Thomas Farms, quietly practicing the belief that productive timber management and wildlife conservation should go hand in hand. He was a steward in the oldest and truest sense of the word--a man who understood that we do not really own the land; we hold it in trust for our children.

The people of Americus first elected Russell Thomas, Jr. as their Mayor in November 1979. and he served from 1980 to 1988. They called him back in 1993, and he served again from 1994 to 2001--fifteen years in all of steady, visionary, and selfless leadership. In his first term, he worked with the City Council to confront substandard housing and expand housing opportunity. He would later join with Millard Fuller and Habitat for Humanity on the Sumter County Initiative, an audacious campaign to eliminate substandard housing in Americus and Sumter County--a partnership that helped make our corner of Georgia a beacon to the world for what neighbors can accomplish when they take up hammers and hope together.

Mayor Thomas may be best remembered for leading the multi-year effort to restore the historic Windsor Hotel. When many said the grand old landmark could not be saved, Russell Thomas simply refused to give up-- and today the Windsor stands as the crown jewel of downtown Americus, a monument in brick and mortar to one man's stubborn faith in his hometown. He was likewise instrumental in the restoration of the Rylander Theatre, establishing it as the center of the performing arts in Americus, for which he received the Lifetime Friend of the Rylander Award in 2016. Under his leadership, in 2000, Americus was designated one of the first ten Georgia Cities of Excellence. In 1994, in recognition of his public service, the City of Americus named its public safety building the Russell Thomas, Jr. Public Safety Building-- an honor rarely bestowed upon the living and richly deserved.

His service extended far beyond City Hall. He served on the Americus Board of Education from 1972 to 1980; as chairman of the Sumter County Board of Tax Assessors from 1976 to 1980; on the board of directors of The Charles L. Mix Memorial Fund, including more than twenty years as its chairman; on the South Georgia Technical College Foundation Board of Trustees; and on the governing board of the Rosalynn Carter Institute at Georgia Southwestern State University. Elected to the Board of Directors of Citizens Bank of Americus in 1985, he served as Chairman of the Board from 1985 to 1999--a period in which the bank was rated the number one community bank in Georgia--and remained on the board until 2025, serving his community's financial wellbeing across five decades.

Mr. Speaker, the record of offices held, and buildings restored tells us what Russell Thomas did. But it does not tell us who he was. Who he was could be found in his office at the back of the old Americus Hardware Store--another of his renovations--where, long past the age when most men retire, friends and neighbors stopped by daily to talk politics, business, and the affairs of the town he loved. Who he was could be found in his backyard, where this former mayor and bank chairman raised tomatoes and waged a good-natured annual contest with the backyard animals to see who could reach the ripe ones first. And who he was could be found riding the dirt backroads of Thomas Farms in his old Tahoe, with his faithful dog Barnabas at his side.

It is said that throughout his life, and in its most difficult times, Russell found solace and peace driving those backroads. And Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleagues to sit with that image for a moment. Here was a man who buried a beloved wife, Andrea, after forty-five years of marriage; a man who bore the deepest grief a parent can know in the loss of his son, Russell, III; a man who carried the weight of a city on his shoulders for fifteen years. And when the sorrows came--as they come to every life--he did not grow bitter, and he did not withdraw from the people. He drove out to the land, under the longleaf pines he had protected, with his dog beside him, and he made his peace--and then he came back to his beloved Americus, and went back to work, and kept on serving. That quiet resilience, that faithfulness that outlasted heartbreak, is the truest measure of the man, and it is the inheritance he leaves to all of us who remain.

Russell Thomas, Jr. was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Andrea Patterson Thomas; his son, Russell Thomas, III; his parents, Dr. Russell Thomas and Margaret Camp Thomas; his sister, Margaret T. Sullivan; and his brothers, Frank Gordon Thomas and John Laurence Thomas. He leaves to cherish his memory his children, Mary Frances ``Mimi'' Thomas, Anne Camp Thomas, Beth Thomas Cheek (James), and John Braxton Thomas; his daughter-in-law, Angie Ballard Thomas; eight grandchildren: ten great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, stepchildren, extended family, and friends who loved him dearly.

Mr. Speaker, the Scriptures teach us in Matthew 25:21, ``Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.'' Russell Thomas, Jr. was faithful--faithful to his family, faithful to his land, faithful to his hometown, and faithful to the God he served. On behalf of my wife, Vivian and the more than 765,000 residents of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, I extend my deepest condolences to the Thomas family, and I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life, the legacy, and the extraordinary public service of the Honorable Russell Thomas, Jr.--Mayor, steward, builder, and friend--a good and faithful servant who has entered into the joy of his Lord.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and on behalf of a grieving community, to honor a man whose life enriched my district, my state, and indeed this entire Nation--Mr. Benjamin A. Holden--who departed this life on June 10, 2026. at the age of sixtythree. On Saturday, June 20th. his beloved famijy, his Columbus community, and friends from across this country gathered at the Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia, to celebrate his remarkable life and lay him to rest.

Mr. Speaker, Ben Holden believed, with his whole heart, in the power of two things--stories, and people. And across sixty-three years, he gave his life to both.

His own story began far from Georgia, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was born on June 3, 1963, to Lorine and Percy Holden. He found his calling early. At just seventeen years old, he was already a cub reporter in the sports department of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, covering high school athletics--and his gift was so evident that it earned him a scholarship from the Pulitzer family to attend the University of Missouri. It was there, in 1983, that he became a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, joining the ranks of the Divine Nine that so many of us hold dear. He went on to the University of California at Berkeley, earning both his law degree and his M.B.A., and meeting the love of his life, Melanie.

And then Ben Holden became one of the finest journalists of his generation. As a Los Angeles-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he chronicled the most consequential stories of his time--the painful aftermath of the Rodney King trial, the O.J. Simpson case that gripped the entire nation, and more. His front-page Journal piece dissecting the staggering economics of the Simpson spectacle--which he wittily titled ``O.J. G.D.P.''--earned him a national journalism award. He was a truth-teller, Mr. Speaker, and he told the truth with style.

But Ben understood that journalism is more than a profession--it is a pillar of freedom itself. A licensed attorney in both California and Georgia, he gave himself to the cause of a free press and an accountable judiciary. As director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts and Media, he carried the First Amendment far beyond our borders. On behalf of our own State Department and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, he traveled to Kosovo--a young nation still struggling to trust its own institutions-- and there he trained its judges, its prosecutors, and its journalists in the principles of liberty, because he believed a free press and an honest court were essential to that fragile republic's democratic future. And right here at home, from 2004 to 2010, he led the newsroom of our own Columbus Ledger-Enquirer through one of the most turbulent eras journalism has ever known.

He gave the next generation his wisdom, too, on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University's storied Medill School of Journalism, where he taught young people that the press is the only profession the Constitution itself protects by name. And he fought for his students as if they were his own children.

But Mr. Speaker, of all the chapters in Ben Holden's remarkable story, the one he loved the most was written right here in Columbus, Georgia. Nelson Mandela taught the world that ``education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world''--and Ben Holden took up that weapon on behalf of children too often overlooked. In 2009, he founded a nonprofit he called Columbus Scholars. He carried a simple and stubborn conviction--that the only thing standing between a bright child who makes it and a bright child who does not is somebody willing to support them. And he did not merely say it. He spent more than forty years of his life proving it. Partnering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Chattahoochee Valley, Columbus Scholars pairs economically disadvantaged young people with mentors and with scholarships--and in just seventeen years, it has raised more than one million dollars and lifted more than one hundred students toward a future they could not have reached on their own.

Think of that, Mr. Speaker. A man who had reported on the most powerful people in America, a man who had trained judges across an ocean, found his deepest joy in a Columbus child with ability and empty pockets--and in becoming the very support that child needed. He helped those young people write brand-new stories for their lives.

And there is one last story I must share. The celebrated poet and author Maya Angelou once wrote that ``there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.'' Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Holden refused to carry his story to the grave. In his final days, he completed the draft of a novel he called Spirit of St. Louis--the tale of two first generation Black men coming of age in America, navigating race and class and the long odds of making it as an outsider. In so many ways, it was his own story. He did not live to see it published. But his family has vowed to finish what he began and bring his words into the world--and so this storyteller, who gave his life to telling the stories of others, will at last have his own story told.

For that is who Ben Holden was. A devoted husband to Melanie, his wife of thirty-one years. A loving father to his daughter, Joy. A brother, an uncle, and the very heart of a family that gathered for reunions they lovingly called ``Fling Dings.'' He was a man who never missed a birthday, a wedding, or a ballgame--a faithful Atlanta Hawks seasonticket holder who lived and died by his Missouri Tigers and his Northwestern Wildcats.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of Benjamin A. Holden. We give thanks for a life lived with conviction, with generosity, and with an unshakable faith in the power of stories and of people to make this world better. On behalf of Georgia's Second Congressional District, I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Melanie; to his daughter, Joy; to his entire family; and to the countless students and colleagues whose lives he forever changed. Their loss is immeasurable. But the truth he defended, the students he lifted, and the love he gave will go on speaking long after his pen has been laid down.

Well done to Ben, and I wish him eternal rest. We will help tell the rest of his story.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and with deep grdtitude, to honor the life and the lasting legacy of a beloved matriarch of Columbus, Georgia, Mrs. Mary Lizzie Pickett Quiller, known and loved by all who knew her simply as ``Honey.'' After a remarkable life that spanned a full century, Mrs. Quiller was called home to her reward on June 10, 2026, at the age of 100 years old.

On Friday, June 19th, her family, her friends, and her community gathered at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia--the very church home she faithfully served for more than 60 years--to celebrate her life and to lay her to rest. It is only right that this body, and this Nation, pause to remember a woman who gave 100 years of her life to her family, her faith, and her community.

Mrs. Quiller was born on September 15, 1925, in Bullock County, Alabama, one of seven children raised by their devoted mother, Georgie Pickett. Of those seven, she and her sister, Annie Watkins, were the last two who remained--and today, with Honey's passing, her sister carries on as the last leaf on that family tree.

Mr. Speaker, in the final season of her long life, Mrs. Quiller left her family a simple and humble request. She said: ``Let the works I have done speak for me.'' So, on the floor of this House today, I intend to honor that wish. I rise to let her works speak.

Let her works speak of a young girl who became a second mother before her time. By her own sister's loving account, Honey helped care for her siblings through all their childhood years--and she went right on caring for them even after their mother, Georgie, passed away. When the family needed someone to hold it together, she was the one who stepped forward. And that was the pattern of her entire life.

Let her works speak of a woman who, as I would describe her, simply was not a quitter. She believed in bettering herself, and through hard work and quiet determination she did exactly that. Mary Quiller earned an Associate Degree in Business from Albany State, a Master of Cosmetology, and a tailoring certificate. She refused to let her beginnings set the limits of her life.

Let her works speak of a wife and a mother. She was the beloved wife of George Quiller and the devoted mother of two children, Jean and Jerry. And Mr. Speaker, I must pause here, because there is no heavier burden a parent can be asked to carry than to bury a child--and Mrs. Quiller knew that sorrow. for her beloved son, Jerry, preceded her in death. Yet somehow, by the grace of God, she kept right on standing, kept right on serving, and kept right on pouring her love into everyone around her. A heart that knew that depth of grief and still chose to give is a heart worthy of honor before this Nation. She is survived by her devoted daughter, Mary, her sister Annie Watkins, her grandson, Jeremy Quiller, her great grandchildren, and her great-great grandchild, who carried her name and her spirit forward.

Let her works speak of a faithful and tireless servant of God. For more than 60 years, Mrs. Quiller was an active member of Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church--the very sanctuary that will receive her home this Friday. She gave herself to that congregation in nearly every way a person can: as Assistant Superintendent of the Sunday School, as a Sunday School Teacher, as a member of the Choir, as a Cub Scout Leader shaping young boys, and as Mission President. Her church family saw clearly what kind of woman she was. They named her Woman of the Year back in the 1990s, and they lifted her up in honor once again in 2024.

Let her works speak of a true pillar of her community. In her neighborhood, the saying simply went that if you wanted something done, you called Mrs. Quiller. She was the one who got it done--and for that faithful service, she was presented the ``Giving Your Best Award.'' She also gave her time to the people of her city as a member of the Keep Columbus Beautiful Board. Her motto, plain and powerful, was to work every day at improving the quality of life--not only for herself, but for everyone around her.

Mr. Speaker, let her works speak of her character. Mary Quiller was a woman of unshakable honesty. If she believed you needed to hear a hard truth, she loved you enough to tell it to you--whether you wanted to hear it or not. And yet, when she did good for others, and she did a world of good, she never once advertised it. She gave in quiet. She helped in secret. She believed, too, that you do not chase after material things simply to keep up with the people around you; you live within your values, and you spend on what truly matters. Hers was a life of substance, never a life of show.

Mr. Speaker, the great Shirley Chisholm--the first Black woman ever to serve in this very House--once said that: ``Service is the rent we pay for the space that we occupy here on this Earth.'' By that measure, Mary ``Honey'' Quiller paid her rent in full, with interest. In the words of the old gospel hymn, ''She has paid her title clear.'' For 100 years she served--her family, her church, and her community--and she asked for nothing in return.

Mr. Speaker, Mary Lizzie Pickett Quiller asked that her works speak for her. And oh, how they speak. They speak in the brothers and sisters she mothered. They speak in the students she taught and the scouts she led. They speak in the church she served for six decades, in the community she made more beautiful, and in the countless souls she lifted without ever once asking for the credit. Her works are speaking still--and they will go on speaking long after every one of us is gone.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of Mrs. Mary Lizzie Pickett Quiller. I extend my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy to her surviving daughter, Mary Quiller, her surviving sister, Annie Watkins; to her grandchildren; to her Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church family; and to the entire Columbus community that loved her so dearly and for so long. She was, in the truest sense of the word, a phenomenal woman, and we were blessed to share this Earth with her for 100 years.

She was a caregiver, a scholar, a servant, and a saint whose good works will keep right on speaking for her, just as she asked. May she rest in peace and may the God she served so faithfully for a century welcome her home with the words she earned: ``Well done, thou good and faithful servant.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, and with a gratitude that runs deeper than these few words can carry, to honor the life of a giant of Georgia public service, a peerless gentleman, and a man I was blessed to call my colleague and my friend--the Honorable Lawrence Cohen ``Larry'' Walker. Jr., of Perry, Georgia.

Larry passed away peacefully at his home on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, surrounded by the family he loved, at the age of 84. A funeral service to celebrate his remarkable and purpose-filled life was held on Sunday, June 14,

2026, at the Perry United Methodist Church. Some losses are not just the loss of a man. They are the closing of an era.

Larry Walker was born on March 9, 1942, in Perry, Georgia, to the late Lawrence Cohen Walker, Sr., and the late Hilda Gray Walker. He was a son of Houston County from his first breath to his last--a native, a lifelong resident, and a fierce and faithful champion of his hometown for every one of his 84 years. He graduated from Perry High School in 1960, where his classmates, even then, saw what the rest of Georgia would come to know, and elected him Senior Class President. He went on to the University of Georgia, where he earned both his Bachelor of Business Administration and his Juris Doctorate in 1965--and where he became, and remained until his final day, one of the most devoted Bulldogs the good Lord ever made.

Mr. Speaker, consider what this young man did with the years that followed. In January of 1966, at just 24 years of age, Larry Walker was appointed the very first Municipal Court Judge in the history of Perry. Twenty-four years old, sitting in judgment, trusted by his neighbors. In 1975, he was appointed Perry City, Attorney--a charge he and his beloved brother David would carry together for 40 years. Forty years. Two brothers, serving one city, side by side. That is not a job. That is a covenant.

In 1972, the people of Houston County sent Larry Walker to the Georgia House of Representatives, to fill the seat left vacant by a young man named Sam Nunn, who was on his way to the United States Senate. And there, under the Gold Dome, Larry Walker became a legend. He served 32 years in that chamber--and for 16 of them, half his entire tenure, he served as House Majority Leader. Sixteen years carrying the burden of leadership, holding the floor, holding the line, holding people together.

Now, Mr. Speaker, allow me a personal word. I came to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1977. And it was there, as a young legislator finding my footing, that I came to know Larry Walker. We did not always come from the same place. We did not always see every issue through the same eyes. But I tell you what I learned from that man across those years: Larry Walker never once made a difference of opinion into a difference of respect. He could disagree with you on Tuesday and break bread with you on Wednesday and have your back on Thursday. He believed--he truly believed--that we were all sent there to do the people's work, and that the people deserved leaders who could find the higher ground together. He taught a whole generation of us how to do this work with grace. I am a better public servant today because Larry Walker showed me how it was done.

And he had something to show for it. You see it when you drive into Perry today and you see the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter standing tall--that is Larry Walker's vision made real. That community draws families and livelihoods and pride from Frito-Lay--that came to Perry because Larry Walker willed it there. He did not just hold an office. He built things. He left his hands' print on the soil of his home, and that print will outlast us all.

After his service in the General Assembly, Larry was elected to the Georgia Transportation Board and was later appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia-- still serving, still giving, still working for a state he loved. Through it all, in every chamber and on every board, Larry Walker was known for the rarest gift in public life: the ability to build relationships, to bring people together, and to work through their differences for the good of Georgia and for the good of his beloved Perry.

But Mr. Speaker, if you had asked Larry Walker who he was, he would not have started with any of that. He would have told you he was a husband. A father. A man of faith. He was a lifelong and active member of Perry Methodist Church, where he and his wife Janice sat together in the Pathfinders Sunday School Class. He gave himself to the Perry Kiwanis Club, and he helped found Crossroads Bank, which grew into Security Bank, because he believed in his community's future enough to invest in it himself.

And oh, how he loved Janice. In 1964, Larry married Janice Knighton-- the love of his life--and they shared 61 years together. Sixty-one years, Mr. Speaker. They raised four children--Larry III, Wendy, Russell. and John Gray--and every one of them still calls Houston County home. Think on that a moment. In a restless world that scatters families to the four winds, Larry and Janice built a place so full of love that their children never wanted to leave it. He was a devoted family man who treasured nothing more than the activities of his nine grandchildren and his three great-grandchildren--there in the bleachers, there at the livestock shows, there for every one of them.

He loved simple, sacred things. He loved working on the farm alongside Janice. He loved hunting dove and quail in the Georgia mornings and sharing his fishing ponds with anybody who'd come sit a while. He loved his dog Lizzy and he loved his cows. He loved watching the youth show their livestock at the Ag Center he helped create. He loved his Perry Panthers and his Westfield Hornets, and of course, always and forever, his Georgia Bulldogs.

That, Mr. Speaker, is a life. Not a career--a life. Whole, and rooted, and good. Larry was predeceased by his parents, and by his brother David--his partner of 40 years--and by brothers-in-law Bob Kelly and Jeff Knighton. He leaves behind his devoted wife of 61 years, Janice Knighton Walker; his children Larry III and Adrienne, Wendy and Bob, Russell and Krissy, and John Gray and Sharon; his nine grandchildren: his three great-grandchildren; his sister Lynda, his brother Charlie, and a host of family and friends across Georgia who loved him.

And Mr. Speaker, the truest measure of a man is found not only in what he built, but in what he past on. So let it be recorded that the Walker name still answers the roll call beneath the Gold Dome: Larry's son, Larry Walker, Ill, now serves in the Georgia General Assembly--the very institution his father loved and shaped--carrying his daddy's legacy of honorable service forward into a new generation. What a gift, to a father, to know the work goes on.

Mr. Speaker, the Book of Proverbs tells us that ``the memory of the just is blessed.'' Larry Walker was a just man. He kept faith with his God, with his family, with his hometown, and with the people he served. He showed us that you can hold great power and still hold great kindness; that you can disagree without dishonor; that a life lived close to home can touch the whole of a State.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional District in honoring the life of the Honorable Larry Walker, Jr. to Janice, to his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and to the whole community of Perry that he loved so well: the prayers of this House are with you. You did not lose him. You will carry him--in every fairground he built, in every quail field at dawn, in every Bulldog Saturday, in every kindness he ever showed. Heaven has gained a gentleman, and Georgia will not soon see his like again.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory. And may God bless the memory of Larry Walker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a Marine, a public servant, a friend, and a man who has carried a sacred trust for more than three decades--the Honorable Ed Harbison, the Dean of the Georgia State Senate, who is retiring after thirty-four years of faithful service to the people of the 15th Senate District. This evening, at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, the people he has served for a lifetime will gather to thank him.

Mr. Speaker, before Ed Harbison ever cast a vote beneath the Gold Dome, he wore the uniform of the United States Marine Corps. He went to Vietnam. He bled for this country and came home with the Purple Heart. I say this first because it explains everything that came after. The young man who was willing to give his life for strangers would spend the rest of it giving his days for his neighbors. Service was never a slogan to Ed Harbison. It was a wound he carried and a vow he kept.

I know this seat that Ed has held, Mr. Speaker, because I once held it myself. When the people of Georgia sent me to this House in 1993, I left behind the 15th District seat in the Georgia Senate. I did not leave it to chance. I left it to Ed Harbison--and for thirty-four years, the people of West Central Georgia have been the better for it. He took the work and he never put it down. He became the longest- serving member of that chamber, its Dean, the man other senators turned to when they needed wisdom, steadiness, and a conscience in the room.

And what he built will outlast us all. It was Ed Harbison who carried the legislation making Georgia a Purple Heart State, so that no veteran's sacrifice would go unmarked. It was Ed Harbison who established a separate Veterans Court, so that the men and women who served would be met with understanding instead of indifference. It was Ed Harbison who founded the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame, an institution of which he is himself a proud member. He championed a preference in state contracting for businesses owned by disabled veterans, and he fought to see that veterans received fair academic credit for the training and sacrifice of their military service. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on State Institutions and Property, as Vice-Chairman of the Veterans, Military, and Homeland Security Committee, and as a former Chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, he was a careful steward of the public trust and a steady voice for those too often unheard. And before he ever reached the Gold Dome, he gave his community his service as a broadcast journalist, as second vice-president of the Muscogee County School Board, and on the Columbus Charter Review Commission.

But perhaps the truest measure of Ed Harbison is found not in the grand bills but in the quiet ones. In 2008, he sponsored a law to cut through the red tape that punished the children of militaIy families, boys and girls who, through no fault of their own, were uprooted from state to state and made to start over again and again. Ed Harbison saw those children, and he wrote a law so moving would not cost them their education He authored the legislation consolidating Chattahoochee County and Cusseta, strengthening the very ground his people stand on. He fought for the emergency call boxes installed along Interstate 85 from LaGrange to Columbus--a small thing, until it is your family stranded on the side of the road, and then it is everything. That was Ed Harbison: always thinking of the traveler in the dark, the soldier far from home, the child who needed someone in his corner. Mr. Speaker, the people of Chattahoochee, Macon, Marion, Schley, Talbot, Taylor, and Muscogee Counties did not have a senator who simply represented them; they had one who belonged to them. Ed once said the lesson he lived by came from his mother, who told him to do unto others as he would have them do unto him. For thirty-four years, he did exactly that--quietly, faithfully, without ever needing the credit.

Mr. Speaker, no account of this good man would be complete without the family he built and the love that has held him. Ed shared his life and his calling with his beloved late wife, Cecilia, whose love and steadfastness sustained him through every long session and every hard- fought campaign. Though she is no longer with us, her spirit has walked beside him in all of it, and I have no doubt she looks upon him with pride today. And anyone who knows Ed Harbison knows the love he carries for his son, Edward. Above every title he has earned and every honor he has received, Ed Harbison is a devoted father. The same tenderness he wrote into the law for a stranger's child, he has lived out, every single day, for his own. A man may give thirty-four years to his state, but the truest measure of him is the love he gives his family and by that measure, Ed Harbison is a rich man indeed.

There is a moment that comes to every man who has given his life to service, when he must finally lay the work down and trust others to carry it forward, Ed Harbison has reached that moment, and he reaches it with his head high. He has called his time in the Senate the greatest honor of his life. Mr. Speaker, the honor was ours. The honor belonged to every child whose family was made stronger, every veteran who was finally seen, every neighbor who knew that somewhere under the Gold Dome there was a man who would do right by them when no one was watching.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representative to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in honoring the remarkable service of State Senator Ed Harbison. I thank Ed for the wounds he carried and the country he served, I thank him for the seat he tended and the trust he kept. I thank him for thirty-four years of doing unto others. May God bless him, may God bless Georgia, and may He grant him the long, peaceful rest he has so richly earned. Ed Harbison completed his service well done. Well done.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 8646. As ranking member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I am deeply disappointed by this bill because it fails every American who relies on us for safe food and medicines, resilient farmlands, and vital rural infrastructure.

The FY 2027 House Agriculture appropriations bill is 4 percent below the FY26 enacted levels, a cut of $1.1 billion. It makes substantial reductions across rural development, farm production and conservation, nutrition, and foreign aid programs.

Most notably, House Republicans are proposing to drastically reduce fruit and vegetable benefits for 5 million low-income women, infants, and children in the WIC program. With funding for WIC below 2026 and rising food costs, the National WIC Association says it is quite possible that State agencies will have to turn away eligible families for the first time in 30 years.

To my Republican colleagues and the American people, I ask, does this make sense? Do we not want fresh and healthy food for women, infants, and schoolchildren? Do we want to keep turning this country back instead of moving it forward?

While there is an unauthorized war in Iran, a single week's spending for the war could fully fund WIC for almost an entire year. What is worse, the Department of Defense admits that 25 percent of our servicemembers and military families do not have access to sufficient quality food to meet their basic needs.

The majority is willing to spend billions of dollars overseas but not willing to feed the American troops fighting the war?

This bill not only hurts those struggling to afford to put food on the table, but it also hurts our farmers. There were 46 percent more farm bankruptcies in 2025 than the year before, and the issue is getting worse. USDA's own economists expect farm income to decline by $4.1 billion from 2025 to 2026.

Just as our producers are getting hit with increased fuel and input costs from this unauthorized war and chaotic tariffs, this administration has gutted the experienced Federal workforce and shuttered offices when our producers and rural communities need them the most.

My colleagues and I across this country have gotten calls from farmers and ranchers who tell us that they are showing up to closed or understaffed Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices. The staff they have worked with for years are disappearing, and the cuts to staffing in this bill at those very agencies will only make it harder for them to get the support that they need.

House Republicans also cut funding for water and wastewater grants for poor rural communities, slashing the programs by nearly 50 percent. These are basic human needs, quality-of-life necessities, and essential drivers for local job creation. There are still communities in rural areas across this country that don't have acceptable drinking or wastewater services that need these grants desperately.

This bill slashes rural broadband investments by 20 percent, rural business development grants by nearly 30 percent, and rural energy programs by 50 percent.

We cannot shut the door on our rural communities at a time when we need to do the opposite: invest in research at our land-grant universities and in rural development, preserve our farmland and forests, and ensure the safety of our food, medicine, and medical devices.

This bill is really about everyone. Everyone eats the food we produce. Everyone needs safe medicine and clean water. Everyone relies on affordable fuel and utilities. Unfortunately, the bill before us does not meet our country's needs.

The bill cuts funding for both the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Ethics at USDA, which are responsible for rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse. It slashes funding for the Office of Civil Rights. It nearly does away with the Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement, which means less transparency and less accountability to USDA stakeholders.

I appreciate very much the hard work of the Appropriations Committee staff and their ability to work so quickly after the much-delayed Presidential budget request. On the minority side, I thank Martha Foley, Marie

Gualtieri, and Alex Swann. For the majority, I thank Pam Miller, Elizabeth Dent, Judd Gardner, Nick Seelinger, and Sykes Connell.

I also appreciate my colleague, Dr. Harris, very much for agreeing to keep essential funding for rural housing, senior food aid, and the McGovern-Dole food assistance intact. It is simply unfortunate, though, that the bill does not extend the same benefits to nutrition assistance, food security initiatives, and USDA operations.

I am very appreciative of the conversations that we have been able to have with Chairman Harris and the hard work with Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro in trying to get to a point where we can do what we need to do for the American people through this funding bill.

At this time, I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill and look forward to working with both sides to craft a better bill for our constituents and the American people.

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

Madam Chair, the chairman has said that spending on WIC in 2026 was lower than in 2025. I point out that there was a government shutdown from October 1, 2025, to November 12, 2025. In October, faced with running out of funds, States asked infant formula companies to send out rebates faster so they could keep running their programs. Using the formula rebates made the average per-person food cost in October 2026 $9 lower than in 2025. But if you discount that month, the average monthly food cost in 2026 was higher than in 2025, not lower. We will do what we always do, and we will get the most accurate estimate for conference from the USDA, and we will use that number.

I yield 6 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the distinguished ranking member of the full Appropriations Committee.

Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the Agriculture Subcommittee.

Madam Chair, it is interesting, looking at the State of Missouri from which Mr. Alford resides, they will lose, in terms of wastewater, $5,567,000 under this bill as compared to last year. In the Fourth District of Missouri, he will lose $467,000.

Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Mrs. Fletcher).

Madam Chair, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bynum).

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

Mr. Chair, I am really deeply disappointed in the bill. I am just reflecting on the reductions in this bill for rural water and waste disposal grants, 44 percent over last year.

If you look at what is happening with the chairman's district over in Maryland, the State of Maryland will lose $2.203 million for rural water and waste disposal grants and in the First District, it is $1.340 million of that.

The losses for rural energy for America and the REAP program are being cut 50 percent. That is really not doing right by our people in rural America. Being able to lower their energy costs, being able to help our farmers reduce the costs of their production, particularly at this time with the tremendous challenges that our farm communities are facing with costs, it just doesn't make sense to me.

At a time when our farmers are struggling, our rural communities are being left behind, and our families all across America are facing rising costs, this bill moves us in the wrong direction. We should be strengthening the programs that support agriculture, nutrition, and rural America, and we shouldn't be weakening them.

Mr. Chair, for these reasons, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill and to come together to work toward a measure that truly meets the needs of America's farmers, families, and our rural communities.

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

Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the amendments. The amendments include bipartisan and noncontroversial proposals that have been agreed to by both sides. I support adoption of the amendments, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), my friend and fellow Blue Dog.

Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from California.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Sykes).

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez).

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a full heart to honor a man who has walked this earth for one hundred years--one hundred years of faith, family, perseverance, and love--my dear friend, Mr. James A. Bussey, Sr. On Saturday, May 30, 2026, family, friends, and a grateful community will gather at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, to celebrate a century of a life well lived. There are few honors in this chamber greater than the privilege of paying tribute to such a man.

David Viscott once wrote, ``The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.'' For one hundred years, James Bussey has been giving his gift away--quietly, faithfully, and with a joy that has touched everyone fortunate enough to cross his path.

James Andrew Bussey was born in the red clay of Harris County, Georgia in 1926, into a world that too often refused to see him for the remarkable man he would become. He graduated from Spencer High School in 1944 and earned his way to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he studied for a year before marrying Ms. Marguerite Lindsey in 1947. Together they made their home in Columbus, Georgia, and together they built a life on faith and hard work.

To support his young family, James worked two jobs week after week, refusing to let his children inherit anything less than the best of him. But in those years, the cruelty of racism shadowed every effort he made. In 1957, hoping to find dignity for his labor, he packed his hopes and headed north to Washington, D.C., where he took a position at the Washington Hotel. There he discovered, with a quiet and aching grief, that his weekly paycheck was less than that of his White co- workers. He returned home to Georgia--not defeated, but determined.

What followed is the story of a man who refused to let bitterness take root where faith had been planted. James Bussey found work as a Mail Handler with the United States Postal Service, and he carried the mail of his neighbors with a pride that turned an ordinary job into a daily ministry. He sang as he walked the East Highland route--a route he loved because it carried him past the homes of his mother and grandmother. He stopped for those who could not read their own mail and read it aloud to them. He wrote letters back for those whose hands could no longer hold a pen. Each Christmas, his city honored him by inviting him to drive the postal vehicle in the Columbus Christmas parade, where children waved and neighbors smiled at the sight of a man they all knew and loved.

He retired from the Postal Service in 1976--but James Bussey was not finished. At an age when most men rest, he enrolled in college. In 1988, he walked across the stage at Columbus College to receive his Bachelor of Arts degree, fulfilling a dream that decades and circumstances had once placed out of reach. He became a proud brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, and to this day he lives by its call to brotherhood and service to all mankind.

Since the late 1940s, the pews of St. James AME Church have known the warmth of his voice. He serves as an officer, a faithful Son of Allen, and a soloist whose songs have lifted countless Sunday mornings toward heaven. He has welcomed visitors to his city as an Ambassador of the Columbus Visitors Bureau. He has graced the stages of the Liberty Theater, the Three Arts Theater, and the Columbus RiverCenter. And at one hundred years old, Mr. Speaker, James Bussey can still be found on the dance floor at the local senior center, ballroom dancing with a grace that puts younger men to shame.

With his late wife Marguerite, who preceded him in death, James was blessed with four children. He has known the particular sorrow that no parent should have to bear, having laid to rest his beloved son James Jr. and his cherished daughter Margaret--names he still speaks with tenderness, lives he still carries within his own. His daughter Janet and his son Michael remain to carry his name and his witness into another generation. He has been a grandfather and a great-grandfather, a brother in Christ, a neighbor, and a friend.

I have known James Bussey and his family for more than sixty years. In all that time,

through every season of my own life, I have never once known him to speak an unkind word, to turn away a soul in need, or to lose his faith in the goodness of God. He is, without exaggeration, one of the finest human beings I have ever had the privilege to know. Whatever I have learned in this life about quiet dignity, about endurance, about loving one's neighbor--I have learned in no small part from watching him live.

Our Lord said, ``He that is great among you shall be a servant, and he that is greatest among you shall be a servant unto all.'' For one hundred years, James Bussey has shown us what that scripture looks like when it puts on shoes and walks among us.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, in extending our deepest love and warmest wishes to Mr. James A. Bussey, Sr., as he celebrates a full century of grace this Saturday at the Columbus Museum. May the God he has served so faithfully continue to bless him, to keep him, and to make His face shine upon him today, tomorrow, and for every precious day still to come.

Happy 100th Birthday, my dear friend. The world is a kinder place because you walked through it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heart that is heavy beyond measure, and yet overflowing with gratitude to a gracious God, to honor the life, the ministry, and the enduring legacy of a man I have been blessed to call my friend, my brother, my teacher, and my faithful companion for more than fifty years--the Reverend George Phillip Shoultz, Jr., of Columbus, Georgia. A home-going service to celebrate his remarkable life will be held on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at the Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, when I think of George Shoultz, I do not think of his many accomplishments, though they were many. I think first of a friend. I think of a brother. I think of the man who, more than half a century ago, sat in the same Sunday School class with me at the Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church, and who one day, by God's providence, would rise from the pew beside me to stand at the front of the classroom as my Sunday School teacher. That is who George Shoultz was to me. He was the friend who became the teacher. The brother who became the shepherd. The companion who walked with me on every road I have ever traveled in public life.

Mr. Speaker, George was born on November 14, 1951, in Savannah, Georgia, the fourth of six children born to George Phillip Shoultz, Sr., and Cora Bell Shoultz. From his earliest days, he understood the meaning of hard work and family responsibility. Even as a young man at Tompkins High School, he worked to help support his family--a quiet sacrifice that would come to define his character. After graduation in 1969, he managed a Burger King and worked at Joe's Picnic, and he went on to study Accounting at Savannah State College, where, in a Sociology class in 1970, he met the love of his life. Miss Betty L. Martin. On July 29, 1972, George and Betty were joined in holy matrimony--a union that would last a lifetime and bless this world with three children. George, III, Brandi, and Geoffrey, and four beautiful grandchildren who were the very light of his eyes.

Mr. Speaker, George Shoultz was a businessman of rare vision. He climbed the ranks at Heykow, Inc., from a local store in Savannah to becoming a regional buyer and district manager. In 1975, he arrived in Columbus, Georgia, to serve as Managing Partner of the iconic Sol & Harry's menswear store. And on January 1, 1983, through grit, faith, and sheer determination, he and his family purchased that beloved institution outright. For more than four decades, G. Shoultz & Company has clothed the men of Columbus with dignity and distinction. He was named Outstanding Business of the Year by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1983, and Regional Retail Minority Entrepreneur in 1985. But ask anyone who walked into his store, and they will tell you-- George did not just sell suits. He extended credit when a young man could not afford one for a job interview. He prayed with customers who were grieving. He turned his clothing store into a ministry of dignity.

Mr. Speaker, our friendship was forged in the house of the Lord. For more than twenty years, George and I worshiped together at Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia. We sat in the same pews. We sang from the same hymnal. We sang and travelled with the choir. We bowed our heads in the same prayers. We sat in the same Sunday School class, week after week, year after year, opening the Word of God together. And there came a day when the Lord raised up our beloved George to teach that very class--and I, who had sat beside him as a fellow student, now sat as his student. He taught the Scriptures the way he lived them: with reverence, with humility, with conviction, and with a love so deep you could feel it in every word he spoke. I am a better man because George Shoultz shared with me the Word of God. I am a better servant of people because of what I learned saw in George.

Mr. Speaker, our bond was woven through every chapter of our lives. He trusted me as his attorney, as I had the honor of representing him and his family in matters of business and matters of life. He trusted me with his counsel; I trusted him with my soul. There are not many men in this world whom you could trust unconditionally. George Shoultz was such a man. We watched each other's hair turn gray, and we thanked God for every gray strand of it.

Mr. Speaker, when I first stepped into the arena of public service in 1976, seeking election to the Georgia State House of Representatives, George Shoultz was there. He was a young businessman then. I was a young lawyer. And he stood beside me--not because he had anything to gain, but because he believed. He believed in the calling. He believed in the work. He believed that representation mattered. And from that very first campaign, in 1976, all the way through every election I have ever waged--every State House race, every State Senate campaign, every single congressional election from my first run in 1992 to this very day--George Shoultz was there. Not for a season. Not for a cycle. For a lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, during my very first campaign for the United States Congress in 1992, George Shoultz served as my Transportation Coordinator--the man who organized and directed our fleet of volunteer drivers to take me from town to town as I campaigned to become the congressman from the 2nd Congressional District of Georgia. And he dispatched them by phone from his counter at Sal and Harry.

And how we would talk politics, Mr. Speaker. How we would talk. On the phone late into the evening, over coffee in Columbus, on the church steps after Sunday service, at the back counter of Sol & Harry's with a customer waiting--George had a mind that was sharp as a blade and a heart that was tender as a child's. He understood the long arc of the moral universe, and he believed, as Dr. King believed, that it bends toward justice. But he also knew that it does not bend on its own. He believed it must be pulled, prayed over, and pushed by faithful hands. His hands were among the most faithful I have ever known. He served as Captain of the Dimon Precinct for Mayor Bill Feighner. He worked tirelessly for Councilman Nathan Suber. He stood with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and on the night this Nation elected Barack Obama as President of the United States. George Shoultz and I wept together as men who had lived to see what our fathers and mothers had only dared to dream. In 1991, he joined the bus ride through Forsyth County--an act of moral courage that I shall never forget so long as I draw breath.

Mr. Speaker, above every title George Shoultz ever earned in business or in civic life, he wore one with greater pride than all the rest: servant of the Most High God. Ordained to the ministry in the late 1990s, Reverend Shoultz served Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in nearly every capacity a man can serve--as Deacon, as Sunday School Teacher and Superintendent, as Chairman of Transportation, as Chairman of Mission, as overseer of the church's radio ministry that carried the Word of God across the airwaves of Georgia on JOY FM and FOXIE 105. He served in the Inspirational Choir, the Evangelism Ministry, the Benevolence Ministry, and the Stewardship Ministry. He also served as Associate Pastor of Spirit, Truth, and Liberty Ministries International. There was no task too small, no hour too late, no soul too lost for Reverend Shoultz to serve.

Mr. Speaker, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once preached words that could have been written about my friend George Shoultz:

``Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You

don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have

to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only

need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.''

--Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., February 4, 1968

Mr. Speaker. that was George Shoultz. A heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. He never sought greatness, and yet greatness found him--because he gave himself away in service to others, day after day, year after year, for a lifetime.

Mr. Speaker, there is a particular ache that comes when you lose a friend you have

known across the long arc of a lifetime. It is the ache of fifty years of memories. It is the ache of remembering a young man sitting beside you in a Sunday School class and knowing that the seat will be empty now. It is the ache of picking up the phone to call him with news, only to remember that he has gone home. It is the ache of every campaign yet to come, every election night yet to be, every Sunday service--and knowing that George Shoultz will not be there. But, Mr. Speaker, I take comfort in this: he will be there in spirit. He will be there in every Scripture I remember from Sunday School. He will be there in every pew at Fourth Street where his prayers still linger like incense. He will be there in the laughter of his grandchildren. He will be there.

His beloved wife of more than fifty years, Betty--walked every step of this journey by his side, from a Sociology class at Savannah State College in 1970 to the threshold of eternity--my heart is broken with hers. To his children, George, III, Brandi, and Geoffrey; to his precious grandchildren, George, IV, Emira, Lydia Grace, and Amira; to his surviving siblings; and to his Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church family who loved him so well--I offer my deepest condolences and the prayers of a grateful Nation. Their loss is immeasurable. But take comfort, dear ones, in the promise we read in 2nd Timothy: he has fought the good fight, he has finished the course, he has kept the faith. And henceforth, there is laid up for him a crown of righteousness.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of the Reverend George Phillip Shoultz, Jr. I have lost more than a friend. I have lost a Sunday School teacher who opened the Scriptures to me. I lost a client who trusted me with his affairs. I lost a campaign warrior who carried me from the State House to the U.S. House across fifty years and countless elections. I lost a brother who walked with me through every season of my life. Columbus lost a pillar. Georgia lost a giant. The Kingdom of God gained a saint. I ask my colleagues to join me today in honoring the extraordinary life of Reverend George Phillip Shoultz, Jr.--a husband, a father, a grandfather, a businessman, a deacon, a minister, a teacher, a freedom fighter, and, to me, simply, my beloved friend.

Well done, my, brother. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. May he rest now, in the arms of the Savior he served so faithfully. Until that great gettin' up morning--until we meet again on that beautiful shore--rest, dear friend. Rest.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a remarkable Georgian--Dr. Robert A. ``Bobby'' Clay, Jr.--who passed away peacefully on May 6, 2026, at the age of 98. Dr. Clay was a man of extraordinary character whose life of service left an indelible mark on Lee County, Georgia, and on the generations of students, families, and neighbors who were blessed to know him. A funeral service to celebrate his remarkable life will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at the Leslie City Cemetery in Leslie, Georgia.

Born in 1928 in Lee County, Bobby Clay was the son of Robert A. Clay, Sr. and Eddye Hooks Clay. He was raised during the Great Depression on Clay Spring Farms, a family homestead recognized as a Centennial Farm, having remained in continuous operation by the same family for 121 years. From his earliest days, Bobby Clay learned the virtues that would define his life: hard work, humility, stewardship, and perseverance. The red clay of Lee County ran deep in his veins, and the values instilled on that farm never left him.

Even as a young man, Dr. Clay demonstrated an uncommon sense of responsibility. At just 15 years old, while still a student at Leesburg High School, he served as a school bus driver for the Lee County School System--an early sign of the leadership and commitment to community that would characterize his entire life. He graduated with the Class of 1945, a year that marked both the end of a world war and the beginning of a remarkable personal journey.

Dr. Clay went on to attend North Georgia College before earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia. His hunger for learning did not stop there. With a lifelong dedication to education, he earned both a master's degree and a doctorate in education-- credentials that reflected not only his intellectual achievement but his profound belief that education was the great equalizer and the foundation of a just and flourishing society.

For more than three decades, Dr. Clay devoted himself to the Lee County School System. He served on the Lee County Board of Education and then as superintendent for an extraordinary 32 years. During a time of tremendous challenge and change in American public education, he provided the steady hand of a leader who understood that doing the right thing was more important than doing the easy thing.

Under his leadership, the Lee County School System navigated the complexities of desegregation with integrity and compassion. He opened the schoolhouse doors wider--welcoming students with disabilities into the public school system, expanding educational opportunities for all children regardless of background, and guiding the district through a period of significant growth. The school system he helped shape stands today as one of Georgia's most respected--a living testament to his vision and his values.

But to speak of Dr. Clay only in terms of policy and administration would be to miss something essential about the man. He was, at his core, a farmer who loved the land. He spoke fondly of childhood days spent swimming in Chokee Creek, fishing, and working alongside his family. Clay Spring Farms was not simply a place he lived--it was an expression of who he was. He understood that the health of a community is rooted in the health of its families, its land, and its traditions.

On June 13, 1954, Bobby Clay married the love of his life, Betty Ann Pace Clay. Their partnership spanned 67 years--a union of faith, devotion, and shared purpose that endured until Betty Ann's passing in 2021. Together they built a home known for its warmth, its hospitality, and its deep love of family. They were faithful members of DeSoto Baptist Church, where they served for many years and where their faith was as much a part of daily life as the Georgia soil beneath their feet.

In addition to his work in education, Dr. Clay served his community through longtime membership on the Board of Health, demonstrating that his commitment to public service extended beyond the schoolhouse. He was honored as a member of the Lee County High School Distinguished Alumni Program--a recognition that only scratched the surface of what he meant to the people of that county. His truly lived his life by the words: ``To educate a man is to educate a citizen. To serve your community is to serve your God.''

Dr. Clay was preceded in death by his beloved wife Betty Ann; his son, Robert A. Clay, III; grandson Zachary Clay Peak; and son-in-law Sidney Clinton Peak. He is survived by his daughters, Carol Ann Clay Peak of Lee County and Melody Clay Sheffield of Albany; his grandson James Clay Sheffield; his sister Evelyn Clay Hicks of Marietta; and a wide circle of nieces, nephews, extended family members, and friends who carry his memory forward.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representative to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in honoring that life and legacy of Dr. Robert ``Bobby'' Clay, Jr. His is the biography of rural Georgia at its best. He was a man who never forgot where he came from, never stopped working for the people around him, and never wavered in his conviction that every child deserved a good education and every community deserved good leadership. He lived 98 years, and he used every one of them well.

He was an educator, farmer, public servant, husband, father, and devoted son of Lee County, Georgia. May his family find comfort in the knowledge that his work endures, and that the State of Georgia, the Nation, and the world is better because of him.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with to honor and celebrate the life of Reverend Felton Lamar, who peacefully transitioned from this life on May 1, 2026. A Homegoing service to celebrate his remarkable and dedicated life will be held on Friday, May 8, 2026, at the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia.

Born the fifth of nine children to the late William ``Bosie'' Lamar and Bertha Lamar, Reverend Lamar's life was rooted in faith, family, and service. At an early age he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior and joined Pleasant Grove Baptist Church near Sylvester, Georgia. His faith guided every aspect of his life--his family life, his work, and the decades of ministry that followed.

Reverend Lamar received his early education in the public schools of Worth County and later earned a Bachelor of Applied Science in Bible from Bethany Divinity College & Seminary in 1994. In 1962, he was united in holy matrimony to Elizabeth Roberts Lamar. From this loving union, three children were born--Gary, Harold, and Katrina--and they, along with fourteen grandchildren and twenty-four great-grandchildren, remain living testaments to his devotion as a husband, father, and grandfather.

Before answering the call to full-time ministry, Reverend Lamar worked faithfully at MacGregor Golf and Firestone Tire & Rubber Company and later served his community as a school bus driver in the Dougherty County School System until his retirement. After relocating to Albany, he united with Antioch Baptist Church, where his faithfulness, spirit of service, and leadership established him as a vital pillar of the congregation. He served in many capacities--Senior Choir President, Church Secretary, Sunday School teacher and was ordained a Deacon in 1971 by the late Reverend R.B. Smith.

Hearing the divine call to preach, Reverend Lamar was ordained as a Minister of the Gospel in 1982 by the late Reverend George Daniels. He pastored with humility, compassion, and steadfast devotion--leading Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Shellman, St. Peter Baptist Church in Pelham, Mt. Early Baptist Church in Albany, and, for thirty years beginning in 1984, First Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church, where he was affectionately known as ``the Pastor who cares.'' Even after his retirement, he continued to serve faithfully at Mt. Zion Baptist Church until illness intervened.

Beyond the pulpit, Reverend Lamar's leadership extended throughout the larger religious community. He served as Moderator of the Bethesda No. 1 Association, County Coordinator for the Second District of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia and was an active member of the Albany Ministers' Conference. His life of service--quiet, persistent, and rooted in love--lifted countless lives.

As Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, ``By perseverance the snail reached the ark.'' That image of steady, humble perseverance captures the essence of Reverend Lamar's ministry: not showy, but faithful to the end. He persevered in love, prayer, and service, and by that perseverance he sheltered and strengthened many.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District as we mourn the passing of a faithful servant whose life exemplified the Gospel he preached. I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our deepest condolences to Reverend Lamar's wife, children, grandchildren, siblings, and all who were blessed by his ministry. May his legacy of love, humility, and perseverance continue to inspire and guide us.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor and pay tribute to Judge Herbert E. Phipps--a distinguished jurist, devoted public servant, proud Morehouse alumnus, as well as a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and a dear friend whose life exemplifies courage, service, and fidelity to the rule of law. The Dougherty County Bar Association honored Judge Phipps during their annual Law Day Celebration on May 6, 2026, in Albany, Georgia.

Judge Phipps' journey began in a small rural community in Baker County, Georgia, where family, faith, and hard work shaped his character. From those roots he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Morehouse College, a Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Law Review, and a Master of Laws in the Judicial Process from the University of Virginia School of Law.

After law school he returned to Southwest Georgia to join the practice of the legendary civil-rights attorney C.B. King, learning that the practice of law is a moral calling and that courage is an indispensable trait for lawyers and judges. He practiced as a solo practitioner from 1983 to 1995, served eight years as a part-time magistrate and associate judge of the Dougherty County State Court, seven years as judge of the Dougherty County Juvenile Court, and was appointed by Governor Zell Miller to the Dougherty Circuit Superior Court in 1995. In July 1999, Governor Roy Barnes appointed him to the Court of Appeals of Georgia; he was elected statewide to three six-year terms, served as a presiding judge beginning in 2010, and as chief judge from July 2013 through June 2015. Judge Phipps retired from the Court of Appeals in 2016.

Judge Phipps' leadership extends far beyond the bench. He has served as past chairman of the Board of Directors of SB&T Bank of Albany and Americus; on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice; as past president of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta and the Dougherty Circuit Bar Association; and on Georgia's Judicial Nominating Commission, the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Racial and Ethnic Bias, and the Georgia Indigent Defense Council Advisory Committee. He is a member of Bethel A.M.E. Church (Albany), Sigma Pi Phi (Delta Delta Boule), The Inquiry Club, and the Old War Horse Lawyers Club, and has led numerous civic organizations in Albany, including the Albany Advocacy Resource Center and the Albany Sickle Cell Foundation.

His service has been recognized with many honors: the Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award, the Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award, the Logan E. Bleckley Distinguished Service Award, the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association ``Guardian of Justice Award,'' the Nestor Award from the Georgia Legal History Foundation, the Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service, induction into the Society of Benchers of Case Western Reserve School of Law, the Case Western Reserve University School of

Law Centennial Medal, recognition as a Legal Legend by the Georgia Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. His commencement address at Case Western in 2007, ``Lawyers--the Guardians of Truth and Justice,'' remains a testament to his faith in the profession.

Sustained by a devoted family, Judge Phipps is married to Connie Curry Phipps. They are the parents of Herbert E. Phipps, Jr. and India K. Epps (and son-in-law Will J. Epps), and proud grandparents of Zoe Olivia Epps and Evan James Epps.

This year, the Dougherty County Bar honored Judge Phipps on Law Day-- a fitting tribute from colleagues and neighbors who have witnessed his decades of service. Judge Phipps has long called on lawyers and judges to speak with courage on today's pressing social-justice issues, drawing lessons from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the long struggle for equality. He reminds us that judges do not have the luxury of silence when justice is at stake. Judge Phipps has lived his life by the creed of former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren: ``Where there is injustice, we should correct it; where there is poverty, we should eliminate it; where there is corruption, we should stamp it out; where there is violence, we should punish it; where there is neglect, we should provide care; where there is war, we should restore peace; and wherever corrections are achieved, we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasures.''

On a personal note, I have had the privilege of knowing Judge Phipps for over five decades. Our relationship began during my formative years as a civil rights lawyer, where I received training as an Earl Warren Fellow with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I benefited from the mentorship of both Judge Phipps and C.B. King. Through their guidance, I learned the principles of justice, advocacy, and the unwavering commitment required to fight for civil rights, which have profoundly shaped my own career in public service. I am forever grateful for his fidelity and friendship.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd District in honoring the service of Judge Herbert E. Phipps. Judge Phipps' life--from Baker County to Morehouse, from C.B. King's law office to the Court of Appeals--inspires us all. For his wisdom on the bench, his steadfast leadership in the community, the warmth of his friendship, and the dignity with which he has served, I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Judge Herbert E. Phipps and recognizing the extraordinary example he has set for future generations. His enduring legacy is one of unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and the empowerment of marginalized communities, inspiring generations of legal practitioners and activists to carry on the vital work of civil rights advocacy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart and the deepest respect to honor the life and legacy of the Honorable Mary Jo Haywood of Camilla, Georgia--a servant-leader whose faith, courage, and tireless work transformed a community and lifted countless lives. A funeral service to celebrate her remarkable and dedicated life will be held on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at the Open Door Church of Praise in Camilla, Georgia.

Mayor Mary Jo Haywood's story is the story of this Nation at its best: a life shaped by faith and duty, tested by hardship, and fulfilled through relentless service. Born in 1948, she carried the values of Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church into every role she embraced--as a devoted Sunday School teacher, a mentor, a paralegal advocating for the most vulnerable, a civic leader, and a history- making mayor. Her faith was not private sentiment but public action: she taught, organized, wrote, counseled, and stood watch so that others might find justice and dignity.

She was a daughter who bore loss with courage, a single mother who raised a brilliant daughter, Dr. Chanta M. Haywood, and a loving grandmother whose pride in Jordan,

Logan, and Kalen was visible in every warm story she told. She was a guardian to nieces and nephews, a trusted confidante to friends, and a pillar for a community that came to depend upon her steady hand and fearless voice.

Professionally, Mayor Haywood was a relentless advocate for equity. As a senior paralegal and later a self-employed practitioner specializing in Social Security disability cases, she stood with those denied a fair chance. She helped open the first Black law firm in Camilla, forging a path for justice where there had been barriers. In the NAACP, in voter drives, in fundraising for families shattered by tragedy, and in campaigns for fairness in city employment, Mayor Haywood's leadership moved people to action and moved systems toward justice.

In 2007, history was made as she became the first woman and the first African American elected mayor of Camilla. She wore both distinctions not as trophies but as responsibilities--to ensure transparency, accountability, and equal opportunity for every resident. Her term as mayor, and her continued civic engagement afterward, changed the civic fabric of Camilla for the better. In 2024, the city rightfully honored her by dedicating the Honorable Mary Jo Haywood Council Chambers, a testament to a life that taught us how public service should be practiced.

Mayor Haywood's work reached beyond policy: she was a keeper of memory. For years, she maintained a quiet vigil remembering the victims of the 1868 Camilla Massacre, refusing to let their names be lost to time. She championed the legacy of Georgia B. ``Miss Bea'' Williams, ensuring that the midwife who delivered thousands--in an era of segregation and exclusion--received the recognition and dignity she deserved.

Her honors were many, yet she remained the same humble servant who believed that the truest measure of life is how it is devoted to others. From induction into the Southern Rural Black Women's Hall of Fame to recognition as a Woman of Distinction by the Georgia NAACP, she accepted accolades with gratitude and returned them to her community through continued work and mentorship.

Today we mourn a devoted daughter, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, and stateswoman. We grieve the passing of a woman who taught us that persistence, faith, and love are powerful forces for change. We give thanks for the guidance she offered, the doors she opened, and the lives she touched.

Her extended family, and the people of Camilla who called her mayor and mentor, should know that their loss is felt across Georgia and beyond. We join them in sorrow, and we pledge to carry forward the values she embodied: service without hesitation, courage in the face of injustice, and an unshakable belief in the dignity of every person.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to join my wife, Vivian, and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in honoring the life and legacy of Mayor Mary Jo Haywood. Mary Jo Haywood believed, as she lived, that God had a plan. By that grace and by her work, she became what she was called to be--a leader who opened pathways for others to follow. May her memory be a blessing, and may her life continue to inspire us to build communities of fairness, compassion, and opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heart heavy, gratitude, and memory to pay tribute to Mulberry Street United Methodist Church on the occasion of its 200th anniversary. A bicentennial that reads like a hymn of endurance, an extended prayer answered by faithful hands across generations. A worship service to celebrate this remarkable milestone was held on Sunday, April 26, 2026, in Macon, Georgia.

Two centuries ago, in 1826, thirteen earnest Methodists met in a frontier courthouse on the west bank of the Ocmulgee River. They cleared forest and laid beams, and in 1828 built a simple house of worship where, the gospel's promise was first made visible in Macon. From that modest beginning grew a congregation that hosted the first meeting of the Georgia Conference, birthed Sunday Schools that became new churches, and reached into neighborhoods with a compassion that always began at the foot of the altar.

Mulberry's history is punctuated by triumph and trial. In seasons of growth, it raised white columns and expanded its sanctuary; in lean seasons it answered cries for help with Sunday School classrooms, youth centers, dining

halls, and ministries to the hungry. The Great Depression tested the congregation's resolve in ways that measured not balance sheets but character; families who had pledged generously found livelihoods gone, yet members scrimped and sacrificed until the building debt was paid. A devastating fire in April 1965 gutted the sanctuary, but stained-glass windows were preserved and later installed in the rebuilt sanctuary opened in 1968--glass that now shines as a symbol that beauty and faith can survive flame. More recently, during the global pandemic, Mulberry became a lifeline: volunteers fed neighbors when jobs vanished; pastors and members made calls, left meals on porches, and sustained the isolated with prayer and presence.

The Historical Room safeguards treasures--Thomas Darley's ordination certificate signed by Francis Asbury, night caps, a Darley Bible--but the true archive of Mulberry is the ledger of lives: the child fed, the student mentored, the widow comforted, the immigrant welcomed. The Youth Center that once teemed with young people, Macon Outreach's soup kitchen and pantry, global mission partnerships, and the many ministries that compose ``The Mulberry Way'' testify to a congregation that turns calamity into compassion.

We remember the silent sacrifices: the volunteers who mended roofs and hearts, the pastors who shepherded trembling souls, the families whose small gifts kept a mission alive. We honor the courage that rebuilt after storms, repurposed spaces for service, and answered every call with steadfast love.

Today Mulberry's ministries continue under the steady leadership of its pastor, the Reverend Jack Varnell, whose pastoral tenderness and clear vision guide the congregation into this new century of witness. We are also blessed that Bishop Robin Dease served as the guest preacher for this commemorative service--a fitting voice to celebrate a congregation whose reach has spanned local streets and global fields.

Mr. Speaker, in honoring Mulberry Street United Methodist Church on its bicentennial, we honor an ethic: that faith is not merely spoken but lived; that worship must be joined to works of mercy; that a community's true wealth is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable. For 200 years this congregation has lived that ethic faithfully--surviving the Great Depression, rebuilding after fire, weathering wars, and answering when a modern pandemic called forth every compassion.

I ask my colleagues to join my wife, Vivian, and me, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in congratulating Mulberry Street United Methodist Church on this bicentennial milestone. May Mulberry's lights continue to shine, its doors remain open, and its table welcome all who are weary. May God bless Mulberry Street Church, bless Pastor Jack Varnell, bless Bishop Robin Dease as she continues her work and may God bless the city of Macon, Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heart both grateful and heavy to honor Bishop Thomas L. Brown, Sr.--a faithful pastor, distinguished scholar, tireless leader, and a dear, longtime friend--as he retires as Presiding Prelate of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. An event to celebrate his remarkable stewardship and ministry sponsored by the Sixth Episcopal District, West Georgia Region, will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2026, at the Page-Doleman Complex in Columbus, Georgia.

Born June 21, 1951, in Oakland, Mississippi, Bishop Brown's life has been shaped by faith, learning, and service. Valedictorian of Walker High School, a graduate of the University of Mississippi, and a scholar who earned both the Master of Divinity and the Doctor of Theology degrees with honors from the Interdenominational Theological Center in cooperation with Emory and Columbia, he has modeled the union of intellect and piety. As a member of Theta Phi honor society and as an esteemed teacher and lecturer at institutions including Candler, Columbia, and Princeton, Bishop Brown has formed minds even as he formed hearts.

His ministry began at Ole Miss and matured across pastorates in Mississippi and Georgia, Rice Chapel, Murray Memorial, St. James, Butler Street, College Park, and as organizing pastor of Good News Community Church. From 1990 to 2006, he served with distinction as the sixth President and Dean of the Phillips School of Theology at ITC, where he oversaw the formation of more than ninety-five graduates and founded the Annual C.M.E. Pastors' Conference, an enduring gift to clergy development.

Elected the 54th Bishop of the C.M.E. Church in 2006, he shepherded the Fourth Episcopal District and, since 2018, the Sixth Episcopal District, while chairing the Department of Christian Education. His episcopal ministry deepened clergy formation, strengthened congregational life, and extended the church's witness in justice and mercy. A sought-after preacher, professor, and conference delegate-- both national and international--Bishop Brown has represented the C.M.E. Church with dignity, wisdom, and prophetic compassion. He has been a founding member of the Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta and a steadfast advocate for the homeless and the condemned, living out Scripture's call to care for ``the least of these'' (Matthew 25:40).

Beyond titles and honors, Thomas Brown has been my friend. He has counseled me in difficult hours, rejoiced in triumphs, and exemplified what faithful friendship looks like: honest, humble, and true. I think of Paul's words when I remember him: ``I thank my God every time I remember you'' (Philippians 1:3). Those words capture the gratitude of countless lives he has touched--students, parishioners, colleagues, and communities.

Bishop Brown's wife, Dr. Louise Baker-Brown; children, Charisa and Thomas, Jr.; and the people of the Sixth Episcopal District should all know that their husband, father, pastor, and shepherd has run a remarkable race. I thank them for being with him every step of the way. His life marked by scholarship, pastoral tenderness, courageous civic engagement, and sacrificial service leaves a legacy that will continue to bear fruit for generations.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join my wife Vivian and I, along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in giving thanks for Bishop Thomas L. Brown, Sr.; in celebrating his faithful ministry; and in wishing him a restful and joy-filled retirement. For a life poured out in service, we echo the heavenly commendation: ``Well done, good and faithful servant'' (Matthew 25:21). May God bless him richly in the days ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heart overflowing--full of gratitude, memories, and deep affection--to celebrate the 14th pastoral anniversary of Reverend Dr. Johnny H. Flakes, III, a faithful servant of God, a tireless community champion, and a dear friend I have known for many years. An event to celebrate his ministry and stewardship will be held on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at The Fourth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia.

I grew in my faith for over two decades as a member of Fourth Street under the preaching and steady hand of his father, Rev. Dr. J.H. Flakes, Jr., and from those sanctuary pews I watched a young Johnny Flakes, III first learn to love the church, the Word, and the people of Fourth Street. To see him now, shepherding the same flock with humility, wisdom, and joy, moves me in ways words hardly capture. He carries forward a legacy of faith that shaped an entire community.

His life is a tapestry woven with deep learning and undying service. From Tuskegee's gridiron to Ole Miss classrooms of theology and Mercer's halls of ministry formation, his scholarship has always been in service to the flock. But it is in the everyday work, counseling a grieving family, visiting the sick, opening the doors of Fourth Street Towers and the daycare he chairs, and standing with those struggling for dignity, where his heart is clearest.

His civic and ministerial affiliations read like a ministry of presence: President of the General Missionary Baptist Congress of Christian Education of Georgia; Faculty Member of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education; President of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance; Southeast Regional Vice President of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education; Southeast Regional Coordinator for the National Baptist Convention Sunday School Publishing Board; member of the American Baptist College Board of Trustees; Chair of the Boards for Fourth Street Towers and Fourth Street Daycare and Academy; member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.; and a devoted Rotarian in Columbus. He serves on the John Amos Cancer Center Advisory Board, the Valley Healthcare Board, the Board of Historic Columbus, the Mayor's Advisory Council for Diversity, Prosperity, and Unity, and so many other places where hope is built and lives are lifted.

These affiliations are not mere lines on a resume, they are evidence of a man who shows up. He shows up for education, for housing, for health, for history, for young people, and for justice. He shows up when the community needs a voice, a hand, or a prayer.

His awards--from the Dr. Henry Cook Social Action Award to a Congressional Commendation--honor his work. But the truest measure of his ministry is the lives changed: the child fed, the family housed, the student inspired, the grieving heart held.

His family, including his wife, First Lady Jacquelyn Flakes, and his children, Braya, and Kevin have carried this calling with him, sharing joys and the burdens of ministry. He carries on the legacy of his late father Reverend J.H. Flakes, Jr. and beloved late mother, Robena Flakes. I thank the people of Fourth Street, to the countless boards and associations that have been strengthened by his wisdom, and to Reverend Flakes. I thank them for answering a sacred call with brilliance and for leading with conviction and tenderness, and for making Columbus a place that remembers what it means to love your neighbor.

There is a Scripture that I know has anchored him in storms and celebrations alike: ``And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up'' (Galatians 6:9). Reverend Flakes has not grown weary. He has labored in hope, and the harvest of lives touched testifies to a faithful heart.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join my wife Vivian, and me along with the more than 765,000 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in honoring Reverend Dr. Johnny H. Flakes, III on his 14th pastoral anniversary--to give thanks for his steadfast ministry, to celebrate his community leadership, and to express our gratitude for a life that models the Gospel in word and deed. May God continue to bless him, his family, his flock and the Columbus, Georgia community.