Reflections Of My Time In Congress
Madam Speaker, I arrived in this storied Chamber 12-and- a-half years ago fresh off a Florida special election to fill former Representative Robert Wexler's seat. I was the lone freshman in the middle of the 111th Congress. I was eager. I…
Madam Speaker, I arrived in this storied Chamber 12-and- a-half years ago fresh off a Florida special election to fill former Representative Robert Wexler's seat. I was the lone freshman in the middle of the 111th Congress. I was eager. I was a little uncertain. I had a bit more hair. I wanted to do right by the people who sent me here.
It was during those first days that I met the late John Dingell, then the dean of the House, himself by all accounts a very important man. I don't know about you, Madam Speaker, but at that point, having secured the will of the American people to serve as their Representative in the House of Representatives, and having received my spiffy new congressional pin, I might have been feeling a little important myself, even with the novelty of my new job.
But John Dingell looked me square in the eye and gave me a piece of advice that I would never forget. He said: You are not important. It is what you can do for the people who sent you here, that is what is important. If you never confuse those two, he said, you will be fine.
Over the course of my time in Congress, as Mr. Dingell predicted, I have met some very important people, but those people, with all due respect to my colleagues, don't serve in this Chamber.
I met Mitch Libman, the childhood friend of Private First Class Leonard Kravitz, Company M, Fifth Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. For decades, Mitch worked to find out why Private First Class Kravitz, who sacrificed himself for his platoon during the Korean war in an extraordinary act of heroism, never received the Medal of Honor he was recommended for.
Mitch's efforts led to a 2002 congressional review to uncover soldiers of Jewish and Hispanic origin who were wrongfully denied the Medal of Honor due to prejudice. His tireless devotion to his late friend led me to introduce an amended version of the National Defense Authorization Act in the 113th Congress to ensure each and every soldier discovered during that review to deserve the Medal of Honor received their award.
I was proud to stand before President Obama surrounded by the families of these bravest Americans when the President awarded 24 recipients, including Private First Class Kravitz posthumously, with that deserved honor.
Mitch Libman and Private First Class Kravitz, and what we were able to do for them, that was important.
I met Mona Reis, the founder of the Presidential Women's Center. Outraged by the prevalence of unsafe, back-alley abortions, by the injustice of women having to travel across borders to access basic reproductive healthcare that is their right, Mona lobbied for legalized abortion here in Washington.
The day after Roe v. Wade was decided, she joined the first outpatient abortion clinic in Miami as a staff counselor, helping women in Florida finally access the care they needed. When she moved north to my district, she founded the Presidential Women's Center in Palm Beach County, a leading comprehensive reproductive care facility.
It is because of her dedication to women's basic human rights in south Florida, and her shining example nurturing patients through the most difficult decision of their lives, that I fought hard against efforts to attack women's bodily autonomy, first in Tallahassee and then in Washington.
It is why I became a task force chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus. Together with my colleagues, we passed the Women's Health Protection Act in the House to codify Roe into law and pushed for the repeal of the global gag rule. That was important, and especially in this moment, it continues to be important.
I met Robert Boo and Bruce Williams, CEO and active aging manager of the Pride Center at Equality Park in Wilton Manors, Florida. Every day, they work with their team to create a welcoming, empowering home with a wealth of resources for south Florida's LGBTQ+ community and particularly LGBTQ+ seniors. From art galleries to health workshops to education to counseling, Robert and Bruce ensure that the community's needs are met.
But the challenges that they face are tremendous. LGBTQ+ seniors have endured a lifetime of marginalization and discrimination, and their needs are many and unique.
Their work led me to Ruthie Berman, a lifelong advocate who fought alongside her wife, Connie, for the LGBTQ+ community. Even though Connie is no longer with us, Ruthie's activism has not let up. She is still briefing congressional staff and sharing her wisdom.
Ruthie and Connie, Bruce and Robert, all of their tireless efforts prompted me to introduce the Ruthie and Connie LGBT Elder Americans Act every Congress and to chair the Equality Caucus' Task Force on Aging. Because of them, Congress better understands the needs of this community and has the tools to take action. That is important.
I met David Hogg, Matt and Ryan Deitsch, Cameron Kasky, and X Gonzalez. I met Jackie Corin, Alex Wind, and dozens of their classmates. When 17 of their friends and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas were murdered by a killer with access to an assault weapon, as our community was wracked with shock and grief, these
young people refused to sit by and wait for the next school shooting. They got together. They started a national movement.
They started March For Our Lives to prevent the next tragedy. Because of them, roughly half a million people showed up in Washington and 2 million in cities around the country and around the world to demand change, one of the largest protests in American history. Because of them, we had the highest ever youth turnout in the 2018 midterms, and we elected a gun safety majority to Congress, a majority that includes dedicated advocates like my dear friend Lucy McBath.
I met Lori Alhadeff, Fred Guttenberg, Manny Oliver, Tony Montalto, and dozens of other family members who had their loved ones taken from them too soon and who are still pushing through their anguish to try to make our community and our country safer.
Because of them, I introduced legislation to crack down on 3D-printed guns, raise the legal age for purchase, ban high-capacity magazines, and establish a Federal buyback program.
Because of them, a universal background checks bill and an assault weapons ban have passed in the House, and because of them, the first major gun safety law in 30 years is now law. That was important.
Because of them, I remember those they lost every day. I remember Alyssa, Scott, Martin, Nicholas, Aaron, Jaime, Chris, Luke, Cara, Gina, Joaquin, Alaina, Meadow, Helena, Alex, Carmen, and Peter. That is important.
I met Christine Levinson and her children, Sarah, Doug, Stephanie, Dan, Susan, David, and Samantha, whose husband and father, Bob Levinson, was being held hostage in Iran.
When I got to Washington, the Levinsons had already been searching for answers for 3 years. Bob became the longest held American hostage in history, as his family navigated a confusing and disjointed landscape of resources and information across multiple Presidential administrations.
But the Levinsons did not give up. Even after we learned of Bob's likely death in captivity, the Levinsons never stopped trying to give other families facing the same terrible circumstance that they faced more resources than they had.
They didn't stop trying to bring Bob and every American hostage home, and because of them, President Obama issued an executive order to better track unlawful detainment of U.S. nationals abroad and support the families of those detainees, an executive order that was codified into law by my bill, the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage- Taking Accountability Act, soon after we learned of Bob's passing.
There are still hostages around the world today. Bob is still not home, but the strides we made for these families, that was important. Those of us in this Chamber and all Americans continuing to fight to bring them home and to bring closure to the Levinsons, that is important.
Of course, I met people before I came to Washington, people who informed my work in Tallahassee. Their stories have continued to be important. They have continued to inspire the actions that we have taken in this Chamber.
On a plane in Florida, soon after my election to the State senate, I met Berthy De La Rosa-Aponte. She told me her story and the story of her daughter, Lucy, who was living with cerebral palsy, autism, and multiple other developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Berthy told me about a harmful change in language on its way through the State legislature, a change that could have had disastrous consequences for the health and quality of life for her daughter and many others with severe disabilities. She told me: If this goes through, I will have two choices. I could put Lucy into an institution or she will die.
Because of her, I introduced legislation to fix it. We got that language changed. The American flag Lucy painted still hangs in my office in Washington. While Lucy passed away 2 years ago, the change she inspired, that lives on, and that was important.
The people I met during my career in public service informed important work, work that we do with a lasting legacy, but so did the people that I came here with. The day I was sworn in as a Member of Congress, since it was following a special election, there was no limit on the number of tickets in the House gallery for my friends and family.
I was elected on April 13, 2010, and sworn in 2 days later, which is not a whole lot of time for people to plan to come, but they dropped everything to come even on short notice, and we packed the place. So many dear friends and family were with me that day, filling up this gallery.
It is hard to single any of them out. There were people who cared about every issue under the Sun, with so many different visions for what the future of our country could be. But many of the faces in the gallery that day who decided it was worth coming for that moment, many of them were people that I had gotten to know in my 25 years living in Boca Raton through our shared involvement in our local Jewish community. They are people who share my strong commitment to bettering not only the American Jewish community, not only the global Jewish community, but our Nation and our world through our community's advocacy and service.
I have seen their faces every day of this journey, as I fought anti- Semitism as cofounder of the Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Anti- Semitism; bolstered our Nation's relationships in the international community as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Middle East, North Africa, and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee chair; strengthened the U.S.-Israel relationship as a loud, proud, and consistent advocate for Congress' bipartisan commitment to the U.S.- Israel strategic partnership, to Iron Dome funding, to bilateral cooperation between our two nations, and for calling out anti-Semitism wherever it appears on whichever side of the political aisle; and advocated for Holocaust survivors to ensure they can live out their remaining years in peace and dignity.
Guess what, Madam Speaker? A lot of them are back here in the gallery tonight for the end of this ride.
I lost my dad, Bernie Deutch, years ago. He couldn't be there to watch my swearing-in, but it was the conversations that I had with him years ago ringing in my ears that day.
When my dad served in the Battle of the Bulge and went to Europe to defend America and to fight the Nazis, it was the opportunity to do the work on the House floor that he was fighting for, that brave Americans in uniform are fighting for as I speak.
Why did he do it? Why did he remind me of those stories? Because my dad taught me, taught all of us, my brothers, Jeff, Stan, and Eddy, and my sister, Elaine, of the dual importance, the equal importance, the tremendous importance of being both a proud Jew and a proud American. One informs the other. They are inextricably linked.
My colleagues and constituents know me as a proud Jewish member of the American Congress. My involvement in the community, my travel to Israel, those have been such a fundamental part of what I have done since I have been here. They are cornerstones of the legacy that those faces in the gallery that day and my dad helped me leave, and that is grounding, it is humbling, and that is important.
There are eight people who were there with me that day when I was sworn in 12\1/2\ years ago that I want to single out even all these years later. All of us in this place are doing this for the world we are helping to create for our children and for their children, for all the generations to come.
My kids were 15 and 12 when I got elected. Watching Gabby, Serena, and Cole grow, go through college, take on their own leadership positions on campus, in the Jewish community, and in the workforce, watching them do their part to help change the world, that has inspired me to do my part all these years.
My wife, Jill, a leader in our local Jewish community with boundless passion for cultivating the next generation of Jewish leaders, all the work she does every day has been a source of strength and inspiration for me every time I come to Washington.
The support from Jill, Gabby, and Serena, who are in the gallery with us today, and from Cole, who is watching in Austin, that is what brought me joy
when we celebrated success, and it is what sustained me during the challenging times.
Jill's mother, Sarah Gale, is watching today--I hope--and her father, Frank, who we recently lost, both of whom supported me every step of the way. My nephew, Eli, was there that day. He can't be here today because he left us when he accidentally ingested fentanyl laced into a legal supplement, and we all fight to honor his memory by bringing attention to this epidemic every day. And my mom, who stood in the corner of this Chamber, giving the royal wave to all of my new colleagues, undoubtedly the woman of the hour, even though she was not the one being sworn into the United States Congress.
During my swearing-in speech, I turned to her, and I finished by saying, ``In all her 86 years, my mother, Jean Deutch, never could have imagined hearing her name in this Chamber.'' ``Mom,'' I said, ``thank you for making me believe that I could be anything I wanted to be because today,'' I said, 12\1/2\ years ago, ``I am a Member of the U.S. Congress.'' While I miss sharing the ups and downs of Congress with her, I hope that as my mom looks down on us today, she believes that the service in this Chamber lived up to the dream she had that day.
This job is not easy. We all know there is plenty of progress yet to be made, that seemingly more often than we find areas of common ground, we get caught up in bitter, often vitriolic partisanship. We fight, we demonize, we create barriers to some of the change our constituents rightfully demand. Sometimes we field violent threats from the very people we are here in Washington to try to help.
I was here that day in January 2021. We have no shortage of dark days in this Chamber, some very dark ones like that one. The battles here feel important and often all-consuming. The trail of stymied progress is infuriating. What this body of government is able to do for our constituency, as increasingly rare as it may feel, that is important. It is more important than me. It is more important than my successor. It is more important than any of us. I have been here long enough to see that it is worth fighting for.
I have also been here long enough to have so many people fighting for me, and I want to thank my colleagues, so many of whom have become close friends. There are too many to mention, but there are a handful who have gone out of their way to fight for me and with me, who have been so supportive of my efforts to obtain leadership positions under their watch. Speaker Pelosi, Leader Hoyer, Chairman Meeks, Chairman Nadler, Chairman Jeffries, my dear friends and neighbors, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Lois Frankel, and the late Alcee Hastings: Thank you.
Thank you to the back row hecklers: Scott and Ami, Pete and Derek, Stephanie and Dan and Kathleen. To Josh and Elaine, Debbie and Dean, Brad and Kathy: Thank you for always being there for all of us.
The Republican colleagues who I served and fought with who helped me bridge the partisan gap: Ranking Member Wilson, my fantastic partner on the Middle East, North Africa and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee; Representative Chris Smith, my partner and co-chair on the Anti- Semitism Task Force; Representative Gus Bilirakis, also from Florida, with whom I launched the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance Caucus; and French Hill, who worked with me to launch the Congressional Task Force on American Hostages. I thank them.
I thank my Republican colleagues from the Florida delegation, like Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who has so often fought with me, and Representative Wasserman Schultz to champion human rights from Caracas to Havana to Tehran. So many former colleagues who were so instrumental during their time here, especially those who were my foreign policy mentors: Howard Berman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Eliot Engel, and Nita Lowey.
The Members who served with me on the Ethics Committee, some of the most honorable public servants I have had the privilege to meet: Representatives Susan Wild, Dean Phillips, Veronica Escobar, and Mondaire Jones; Representatives Michael Guest, Dave Joyce, John Rutherford, Kelly Armstrong; my late colleague, Jackie Walorski and former Representatives Kenny Marchant, Susan Brooks, and Charlie Dent. Thank you to David Cicilline and Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon and all the Members I have been privileged to travel the world with representing the United States.
Thank you to the U.S. servicemembers and employees of the State Department, USAID, and other embassy employees from Tashkent to Buenos Aires to Jerusalem, who serve our Nation, each in their own way and each magnificently.
I have seen a lot of change in Congress over the last dozen years. Over 7 years and nearly four Congresses have passed since John Dingell last stood on this floor. I wonder if he would be surprised by the bitter divides that have expanded exponentially since that time. Even now, his words are worth repeating. They are as true now as they were then and will continue to be for every Member who comes after me. ``You're not important; it's what you can do for the people who sent you here that's important.''
I think we can all agree it is the people who help us do that work, our dedicated staffs, that are important, too. So this one is for Team Ted. Thanks to my D.C. staff: Josh Rogin, Case Kustin, Aviva Abusch, Sophie Mirviss, Jack Steinberg, Tiffany Mendoza-Farfan, Fabiana Corsi- Mendez, and Alex Rogoff. My ethics counsel, David Arrojo and Tom Rust, and the nonpartisan ethics staff. My district staff: Wendi Lipsich, Jayne Chapman, Theresa Brier, Alex Rocha, Jen Raducci, James DeJesus, Eric Johnson, Brandy Edelson, and Lewis Goldberg. And the longtime members of Team Ted who have moved on to other roles, but whose contributions to this work over the years are unmatched: Josh Lipman, Joel Richard, Jason Attermann, Ellen McLaren, Ashley Mushnick, Darcy Farnan, Jill Benson, and Daniel Fontana, and so many others. Thank you does not suffice. No words suffice. You, your work, your service has been so important to so many.
To the staff who keep this whole Chamber running, the floor staff here, the Cloakroom staff right next door, committee staff across the Capitol complex, thank you. To the Capitol Police, who protect us every day but who deserve such enormous gratitude since the events of January 6 especially, thank you.
To the entire team of experts and management over at CRS and Library and Congress, who are so critical to the legislative process, I thank you. To everyone on the facilities and food service teams, the Architect of the Capitol staff, everyone who keeps us fed, keeps our offices clean, makes sure that we get our mail, our flags, and everything else you do every day, thank you. To all who I do not have time to mention, thank you for your service to this body and to our country.
As I prepare to leave this place for the last time, as I transition from this Chamber to my next chapter, I will keep John Dingell's words in mind; I hope you will, too. Those of us that serve here can do important things for the American people. The work that lies ahead for Congress on behalf of the American people, that is important for this Chamber, for our country, and for our democracy.
I am not important, but I believe the people in my community in South Florida, the family who stood by me, the staff who served with me, my colleagues who fought alongside me have helped me contribute something important to our Nation on behalf of the people who sent me here.
To my colleagues, the friends who have served with me, inspired me, and collaborated with me in this Chamber on both sides of the aisle, those whom I have mentioned and all those who I cannot, even on the darkest days, it has been the honor of my life to know you, to work with you, to leave something important behind for our constituents. You may not be important either, according to John Dingell, but you are still important to me. I am heartened by how many good and thoughtful people will still be serving here when I leave.
After next week I will be your constituent. I hope you keep pushing to bridge the divides, keep pushing to do important work for all of us, and I have
faith that if you keep doing that, despite sometimes extraordinary odds, we will be just fine.
I thank you, Madam Speaker, and for the last time, I yield back the balance of my time.