On the recordDecember 21, 2022
This is my last speech on the House floor. I have given hundreds of speeches on this floor, but there will be no more. I am reminded of a quotation, each of us is called to do something, and if we don't do it, it won't get done. For almost 15 years now, I have had the privilege to be in this Chamber to do this work. Like many staffers who come to this great building, they seek to one day become Members of Congress, and I became one of those. I was legislative counsel to the late Congressman Leo Ryan, who was assassinated in Jonestown, Guyana, trying to extract constituents who had been held there against their will by a cult leader name Jim Jones. I am proud that, along with Congresswoman Gabby Giffords' name, Congressman Leo Ryan's name now appears above the Democratic cloakroom. I was shot five times on that airstrip and left to die, but obviously survived, and committed the rest of my life to public service. In fact, I have the record here in Congress of being the Member who had the longest stretch between the time they first ran for Congress, which was 29 years before I was elected the second time. What I know is this: We are specks in the timeline of history--few will remember us, but they will remember events. The corridor to the Members' dining room on the House side shows a mural of L'Enfant choosing the site for the U.S.…
