Mark Takano: “I thank Mr. Magaziner for yielding. Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor for me to follow the Speaker Emerita and Ms.…”

“I thank Mr. Magaziner for yielding. Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor for me to follow the Speaker Emerita and Ms. DeLauro in offering my words of farewell to my good friend, David Cicilline of Rhode Island. I thank Mr. Pocan for allowing me to go first. It was very gracious to allow me this honor to follow two such great Members who felt compelled to come to the floor, to make sure that our friend, David Cicilline, knew how well he is thought of, what regard we hold him, what esteem we hold him in. I wish I could recount everything and to touch upon all that David has brought forward into this institution, the ideas that he has carried through his legislation could really fill up this whole hour and that would be unfair to the other Members who also wish to come and bid him an honorable farewell, but let me focus on just a few things: One, it was a great honor to be on this floor the day after the Pulse Nightclub shootings and to see David, along with the iconic John Lewis and Katherine Clark, take action to not just be frustrated, but to get into some good trouble. I was thinking that this moment needed to be amplified and so I took out my cell phone and started to stream the events when all the television cameras were turned off, the lights were turned out, and it was an entire night of all of the members of the Democratic caucus expressing their frustration at not doing more than thoughts and prayers.…”