John Mica: “Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to come before you in support of this legislation that will name a Federal facility in honor…”

“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to come before you in support of this legislation that will name a Federal facility in honor of William C. Cramer, a former Member of this distinguished body. I have had the opportunity over the past 3 decades to know, and the opportunity to work with, the opportunity to admire Bill Cramer as he is affectionately known. Congressman Cramer, as we have heard, was one of the leaders in Republican-elected service in the State of Florida at a time when all the Republicans in the State legislature could meet in one phone booth and still have plenty of room left over. He not only led the beginning of a two-party system in the Florida legislature when he was first elected to Congress, he was the first and only Republican elected since the Civil War, one lone Republican member of the delegation; and today we have 15 of 23 due to his great legacy of service. I had the opportunity to work for Bill Cramer as a young man in his campaign for the United States Senate in 1970. Much of what I have learned in campaigns and much of what I learned about elected service comes from the model provided by Bill Cramer.”