John Mica: “there is an empty seat in the House of Representatives today, and there is a great void that will never be filled, and…”

“there is an empty seat in the House of Representatives today, and there is a great void that will never be filled, and that is the void created by the death of my friend and our colleague, Bill Emerson. We will miss him. We send our condolences to his family. Some of the previous speakers have reflected on Bill and his many contributions. I am not sure if the pages and Members all know about Bill's great legacy, but Bill came here as a page and served in the Congress. I remember seeing back in the Cloakroom, there is a photo of Bill as a young man helping when the shooting occurred in the House of the Representatives. When nationalists fired into the House Chamber, Bill was one of the young pages helping Members back then who were wounded. That picture still hangs in the Cloakroom. Mr. Speaker, I came here as a freshman just several years ago, and Bill was doing the same thing, helping Members along the way, new Members like myself, to learn more about the House of Representatives and its procedures and how to go forward. He never changed his role. Bill Emerson was a tough bird, too. I remember talking to him as he was undergoing his treatment and giving him encouragement and also asking about some of my own dealings here. Should I move forward? Should I proceed? Sometimes I am pretty aggressive in my service.…”