Rich Neal: “I have asked the members of the Ways and Means family to assemble on the floor tonight so that we might offer…”

“I have asked the members of the Ways and Means family to assemble on the floor tonight so that we might offer appropriate praise to the life of one of the iconic figures of not just the civil rights movement, but of the Ways and Means Committee. I sat next to John Lewis for 25 years on the Ways and Means Committee, and I must tell you, Madam Speaker, he was the bravest and most gentle person I ever met. He nearly lost his life in pursuit of justice and confronted some of the darkest facets of our society at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as a very young man, but he never lost faith in what America could become. During those many conversations--and he offered a tutorial to me about the life and the legend that he had offered to America--his unyielding optimism and hope lifted the spirits of his fellow Members of Congress and the American people in our Nation's most trying moments. With quiet strength, grace, and love, he shouldered unthinkable burdens and changed this world for the better. Through it all, he was unfailingly humble, selfless, and kind. I must say--and I was commenting a moment ago to some colleagues on the committee--if he was in the room, Madam Speaker, you would have to get him to come to the microphone. That was that reluctance that he had. And we all had known about the great achievements that he had offered to this Nation, but it was never, ``Let me get to the microphone.'' It was always a much more humble arrangement.…”