Sue Myrick: “I do rise today in honor of our chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon), and to say that our committee is a…”

“I do rise today in honor of our chairman, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon), and to say that our committee is a small one, but it is definitely dominated by the humor and the kindness and actually the temper of our chairman. There is no better place than today in VA-HUD to honor him, too, because no one has worked harder for the veterans of this country than Jerry has. I know New York State is going to name a veterans' cemetery after him. He is a true hero in the likes of Ronald Reagan whom I know very much that Jerry totally supported and is very pleased to be cut out of that same mold. My first impression of the chairman was actually when I was here my first year and in the leadership, and Mr. Solomon challenged somebody to step outside. I thought, gee, that is really different. Fortunately, I was never challenged myself personally to step outside, thank goodness. But his humor is interjected in everything we do, and we very much appreciate that. Sometimes in serious moments in committee meetings or leadership or other places, why, Jerry will come up with something that just totally breaks the ice and makes everybody laugh. One of those times was, very recently, we were discussing the very serious problem of the year 2000 and what is going to happen to all of our computers. Jerry sat down and was talking about it, and he said, you know, that TY2 thing. Everybody just broke up, which I thought was really great.”