Donald M. Payne

As a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, I have been committed to helping Sudan achieve peace and justice.

No one has voted more consistently for peaceful and nonmilitary resolutions to problems.

No one in Congress has been a stronger advocate for equality of opportunity in education.

Mr. Payne will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure and honor to work alongside him in the fight against HIV/AIDS and health disparities based on race and ethnicity.

Don't mourn; don't be sad. He wouldn't have wanted that.

his was a voice which at all times recalled the importance of human rights as a key element in the quest for lasting peace and reconciliation.

He is a hero because his life was measured not by its duration but by its donation.

He is a hero because he won more Washington battles with his ears than his mouth.

He is a hero because he forced congressional attention on Africa.

The forceful but civil words Donald Payne spoke in these Hallowed Halls were short to speak but their echoes are endless.

He believed it was his duty to stand up for the locked out and the left behind wherever he might find them.

This is not an endeavor for which we lack the knowledge, skills, or resources to win.

These are global problems that warrant a global collaborative approach.

I want them to see there are no barriers to achievement. I want to give them a reason to try.

Malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS are diseases that are caused, as well, by poverty, and until we really start dealing with poverty elimination, we are going to continue to have these diseases that follow poverty.

I want to be a role model for the kids I talk to on the street corners.

If the United States of America stands for anything, it ought to stand out loud and foursquare for human rights.

He dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate, and to expanding and protecting human rights for all.

He who wishes to be chief among you shall first be your servant.

Donald Payne was an extraordinarily conscientious Member of this body, but more than that, he was a man who cared about his fellow man and fellow woman.

We've got to be out there being proactive and expressing ideas that will solve the many issues and problems that we are faced with, not only in our own country, but throughout the world.

He was instrumental in bringing international attention and condemnation to the genocide in Darfur.

It's a very large void, not so much because his physical presence is now gone, but more because the way in which he shared himself was something that filled us all.

Donald Payne sowed seeds of civility and thus enjoyed a bountiful harvest of good will from all sides.

I and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus can easily identify with the Catholic minorities. I recognize many similarities in how they are treated with how people here were treated.