Marcy Kaptur: “It is with a sad but grateful heart that I rise today on behalf of my Ohio colleagues to inform the House that…”

“It is with a sad but grateful heart that I rise today on behalf of my Ohio colleagues to inform the House that Congressman Thomas Ludlow Ashley of Toledo, Ohio, passed from this life on June 15, 2010. Lud ably served in our Congress from 1955 to 1981, a career that spanned a quarter century, after he returned home as a corporal in the Army during World War II, serving in the Pacific theater. As the Toledo Blade editorial reminds us, "The late Senator Edward Kennedy once said: 'Americans sleep in better housing today because of Lud Ashley.'" As chair of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, Lud led America in urban and small town revitalization, improving our condition as a society a home and block at a time. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and authored many pieces of legislation to rebuild America following the civil rights movement of that period. In 1977, Mr. Ashley was selected by his beloved friend and Speaker, Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, to lead the House in the first ad hoc Energy Committee after the first Middle East oil embargo threw America into a deep recession.”