May 14, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 80 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H3732-H3741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PROCEEDINGS OF FORMER MEMBERS PROGRAM

  The following proceedings were held before the House convened for 
morning-hour debate:


  United States Association of Former Members of Congress 2019 Annual 
                           Report to Congress

  The meeting was called to order by the Honorable Cliff Stearns, vice 
president of Former Members of Congress Association, at 8 a.m.


                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Patrick J. Conroy, offered the following 
prayer:
  Lord God of history, we thank You for this day, when former Members 
return to Congress to continue, in a less official manner, their 
service to our Nation and to this noble institution.
  May their presence here bring a moment of pause where current Members 
consider the profiles they now form for future generations of 
Americans.
  May all former Members be rewarded for their contributions to this 
constitutional Republic and continue to work and pray that the goodness 
and justice of this beloved country be proclaimed to the nations.
  Bless all former Members who have died since last year's meeting--24 
in all. May their families and their constituents be comforted during a 
time of mourning and forever know our gratitude for the sacrifices made 
in service to Congress.
  Finally, bless those here gathered, that they might bring joy and 
hope to the present age and supportive companionship to one another.
  Together, we call upon Your holy name, now and forever.
  Amen.


                          Pledge of Allegiance

  The Honorable Cliff Stearns led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:

       I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of 
     America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation 
     under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

  Mr. STEARNS. The Chair now recognizes the president of the United 
States Association of Former Members of Congress, the Honorable Martin 
Frost of Texas, to address the Members.
  Mr. FROST. Thank you, Cliff. It is always a distinct privilege to be 
back in this revered Chamber and to see so many of my good friends and 
former colleagues here.
  On behalf of FMC, I appreciate the Speaker's invitation to return to 
this wonderful place and to present to Congress FMC's 49th annual 
report.
  I will be joined by some of our colleagues in reporting on FMC's 
activities and vision for the future.
  I also am submitting, for the Record, a more detailed review of FMC's 
2018 activities.
  First, I would like to ask the Clerk to call the roll.
  The Clerk called the roll and the following Members answered 
``present'':
  Mr. Blanchard of Michigan
  Mr. Coyne of Pennsylvania
  Mr. Carr of Michigan
  Mr. DioGuardi of New York
  Mr. Frost of Texas
  Mr. Gingrey of Georgia
  Mr. Goodlatte of Virginia
  Mr. Green of Texas
  Mr. Hertel of Michigan
  Mr. Jones of Oklahoma
  Ms. Kennelly of Connecticut
  Mr. Kolbe of Arizona
  Mr. Konnyu of California
  Mr. Kopetski of Oregon
  Mr. Lancaster of North Carolina
  Ms. Lincoln of Arkansas
  Mr. Matheson of Utah
  Mr. McMillen of Maryland
  Mr. Mica of Florida
  Ms. Morella of Maryland
  Mr. Murphy of Pennsylvania
  Mr. Payne of Virginia
  Mr. Rahall of West Virginia
  Mr. Slattery of Kansas
  Mr. Stearns of Florida
  Mr. Tanner of Tennessee
  Mr. Weldon of Florida
  Mr. STEARNS. The Chair announces that 27 former Members of Congress 
have responded to their names.
  Mr. FROST. Thank you all for joining us today. As I prepared for 
today's report, it brought back many, many happy memories of my 26 
years serving in this august body.
  For all of us, service in this remarkable building was the pinnacle 
of our professional lives, and I know that for each and every one of us 
there are memories that will forever remind us of the great privilege 
we enjoyed as a representative of our constituents.
  For me, these memories include great friendships with colleagues from 
both sides of the aisle, working with terrific and talented young 
people as a part of my staff, and pushing forward pieces of legislation 
that I know have made a huge, positive difference.
  By serving in Congress, we were given the opportunity to serve our 
country and its citizens. I am very proud that through FMC we can 
continue, in a small measure, the public service that brought us to 
Congress in the first place.
  My colleagues and I will describe later in this report the many 
projects through which FMC Members continue to give back.
  As you know, every year during our annual meeting we seek to 
recognize a colleague for her or his exemplary public service before, 
during and after Congress. This tradition was started in 1974, when we 
recognized President Gerry Ford with our first Distinguished Service 
Award and has continued annually since. Other recipients include Tip 
O'Neill, Bob Michel, Jack Kemp, Tom Foley, and many others.

  The award rotates between the parties, and this year a Republican 
former Member is slated to be recognized.
  When our executive committee started considering whom to honor, 
immediately Connie Morella of Maryland emerged as the clear favorite, 
and, by unanimous consent, we agreed that she should be our 2019 
Distinguished Service honoree.
  I now invite Connie to join me here at the dais.
  Connie, I have a few remarks, and then you will have the opportunity 
to say something also.
  Connie Morella, former Member of the House of Representatives and 
former ambassador, exemplifies like few others a commitment to serving 
her community and her Nation.
  Her entire career, since earning her B.A. from Boston University, was 
focused on public service. Initially, that service was in education as 
a secondary school teacher in Montgomery County. Though impossible to 
confirm, I would guess that Montgomery County is the place in America 
with the highest number of residents able to quote Shakespeare, thanks 
to her.
  She became active in politics based on an issue that defined her 
political career: women's rights.
  Little did she know, when she became involved with the League of 
Women Voters, that she herself would become a trailblazer, an 
inspiration, and a mentor to countless women leaders spanning 
generations.
  After serving in the Maryland House of Delegates for 8 years, she ran 
for

[[Page H3733]]

Congress and commenced a 16-year career in the House of 
Representatives. She quickly became known as a thoughtful, energetic, 
and pragmatic legislator who was able to forge bipartisan consensus and 
bring Members together on even the most difficult issues.
  After leaving Congress in 2003, President Bush appointed her our 
Ambassador to the OECD, where she served until 2007.
  Upon returning to the United States, Connie became active in a number 
of issues and organizations, and luckily FMC was one of them.
  The years she served as FMC's president, 2012 through 2014, were some 
of our most productive, and she lay the foundation for all the success 
FMC has enjoyed since.
  On behalf of the membership, board of directors, and staff of FMC, it 
is with great personal pleasure that I present our 2019 Distinguished 
Service Award to an outstanding American and an exemplary public 
servant: Connie Morella of Maryland.
  Some of you who attended our dinner may remember that someone on the 
stage dropped the award, and I am going to be careful not to drop this 
one.
  Connie, in addition to our award, we also have collected for you a 
great many letters of congratulations from your colleagues, and we have 
a book of those letters.
  Anyone who has not contributed their letter can submit it to the 
office, and we will make sure that Connie gets that.
  We now would be thrilled for you to share some remarks. But let's put 
this down so neither one of us drops it.
  Ms. MORELLA. This is beautiful. What a tome. This is great. Thank 
you.
  I want to thank you very much, President Frost. You reminded me of 
something Mae West had said: Too much of a good thing can be downright 
enjoyable.
  I enjoyed it, but you could have gone on even further, although you 
did exceed the time limit.
  Thank you very much for the laudatory and generous remarks. I want to 
thank you, also, for your leadership in the organization. You are a guy 
who has your eye on the objective, on the prize, and you work 
unrelentingly until you succeed. And you do succeed. You never retreat.
  My special thanks and appreciation to the Association of Former 
Members of Congress, to the board, to my colleague Members. What an 
outstanding group whose action promotes dialogue, bipartisanship, and 
service.
  I am very moved and humbled by this great honor, especially because 
it comes from my dear friends and colleagues. There is nothing higher 
than getting an award from your peers, it means a great deal. And it 
means a great deal to me, because it is from people who have served, 
many with me, very well in the people's House.
  I reflect with awe on the list of previous recipients. Some of them 
were mentioned by President Frost: Bob Michel, Lee Hamilton, Lindy 
Boggs, Amo Houghton, Ray LaHood, and others. Incredible company, people 
I have respected and admired. And I accept the honor for all of you. I 
want to thank you for your continuous passion for the people's House 
and for your friendship.
  I am a lucky, happy camper. I am the daughter of immigrant parents. I 
am the first in my family to go to college. I can boast of a wonderful 
family. I have been able to serve, as was mentioned, in my State, my 
country, here and overseas, and to work with dedicated people, Members 
of Congress and former Members who are seeking solutions.

  I firmly believe that everyone who seeks office is motivated by a 
passionate desire to serve, a reason that would make things better for 
all. For me, as was suggested, it was the women's movement that put the 
movement into me. I was appointed to a commission for women in 
Montgomery County in the seventies, and at that time a Member of 
Congress, Martha Griffiths, introduced--not the first time--the Equal 
Rights Amendment. She got it passed through a draft resolution.
  The discharge petition, remember that?
  She passed it. It went through the Senate, signed by the President.
  But amendment was needed to approve it to become part of the 
Constitution. So I started lobbying for Maryland to pass the amendment, 
and, as you know, we needed 38 States. That was when I realized the 
inequities, the inequities in education, credit, education. I then 
decided I wanted to seek office in the Maryland Legislature to have a 
seat at the table.
  So, after 8 years serving in the Maryland House of Delegates, I was 
elected to Congress, the 100th Congress, with many people who still 
serve, like Nancy Pelosi,   John Lewis, Fred Upton, and many others who 
serve and many who are former Members, some who are here today, Dave 
Skaggs, Amo Houghton, Ernie Konnyu.
  I served in the House for 16 years: For 8 years, I was a minority in 
the minority; for 8 years, I was a minority in the majority. I 
represented a highly competitive district, as you all know, and as 
Charlie Cook once said: That Morella, she knows her district. She will 
go ``to the opening of an envelope.''
  And indeed, I did; it is true. That is still being done, but, 
unfortunately, more time is being spent raising money. And I must add 
something else that usurps time, and that is social media.
  Well, it was an active time. We broke barriers as in women's health 
research, violence against women, the Americans with Disabilities Act, 
and we created opportunities in technology, in STEM. We witnessed the 
fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union, apartheid in South Africa, 
but also 9/11.
  We also witnessed bipartisanship, working together, seeking 
compromise to get results. We respected differences, whether party 
label or constituencies, and we got things done.
  Indeed, when I would introduce a measure, I would gather together 
Democrats to sign on as sponsors, and the Democrats would do the same 
thing with me for sponsorship. And why? Bipartisanship got results. In 
fact, it is the only way to get desired results, and you establish 
trust with your constituents.
  It also strengthened the bond of friendship. And there were many 
friendships from Members of Congress while I was there and many 
friendships with my former Member colleagues.
  My hope is that Congress Members will reach out across the aisle to 
know each other personally. They will learn of their colleagues' 
aspirations, their family, their issues, and, most often, become 
friends.
  The greatest tool of the diplomat, wherever and in whatever, is to 
listen, to learn, and to lead. They will learn the greatest tool is 
that. This is the path to forging compromises for our country and to 
appreciating and respecting each other.
  These ingredients, friends, haven't changed, as you know full well. 
George Washington, when he was age 15, wrote ``Rules for Civility and 
Decent Behavior.'' Rule number one:

       When in the company of others, act with respect for those 
     who are present.

  You can't beat that advice. I am a confirmed political junky. I agree 
with W.B. Yeats, who wrote:

       I was here to wind the clock. I want to hear it strike.

  I agree and I care. And again, my thanks to all of you, my heartfelt 
thanks. I have to quote Shakespeare, don't I?

       For these great graces heap'd upon me, I can nothing render 
     but allegiant thanks.

  Mr. FROST. And, Connie, I know it may come as a great surprise to 
you, but the great State of Texas that Gene Green and I represented was 
one of the first States in the country to pass the Equal Rights 
Amendment.
  Ms. MORELLA. Very good. Thank you very much.
  Mr. FROST. I am not sure the current legislature would have done the 
same thing, but that was a different era.
  Again, congratulations to you, Connie, and thank you so much for all 
you have done and continue to do for FMC.
  It is now my great honor in my capacity as president of FMC to report 
on FMC's activities for 2018 and 2019.
  We are one of a very small group of nonprofits that have a 
congressional charter, and as such, we are required to report to 
Congress every year on our past activities. I will give a broad 
overview of our past work and have submitted for the Record a more 
detailed written report.

[[Page H3734]]

  Now, I must note that the very competent staff member who prepared 
these remarks doesn't realize that some of us from the South speak more 
slowly than some other people from the rest of the country, so Phil 
Gingrey, who will speak later, and I will try to speed it up as much as 
we can.
  Our association was founded in 1970 and chartered by Congress 13 
years later, in 1983. We are completely bipartisan and see our mission 
as informing about Congress and bridging the political divide. That 
mission is translated into programs that bring former Members together 
with student audiences across the Nation, focusing on civics and public 
service.
  We also further our mission by creating programs and study missions 
involving current Members of Congress on a bipartisan basis. This work, 
over the years, has been extended to now include congressional staff, 
both from the D.C. offices as well as district directors across the 
Nation. We are successful because Republicans and Democrats, whether 
former Members or current Members, come together in partnership with a 
willingness to work together for the common good.

  We are proud to have been chartered by Congress, and we are equally 
proud that absolutely no taxpayer dollar is earmarked or expended to 
make our programs possible. Everything FMC does is financed via grants 
and sponsors, our membership dues, and our annual fundraising gala, the 
Statesmanship Awards Dinner.
  Our colleagues L.F. Payne and Mike Ferguson led our fundraising 
efforts for the most recent gala dinner at the Mellon Auditorium, and I 
am extremely pleased to report that, thanks to their leadership and the 
incredible efforts of a great many former Members, we had our most 
successful fundraising dinner when we honored Senator Burr and Senator 
Klobuchar, as well as the House Problem Solvers Caucus and the 
Lufthansa Group for their corporate philanthropy. My thanks to all our 
colleagues who work so hard on this outstanding event.
  Thanks to this success as well as our year-round fundraising efforts, 
I can report to Congress and the FMC membership that our finances are 
sound, our projects are fully funded, and our most recent annual audit 
by an outside accountant confirmed we are running FMC in a fiscally 
sound, responsible, and transparent manner. And let me stress again 
that no taxpayer dollars are earmarked for our work, that everything we 
do is self-funded.
  Let me stress, also, that we are a volunteer organization, and our 
programs have an impact because our members, on a bipartisanship basis, 
contribute to us their knowledge and time. We are successful because 
former Representatives and Senators come together, across party lines, 
for the good of our organization, and they do so on a pro bono basis. 
They believe in our mission, and they continue to have the public 
servant's heart.
  Former Members of Congress, in 2018, donated to FMC over 7,000 hours 
of energy, wisdom, mentoring, and expertise without receiving any 
compensation for it. Their own remuneration is the knowledge that they 
are giving back, that serving in Congress was a unique privilege and it 
comes with the mandate to encourage and empower the next generation.
  On behalf of FMC, I want to thank all of our colleagues who have 
contributed their time and expertise to make FMC such a great success.
  We are extremely proud of our nearly 50-year history creating lasting 
and impactful programs that teach about Congress and representative 
government, at home and abroad. Next year will be FMC's 50th birthday, 
and it is truly amazing how much we have accomplished.
  Let me give you a brief overview of 2018 and also a vision for 2019 
and beyond.
  Over the past 12 months, our FMC staff has conceived, organized, 
advertised, and implemented almost 100 events to move our mission 
forward. This is an astonishing number for a staff of 11 that relies 
completely on former Member volunteers for all our projects.
  These events ranged from meeting with middle school students right 
here in the House Chamber to talk to them about the many 
responsibilities a Member of Congress has, to week-long study missions 
where current Member delegations, split evenly between the parties, 
traveled to countries, including Germany, Japan, and Korea, to study 
issues such as trade and security.
  Our programming has included hundreds of current Members, former 
Members, senior congressional staff, and district directors. Most 
recently, we expanded our group of constituents to also include 
communications directors of congressional offices. They work with us 
because they know we are completely bipartisan, 100 percent 
nonadvocacy, and that we seek to tell the positive story of our 
extraordinary representative democracy. Allow me to share with you some 
highlights of our work.
  You will hear more detail about our Congressional Study Groups in a 
second, but for 2018, we are proudest of the incredible level of 
activity and impact of our newest Study Group: the Congressional Study 
Group on Korea. It shows how timely and right from the headlines our 
work is.
  We launched the Korea program in February of 2018 and have since 
sent, to Korea, several current Member, former Member, and 
congressional staff delegations under the study group's umbrella. The 
Korea program now joins our other longstanding international projects: 
the Congressional Study Group on Germany, the Congressional Study Group 
on Japan, and the Congressional Study Group on Europe.
  In addition to a great many Capitol Hill events, over the past 12 
months, we have sent numerous congressional delegations overseas, some 
for current Members, others for chiefs of staff, and a number for 
district directors, and just last month, our very first communications 
directors delegation--all bipartisan.
  The purpose of these trips is to educate our participants on specific 
issues affecting U.S. international relations--mostly trade and 
security questions. An important side effect is the opportunity of 
building across-the-aisle relationships and to create a network of 
peers that transcends party labels and partisanship. All of these 
trips, of course, go through the rigorous process of ethics review, and 
we ensure 100 percent compliance with all regulations governing travel 
by Members or staff.
  These international projects are just one component of our work to 
create bipartisan relationships and strengthen our representative 
democracy. Domestically, the main focus of our work is reconnecting 
citizens with their government, highlighting the responsibilities of 
citizenship and dispelling many of the myths that are out there when it 
comes to Congress.
  First and foremost, we are incredibly proud of our Congress to Campus 
program. For over 30 years, we have sent a bipartisan team of former 
Members to meet with university audiences across the country. These are 
not simple meet-and-greet events where the Members drop in for a quick 
speech with some Q&A. Instead, these visits are a 3-day commitment by 
our former Members team so that the university can make the best 
possible use of FMC as a resource.

  We now average about 30 visits during the academic year, which is 
incredible, given that, as recently as 15 years ago, we averaged about 
5. Also, many of our Congress to Campus visits now include a visit to a 
local high school or even a middle school, so that we are reaching an 
even broader audience with our FMC team. Sharon Witiw of our staff, who 
runs this program, is to thank for this great expansion.
  We work hand in glove with each university so that each visit is 
tailored specifically to the school's needs and curriculum. Our 
colleagues walk into different classroom settings throughout the day, 
sometimes engaging in discussions about U.S. foreign policy, at other 
times focusing on questions such as money in politics.
  The outcome of each Congress to Campus visit is twofold: to showcase 
a partisan, yet respectful debate on the issues of the day; and to 
encourage in the next generation a respect for public service that may 
translate into future work on Capitol Hill.
  We have reached thousands upon thousands of students, and through our 
own polling can demonstrate that we are making a positive difference 
when it comes to attitudes about Congress and about elected officials. 
You will hear more about this and our other civic education initiatives 
when I yield

[[Page H3735]]

the floor for that report in just a little bit.
  Our work to reconnect citizens with their government takes many 
different forms. For example, we have a longstanding partnership with 
the National Archives, bringing former Members and other issue experts 
together with the public for a conversation about issues affecting all 
of us. Our next National Archives panel will be on June 13 for a 
conversation about female candidates for office and the extra 
challenges women face in the political world.
  What I have described thus far is just a small part of the work we 
have done on our membership's behalf. And while programs such as 
Congress to Campus or the Congressional Study Group on Germany are 
longstanding undertakings that we have offered to the public for 
decades, they, along with our existing projects, all were infused with 
a new energy, vision, and enthusiasm thanks to the extensive strategic 
planning process that we briefed you on for the past 2 years.
  Let me again thank Mark Sobol, who is here today, a highly respected 
expert in the field of strategic planning and organization management, 
who donated to us completely free of charge his tremendous expertise to 
help FMC achieve the next level of professionalism and impact. He 
helped us craft an extremely thoughtful and visionary strategic plan, 
which the FMC board approved a little over 2 years ago.
  Since then, the effect of this incredibly important exercise can be 
felt in all aspects of the organization. We--our board of directors and 
the exceptional FMC staff--have made great strides in implementing this 
plan, for example, when it comes to branding FMC as a unique authority 
on Congress, unparalleled in our expertise and experience.
  We now have a much more focused media strategy, have unified our 
current Member programming with our former Member programming under one 
logo and one recognizable brand, and are much better at pushing out our 
message of bipartisanship using social media, for example. Paul Kincaid 
is responsible for our message, and I thank him for his good work.
  Over the summer, our staff put together an outstanding board of 
directors retreat, where we came together to refine and review the 
strategic plan and brainstorm about best ways to continue to implement.
  One idea that stemmed from the board retreat was the notion that 
FMC's board and staff could benefit from additional voices and creative 
input, beyond just former Members of Congress. FMC, therefore, created 
an Advisory Board comprised of valued members of our Study Groups' 
Business Advisory Council. The inaugural group of Advisory Board 
members are: Majida Mourad of Tellurian, Nancy Ziuzin Schlegel of 
Lockheed, Anna Schneider of Volkwagen, and Dr. David Steel of Samsung. 
To round out this group, we were pleased that our long-time consultant 
and friend Mark Sobol of Longwave Partners accepted FMC's invitation as 
well.
  The Advisory Board, committed to bipartisanship and meaningful 
conversation and dialogue, will provide FMC with a unique perspective 
on the critical issues of the day and suggestions on how we engage our 
membership and partners to strengthen and streamline our mission. We 
thank each of these great friends of FMC for their commitment to our 
mission.
  I am also more than pleased to report to you that a brand-new website 
showcasing our new logo and look has gone live since the last report to 
Congress. This has been a major focus of my predecessor, Cliff Stearns 
of Florida, who kept asking: When is the logo going to be up? When is 
the website going to be up? And he finally got his answer during his 2 
years as FMC's president. I am thrilled that all of his hard work came 
to fruition with the new website, which reflects much more accurately 
the vibrant and impactful organization we have become.

  Thank you, Cliff, for your leadership on this, and congratulations to 
our staff member Alia Diamond, who did such a tremendous job creating 
our new website.
  As I look at FMC's future, some very exciting new initiatives stand 
out. We are using our Congress to Campus model to include a greater 
outreach into the community. We call this new initiative our Insight 
into Congress project. We took the idea for a test run just last week 
in Austin, Texas, with Gene Green, who is here today.
  Two former Members, Gene Green and Randy Neugebauer, went to Austin 
not to meet with a single university, but different aspects of the 
whole community. This included several events hosted by Samsung with 
their local workforce and executives, as well as high schools, the 
chamber of commerce, and others. We think this could be a really 
interesting expansion of the work we already do under Congress to 
Campus.
  Also, late last year, we implemented, for a second time, a new 
project as part of our American Democracy and Civics programs. We 
brought together a bipartisan group of four current Members, two 
Democrats and two Republicans, hosted in his Boston district by  Joe 
Kennedy, and put a program together for the four of them to meet with 
several high schools, universities, and public forums. Again, this is 
an exciting expansion of the type of work we do, we already do well via 
Congress to Campus, and I congratulate the staff on building on our 
obvious strengths.
  Last year, we reported to you on the commencement of the Legacy 
program, which was conceived to interview retiring Members of Congress 
so that, under the FMC umbrella, we can create an oral history of all 
those who have served in the House and the Senate.
  It is interesting: No one else was doing this on a comprehensive 
basis, not the Library of Congress, not the Historian's Office. This is 
something I think will have a lasting impact. And once these oral 
histories have been transcribed and analyzed, we are donating them to 
the Library of Congress, where they will be available for review.
  I am pleased to report that we have already surpassed our initial 
goal of 30 completed interviews and we are now moving forward with 
analyzing the data we have collected, as well as expanding our 
interview outreach.
  We started with the people, some of whom are in this room, who left 
at the end of the last Congress. I, along with five other Members, last 
week had the honor of testifying before the House Select Committee on 
the Modernization of Congress. When completed, we hope to present our 
findings of the Legacy Project to the committee later this year.
  I thank Mark Sobol and Lenny Steinhorn for being the driving force 
behind this project, ably staffed by FMC's Patricia Ochs.
  In addition, we continue to find opportunities for former Members to 
travel--I know Members like to travel, both current and former--and be 
ambassadors on behalf of our representative democracy.
  Just last week, we dispatched a delegation of former Senators to 
China. This is the 11th delegation over the past 6 years that we have 
sent to Beijing and other Chinese cities so that we can play a small 
role in fostering a better dialogue involving the United States and 
China. These trips have been made possible thanks to two great 
partners, the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation and the Chinese 
Association for International Friendly Contact.
  The impact of these former Member delegations is enhanced by Capitol 
Hill programming, which we have been able to offer in partnership with 
the Committee of 100, a U.S. nonprofit made up of the foremost 
Americans of Chinese descent.
  Later this year, we also will send another former Member delegation 
to Korea. This group will be hosted by Jay Kim, a former Member from 
California and head of the Jay Kim Foundation. Jay's wife, Jennifer 
Ahn, has been instrumental in putting this trip together.
  Our other host is the Korea Peace Sharing Foundation. I wish to pay 
special tribute to the head of that wonderful organization, Reverend 
Kang Suk So, a senior pastor of Sae Eden Presbyterian Church in Seoul. 
Reverend So has made it his mission to bring peace to the Korean 
Peninsula.
  One of the many ways he seeks to accomplish that lofty goal is by 
bringing veterans of the Korean war back to Korea for remembrance, 
tribute, and recognition. He has tirelessly invested his energy, focus, 
and fundraising success in making it possible for countless

[[Page H3736]]

Korean war veterans to return to Korea and witness for themselves the 
new Korea that they made possible via their sacrifice.
  Reverend So is now engaging in a cross-cultural dialogue and is 
making former Members of Congress part of that important undertaking.
  Thanks to him and the congregation of the Sae Eden Presbyterian 
Church, we are able to send former Members of Congress to Korea to 
better understand its culture and rich history. His leadership is truly 
inspirational.
  As Members can see, the future for FMC is incredibly bright. We are 
energized, and we are having tremendous success for three reasons.
  One I already mentioned, which is the outstanding work our board and 
staff have done to solidify our mission plan, put in achievable goals, 
and strategize how best to move FMC forward.
  The second reason is our amazing group of partners. These are 
corporations that donate to us, especially via the Statesmanship Awards 
Dinner, because they believe in our purpose and recognize the positive 
impact we are having. These partners also include outstanding grant-
giving entities: the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the German Marshall 
Fund, the Hewlett Foundation Madison Initiative, the Democracy Fund, 
the Korea Society and the Korea Foundation, and the Japan-U.S. 
Friendship Commission, to name just a few. They believe in our 
capabilities and are giving us the opportunity to grow and create long-
lasting programming. We appreciate them very much.
  The third and most important reason is my fellow former Members of 
Congress, who donate to us their time, their expertise, their wisdom, 
and their leadership. As I said earlier, the 7,000 hours of combined 
former Member time has been donated to us pro bono by our membership. I 
thank them for that.
  I have to warn former Members, our demand for their time and goodwill 
is only increasing. As we all know, there are many challenges our 
Nation faces, and FMC can play a pivotal role in bringing people 
together. This Nation's strength has always been found in its ability 
to unite and move the country forward for the greater good.
  FMC, like no other organization, can build bridges between Democrats 
and Republicans, build bridges between those being represented and 
those doing the representing, and build bridges between one generation 
of public servants and the next. To do so will require more and more 
commitment to our work, and I am sure former Members of Congress will 
rise to the occasion.
  In anticipation of former Members' support, I thank them from the 
bottom of my heart.
  I want to interject one thing, and I am not the only one who fits in 
this category. A number of us have former staff members who now sit in 
Congress. My former field representative, Marc Veasey, is a Congressman 
from the Dallas-Fort Worth area today. I know other former Members have 
provided the exact same mentorship to people on their staff and people 
whom they knew in their community, and I thank them for that.
  As Members have heard, this is FMC's 49th report to Congress, which 
means that, next year, we will celebrate our 50th anniversary. This is 
a tremendous achievement for a small nonprofit that was originally 
conceived as purely an alumni group with the occasional social 
gathering.
  We have come a long way, and it is thanks to the volunteerism of the 
membership that we can look forward to celebrating 50 outstanding 
years.
  Before getting to the business of electing our new board members, I 
do want to recognize two of my colleagues to give just a little bit 
more detail about our domestic and international governing.

  I first invite Jim Coyne from Pennsylvania to focus on FMC's civic 
education program. He will be followed by FMC board member Phil Gingrey 
from Georgia to speak about our international programs.
  Mr. COYNE. I thank Martin for the opportunity to make some remarks on 
a topic that is incredibly important and near and dear to my heart: our 
Nation's woeful attitude toward civic education.
  In 10 States in the U.S., there is no requirement to take a civic 
education class in high school--none. Only nine States require a full 
year of civic education, while 31 States require only one semester.
  It is no surprise that, in 2017, it was found that 35 percent of 
millennials stated that they were losing faith in American democracy. 
Just let that sink in for a moment. Over one-third of America's next 
generation states that they are losing faith in our Nation's 
representative democracy.
  How can they support and appreciate it if they don't understand the 
background and importance of our system? Civic learning can be the best 
vehicle to have young people be active citizens in adulthood.
  FMC's well-established civic programs, like Congress to Campus and 
Congress to Community, continue to grow to be a part of the civic 
learning solution. Thanks to the great work of Sharon White and Haley 
LaTourette of the FMC staff, we are doing even more.
  In the 2018-2019 academic school year, FMC's Congress to Campus 
program has visited 25 schools, garnering the participation of 36 
former Members, six of whom participated in two or more visits and five 
of whom are newly retired, together reaching thousands of students.
  This academic year, we visited 11 new schools, most of which have 
heard about the program's success from other schools. The word is 
clearly spreading.
  The hosting administrators have been stretching former Member 
engagement beyond the typical political studies departments to include 
classes in business ethics, international relations, media and writing, 
feminism, public policy, and many other more diverse curricula. Many 
Congress to Campus visits include interviews with students and local 
media, as well as open public forums to reach the broader community.
  By analyzing surveys that the participating students take before and 
after their school's Congress to Campus visit, we have learned that not 
only have 82 percent of the students' attitudes toward Congress 
improved--maybe that is not too hard--because of our Congress to Campus 
program, but the program has left 75 percent of students feeling more 
positive about Democrats' and Republicans' ability to work civilly and 
productively together.
  Almost every school administrator expresses interest in hosting 
another Congress to Campus program after they have experienced one 
themselves.
  We continue to extend former Members' experience and wisdom to high 
school and middle school students, particularly in the summer with the 
Envision program. This June and July, we have 12 programs scheduled.
  Though these speaking engagements are early in the morning, we hope 
and deeply appreciate if each former Member here in the D.C. area will 
consider donating a couple of hours of their valuable time to speak 
with these students at this very spot on the House floor.
  We have been engaged in this program for 3 years, and each year, the 
students report that the highlight of the week-long experience in D.C. 
is hearing from the former Members about their experiences in Congress.
  Former Members are having a huge impact and are making a positive 
difference, and I guarantee that they will find their meetings with 
these students to be the highlight of their week. Sharon and Haley will 
reach out to former Members to see if we can sign you up for a visit 
with these middle school kids here in the House Chamber.
  In addition to these solidly established in-person programs, Congress 
to Campus is also expanding virtually. This year, we have had three 
different bipartisan pairs of former Members speak to students as close 
as Boston and as far away as Germany via Skype and Zoom.
  We are striving to expand our internet reach to encompass more 
students of all locations and backgrounds by virtually connecting them 
with former Members to answer their questions and concerns about 
Congress, public service, running for office, and much more.
  This year's FMC's newly formed Congressional Study Group on American 
Democracy and Civics ran two effective study tours, one to each of the 
co-chairs' districts.
  The first trip was to Representative Rodney Davis' district in 
southern Illinois with Representative   Jimmy Panetta from California. 
During the 48-

[[Page H3737]]

hour trip, the Members spoke to hundreds of high school students, 
community college students, and civics teachers within the region about 
the importance of building bipartisan relationships and reaching across 
the aisle. They were able to express to these audiences that having 
productive and respectful relationships that cross the political aisle 
is the only way to accomplish their important work in Congress.
  The second trip expanded in size to include four Members of Congress. 
Representative  Joe Kennedy hosted Representative Davis, Representative 
Markwayne Mullin, and Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester in his Boston 
district. The delegation spoke to hundreds of high school students and 
had a public discussion at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the 
Study of the U.S. Senate.
  The overarching theme that emerged was that good laws come out of 
understanding that each Member represents a different group of people, 
and the reasons why certain issues are important to that group may 
differ immensely from another district's issues.
  The presenting Members could not have come from more diverse 
districts, from a liberal urban setting in New England to a 
conservative rural district in Oklahoma, from a red, blue, and purple 
State to a wheat-belt State that has both Republican and Democrat 
constituents.
  The delegation demonstrated what we all know to be true of Congress: 
Members can be respectful, civil, and pragmatic while still advocating 
for their districts, constituents, and beliefs.

  The group reflected on what seems lost in today's society, that 
listening and understanding a colleague's position helps everyone find 
common ground.
  The students responded positively, treating the delegation like rock 
stars, with raucous applause and waiting after the presentation to ask 
more questions or just grab a selfie.
  The next study tour is planned for early September to Representative 
Markwayne Mullin's district in Oklahoma.
  Our former Members are also helping to strengthen civic education at 
the State level. FMC has been working with the CivXNow Coalition to 
connect former Members of Congress with civic learning communities and 
individual States to improve and strengthen State-level policies and 
practices in civic education.
  We began with Pennsylvania. Former Member Jim Gerlach leads a 
bipartisan group of eight Pennsylvania former Members who are working 
with the State Department of Education and local civic education 
organizations to update their civic curricula and requirements.
  We are now forming groups for former Members to work together on 
promoting and improving civic education in the great States of Texas 
and California. FMC hopes to add more States this coming year. We hope 
everyone will consider helping.
  This is our eighth year of continuing a strong partnership with the 
National Archives. Just before last November's midterm elections, we 
hosted a panel discussion on ``Voter Discontent During Wave Elections'' 
with a bipartisan panel of former Members who either rode in or were 
swept out with a wave during one of their elections. The discussion 
examined the impact of previous elections and Presidential elections on 
the competitiveness of a congressional seat.
  Mark your calendars for Thursday, June 13, at 7 p.m., when we will 
hold our next panel discussion to examine the unique challenges that 
women face when running for office.
  This past year, we have continued our outreach beyond the beltway to 
the congressional family through engaging dozens of district directors. 
Last summer, FMC connected with the district directors that came to 
D.C. for their fly-in retreat with a reception hosted by one of our 
Diplomatic Advisory Council members. Over 100 Republican district 
directors learned more about FMC at a reception at the home of the 
Embassy of Germany's DCM, and several dozen Democratic district 
directors were hosted by the Ambassador of Finland.
  We continue to see the great value of working with district 
directors. FMC has also brought dozens of district directors on study 
tours, both domestically and internationally. Under multiple of FMC's 
international Congressional Study Groups, delegations of district 
directors visited Germany, Japan, and Korea. Through a grant from the 
Democracy Fund, we were able to bring delegations of district directors 
to Ireland to examine the challenges and impact that Brexit may have 
and what lessons Brexit may hold regarding NAFTA, as well as to Puerto 
Rico to examine the devastation that Hurricanes Maria and Irma have 
caused the island.
  Next week, we will bring a bipartisan delegation of district 
directors from all over the country to Nashville to better understand 
America's current state of healthcare, with a particular focus on the 
opioid crisis.
  Later this summer, we will bring another delegation of district 
directors to Canada to take a closer look at our relationship with our 
northern neighbor, concentrating on new trade deals and border issues.
  In the fall, we are bringing together all the district directors we 
have met for a 2-day symposium to examine more constituent issues and 
encourage solutions that help their districts regardless of parties.
  None of this important work would be possible without the support of 
outstanding partners. We would like to thank the Hewlett Foundation, 
the Democracy Fund, the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership, 
the VF Foundation, and the National Archives for trusting in our work 
and empowering us to truly make an impact across the country. I thank 
you all.
  Martin has asked me to yield some time at this point to Phil Gingrey 
from Georgia to share with the membership an update on our 
international work. I therefore thank Members for their attention and 
now yield the floor to Mr. Gingrey.
  Mr. GINGREY. I thank Jim for yielding some of his time. Primarily, I 
will report on the Congressional Study Groups program.
  As a Member, I had the honor of co-chairing the Congressional Study 
Group on Germany for, I think, 4 years. It was absolutely one of the 
highlights of my 12 years in Congress.
  Today, as we stand in this well, hundreds of Members of Congress will 
shuttle back and forth from committee hearings to constituent meetings 
to the call time that we all loved so much. For a small part of their 
day, they will take in as much information as they can on the issues 
they and their committees are focused on.
  All of us remember the days when we served here, and information was 
served 24 hours a day from a seemingly endless firehose. For most of 
us, and for most of them, that information did not concern American 
foreign policy or trade or our allies overseas.
  Our colleague John Dingell once said of his committee's jurisdiction, 
``If it moves, it's commerce. If it doesn't, it's energy.'' Looking at 
the United States today, we may still be made up of energy and 
commerce, but the impact, and our knowledge of that impact, cannot be 
limited to our own Nation. We have become the keystone of a global 
economy.
  In 1983, our colleagues saw that globalization was coming, and they 
realized that a fire hydrant of information was not going to include 
what was happening with our allies, our adversaries, our trading 
partners, and developing nations, except for those few Members who were 
on the Armed Services Committee or the Foreign Affairs Committee. Thus, 
the Congressional Study Groups were born.
  In the past year, we have continued that mission through the 
continued program impact of the Congressional Study Groups on Germany, 
Japan, Europe, and, most recently, Korea.

  Small, informal programs on Capitol Hill and travel opportunities 
bring the realities of these countries and our relationships with them 
as Americans into sharper focus. We also introduced Members and staff 
to their peers overseas, and we create for current Members and current 
congressional staff the opportunity to network with each other.
  FMC understands that bipartisan cooperation doesn't just magically 
appear, and it doesn't always begin at work or in the committee rooms. 
Often, it starts informally at dinner, at

[[Page H3738]]

the ballpark, or on trips such as the ones conducted by the 
Congressional Study Groups.
  Creating that bipartisanship is part of our calling at FMC, and I am 
proud to say that it is a goal we consistently seek when planning 
events for the Congressional Study Groups.
  I would like to share a little bit about what each of our 
Congressional Study Groups has done this year and what we will do in 
the coming months, both to advance this mutual understanding and to 
advance toward FMC's strategic goals. Let me thank FMC's outstanding 
programming staff, led by Lorraine Harbison, for their tremendous work.
  The first Congressional Study Group founded was the Study Group on 
Germany. This year marks the 35th anniversary of our Congress-Bundestag 
Seminar, which alternates between bringing the German Bundestag members 
to the United States and then taking U.S. Members of Congress to 
Germany.
  In election years, Bundestag members traditionally travel to the 
U.S., and this year was no different. An engaging, diverse group of 
German legislators from several different political parties joined FMC 
in Washington, D.C., for a day before trekking off to Nashville and 
Chattanooga, where they toured Volkswagen's plant, which has become a 
huge part of that community. They met with cultural and educational 
leaders and got an opportunity to see the Tennessee Senate and 
Governor's race in full swing just as early voting began in the 
Volunteer State.
  The Study Group on Germany also welcomed a new co-chair this year in 
the House as Congresswoman Susan Brooks from Indiana joined Congressman 
Ted Deutch from Florida as co-chairs. Both co-chairs welcomed 
Ambassador Emily Haber at a dinner for Members of Congress following 
her appointment as Ambassador to the United States from Germany.
  Our congressional staff engagement continues to grow, with a number 
of roundtables on the Hill and continued involvement of chiefs of staff 
and district directors in our study tours to Germany.
  This year, the Congressional Study Groups also received funding from 
the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy to organize a new 
study tour aimed at bringing nearly a dozen communications directors, 
chosen on a bipartisan basis, to Germany for substantive exchanges on 
issues relating to the transatlantic relationship.
  As with the district director programming made possible by this 
grant, engaging communications directors has allowed us to tap into a 
previously underserved and impressionable group of congressional staff. 
This year's two study tours saw FMC and the study groups bring 16 
individuals on their first-ever visit to Germany. In this group, we see 
tremendous potential to create new advocates both for the German-
American partnership and for the efforts undertaken by the 
Congressional Study Group on Germany.
  Further communications director and district director study tours 
will take place in 2020. We look forward to engaging with this new 
group of congressional staffers next year and to continuing the 
excellence in programming for which our FMC study tours are known. 
Patrick Egenhofer of the FMC team does just an outstanding job running 
the Congressional Study Group on Germany.
  The congressional study tour to Japan for Members is always the 
highlight of the Congressional Study Group on Japan's year. This year 
was no different, as study group co-chairs Billy Long and Diana DeGette 
accompanied six of their colleagues to Tokyo where they met with Prime 
Minister Abe and then to the Tohoku region--I hope I pronounced that 
correctly--which was so badly damaged by the 2011 earthquake and the 
subsequent tsunami. Members of Congress had the opportunity to view the 
Fukushima power plant and to see the exclusionary zone around the 
facility, where some residents have actually returned but which most 
have abandoned.
  A similar agenda was created for chiefs of staff, as well as our 
first district director trip for the Study Group on Japan, bringing 
directors from across the Nation on a bipartisan basis. The trip 
continued the district director outreach that has now spread to three 
of our congressional study groups.
  The similar agenda allowed us to see our meeting partners from the 
perspectives of three different parts of our congressional family--
Members, senior D.C. staff, and district staff--to engage, and for 
former Members of Congress to create a ``deep dive'' to really grow a 
full understanding of the governmental and civil society roles played 
both in Tokyo and in the recovering area of Tohoku.
  Domestically, Japanese Government officials and our Japanese Business 
Advisory Council were very interested in the 2018 mid-term elections, 
and, as a result, FMC provided several opportunities for both groups to 
meet with both current and former Members of Congress and staffers 
before and after the election, learning more about the critical issues 
and expectations going into the election and the likely changes that 
would take place in a Democratic-led House following the election.
  The Congressional Study Group also welcomed a new Ambassador from 
Japan to the United States this year. After several years of 
outstanding cooperation between the Embassy under Ambassador Kenichiro 
Sasae, he elected to retire and was succeeded by His Excellency 
Shinsuke Sugiyama. The Study Group on Japan was able to host a dinner 
for the new Ambassador at his residence in Washington, allowing Members 
of Congress to learn more about the important issues surrounding the 
U.S.-Japan alliance.
  The Study Group on Japan also continued one of the best-received 
programs we have created recently, with our Chief of Staff Colloquium. 
This weekend retreat for congressional chiefs of staff allows for a 
``deep dive'' into issues concerning the United States, Japan, and the 
entire Indo-Pacific region.
  More than 20 experts in Asian issues conducted discussion sessions 
for ten chiefs of staff at the retreat held in Baltimore, Maryland. 
Baltimore's proximity allows chiefs who live in Washington to ``get 
away'' from the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill, while remaining 
close enough to not feel out of touch. This provides an excellent 
learning experience for the staffers, as well as a great opportunity 
for FMC to engage with congressional staff who may be interested in our 
Study tours.
  For years now, we have benefited greatly from the expertise and 
professionalism of FMC staffer Alexis Ayano Terai for all things Japan 
related. We will miss her greatly when she starts her full-time studies 
at Georgetown to earn her master's degree.
  The Congressional Study Group on Europe was active this year as well, 
primarily focusing on events here in Washington, D.C. The European 
Study Group has been heavily focused, recently, on district director 
programming, encouraging these critical senior congressional staff to 
become more engaged in the transatlantic relationship. This year, 
Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland was kind enough to welcome dozens 
of Democratic district directors to the Finnish Embassy for a reception 
and a discussion on Finland, Scandinavia, and the role Northern Europe 
plays in both NATO and in our trading relationships. We expect to 
continue this relationship between FMC, our district directors, and 
European embassies this year and far into the future.
  Europe was also exceptionally interested in the 2018 elections in the 
United States, and FMC worked with the Swiss Embassy to create an 
opportunity to hear from former Members, including President Martin 
Frost and Vice President Charles Boustany, regarding the results of the 
November elections here in the United States. This discussion session 
was heavily attended and allowed our friends from Europe to better 
understand what a divided legislative branch meant for the 116th 
Congress and what 2020 could potentially mean for the United States and 
its relationship with Europe.
  Finally, our Congressional Study Group on Korea completed its first 
full year of activities and was a constant source of pride for FMC. 
After only having a small delegation of Members of Congress travel to 
Seoul last year, this year's group was larger and was complemented by a 
district director study tour, which recently returned from the Republic 
of Korea, in addition to a former Members delegation that traveled in 
February.

[[Page H3739]]

  We also hope, later this year, to bring a chief of staff delegation 
to the peninsula. Members of Congress were able to meet with key 
government officials, reporters, and business leaders and, traveling to 
the Demilitarized Zone between the Republic of Korea and North Korea, 
were able to learn more about American defense standing in the region 
from our own military leaders. Each of the delegations also met with 
local college students in Korea, allowing a candid discussion on both 
domestic and transpacific issues that are important to the next 
generation of Koreans.
  The Study Group on Korea was also active on Capitol Hill. As we 
welcomed both our new Senate co-chairs, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii 
and Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Ambassador Cho Yoon-je, the 
Ambassador from South Korea to the United States, hosted a dinner in 
their honor, along with several of their House and Senate colleagues, 
to discuss important U.S.-Korean issues, particularly focused on trade, 
energy, and defense.
  As well, the Study Group on Korea welcomed several governmental and 
business leaders to Capitol Hill for informal, organic roundtables with 
Members of Congress and their staff to better create an understanding 
of this critical alliance and relationship, particularly among Members 
focused on trade with Korea in their districts who are not able to 
address these issues through their committee assignments.
  Thanks to the efforts of the Congressional Study Group on Korea, the 
South Korean National Assembly, our counterparts in Seoul, will be 
mirroring our efforts, as they create the Parliamentary Study Group on 
America. We wish them luck in that endeavor and look forward to working 
with our friends in Seoul to further the U.S.-Korean alliance. And we 
very much appreciate all the hard and good work of FMC staffer Dongwon 
Kim as he implements Korea-focused programming.
  The Congressional Study Groups continue to work on better ways to 
communicate with our stakeholders, adding conference calls on important 
issues, featuring our frequent meeting partners, that allow Members of 
Congress, their staff, the business community, our supporters, and the 
diplomatic community to participate in Study Group programming without 
having to leave their office.

  All of this great work being done by the Congressional Study Groups 
could not continue without the support of the members of our Business 
Advisory Council, BAC, and the institutional funding partners that we 
have. With that in mind, it is important that we thank Ambassador Jim 
Zumwalt and Ms. Junko Chano at Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Ms. Paige 
Cottingham-Streater at the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, Dr. Karen 
Donfried at the German Marshall Fund, Ms. Minjeong Kim and Mr. Kiho 
Jang at the Korea Foundation, and Ambassador Thomas Byrne at the Korea 
Society.
  The members of our BAC who are so committed to the transoceanic 
relationships fostered by the Congressional Study Groups include 
Hyundai, Samsung, KITA, POSCO, CJ, SK, Gale International, Michelin, 
Tellurian, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun Medical, Daimler, Deutsche 
Telekom, DHL, Evonik Corporation, Fresenius Medical Care North America, 
Fresenius SE, Lufthansa German Airlines, RatnerPrestia, Representative 
of German Industry and Trade, Volkswagen Group of America, Aflac, ANA, 
Honda, Itochu, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, JR Central, 
Hitachi, Lockheed Martin, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi 
Heavy Industries, Mitsui, Mizuho, MUFG, NEC, Nissan, Nomura, Panasonic, 
Sojitz, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Toyota. We are deeply grateful to 
all of these organizations for their support of our work.
  As with the rest of FMC, the future of the Congressional Study Group 
is strong and vibrant. I look forward to watching the incredible 
programming and travel opportunities that they provide to continue 
FMC's goal to truly create an effective, nonpartisan avenue for 
effective legislative and knowledge exchange between the congressional 
family and our friends and allies abroad.
  I appreciate the opportunity to make these remarks. It is my 
understanding that we have some membership business to accomplish, and 
I, therefore, yield to FMC's president, Representative Martin Frost of 
Texas.
  Mr. FROST. Thank you, Jim and Phil, for your reports and for your 
outstanding leadership of these important FMC programs.
  I would note for the Record that, since we called the roll, several 
people have come into the room. I notice Barbara Kennelly, former 
president of our organization--I don't know if she was here when the 
roll was called--Blanche Lincoln, a former Member of the House and a 
former Member of the Senate from Arkansas; John Tanner from Tennessee; 
and, also, Jim Jones, a former Congressman and a former Ambassador.
  I also would like to recognize several representatives of the 
Congressional Federal Credit Union, and I thank them for their many 
years of partnership and support.
  Normally, at this juncture in our report, I would highlight each FMC 
staff member, briefly describe their areas of responsibility, and add a 
personal note since I have worked so closely with each of them over the 
past several years. I cannot do so this year simply because our team 
has grown so much. We are now up to 12 FMC staff members, so there is 
just not enough time anymore to recognize each individually.
  However, I do want to highlight two names. First, our CEO, Pete 
Weichlein. As you may know, he has been with FMC in various positions 
since February 1, 1999, which means that, earlier this year, he 
celebrated his 20th anniversary with us. Pete is brimming full of 
ideas. He is energetic and he is thoughtful. My job as President is to 
point out the one or two of his ideas that may not be quite as good as 
the others. He really does an extraordinary job for us, and I want to 
thank him.
  The other staff member I want to salute is our COO, Sabine Schleidt. 
She joined FMC over 8 years ago and has been the driving force behind 
so much of our tremendous growth and success. Now, I know Sabine was 
here. She must be working on the next piece of our business, the next 
event.
  Sabine is extraordinary, for those of you who haven't worked with 
her. She oversees all of our international programs, and she also--
which I know L.F., as one of our dinner chairs, was grateful, and I, as 
president, was grateful--raises a lot of money for us. She is really 
very good, and we are very fortunate to have her.
  At this point, let me also recognize a representative of the Canadian 
Association of Former Parliamentarians. As you know, our closest 
working relationships are with our colleagues in Ottawa and our 
colleagues in Brussels.
  We have enjoyed, over the years, many joint projects, such as 
election monitoring. The Canadian Association is a wonderful partner 
and resource to us, and we are thrilled that one of its board members, 
Eleni Bakopanos from Quebec, is with us here this morning and 
throughout the day.
  Thank you so much for joining us.
  By the way, she is from Montreal, and if any of you need to know the 
best Greek restaurants in Montreal, you should check with her before 
you go.
  As a personal note, several years ago, our organization sponsored a 
joint mission, a joint visit to the Normandy Battlefield with former 
Members of the Canadian Parliament. It was an extraordinary trip. Not 
only did we visit our battlefield sites, but also the Canadians, both 
from World War I and World War II.
  Canada, per capita, lost an extraordinary number of soldiers during 
those two wars. We will be forever grateful for their partnership then 
and their partnership now.
  I thank you so much for joining us. I hope you enjoy the rest of the 
program. This is a friendly group. I am sure they will come up and 
visit with you.
  Every year at our annual meeting, we ask the membership to elect new 
officers and board members. I, therefore, will now read to you the 
names of the candidates for board members and officers. They are 
all running unopposed, and I, therefore, ask for a simple ``yea'' or 
``nay'' as I present to you the list of candidates as a slate.

  For the Association's Board of Directors Class of 2019, the 
candidates are:
  Ann Marie Buerkle of New York,
  Bob Clement of Tennessee,

[[Page H3740]]

  Donna Edwards of Maryland,
  Phil Gingrey of Georgia,
  Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas,
  L.F. Payne of Virginia,
  Tim Petri of Wisconsin, and
  Nick Rahall of West Virginia.
  Some of these are repeat board members. They have served previously. 
We are glad that they will continue to serve.
  All in favor of electing these seven former Members to FMC's board of 
directors, please say ``yea.''
  Not hearing any ``nays'' they are elected.
  Next, we will elect our Executive Committee. Charles Boustany serves 
as our vice president. He and I were elected last year to a 2-year 
term, and we, therefore, are not up for reelection.
  Cliff Stearns automatically remains on the Executive Committee in his 
capacity as immediate past president.
  The secretary and treasurer are each elected to a 1-year term, with 
eligibility for another 1-year term. The candidates are:
  Ann Marie Buerkle of New York for treasurer, and
  L.F. Payne of Virginia for secretary.
  All in favor of electing these two former Members to FMC's Executive 
Committee, please say ``yea.''
  Any opposed?
  Hearing no opposition, the slate has been elected by the membership.
  I thank you all for volunteering to serve on our board, and I very 
much look forward to working with you again over the next year.
  It is now my sad duty to inform the Congress of those former and 
current Members who have passed away since our last report.
  As you know, FMC has commenced a beautiful tradition, which is to 
recognize via a separate memorial service in Statuary Hall all those of 
our colleagues who have passed away in the previous 12 months. It is a 
truly wonderful and fitting tribute to which we invite the families of 
these Members, and I hope you will join us in September as we do so 
again this year.
  I would note that we have patterned this after a very similar service 
conducted by the Canadian Parliament. I had the privilege of 
representing this organization at the annual meeting of the former 
Members of the Canadian Parliament and got to see this ceremony 
firsthand, and thank you for that, too.
  It is a truly wonderful and fitting tribute to which we invite the 
families of these Members, and I hope you will join us in September as 
we do so again this year.
  We also want to pay tribute to these Members by making sure their 
names are read here in the House Chamber and they are included in 
today's Congressional Record. I, therefore, will now read the names, 
and I ask all of you, including the visitors in the gallery, to rise as 
I read their names. At the end of the list, we will pay our respect to 
their memory with a moment of silence.
  Thank you.
  We honor these Members for their service to our country. They are:
  Birch Evans Bayh of Indiana
  Leonard Boswell of Iowa
  Bill Broomfield of Michigan
  George H.W. Bush of Texas, a former Member of the House of 
Representatives
  Michael ``Mac'' Collins of Georgia
  Ronald Dellums of California
  John Dingell, Jr. of Michigan
  Ralph Hall of Texas
  James Hansen of Utah
  Margaret Heckler of Massachusetts
  Ernest ``Fritz'' Hollings of South Carolina
  Walter ``Dee'' Huddleston of Kentucky
  Walter B. Jones, Jr. of North Carolina
  Paul Laxalt of Nevada
  Marilyn Lloyd of Tennessee
  Richard Lugar of Indiana
  John McCain of Arizona
  Guy Molinari of New York
  Jim Moody of Wisconsin
  Dick Nichols of Kansas
  Ed Pastor of Arizona
  Elizabeth Patterson of South Carolina
  Ellen Tauscher of California
  Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania.
  Please observe a moment of silence.
  Thank you.
  I notice in reading this list that I served with a number of these 
Members, as did, I think, most of the people in this room. I hope you 
will join us in September when we officially mark this occasion.
  Thank you. That concludes the 49th Report to Congress by the Former 
Members of Congress. On behalf of FMC, I wish to thank the Speaker and 
minority leader for giving us the opportunity to return to this very 
special place and report on FMC's activities.
  I also wish to share with you how incredibly honored I am to be 
serving as the president of this outstanding organization. We do 
wonderful work, and our membership's commitment is a testament to how 
dear you all hold this institution.
  I would mention, and I think you have all gotten a copy of this, that 
we have a program for most of this day. I hope that many of you will 
attend these events.
  We have a reception in the Rayburn House Office Building starting at 
9:30 and then a program about space policy, 50 years after Apollo 11, 
also in the Rayburn Building. Then we adjourn to the National Archives, 
and our colleague, Jim Blanchard, is chairman of the board of the 
National Archives. We appreciate everything you are doing to help us.
  Mr. DioGUARDI. I am former Congressman Joe DioGuardi. I would like to 
introduce, in the spirit of bipartisanship and emerging democracies, 
guests from Southeast Europe. If you don't mind, I would like to 
welcome them.

  From Albania, we have Monika Kryemadhi. She is the first female to 
run a political party in Albania. She is joined here by her chairperson 
for the Foreign Policy Committee of that group, Klajda Gjosha, and the 
chief of staff, Eriol Braimllari.
  We also have Faton Bislimi, a Harvard graduate. He is from Kosovo.
  We have from Presevo, a part of southern Serbia that has 100,000 
Albanians, we have the mayor of Bujanovac, a majority Albanian city, 
one of the three in Presevo, in southern Serbia. We have Ragmi Mustafa 
and Ardita Sinani.
  I just wanted to be sure that they know they are welcome. I know 
Shirley and I have been pushing, because we represent a nonprofit 
called the Albanian American Civic League, an advocacy group. We are 
volunteers; we don't get paid; but we are pushing for an Albanian study 
group.
  The Albanians are the least understood people in Europe, Southeast 
Europe, and they were divided unfairly, after World War I, into six 
different countries to, clearly, politically keep them weak.
  By the way, the honoree today, we know, Connie Morella. What you 
don't know and I found out through the Former Members Association, like 
my dad, she comes from a family that has Albanian roots. My dad came 
here in 1929 speaking only two languages--he was 15--Albanian and 
Italian. He comes from the people who were driven out of Albania in the 
15th century by the Ottoman Turks and occupying for 425 years until 
World War I. Connie's family spoke Albanian, her grandparents, and so 
did mine.
  Mr. FROST. And unlike many people in this room, I have actually been 
to Albania--it was an interesting experience--years and years ago, when 
I chaired a special task force of the House of Representatives to help 
the parliaments of Eastern and Central Europe after the Berlin Wall 
opened.
  And I believe we now turn this back over to Cliff.
  Sometimes we have leadership of both parties that come and speaks to 
us. I don't know if they were planning to come by today, but we are 
actually ending a little bit early.
  So if we miss them, we are sorry. We had hoped that they would come 
by. They have done it in the past.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. President, thank you, Martin.
  I think, as you pointed out, we were waiting for both the majority 
leader, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and the minority leader, Kevin 
McCarthy, between 8:45 and 9:00, and they might have had different 
schedules/commitments. So we will probably be here, in effect, if they 
come by.
  Mr. FROST. Next is our distinguished minority leader, Kevin McCarthy 
from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. It is an honor to be with you. A lot of you I have 
admired greatly. Some of you I have never gotten to meet. But part of 
the reason I ran, I watched you in public service,

[[Page H3741]]

and it is an amazing occupation, and we should honor it every chance we 
get.
  There are days when we honor our democracy, so I am just going to 
tell you a quick story. If any of you have time and you want to come by 
my office--it is no longer in the majority side, but it is in the 
minority side over here. At one time it was the Speaker's office, whom 
some of you served, so you can find where it is.
  In there I put paintings, and there is a reason why each painting 
that I put in there is from a different artist. I put my favorite 
Presidents, Lincoln and Reagan, and then I have the one of ``Washington 
Crossing the Delaware.'' And this is the story I will tell you today.
  When I look at the paintings, I always wonder what advice Lincoln 
would tell us. If you think about it, he was a Member of the House.
  My favorite part whenever I give a tour is to go to Statuary Hall, 
stand right where Lincoln's desk is, and have my guests look back at 
the clock. I ask them to tell me what time it is because it is the 
exact same view and the exact same clock that Abraham Lincoln looked 
at. I am sure he did, and that is an opportunity to have.
  But what would Lincoln tell us today? Lincoln would tell us to 
believe in the exceptionalism of this country; that we are different 
than any other country before us. And the reason why I believe that is, 
is the Gettysburg Address.
  You all know it. ``Four score and seven years ago our Fathers brought 
forth on this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty, and 
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.''
  There has never been another country like ours. Conceived in liberty 
and dedicated to the proposition that we are all equal. There is 
something about democracy that that brings forth.
  When you think about the world today, Saudi Arabia just now allows 
women the right to drive, and it makes you think about where we have 
come from.
  But the painting that I want you to look at, and some of you have 
served with me and you have been in that room, is ``Washington Crossing 
the Delaware.'' You know of that painting. You know that it hangs in 
New York, but did you know the history of who actually painted that 
picture? It wasn't even an American. His name was Emanuel Leutze. He 
had lived in America. He was an immigrant.
  He lived here for a number of years and went back to Germany, and 
painted a picture based upon the belief that he wanted to inspire the 
Germans to have a revolution because he believed America was more than 
a country, that America was an idea. And he wanted the revolution in 
Germany to inspire the idea of freedom and democracy.
  So he doesn't get it historically correct, but we don't blame him, 
right? The Delaware looks like the Rhine, but he is German, so we live 
with that.
  He puts 13 people in a row boat. Why would he put 13? 13 colonies, 
right? But he only shows you 12 faces.
  He gets it historically incorrect, because people will tell you 
Washington either crossed in a Durham boat or on a barge, but he just 
makes it a row boat. But he puts Washington in a ceremonial uniform, 
standing up, crossing the Delaware on Christmas, at night.
  We think that probably is not true, but when you look at Washington, 
you would say, ``I bet that man has never lost a battle.'' Well, 
history tells us he had not won yet; that was our first victory when we 
surprised the Hessians, right?
  But what I want you to do when you look at the picture, I want you to 
see who is in the boat. And this is the story of why democracy matters.
  If you look at the second person, he is wearing a beret; he is 
Scottish.
  If you look at the person directly across from him in the denim 
jacket, he is African American.
  You come down the boat to the midsection, in the red is a woman. And 
in the very back, is a Native American.
  I don't know if they were in the boat that night, but this young 
immigrant, that is who he believed--having lived in America--would have 
been in that boat.
  But the second to last person is a farmer, and he has hand across his 
face. It is the hand of the 13th person nobody sees.
  And what the young artist was saying, Here we are as a young nation--
not even a nation yet, but an idea for a nation--an idea that we can 
self-govern, an idea about democracy, that we are willing to risk 
everything, having never won before, and do it on our holiest of 
nights: Here is a hand. Would you get in and join us?
  I believe that is as true today as it was then.
  It is not guaranteed, you have to earn it through each generation. 
And the service that you have provided actually passed the torch to the 
next.
  I came here in 2007. I admired an individual, Connie Morella, who I 
watched stand up. She belonged to my party. And the part that I looked 
at is, I grew up in a family of Democrats, but I was a Republican based 
upon belief. And my belief was that an individual can govern 
themselves.

  And I watched Connie stand up not only to things she disagreed with, 
but to things even within her own party. And she inspired people.
  People would say she inspired a lot of women; she also inspired me.
  And the idea that after she left this House she continued to work for 
democracy says a lot about who she is and why she was elected in the 
first place.
  So it is an honor for me to be here today to say thank you for your 
service. And thank you, all of you, for what you contributed to this 
country.
  Mr. STEARNS. We thank the distinguished minority leader.
  And with that, let me close by saying, the Chair again, wishes to 
thank the former Members of the House and Senate for all of your 
presence today.
  And before terminating these proceedings, the Chair would like to 
invite those former Members who did not respond when the roll call was 
called to give their names to the reading clerk for inclusion in the 
roll.
  I think Tom McMillen came in. Is there anyone else to add?
  If not, the Association of Former Members of Congress and the report 
to Congress is closed.
  The meeting stands adjourned.

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