one of the few commas for a duper i know that robert and margaret gordon have to be proud of the man who came to congress in that the ninety four and has service exceptionally well his leadership his vision  his honesty his integrity has the same by is that we all have intimacy and that's ninety four i know that god had a plan and because i was a part of what i thought that plan was going to be god's plan is always the one that's perfect and i think the plan that he had for bart gordon and his service that he's provided us to certainly prove to be correct let's pray please father thank you for this day and for the many blessings of life that you've given us a blessing to give this wonderful nation that we live in you blessed us with new laugh and i know that that both will be happy to have him home with them we will miss him here father again reach down to this family cuts are hard and undersold that the rest of their life we want it will be l your will our young men and women in harm's way in the battlefields throughout the world we have to juror number of protection with them and bring them back safely forgive us in our many sins these things are asking jesus name amen the distinguished majority leader to come to the podium and offers comments and i know i speak for our for bart to chuck in thanking you for your service as well not only to the committee to the congress to the house of representatives but also to bart personally i know that his career has been very much a part of your baptists mistake together and i am part friend i want you to understand that if you're looking for subjectivity here from the you will not find it time excuse me objectivity you will not fi much subjective when it comes to bart gordon i told bart when he came in to tell me that he had decided he was going to leave and we had a conversation there but i don't want to speak out of school but we had a conversation started and we were about ten or fifteen minutes into the conversation and both of us teared that his hand out deeply i will feel the loss of his daily presence in the congress of the united states that's the bad news the good news is bart will remain one of my dearest friends until the day that i die he will outlive me  much younger than i but he will remain my friend until that time but he has been one of my closest friends in the congress of the united states bart gordon is a politician five i guess january of eighty five the right part we are in a time in public life when civility is in short supply where showing respect for one another is in too short supply where anger and impetuousness and incivility rain too often if that is the case i know of no example of the opposite of that better than my friend bart gordon bart gordon comports himself at all times deserving of respect and showing respect in return for all of those with whom he deals whether they be his colleagues in the congress and democrats or his colleagues in the congress who are republicans is my dear friend i can attest to that the fact of the matter is there aren't enough gordon's in public service in america part gordon brings to the consideration of public policy on intellect and an interest in inquisitiveness and a desire to make the lives of those who me facts better the life of our country richer in every way not just monetary really but from a value sense from a quality sense that is the kind of represented part gordon has been i have the privilege of having all the chairs of the committees meet with me every wednesday morning at eight thirty  part is almost always the first one there and always brings to the discussion a very reasoned measured insightful advice and counsel to all of us that sit around the table and every chair when bart speaks shows great respect for what he has to say bart gordon is a treasure bart gordon  also has extraordinary good judgment my good friend john tanner came to me in the cloak room we were eating like they came over to manny said bart you know getting married and i said yes i know that to a beautiful wonderful very successful very talented woman leslie who is here with us a gore is going to have a little reception would you like to contribute to that i thought a little reception that i would contribute to might be a hundred or two hundred dollars and i said of course well it turned out to be a very nice reception and free is laughing jim for his back there chuckling we were there together but it was not one hundred or two hundred dollars and it was a wonderful reception i'm glad i had the opportunity  d i went a little bit into my savings and i was fine peyton your mom and dad are wonderful and you are one lucky little girl i have three daughters peyton they are now much much much much older than you are but i remember them when they were your age your dad remembers them when they're little older than you but i have also three grandchildren and a great granddaughter now my granddaughter one of them's twenty three one of them's thirteen my grandson and one of the eight so you're closer to the eight year old than you are to the others but you are a treasure and your father has all that he needs he's leaving the congress but he will keep you for ever and your mom forever what a treasure that is peyton for him for you and for your mom you're a lucky young woman to have a father who is so loving so caring so respected so liked we're pleased that you shared him with us we know that he lamented that sometimes he missed some of the things you were doing it was our fault not your dad's believe me ladies and gentlemen we're going to unveil a portrait a portrait is a representation i'm sure that it will be the artist here of the artist i'm sure it's going to be a wonderful wonderful portrait but as we look at these portraits we do not have it conveyed  us the essence of the character of the soul of the conscience of the intellect that's what bart gordon is an example  he is one of the best of us who have served in the congress of the united states he is one of the best of us who calls himself america god has truly  and ralph hall barton ralph not only effectively lead their respective sides of the aisle but they demonstrated mutual respect and a genuine friendship that served as an example for all of us in this community both members and staff so i'd like to it's a pleasure to ask the ranking member hall to come for remarks i didn't know it's going to veil i thought this said they're going to hang when i was a fellow democrat and as a republican but we didn't always agree on specific policy but we always shared a love of the institution and the issues that we helped shepherd through congress is just a wonderful guy and is chair of the science and technology committee bart really raised the bar and i've worked with other chairman i worked with sherry boehlert for a long time and as you know sherry was a republican but he's pretty liberal and i was a democrat was pretty conservative and the book on us was it kept from spending all of the government's money on trying to save the whales and he kept me from driving on cemetery lots hadn't done me that way as chairman of our committee he's raised the bar he's really surges chair he's held astonishing two hundred thirty five hearings twenty four subcommittee markups in twenty eight full committee mark and he's raised a profile of the for think about three sessions when i was a democrat and both class guys wonderful guys when out came before our committee to talk about all those outrageous things that he talks about and i love  gore was with the when his little boy was heard prayed together that he'd be delivered and serve with him honorable man honorable family a good wife clean family and when he came before  they're for and we differ there as we debate but we're together when one when we're losing them we live in more when we working together we respect him more and i just think he brought a host of influential people before a committee and we've had some very healthy debates in the comedian on the house floor and passed a lot of good pieces of legislation some of the language that the bottomless pit known as the senate and sam rayburn my predecessor had a young democrat come in to him and said mr speaker i want to be a speaker's man you tell me which one of the democrats you want me to work on obviously was jimmy stand and mr reagan said son son wait just a minute the democrat on the floor of congress is not the enemy of the republican the republican is not the enemy of the democrat the enemy is the senate and i know we've all pretty well learn but he's been a tireless and good advocate of advanced internation competitiveness and i just know that you're going to join me in which invokes the very best of luck in his career at return from congress and i'm sure going to continue to work to make our nation the best it can be too beautiful for the level of a little daughter  say good luck enjoy bards he's a decent guy he's a fan and he's capable of friendship and i would say to him when he retires i've always heard you get to  thank you ralph the u s capitol historical society and the office of house office of history and preservation serve a vital purpose and forever reminding us about the u s capitol its institutions in the people who serve there and i want to thank them for their assistance  event possible and their stewardship of continuing to preserve our history non serious and president of society is here with us today former member of the house from connecticut i'd like to thank him and fair eliot the house curators also here i want to thank her for her guidance during this process and i would be remiss if i did not draw your attention to the special thanks page on your program and to the donors my appreciation for your generous and enthusiastic response to my request for your assistance we appreciate it portrait artist paul bennie cannot be with us today but through his artistry we're able to add yet another chapter to the history of the house and to this committee bart gordon is the most focused dedicated and hard working elected official that i've known during my career in public service it was his boyhood dream to serve here and his boyhood dream was realized through twenty six years of markable service to this house and to this committee so it's fitting that he become a part of the history of this institution and of this committee by unveiling and presenting his portrait which will hang and be displayed in this committee room along with the other distinguished former chairman so i'd like to ask bards mother margaret his wife leslie and their daughter payton to come forward to unveil the we have three generations of gordon seated gordon's here which is makes this special event i think all the more remarkable and all the more special in a moment to distinguish speakers the house is going to come to accept this  portrait but what i like to do right now is have the portrait unveiled when she arrives will present it she'll accept it and then hopefully have some remarks for us so i would simply ask him to do the let me just welcome everyone and thank you for being here it demonstrates what free food and drink will do for a crowd and we're glad you're here you know it is nice to be able to hear your eulogy while you're still alive so i hope you all thank you very much i don't know who's in charge here but we had a bill that was coming to an end on the floor we never can control again we stand and so i had to  as speaker of the house i am proud to accept this portrait on behalf of the house of representatives it will be on display as a reminder of the great leadership integrity and commitment chairman  demonstrated during his twenty six years here i want to acknowledge three generations of gordon women his mother margaret i'm sure they've been acknowledged but i want to join les's wife leslie and his daughter peyton whom we seen grow up here and we are grateful for that to them for sharing part with us when bart became chairman in two thousand and seven he committed that the science committee would be the home as he termed a good idea and consensus there are many opportunities for members of congress to disagree the science committee has become an opportunity for agreement it is a remarkable accomplishment that during bart's chairmanship every single one of the one hundred forty six bills and resolutions that have come out of the committee have been bipartisan already is committed his chairmanship to keeping america competitive he was first and sounding an alarm the need to invest in science and math in education and scientific research because bart gordon knows that innovation begins in the classroom many of you know that bart is very proud of his authorization of the competes act and the the complete that and then pete x contains much of our innovation agenda but let's take it back a few steps when bart was called calling for hearings and the rest are rising up against the gathering storm and that the rising storm is that the correct name and with that sounding of the alarm that he did in congress bringing in experts bring in authorities making it unavoidable of that we would have to act upon that warning so he again as a leader he saw early that's what a leader does he saw early what the challenge was and he had positive initiatives it's particularly visionary in the need to invest in high risk high reward science who are helping ensure america energy independence under leadership and his leadership in may this the house passing merican piece reauthorization bill the mansion which keeps our nation on a path to double science over ten years this is quite remarkable the scientific breakthroughs innovation and even cures that will happen as a result will be a tribute to bart's leadership long after he see saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be at the time of the romantic poets the poets were trying to talk about science and the scientist wanted to be poetic it was a very interesting time i refer to the book age of wonder that talks about the romantic poets and science and how they came together and this quote is one example of that but isn't that what bart did dipped into the future as far as humanized could see the world and all the wonder that would be thank you for opening that all up to us chairman bart gordon thank you we say that our colleagues are the gentleman from a certain state wide gordon is truly the gentleman from tennessee and that was my opportunity to introduce the gentleman from and so i will yield back the floor to him i hate to correct the speaker but if as i recall you were the one that set up the innovation agenda the first caucus even before you were sworn in you said this was our future and you brought us together i'm glad that that one either and so finally she said if you take a picture of a tree you get a tree and i'm afraid that i'm afraid that a portrait is the same thing that we hear the bells go off so let me try to try to be quick i've had the good fortune over these twenty six years to serve with six speakers and they all had different assets and strength you know you don't get to be elected speaker if you don't have something going for you and so they all they all did but no one has put the full package together like nancy pelosi her or her passion her persuasiveness lord knows her patience is really amazing and what you'll find when you're in a meeting with her and oftentimes we're in really been quite a few and and will be vicious you and that issue is just like boom boom and she has such a you introduced the three women in my life just to clarify once again my mother is margaret barton gordon wife is lesley peyton gordon and our daughter is  payton margaret gordon so we don't have much imagination when it comes to two names chuck and i always loyally and brown thank you for putting together getting all this together switch the or hit the way up and people got going a little fashion they wanted to but that's why we were so productive so thank you for that and lincoln thank you for the invocation there are lots of tennesseeans here today and john king and we all know that about thirty years we want to come and see lincoln get his portrait as chairman of the appropriations committee so we'll be waiting for that worth well it just happened there's one very nice sweet up there and and i will sit next to it i wanted i was next to it and there was a young man from maryland who occupied that s  so i'm just going to say i'm grateful for your friendship and i'm glad that i read it had a chance to know judy of the girls as want to charlotte hall thank you you know i guess i don't yes i know our real debt of gratitude draft because if he had not defected to the dark side i would never have the opportunity to be chairman and so thank you ralph i'm not sure that they open the right there at the election commission but i'm glad they got the one they did you have been a great partner working with our members and staff we don't agree all the time  there's a respect that allows us to work through problems and that's as the speaker said we've been able to produce one hundred and forty nine bills in resolutions all which have been bad part of and i think the reason for that is that we've planets but somehow you know somehow well the trust is developed and everyone has been able to work together and be productive into the other  members here you know they'll always be a bond we know that when you stay up late at night casting votes and walking back and forth criticizing the silly votes that we're having to take there you know there's a bond that comes about that we will always have and and i have been jim about three years so i hope i'm going to be able to maybe join you back there into the non heal friends that are here today i want to thank all of you for your advice and friendship you know we're in such a pressure cooker here that it really is good to be able to talk to somebody that's a that you know step back and can give us a little bit of good advice and and i would say to my members you really need to know some folks on the other side too it helps you to get a better grounding and i think that will also be beneficial and so finally i want to especially thank those people that we all know that run this place and that's the staff we couldn't do without you my district staff many of them have been with me for over twenty six years they have to answer all of the complaints that we gena up down here they have been great i want to thank the congressional office here in washington they keep the trains running and they answer some very ugly mail and so i thank them for that and also discussions things of that nature because of their hard work is the reason that we've been able to come forth with those one hundred forty nine beals and i also want to thank the other staff those folks in the cloak room the people on other committees  that you never they're always there to help you or to give you some bit of advice and they are an institutional memory that is here when we come and go and so we should all be grateful for them so let me very quickly tell you my story that's when i decided that public service is what i really want to do with my life and that that being a member of congress really was the highest office that someone like me you know not a wealthy family not a big one family but somebody that was where they work so i spent the next seventeen years literally campaigning and  hundred eighty four al gore decide to run for the senate which gave me the opportunity to succeed him there well so you could expect i was pretty happy when i got here but soon realize that if you're not chairman of a subcommittee or full committee it really is hard to have the impact that you want to have so twenty two years later finally i was able to come chairman and so now when i look back at those forty three years it was all worth it and and take the last four years early they've been intense but they have been the best of those forty three and  just in conclusion let me say that working together with the science technology committee members and the staff i think we really have passed and implemented some very important legislation that has made america more competitive  really new world economy which is something that we have to keep in mind and so i hope that because of our work that that our daughter and your kids and grandkids are going to be able to really have the platform now