Date: 2007-10-02
Speaker: AL GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. today we take the final steps in the legislative process to accord the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey a Congressional Gold Medal. While I am proud to be here at the revelation of this process while we are now revealing all that has taken place and all that has happened for us to have this great opportunity. I must confess that I was not there at the genesis of the process. But. Mr. Speaker. there is one person who has been a constant throughout the entirety of this process. and that one person. Mr. Speaker. is the Honorable KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON. Senator from the great State of Texas. She has been consistent in that she has annually filed this bill to get it to this point. and she has been persistent in that she has insisted that we work together so as to cause the* Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey to have this opportunity. Mr. Speaker. while I am the original sponsor of the House bill. H.R. 1154. to accord this Congressional Gold Medal. there are many other persons who must be thanked. I want to thank my chairman of the Financial Services Committee. the . Honorable BARNEY FRANK. for the outstanding job that he has done to help get this piece of legislation. the bill that has already passed. out of the committee and to the floor. But he has also done an outstanding job in helping us to get the Senate bill to the floor. and for this we thank him. I also would like to thank my colleagues Congressman MICHAEL BURGESS and Congressman JOHN CULnERSON for the outstanding job that the two of them jointly performed in getting the necessary signatures to get this bill to the floor. fl 1030 That would be the bill in the House. not the Senate. bill. But I want to thank them for what they did because it took getting the House bill through to get us to the point where we can now get the Senate bill passed. such that we can accord the Gold Medal. I would like to. thank the entire Texas delegation. They have all thought highly of Dr. DeBakey. and they have worked with us to make sure that we were in a position to get this done. We want to thank the 313 cosponsors of this legislation. Literally. we have gone to the floor of the House and we have talked to persons who agreed that the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey should be accorded this preeminent privilege and this great honor. I want to thank the House leadership because the leadership made it possible for the fellowship to be in this position today. And again. we thank Spnator HUTCHISON and all of the Members of the Senate who have helped us with this process. Mr. Speaker. the Congressional Gold _ Medal has 535 judges. 100 in the Senate. 435 in the House. because each Member of the House and each Member of the Senate has a vote on the Congressional Gold Medal. And I am honored to say that. while we must receive 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate. we have exceeded the required numbers in both the House and the Senate. People were excited about the opportunity to accord the Honorable Dr. Michael E. DeBakey a Congressional Gold Medal. What is a Congressional Gold Medal? It is the Nations highest and most distinguished civilian award. It was originally awarded to military leaders for their service and later became a civilian medal. It is the congressional equivalent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Each medal is unique. It is designed by the U.S. Mint and is duplicated in bronze for sale. The Congressional Gold Medal has been awarded approximately 134 times to approximately 300 individuals. Some notable recipients include our first President. George Washington. General Andrew Jackson. the Wright brothers. Thomas Edison. Sam Rayburn. former Speaker of this august body. Sir Winston Churchill. Robert Kennedy. Lady Bird Johnson. Mother Teresa of India. Nelson Mandela. Rosa Parks. Pope John Paul. II. the Reverend Dr. Martin