Date: 2016-02-11
Speaker: DAVID SCOTT (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Speaker. I. too. rise to say some words for a very. very. very good man. Mike Oxley. When I came to Congress in the year of 2002. I was assigned to the Committee on Financial Services. and that is where I met Mike Oxley. Our lives intertwined. He was a tremendous help to me on that committee as I was breaking in. I am very delighted. and it opened my eyes to a world which I was only dimly aware when he asked if I would join him as one of the Members to travel to Scotland and to Europe and to be able to visit and to sit with other bankers and financial people to learn the importance of finance. to learn how it is important for the United States to stay totally in front and to maintain our financial system as the most powerful system in the world. In order to do that. you have to get across the world and talk with other financial systems. I found out. and it took me going over there to the Bank of Scotland to realize why Mike Oxley wanted to do that. because very few people knewand I didnt knowthat the Royal Bank of Scotland was the fifth largest bank in the United States. To go to Europe and to meet with the finance ministers in Europe. in Brussels. in Paris. and the reason for that was because there was the emerging markets of derivatives and swaps. which was just a burgeoning part of the economy. Now it is an $800 trillion piece of the worlds economy. I went and learned so much there. We went to make sure that the United States had what would be seen as equivalency. to be able to deal with these other nations and their financial systems and banking systems. Then to come back. and roughly 8. 9 years later. and I am sitting now as the ranking member on the subcommittee in Congress that deals with derivatives and swaps. Quite honestly. ladies and gentlemen. when I went with Mike Oxley. I did not know what a derivative was. Now. Mike and I became friends. When you travel with people. you get to know them. you get to share things with them. I came back. and Mike Oxley comes to me one day. I am wondering what this is about. He said: David. I have got to see you. David. I have got to see you. I said: Mike. what is it? What is it? He said: I heard that your brotherinlaw is home run king Hank Aaron. Can I meet him? Everybody knows that Mike Oxley loved baseball. He loved baseball I am sure almost as much as he loved politics. I know his family knows how much he loved baseball. I said: Sure. sure. It was a great evening when Hank came back up. I had dinner. and I invited Mike Oxley to join me and his guests with me and my wife and Hank Aaron. my wifes brother. for dinner at The Capital Grille. Ladies and gentlemen. what an evening that was. I mean. to be there and to hear Mike Oxley and home run king Hank Aaron talk baseball. two great Americans loving Americas pastime. I remember at one point Mike Oxley said: Hank. can I ask you a question? So Hank said: Sure. He said: Who was the toughest pitcher who ever pitched against you? Hank said: All of them. all of them. Mike said: All of them. all of them. We would carry that story many times in our conversations. He said: Oh. man. I will never forget that. when Hank said "All of them." A great man. You know. we all live a life. There are three things that we all are going to see on that gravestone: the year we were born and the year we died. but then there is that other thing. There is that dash in the middle. and the question in everybodys life is. what did you do with your dash. that period from when you were born to when the Lord calls you home. Mike Oxley did a tremendous amount. One of the things he did was touch my life. Mike Oxley helped me. Mike Oxley was my friend. I know everybody joins me in saying from the bottom of our hearts to the family. to this Congress. to the people of America: We thank God for sending Mike Oxley our way.