canton, ohio, as the ralph regula federal building and united states courthouse. the bill has strong bipartisan support. while i know congressman regula as my predecessor, many of you on both sides of the aisle were also fortunate enough to call him a colleague, a mentor and a friend. he was a true steward of his district and earned every accolade from his constituents who knew him only as ralph. he combined a unique blend of procedural accumen, hard work and collegial personality in rising to a leadership on the house appropriations committee. all the while he never forgot where he came from. consistently setting the standard and making sure that his constituents received the assistance they needed with their problems. as a former teacher and principal, ralph was a leader in pushing to improve our students' reading skills, develop teacher training, and incess pell grant funding. he also increased by millions

of dollars the amount of federal money committed to research in fighting cancer, heart disease and birth defects. ralph was a leader in alternative energy, and he was an early champion of fuel cell technology, helping my district earn a reputation as a national leader in fuel cell research and development. congressman ralph regula served with distinction and represented the 16th district of ohio for over 30 years. in fact, it was 36 years. he's a native ohioan born in beach city, ohio, on december 3, 1924. after high school, congressman ralph regula served in the united states navy with distinction and honor in world war ii. he later graduated from college and earned his law degree in canton, ohio, at william mckinley school of law. he went on to become a lawyer and later a state legislator. he was first elected to congress in 1972 and served 18 consecutive terms retiring last

year to spend more time with his lovely, lovely wife, mary, and his college sweetheart. as well as their three children and four grandchildren. as much as i wish to claim this as an original idea, i have to give thanks and credit to senator sherrod brown, who first introduced this legislation last december before i was sworn in. it's appropriate that we honor congressman ralph regula with this bill, because in many ways this building would not exist without his efforts. having laid the groundwork for it many, many years ago. . it will serve his legacy for many years to come. it is fitting and proper to honor congressman regula with this designation. i urge the immediate passage and reserve the balance of my time, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from

florida. mr. diaz-balart: i would yield myself as much time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. diaz-balart: i want to thank the chairman and the sponsor, the gentleman from ohio for sponsoring this legislation. he mentioned the history of mr. regula. he obviously served honorably for the people of the 16th district in ohio for 18 consecutive terms, from 1973 until last congress, becoming the second longest serving republican member in the house, mr. speaker. and congressman regula has a great legacy and has had a long and distinguished career in public service. always, always serving his country. early on, he served in the most honorable way that one could ever serve this country in the armed forces, in the navy. after completing his legal education, he went into private practice of law. in the early 1960's, he served

as a member of the ohio state board of education and went on to serve in the ohio house of representatives, also ohio state senate prior to his election in the congress. naming this federal building in ohio is appropriate to recognize congressman regula's commitment to public service, to his constituents and to this nation. the respect that he earned while serving in congress is demonstrated by what we are seeing here today, the fact that this bill sponsored by ohio representatives from both sides of the aisle. i want to thank the sponsor of this legislation. i support the passage of this bill and urge my colleagues to do the same. again, this is a man who has served this country with distinction. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the remaining part of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. boccieri: thank you, mr. speaker, i yield five minutes to

the the gentleman from new york, mr. serrano. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for five minutes. mr. serrano: unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. serrano: thank you, and i thank the gentleman. i rise in support of h.r. 1687, legislation to bring well deserved recognition to congressman ralph regula, who was first elect todd congress in 1972. congressman regula retired in january of this year, after serving in congress for 18 consecutive terms. he had a wealth of experience on the house appropriations committee, serving as chairman of both the labor, health and human services and education subcommittee and the interior subcommittee. when i assumed the chair manship of the house financial services appropriations committee in this congress, congressman regula was the ranking member and he was a mentor and a partner. i learned a lot about how to be an effective chairman from congressman regula by watching

him in action and talking to him to him as my ranking member. as a member from a urban district in new york city, i learned a lot from him about farming and i learned something funny, but i learned the difference between jelly and jam and he was an expert on the subject. what i most treasure is his friendship, because congressman regula was a true and generous friend to me. the designation that this federal building and courthouse in canton, ohio as the ralph regula federal building and courthouse is an appropriate honor for this man who has devoted his life to public service. he served in the navy, was a lawyer, a member of the ohio state board of education, the ohio house of representatives and the ohio state senate before joining congress and beginning his many years of distinguished and dedicated service on behalf of his constituents in the 16th

congressional district of ohio. we are doing something really good today. we are honoring a man who deserved this. and let me conclude by saying this. i imagine when we leave here when the day comes that i leave here, you want to be remembered for your work, but i think more than that, you want to be remembered by your colleagues on how you treated them and how you interacted with them. ralph regula was a gentleman. ralph regula was a colleague. he never had anything nasty to say about anyone. as i said, coming from a community where i come from and where he came from, driving his pickup truck and go og to his farms, i learned to admire him, love him and respect him. i wanted to join this celebration and say thank to you to him.

it is not permitted within the rules to speak to the gallery, but i suspect congressman regula is watching today and we care a lot about him and this is an honor, one of many, that he truly deserves. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. mr. diaz-balart: i now would like to yield five minutes to the distinguished the gentleman from ohio, mr. latourette. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for five minutes. mr. latourette: thank you, mr. speaker and thank you, mr. diaz-balart for the recognition. i thank mr. boccieri for introducing this legislation. no one can replace congressman

regula, but he is his successor and i happen to be the successor -- the dean of the ohio republican caucus. ralph served 36 years here and 36 years is the loest that any republican member of congress has served from the state of ohio. he had a lot to do and i think mr. petri is going to talk about his work with the subcommittee. but ralph's real gift when it came to our side of the aisle at least back in happier days when the republicans were in the majority, that definition, ralph guided us. and if you looked at the ohio delegation back in the 1990's, most of us were the chairman of full committees. we had mr. regula and mr. hobson of springfield. and that was all ralph's doing.

he made a commitment to make sure there was an ohioan on every committee that mattered. i'm a lawyer by training and i said, ralph, i think i would like to be on the judiciary committee. he said, what are you nuts? we needed a republican from ohio on the transportation committee and he put me there and it was one of the happiest times of my life. the two things that i want to talk about. mr. serrano is right about his observations, but i came in the class of 1994, so i'm one of those republican revolutionaries that created the first majority since 1954. mr. speaker, you may remember and others may remember that at that time, there was a lot of rhetoric in this chamber and there were some things that became targets. and parks became targets. but what i will always remember is that it was the desire on my side of the aisle to zero fund things like the national endowment for the arts and national endowment for the

humanities. and i thought it was misguided. and congressman regula as the chairman of the interior subcommittee felt that was misguided. although those agencies saw reductions during that time, they were never zeroed out. and i think in this appropriations cycle, we will get back to the level of funding they received prior to 1994. i will tell you that few years before congressman regula's retirement, he was in line as the most senior guy to become the chairman of the appropriations committee. and he worked very hard at that. he created an organization called care and worked hard. raised a lot of money and all that other business. and he was denied that honor, that opportunity. and i will tell you that in my mind, it had a lot to do not with the quality of the other candidates who were both excellent, but had to do with the fact that ralph had angered

people back in the 1980's because he wouldn't eliminate the national endowment for the arts and humanities. as a result, even though ralph had a long and distinguished career here, i think he was punished. the other thing i want to say about ralph is his life partner, mary. and mary is the brains behind the first lady's library. if you are traveling through the state of ohio, stop at the first ladies' library, because it is an amazing creation that wouldn't be in existence today if it wasn't for mary and ralph regula. i want to thank you very much. and this is an amazingly bipartisan effort on your part and senator brown to name something after somebody that

really deserves to have something named after. i couldn't think of a finer public servant than congressman regula and that building will make him proud and should make the citizens of canton, ohio, proud as well. and i thank you for honoring my friend. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio. mr. boccieri: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield as much time as i may consume. i would wish to thank the gentleman from ohio. his remarks were not only appropriate, but well guided in terms of what mr. regula meant to our part of ohio, but what he meant to america. you know, campaigning through the district and having the occasion to work with congressman regula while i was in the state legislature, people knew him not as a conservative, not as a liberal, not as a democrat or a republican, but just as ralph. and that type of leadership, that type of portrayal of american politics is what we

should all rise to emulate. he was a man of his word and integrity and a man who believed in the constitution. and he told me, he said, when you go to congress, john, make sure that you protect the constitution. and in particular, the fact that we own the checkbook. we write the checks. we appropriate the money. we here in congress are responsible for the taxpayers' dollars. he was responsible for millions and millions of dollars coming back to the state of ohio, whether it was research in fuel cell technology or whether it was the first ladies' library that his wife had a brilliant idea to anchor in our state of ohio or funding for medical research that we're doing in our state, he was the leader and he believed in innovation and cre -- creativity. he was a man of get integrity and someone who obviously, as

congressmanla turet said, would not be able to replace but certainly respect as his successor. and mr. speaker, at this time, i yield to the gentlelady from california, our speaker of the house of representatives, speaker pelosi. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. the speaker: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and thank him for giving us this opportunity to come to the floor to sing the praises of our former colleague. we always will have him as a colleague in our hearts. but former colleague on the floor, congressman ralph regula of ohio. as many of you know and has been acknowledged, ralph regula served in the house with great distinction for 38 years of service. 38 years of service and not only service, great leadership. last year we sadly said goodbye to him, but now tonight we will

honor him by creating a long-standing testament to his leadership, designated the courthouse and federal building in his hometown of canton as the ralph regula federal building and united states courthouse. i want to acknowledge john boach erry for his work in shepherding this legislation through congress and for doing an exceptional job, i believe, following in the footsteps of ralph regula in representing ohio's 16th congressional district. congressman regula's entire life was devoted to public service and still is. he was a distinguished navy veteran of world war ii, he served our country in that way and he served both the ohio senate and the ohio house of representatives as well as the state board of education and aren't we fortunate that when he came to congress he was already an experienced legislator with a strong commitment to educating our children. 38 years, imagine that.

some of our members weren't even born when ralph regula came to the congress. 38 years in e house of representatives is an earning distinction of being the second longest serving republican in the congress. congressman regula's leadership benefited our entire nation. it was a personal privilege for me to work with him on the appropriations committee. i saw firsthand his leadership, his knowledge of the issues, the respect that he commanded about all who came before him and the respect he had from both sides of the aisle. he was -- i personally am grateful to him for transforming san francisco's former army base. he was very much a part of doing that. the proceeding into one of our nation's parks and we have honored him on many occasions in san francisco. most recently as fort baker. i also -- none of cuss come together and talk about ralph regula -- can come -- none of us can come together and talk about

ralph regula without talking about mary regula. it was the loven of mary and their three children and four grandchildren who made his leadership possible and we all know that mary is the one who made a decision that we would have a first lady -- a national first lady's library in canton, ohio, to honor the contribution to our nation of the first ladies of america. it's a phenomenal thing. she had an idea, she executed it and now people can visit and see that important part of american history. thanks to mary regula. today we honor a great congressional leader, great friend to all of us and a great man. i urge all of my colleagues to understand the privilege that we have of expressing our appreciation to ralph -- for ralph regula's leadership by supporting this legislation and i join my colleagues from ohio, on both sides of the aisle, for their -- the honor that we are

paying to ralph regula tonight and i thank mr. boach erry for shepherding -- mr. boccieri for shepherding this. mr. boccieri: i concur with the speaker's remarks, especially about mary who champions women in their role in politics and for my two daughters who are sitting behind me and the once i have at home, she has been a shepherd for all in the 16th district as well as our country. i will continue to yield after the eloquent words of the speaker and reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. mr. diaz-balart: thank you, mr. speaker. i would now like to yield four minutes to the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. petri. mr. petri: i thank my colleague for yielding. i thank the previous speakers, particularly the speaker of the house, for taking the time from her busy schedule to come down here and to honor a

distinguished colleague on the occasion of naming the federal courthouse in his hometown after him and that's a gentleman i had the privilege of serving with for nearly 30 years and getting to know and one whom i admire a great deal and that's ralph regula. you've heard about the spirit with which ralph regula approached his responsibilities as a legislator, it was positive. he worked with all members of this body and he did what he thought was in the best interest of this country and this institution. you learn a lot about members of the body when you visit their districts and my wife and young daughter had the habit as we would drive back to wisconsin for the august break of picking a different route across the country and taking a few extra

days and stopping to see historic and interesting places and making an educational and fun thing rather than just an ordeal to go across the country. and one year we decided to go through and visit another colleague in ac ron, ohio, and -- akron, ohio, and all that and he had this home which they'd lost in the depression, one of the largest private homes in the united states, and in the course of doing that he took us through the thing, discovered that he and ralph regula had worked together for many years to create what is now, i believe, the largest national park east of the mississippi, the cuyahoga valley national park. i know they were both tremendously proud of that.

it was a wonderful opportunity for that area of ohio because there are large cities on various sides of this and it provides recreational and other opportunities for a large population and if they had not acted when they did, it might not be there today. and it was done by those two representatives working as best they could with colleagues in both political parties and will stand as a lasting monument to their joint efforts on behalf of our country and certainly the people of their region in ohio. ralph and mary were a great and are a great team and one other thing i think i might mention, ralph is kind of a gentleman farmer and he used to spend a lot of time working with his grandchildren and family and all that. but ronald reagan was kind of a gentleman farmer, too. he had this ranch out in

california, where he cleared brush and was trying to develop and it turned out he and ralph were talking over and reagan discovered that ralph was going back to work on fencing on his farm and asked him if he could explain how he did it and so ralph came back to a meeting afterward and said that reagan had taken careful notes and everything else and then a week or two later gave him, i think, a signed copy of the instructions that ralph had given to him. it was a good fence. and ralph did a great job and it's an appropriate honor, i strongly support the passage of this legislation. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. mr. boccieri: thank you, mr. speaker. just a few more comments and i think we'll be wrapping this up very soon. to piggyback on what the

gentleman was suggesting, as i said earlier, ralph was not known as a democrat or a republican, a conservative, liberal, he was just known as ralph. and i remember in some closing remarks at a recent bank wet that we were at, i was telling folks that, you know, i feel at liberty to say this, i'm a freshman member here, this collegiality that we're sharing right now becomes few and far between at times and we need to return this chamber, this body, our dialogue to that kind of respect for each other where we may disagree on ideas as democrats and republicans, we both believe in the end goal and like a married couple, we may argue about how we get to the end destination, taking this exit ramp, that road, but at the end of the day, like a married couple, we always end up where we need to go. and we need to respect that. and i think that this bill respects the service of ralph regula and his contributions to northeast ohio and in particular what it will mean to the people of stark county who will go there to find relief and find help from their government and everyday they walk into that

building, that building that's being built right now, they will see his designation, his name and it will be a remembrance of what he meant. just one last comment, mr. speaker, that this district that i am currently representing and serving in is by all measures and arguably a swing district. it's a democrat-republican registration is even, but yet he held this district for 36 years. and the congressman before him held this district for 18 years and the other federal building in the city is named after him, frank tee bow. and what this says is that the people of northeast ohio, in particular the 16th district, they respect legislators, they respect congressmen like ralph regula and his predecessor because they believe in our greatest asset which is our people. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida is

recognized. mr. diaz-balart: thank you, mr. speaker. i will be brief. i want to echo the words of the gentleman from ohio. i think they're very well stated. i also want to thank the speaker of the house for coming down today and speaking in such kind and well deserved words, but kind words to a man that really loved this institution, loved this country, served both so very well. with that, mr. speaker, we have no further speakers so i would yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. boccieri: mr. speaker, at this time with no further speakers, we will yield back our time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question on the floor is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1687 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and the bill is passed. the gentleman from ohio. mr. boccieri: mr. speaker, i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion are postponed.

for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? >> mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 410, recognizing the numerous contributions of the recreational boating community and the boating industry. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 410. resolution recognizing the numerous contributions of the recreational boating community and the boating industry to the continuing prosperity and affluence of the united states. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. larson, and the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. petri, each will control 20 minutes.

the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. larslars mr. speaker, i ask -- mr. larsen: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extends their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. larsen: mr. speaker, i yield myself as much time as i may consume. i rise today recognizing the numerous contributions of the recreational boating community and the boating industry to the continuing prosperity and affluence of the united states. this bipartisan resolution was introduced by representatives ron klein of florida and henry brown of south carolina, along with the could he chairs of the boating caucus,. house resolution 410 honors the 59 million boaters in the united states. as evidenced by the bipartisan co-sponsors to this resolution, american boaters span all across american boaters span all across the country, including my