Pelosi Remarks at Memorial Service in Honor of Louise Slaughter
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congressional leaders and Members for a memorial service in honor of the late Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. Below are the Leader’s remarks:
Leader Pelosi. How many people here were hearing Louise Slaughter say ‘Amazing Grace’ in that beautiful rendition we heard? How many times she moved us to tears when she wasn’t moving us to laughter with her beautiful personality. What an honor it is for our colleagues, [Congresswoman] Rosa [DeLauro], [Congresswoman] Gwen [Moore] and [Congressman] Paul Tonko and I to have this privilege, for us to have this privilege to speak for other colleagues in the Congress.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for bringing us together this afternoon in such a beautiful way.
[Applause]
Of course you know, we all thought we were Louise’s best friend. Every single one of us, right, my colleagues? So many who went to Rochester. It’s beautiful to see [Senator] Chuck Schumer come back over to the House to sing the praises of Louise and again, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, one of the great privileges and joys of my Speakership was to name Louise Slaughter the first woman Chair of the Rules Committee.
[Applause]
And I wasn’t just proud of it because she was the first woman but because of the excellence of her work. Now, [Congresswoman] Gwen [Moore] said that her sister said, ‘Who is that old lady?’ That must have been your younger sister. Yes. My older brother who was Louise’s age used to say to me, ‘Who is that girl on TV? Doing such a good job on the Rules Committee? She’s always working? Who is that girl?’
That girl is Louise Slaughter.
And here we are, amazing grace, Louise, so many friends here, really, in the shadow of her fellow Kentuckian, here he is right there [points]. The first – Henry Clay who was the Speaker of the House. And it says on there, leader and statesman. And when he passed away, there was a great deal of remembrances of him, no more than of Louise Slaughter, leader and stateswoman from Kentucky but New Yorker through and through, right, [Congressman] Joe Crowley?
So again, a blessing for us to be able to be here with Meg and Amy and Robin, as Louise would say, the best family ever, and her beautiful grandbaby. She would say the most beautiful baby in the world. In case you didn’t know, Louise was given to superlatives, and today we had the privilege of planting a tree in her honor.
Now you have to know what an accomplishment that is, because when they came to me and said, ‘I want to plant a tree in Louise’s honor.’ I said, ‘What, on the first anniversary of her passing?’ Because that’s how long it takes to get a tree. Not for Louise. Friday it was decided that a tree was desired. Today, the tree was planted. A walnut tree, she loved walnuts.
The Speaker said they really make it hard to mow a lawn and the tree will grow tall, very tall and it will be something, a sight to behold. So beautiful and then when it grows fuller, it will be a comfort in the shade, but it will be about renewal and growth. And others today spoke about how she, her first civic action was to protect, try to protect a grove of trees in her district. And here we are planting a tree for her today.
It was wonderful to see so many members at a bipartisan delegation, joined by Chairman Sessions, to go to Rochester. It was a beautiful sight to behold. So many members. It was also wonderful to see members of her official family from Rochester and from Albany, like Paul [Tonko], Paul connects in every way.
So here we are in this room with an outpouring of love again for someone we loved so dearly. [Congresswoman] Rosa [DeLauro] talked about when she and Anna [Eshoo] saw Louise the last time. I remember that day too, I saw her earlier. She looked so beautiful. She was ready for Bob Slaughter. She was Louise, one name. But he was one name, Bob Slaughter.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw Louise, met Louise. I was coming to Congress, mid-term, she was already serving. I knew of her before because Governor Mario Cuomo had sung her praises to the sky. He said sort of an Italian phrase, [Congresswoman] Rosa [DeLauro], you’ll understand. ‘Wait until you meet Louise. She’s so spectacular.’
So when I met her, I told her, I said, ‘I knew of you before because of your reputation, described to me in Italian by Governor Cuomo.’
[Matilda Cuomo] who is so lovely and was at the service in Rochester, as well.
Now Rochester was not just her home and her district. It was sort of a state of mind that district, Rochester and beyond. It was a hallowed ground for her in many ways but also she loved the people she represented, but also because it was the birthplace of women’s rights and progress.
Louise felt deep pride in representing the area around Seneca Falls and standing on the shoulders of suffragists. She took us there on the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls convention.
She took us back again a few years later for our bus tour that was organized, ‘When Women Succeed, America Succeeds,’ bus tour. It was all women and Paul Tonko.
[Laughter]
He was our Frederick Douglass of the group.
But more importantly, Louise took seriously her responsibility to empower the next generation of women to stand on her shoulders. Throughout her time in Congress she mentored staff and other women Members to achieve their full potential and in doing so she changed the character and culture of the Congress.
Louise made the Congress more diverse, more welcoming to women and more representative of our nation. She encouraged Members and staff alike to know their power.
We thank her staff. She loved her staff. She took pride in her staff. And I know that they took pride, whether it was the Rules Committee or her personal staff.
[Applause]
So there are two things I want to say in conclusion. One is that Louise was a moral force in the Congress. When you had to make a decision and you went to speak to Louise about it, it was about looking into a mirror of your own conscience. Her response was always so right. So values-based. That you wondered why it was ever a question to begin with.
She was just always right there with all the brilliance, all the values, all the spirituality of making people recognize what they knew was right, and giving people courage to do what was right.
She was something, it was like looking into your own soul and having to answer for it to have to go face Louise. And if you were on the wrong track, well, you wouldn’t be there too long. She firmly believed in the moral responsibility of the Congress to expand freedoms and advance better futures for the American people.
So when she was – as the Chair of the Committee, one of the first bills she sent was to expand freedom for women in the workplace by sending down right away the Lilly Ledbetter Act.
She expanded the freedoms for a woman’s right to make her own personal decisions. She expanded freedoms by working with Gwen Moore – is she a piece of work or what? – on the Violence Against Women Act that Gwen was our champion on. She worked closely with Louise.
All these things she did, it wasn’t confined to just issues that related to women’s rights, though that was a priority for her. It also related to one of her — Rosa talked about her Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which was historic. Only a microbiologist would have come up with that, right?
She was so determined, as I said at her other service, save yourself time, do what she wants right from the start because eventually you’ll end up doing it. But she took great pride in honoring the public trust with her Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge or STOCK Act.
This was probably – maybe some considered it outside her wheelhouse but it was not – it was about integrity. It was about integrity. I’m hoping we can name that bill for her.
[Laughter]
Scripture tell us as each one of us has received a special gift, employ it ‘as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.’ Louise used her gift so beautifully in the service of so many.
As we mourn her passing, and we do mourn her passing, to her family, I hope it is a comfort to you that so many people truly mourn your loss as our family loss as well, and are praying for you for a long time to come. As we mourn her passing, let’s move forward in her name as Leader Schumer said and with her spirit, work together to have a better future for all.
Louise truly blessed this country and this institution with her presence. God truly blessed America with her presence and her legacy. Thank you, all.