Hoyer Honors Friend, Colleague Elijah Cummings

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer spoke at a dedication ceremony last week to rename the Committee on Oversight and Reform Hearing Room in the Rayburn Office Building in honor of the late Baltimore Congressman Elijah E. Cummings.

“For decades, perhaps centuries, people are going to walk into this room. They are going to look up to see the ‘Elijah Cummings Oversight Committee Room,’ and they [are going] to turn to somebody and say: Who was Elijah Cummings? And perhaps those who knew him well will say, ‘He was better than us,’” the congressman said.

“I had the great honor of being Elijah’s friend and colleague for many decades,” Mr. Hoyer (D-MD) continued.

While the their terms in the Maryland General Assembly did not overlap, Congressman Hoyer pointed that Mr. Cummings was the first African-American speaker pro tem in the Maryland House of Delegates.

“Elijah was the best of us. Elijah was in public life for the best of reasons. Elijah brought to him an experience and experiences that informed his empathy for others,” Mr. Hoyer said. “It was one year ago today that our dear friend Elijah presided over a hearing and said the following, and we repeat this so often because it is so compelling. He sat in that chair [and said]: ‘When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?’”

It was that power in his morality, in his integrity, in his passion to America and its people that will be remembered when people walk through that door and look up and know that they are in the Elijah Cummings Committee Room, the congressman said.

Rep. Cummings had been the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform when he died in October 2019.

For a transcript of Congressman Hoyer’s remarks click here.

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