In an emotional nine-minute-long speech, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer said goodbye to the institution where he has spent over four decades — and expressed fears for its future.
The 86-year-old Democratic former majority leader walked through his career and a path to Congress that started in the late 1950s as a University of Maryland undergrad before announcing his 23rd term would be his last. He then delivered a warning, telling colleagues gathered on the House floor that he was “deeply concerned that this House is not living up to the founders’ goals.”
“I fear that America is heading not toward greatness, but toward smallness, pettiness, divisiveness, loneliness and disdainfulness,” he said. “We must respect and love one another. We must remember that we are not great or unique because we say we are great, but because we are just generous and fair.”
Lawmakers from both parties lined up after Hoyer spoke to embrace the former Democratic No. 2, who stepped down from his leadership position after the 2022 midterms but remained a senior member of the Appropriations Committee.
POLITICO first reported his decision to retire Wednesday.
As political polarization increased in Congress, he remained a rare leader well-regarded by the opposite side of the aisle — one who paid tribute to the institution for which he has served since 1981 as one “the framers designed to reflect the will of the American people and to serve as the guardian of their liberty and their democracy.”
Speaking after Hoyer, Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.), praised him as a “statesman.” And former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a onetime rival in Democratic leadership, hailed Hoyer as a “leader to us” and a “mentor to many.
“You have been a really an example of leadership and perhaps can be viewed as one of the most substantial, respected members of Congress in the history of this body,” she said.
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