WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Kweisi Mfume (all D-Md.) announced the introduction of legislation in the United States House of Representatives and Senate to designate the United States Post Office located at 340 South Loudon Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland, as the ‘‘United States Representative Elijah E. Cummings Post Office Building.”
“Elijah’s talent for building consensus, as well as his work ethic and dedication to his constituents, propelled him early on to positions of leadership. He never for a moment forgot that his purpose was to represent the people back home in his district and to be a voice for the many who were silenced,” said Senator Ben Cardin. “He once said that while it was his ‘constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch,’ it was his “moral duty” to fight for his constituents. For this reason and so many others, this is a fitting tribute to our friend and colleague Elijah Cummings and his love for Baltimore and the community he cherished and fought for year after year.”
“Our friend Elijah Cummings dedicated his life to the pursuit of equal justice and equal opportunity for all. And nowhere did he work harder to achieve those goals than in his beloved Baltimore community. This effort will serve as a tribute to all that Elijah did for this community and for Maryland,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen.
“This post office renaming will celebrate Elijah, his life, and his legacy. Anyone who sees this facility will be reminded of his commitment to his God-given, perfect mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, teach the illiterate, provide guidance to our young and security to our seniors. It is my hope in introducing this legislation that the vast number of postal customers who use this facility and work in this building will feel inspired to make this commitment real in their own lives,” said Congressman Kweisi Mfume.
“On behalf of the Cummings family, we thank Congressman Mfume and Senators Cardin and Van Hollen for keeping alive the legacy of my father, their friend, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings. We are deeply grateful for all of their work to rename a district post office in recognition of his commitment to public service, including his work on postal issues that came before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,” said Jennifer Cummings, the late Congressman’s eldest daughter.
The introduction of this legislation was an effort in partnership with the Cummings family, who wrote to Congressman Mfume on August 20, 2024. Their letter expressed the Cummings family’s support to honor Congressman Cummings with the renaming of a post office after their father.
The U.S. House version of this bill is currently cosponsored by Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-MD-05), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD-02), John Sarbanes (D-MD-03), Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), David Trone (D-MD-06), Glenn Ivey (D-MD-04), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Jerry Nadler (D-NY-12), Katie Porter (D-CA-47), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), Brendan Boyle (D-PA-02), and Gregory Meeks (D-NY-05).
The Life of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Congressman Cummings was born in Baltimore on January 18, 1951. His father worked at a chemical factory and his mother worked at a pickle factory and later as a maid while raising seven children. Both parents came from Southern sharecropping families.
Elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982, Mr. Cummings became the youngest Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and the first African American elected speaker pro tem by the body, a permanent role in the Maryland House. He served in that chamber for 14 years, during which he worked tirelessly to advance the rights and opportunities of Maryland residents.
In 1996, Mr. Cummings won the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that Congressman Mfume vacated to become NAACP president, launching a 23-year career in Congress during which he advocated on behalf of all people, including lower-income and working-class Americans.
Where others saw problems and danger, he saw opportunities and solutions. He advanced measures to improve education, to expand affordable housing, to curb addiction, to enhance public infrastructure, to promote gun safety, and to reform police practices. He worked to erase the racial and class divides that he had grown up with, so that future generations of Baltimoreans would not face the same obstacles he did.
Congressman Cummings became Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2002, where he pushed to increase funding for public education and the Head Start program.
After the tragic death of Freddie Gray, Congressman Cummings went to the streets to ask the citizens of Baltimore to come together and find a peaceful path forward. Then, true to form, he launched into action, pushing hard for policies and programs to help the city recover.
As Ranking Member and then Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Mr. Cummings spearheaded much of the impeachment inquiry of former President Trump, and led probes relating to Trump’s family members serving in the White House. In this role, Congressman Cummings also had jurisdiction over postal issues and led the charge to pass the Postal Service Reform Act to ensure the financial solvency of the U.S. Postal Service until his passing in 2019. A version of the legislation ultimately became law in 2022.
He was passionate about rooting out corruption, protecting our democracy, and achieving equality and freedom for all. He fought for what was right, simply because it was right.
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