WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Steve Daines (R-MT), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and James Lankford (R-OK), introduced a Senate resolution recognizing the life, achievements, and public service of former President George Herbert Walker Bush on the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday. Text is below, and you can view the full resolution here. U.S. Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) is leading the resolution in the House of Representatives. 

“Whereas, on June 12, 1924, George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts;

Whereas George H. W. Bush enlisted in the United States Navy as a naval aviator on his 18th birthday, eventually flying his first combat mission in May 1944, bombing Japanese-held Wake Island;

Whereas George H. W. Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in Chichi Jima where he successfully bailed from his aircraft and evaded capture;

Whereas George H. W. Bush retired from the Navy having flown 58 active missions, completed 128 career landings, and recorded 1,228 hours of flight time;

Whereas George H. W. Bush enrolled at Yale College, where he graduated in 2 \1/2\ years;

Whereas, in college, George H. W. Bush captained the Yale baseball team and played in the first 2 College World Series;

Whereas George H. W. Bush married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945;

Whereas George H. W. Bush had 6 children, George W., Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy;

Whereas, in June 1948, the young Bush family moved to West Texas, where one of Mr. Bush’s companies, Zapata Off-shore Co., pioneered in offshore drilling, with operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Brunei, Venezuela, the Sea of Japan and the Persian Gulf, and it eventually became the Pennzoil Corporation;

Whereas George H. W. Bush was elected as Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party in 1963;

Whereas, in 1966, George H. W. Bush ran for the House of Representatives for Texas’ 7th Congressional District, and won;

Whereas George H. W. Bush was appointed as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations in 1970;

Whereas George H. W. Bush was appointed as the Chair of the Republican National Committee in 1972;

Whereas George H. W. Bush was confirmed as the Director of Central Intelligence in 1976;

Whereas, at the 1980 Republican National Convention, Republican Presidential nominee Ronald Reagan selected George H. W. Bush as his Vice Presidential nominee;

Whereas George H. W. Bush assumed the role of Vice President in 1981;

Whereas the Reagan-Bush administration was reelected for a second term in 1984;

Whereas, in 1988, George H. W. Bush became the Presidential nominee, with running mate Dan Quayle, Senator from Indiana;

Whereas George H. W. Bush won the election with over 400 electoral votes, which remains the most recent election in which a candidate won over 400 electoral votes;

Whereas, during President Bush’s term in the Oval Office, a revolution of human liberty swept the globe, emancipating tens of millions of people and unleashing a series of transformative events;

Whereas freedom prevailed in the Cold War as the Soviet Union imploded; the Berlin Wall “fell” and Germany united within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) following 45 years of postwar division; and from Eastern Europe to the Baltic States to Latin America to the former Soviet republics, many liberal democracies supplanted totalitarian regimes;

Whereas President Bush worked with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and other key global figures to end the Cold War peacefully and usher in a new geopolitical era marked by political self-determination, the spread of market capitalism, and the opening of closed economies;

Whereas, in August of 1990, after Iraqi troops under dictator Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait, President Bush forged a coalition of 32 nations to restore Kuwaiti sovereignty and uphold international law;

Whereas, despite being the first sitting Vice President elected to the presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1837, and only the second United States President elected to serve a full term without party control in either chamber of Congress, President Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.), which among other accomplishments eliminated the barriers to employment, public accommodations, and transportation services for some 43,000,000 citizens with disabilities;

Whereas President Bush also signed Public Law 101–549 (commonly known as the “Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990”) (29 U.S.C. 655 note; 104 Stat. 2576), which guided environmental policy in the United States for more than 2 decades;

Whereas the education summit, hosted by President Bush with Governors from all 50 States at the University of Virginia in 1989, helped to spur a national reform movement, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (Public Law 101–508), signed by President Bush, codified real caps on discretionary spending by Congress, cutting the deficit by historic levels;

Whereas President Bush launched his “Points of Light” initiative to promote volunteerism and community service across the United States, and during his term in office conferred 1,020 Daily Points of Light Awards on individuals and organizations from all 50 states;

Whereas the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum was built in 1997 on the campus of Texas A&M University;

Whereas the Bush School of Government and Public Service was founded in 1997 on the campus of Texas A&M University;

Whereas, after leaving the White House, President Bush chaired the Board of Visitors at the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 2001 to 2003, and later with his wife, Barbara, Mr. Bush served as honorary co-chair of C-Change, a collaborative group of key cancer leaders from government, business, and nonprofit sectors who are committed to eliminating cancer as a major public health problem;

Whereas, in 1997, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston was renamed in his honor;

Whereas the USS George H. W. Bush, the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy, was commissioned in 2009; and

Whereas, at the time of their passing in 2018, George H. W. and Barbara Bush had been married for 73 years and were survived by 5 children and their spouses, 17 grand-children, and 8 great-grandchildren: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate—

(1) honors the life, achievements, and distinguished public service of George Herbert Walker Bush;

(2) recognizes George Herbert Walker Bush on the occasion of his 100th birthday and expresses thanks and commendations to him and his family;

(3) acknowledges the positive impact George Herbert Walker Bush had on his country and the world through his decency and compassion; and

(4) recognizes the legacy of George Herbert Walker Bush as one of the great leaders and statesmen of the United States.”