DiMasi's prepared remarks after being reelected speaker

January 7, 2009 01:00 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

I want to thank my fellow members for your overwhelming vote of confidence today. I am grateful for your support.

You honor me with your faith and you humble me with your trust as I continue to lead this institution, the People’s House.

To Brad Jones, thank you again for another spirited Speaker’s fight. Congratulations on your continued leadership of the Minority Party. You have helped make our legislative process more transparent and accountable to the people of the Commonwealth.

Together, I am confident we will do as we have done so many times before ‐ set aside partisan differences and, in difficult times, lead.

To the Constitutional Officers, Governor’s Councilors and other dignitaries, thank you for being with us today.

To the people of the Third Suffolk District: Thank you for choosing me to be your voice on Beacon Hill for these last three decades. While the Speaker’s office entrusts me with statewide responsibilities, I haven’t forgotten that, in my district, I am still just Sal. In my heart and in my work, I remain the kid from the cold‐water flat on Salem Street who will never forget where he came from.

To my wife, Debbie: You have been the source of strength and courage for me and our family. Your work in suicide prevention in the face of family tragedies has been incredible. You have done it not only with strength and courage but with grace and eloquence.

To my children Ashley and Christian, you are my pride and joy. I am proud of all that you have already accomplished in life and I look forward to all that you will do in the years ahead.

This is the fourth time I have been elected to lead this institution. There are others here who preceded me and I ask all of you to join me in welcoming them. Speaker Tom McGee, Speaker George Keverian, Speaker Charlie Flaherty, and Speaker Tom Finneran.

I would also like to welcome back the members of the House who were re‐elected to another term and a warm welcome to those freshman legislators who now join this august body.

Today begins the 186th session of the General Court of the Commonwealth. For more than 300 years, the members of this House have devoted themselves to the preservation of democracy and the welfare of the Commonwealth and its people. We will continue to do so this session.

President Dwight Eisenhower once said: “Human dignity, economic freedom, individual responsibility – these are the characteristics that distinguish democracy from all other forms devised by man.” Let us all be guided by his words as we seek to make Massachusetts a better place to live.

During the last two terms, this House has amassed an extraordinary record of accomplishment.

In 2006, we rewrote the national storyline on health care with landmark legislation that is well on its way to insuring every man, woman and child in the Commonwealth. Since our legislation became law, we have enrolled more than 430,000 previously uninsured people. The Urban Institute’s 2008 Census reports that 97 percent of all Massachusetts residents now have health insurance – the highest in the nation.

How did we do it? We stopped reaching for sound bytes and worked together toward solutions. We brought all the stakeholders into the room, empowered them and crafted legislation that has become a model for achieving universal health care for all Americans.

That is the result of your hard work. It is your achievement and you should be proud.

In the last session, we adopted the same philosophy with energy reform. We worked with Governor Patrick, Senate President Murray and her members and all other interested parties. And the results, from Green Communities and Green Jobs to Advanced Biofuels and Global Warming Solutions, have made us the envy of the nation. Environmentalists hailed our work as the greenest legislative session ‐ ever.

That is the result of your hard work. It is your achievement and you should be proud.
During these same years:

• We made an historic decision to advance civil rights by protecting marriage equality.
• We opened the door to stem cell research and made world‐leading investments
in our life sciences, high tech and medical industries.
• We authored unprecedented investments in public education, making
Massachusetts schools among the best not just in the nation but in the world.
• We assisted the poor and most vulnerable by raising the minimum wage, by providing much‐needed fuel assistance, and by expanded worker retraining programs.
• We repeatedly put cities and towns first.
• We kept taxes low
• And, in the face of powerful, deep‐pocketed special interests, we courageously said no to gambling’s casino culture.

Together, the members of this House made Massachusetts a better place to live, a better place to work and a better place to raise our families.

All of these accomplishments are the result of your hard work. They are your achievements and you should be proud.

We have shown leadership repeatedly in the past and we will demonstrate it again in the future.

To the members of the 186th session of the General Court, I again say welcome. But I hope your sleeves roll way up. From freshman serving their first day to veteran lawmakers who think they have seen it all before, these are unprecedented times and uncharted waters. None of us can say we have lived in times this challenging.

Unemployment is rising and thousands of good people have lost their homes and their sense of security. Shattered futures. Sunken savings. Stolen dreams. People are anxious.
People are scared.

Today, we as Americans face the gravest economic peril since the Great Depression. It will get worse before it gets better. More of our fellow citizens will lose their jobs, more will lose their homes and many more will be a paycheck away from either or both.

In times such as these, people will turn to their government for help. While this is not a storm of our making, we must work together to solve the budget crisis, to live within our means, to reform bureaucracy and to do more with less at all levels of government.

Yes, there are risks ahead and, yes, we must act with deliberate speed. But there are also tremendous opportunities.

We can and we must reform our transportation system from the bottom up to make it fairer and more equitable for all so we can rebuild the public’s faith.

We can and we must reform our pension system. It is out of control and we can save billions of dollars going forward.

We can and we must find cost savings in every city and town and throughout state government.

Today is a day of tradition and ceremony for you and your families. You should savor the moment. Starting tomorrow, we will immediately go to work on the challenges that face Massachusetts.

Look around the Chamber at your fellow members. We should get used to seeing each other. We will be here working night and day to tackle these challenges. We will be rolling up our sleeves and working together, in small groups and large and with our colleagues across and down the hall.

We will not hesitate to try different things, knowing that no single act or bill is a silver bullet. We must recognize that only by trying will we find success. And, if we get it wrong, we will admit our mistake and try again until we ultimately succeed.

We must remember the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “There are many ways of going forward but only one way of standing still.”

Today, I can assure all of you, we will not stand still. We have a job to do and we will do it.

Where there is fear, we must show courage.
Where there is anxiety, we must bring calm.
Where there is crisis, we must find opportunity.

Together, we will work our way through these troubled times. We will level with the public and engage them along the way. We will take the tough votes to do the right thing.

But we can only do it together. The power of the House comes from the strength, talent and determination of our members.

Work hard together.
Build camaraderie.
Learn from one another.
Respect each other’s opinions.

I ask you today that regardless of your party, regardless of your ideology and whether you are a veteran member or newly elected to this House, stand with me; Work with me; Fight alongside me.

Together, we will move this Chamber forward to once again meet the challenges ahead and improve the lives of all of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Thank you.