Pelosi Announces Bill Named in Remembrance of Elijah Cummings

House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, a key figure in Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and a fierce critic of President Donald Trump, has died.

Cummings, 68, passed away Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital due to complications concerning long-standing health challenges, according to a statement from his office.

The Maryland congressman was chairman of one of the three panels that has been leading the House impeachment investigation focusing on Trump’s Ukraine activities.

While the Democratic chairmen of the other two, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel have been present at the Capitol this week, Cummings has been notably absent.

Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, the second-most senior Democrat on the Oversight panel, will become acting committee chair under House rules until the Democratic caucus elects a successor, according to a leadership aide. The other senior Democratic members of the panel include William Lacy Clay of Missouri, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, and Gerald Connolly of Virginia.

Even before the focus on Ukraine, Cummings’s committee was looking into a wide range of other matters, including the administration’s failed effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census, as well as the use by Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and others of private texts and emails for official business.

During an August speech at the National Press Club, Cummings called for “those in the highest level” of government to stop using “racist language” that divides Americans, referring to Trump’s rhetorical attacks on his hometown of Baltimore without naming the president.

“Unbalanced criticism can be self-reinforcing, causing us to doubt our ability to improve,” Cummings said. “Time is precious, and I will not waste it on anything trying to distract me from my purpose and my mission.”

Trump had earlier trained his ire on Cummings after Fox News showed the Maryland Democrat criticizing the administration’s immigration policy, especially the treatment of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border. Trump began tweeting on July 27 and continued for several days, describing Baltimore, part of which is in Cummings’s district, as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff, and Trump joined lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in lauding Cummings with tributes. “I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!” Trump tweeted.

Mark Meadows, a leading conservative in the House often at odds politically with Cummings, said on Twitter, “There was no stronger advocate and no better friend than Elijah Cummings. I am heartbroken for his wonderful family and staff --please pray for them. I will miss him dearly.”

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, who is leading the impeachment inquiry tweeted that Cummings was “the heart and soul of our caucus, a dignified leader with a voice that could move mountains. He was our moral and ethical North Star.”

Cummings was among the first to call for a congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He also sought information on Trump and his business and whether the president could run afoul of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution, which bar presidents from taking money from a foreign government or accepting any domestic compensation except a salary.

Born in 1951 in segregated Baltimore, Cummings said he was among the first black children to integrate the city’s Riverside Park swimming pool in the summer of 1962.

His political career started in 1982 when he won election to the Maryland state House. He served there for seven terms, and was the first black lawmaker in the state to become speaker pro tem, before being elected to Congress in 1996.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

TICTOC ON SOCIAL:

Follow TicToc on Twitter

Like TicToc on Facebook

Follow TicToc on Instagram

Subscribe to our newsletter

TicToc by Bloomberg is global news for the life you lead. We are a 24/7 news network that covers breaking news, politics, technology, business and entertainment stories from around the globe, supported by a network of Bloomberg’s 2,700 journalists across 120 countries.