Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on the Passing of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was a tenacious advocate for justice and a tireless fighter for the folks of Houston and the folks of America.
 
Her profession in public service spanned properly over three a long time. As a decide in Houston, a member of the Houston Metropolis Council, and a member of the US Congress, Sheila Jackson Lee’s work improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Individuals.
 
In the US Home of Representatives, Sheila Jackson Lee distinguished herself as a devoted advocate for her group, an efficient legislator, and a fiercely loyal colleague and buddy. To work alongside the Congresswoman was to marvel at her mastery of the legislative course of.
 
Sheila Jackson Lee was, at the beginning, a pacesetter devoted to serving the folks of her beloved metropolis. She secured crucial funding for much-needed infrastructure upgrades, coordinated catastrophe aid within the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and helped to face up testing and vaccination websites throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. No activity was too small as long as it was the proper factor to do.
 
Congresswoman Jackson Lee was additionally a nationwide chief. As a champion for ladies’s rights, she performed an important position in reauthorizing the Violence Towards Girls Act, landmark laws that improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of ladies and women throughout the nation. She additionally authored the regulation that made Juneteenth a nationwide vacation, a regulation I used to be proud to co-sponsor as a United States Senator. She noticed what might be—a nation that’s extra equal, extra truthful, and extra free—and she or he devoted her life to realizing that imaginative and prescient.
 
Sheila Jackson Lee was a pricey buddy for a few years, and a fellow member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Included. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I had the chance to work carefully together with her on many points and to look at her management firsthand. She was relentless—certainly one of our nation’s fiercest, smartest, and most strategic leaders in the way in which she thought of make progress occur. There was by no means a trite or trivial dialog with the Congresswoman. She was all the time preventing for the folks of Houston and the folks of America.
 
Once I referred to as Congresswoman Jackson Lee earlier this week, I conveyed my deep gratitude on behalf of our nation for her lifetime of management.
 
Doug and I ship our prayers to her husband, Dr. Elwyn Lee, her youngsters, Jason Lee and Erica Lee Carter, and her beloved grandchildren, Ellison Bennett Carter and Roy Lee Carter, III.
 

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