House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer praised the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, a House Democrat from Maryland, as “a crusader for making government work better and holding public officials accountable.”
Hoyer served more than two decades alongside fellow Democrat Cummings, 68, who died of long-term health complications Thursday morning.
Cummings was chairman of the House Oversight Committee, one of three panels conducting a closed-door impeachment investigation into President Trump.
Hoyer said Cummings was the son of a sharecropper who “grew up understanding the challenges of poverty and fought throughout his career in elected office to bring hope and relief to those in need.”
Cummings focused on young people, Hoyer said, “in whom he had great faith and was dedicated to empowering and lifting up.”
Cummings represented Maryland’s 7th District for 23 years after serving 14 years in Maryland’s General Assembly.
[Related: Elijah Cummings wife: ‘Worked until his last breath’]
