WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE B5
BY RACHEL CHASONWhen riots erupted on the
streets of Baltimore City in 2015,
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings
(D-Md.), a son of sharecroppers,
stood with a bullhorn in West
Baltimore, urging residents to
heed the curfew.
“I’d die for my people,” said
Cummings, who stood between
police and a raucous crowd pro-
testing the death of Freddie Gray
in police custody. The white bull-
horn he carried had a gold label
that read, “The gentleman will
not yield.”
Cummings now chairs the
powerful House Oversight and
Reform Committee, where he has
taken a lead role in investigating
the policies and actions of the
Trump administration. He lives
in what he describes as the “inner
inner city” of Baltimore — the
same neighborhoods that this
past weekend attracted the ire of
the president.
In tweets that have been widely
condemned by Democrats and
some Republicans, Trump called
Baltimore a “rodent infested
mess” where “no human being
would want to live.”
“Elijah Cummings spends all of
his time trying to hurt innocent
people through ‘Oversight,’ ”
Trump tweeted, along with a vid-
eo of a trash-filled backyard. “He
does NOTHING for his very poor,
very dangerous and very badly
run district! Take a look...
#BlacksForTrump2020.”
Cummings responded to the
string of attacks from Trump by
saying that he goes home to his
district daily — he has lived in the
same house for three decades —
and wakes up every morning to
“fight for my neighbors.”
“It is my constitutional duty to
conduct oversight of the execu-
tive branch,” the 68-year-old law-
maker tweeted. “But, it is my
moral duty to fight for my con-
stituents.”
Trump’s condemnation of
Cummings and his district —
which also includes parts of Balti-
more and Howard counties —
seemed to be prompted by a
segment on “Fox & Friends” that
compared the living conditions in
the district with those on the
southern U.S. border.
Cummings has recently come
down hard on the administration
over reports of inhumane treat-
ment at migrant detention cen-
ters. On July 18, he raised his
voice while questioning Depart-
ment of Homeland Security Sec-
retary Kevin McAleenan about
reports that children had been
held for days without fresh dia-
pers or the opportunity to shower
or brush their teeth.
“We are the United States of
America. We are the greatest
country in the world,” the con-
gressman said. “We are the ones
that can go anywhere in the world
and save people, make sure that
they have diapers, make sure that
they have toothbrushes, make
sure that they’re not layingaround, defecating in some silver
paper.”
The 12-term lawmaker was
raised in Baltimore by his par-
ents, South Carolina sharecrop-
pers who later moved to Mary-
land’s largest city to escape pover-
ty. They became preachers, in-
stilled in him a strong moral code
and drove him to pursue public
service.
As a child, Cummings, one of
seven siblings, helped integrate a
local swimming pool and en-
dured whites throwing bottles
and rocks in protest.
He graduated from law school
at the University of Maryland,
was elected to the Maryland
House of Delegates in the early
1980s and served for 13 years.
Cummings won his congressionalseat in 1996 and has not faced a
competitive race since joining
Congress — usually winning
more than 75 percent of the vote.
Cummings served for six years
as the ranking minority member
of the House Oversight Commit-
tee before Democrats won the
majority last year. He defended
former secretary of state Hillary
Clinton during hearings about
her role in securing government
facilities in Benghazi, Libya, be-
fore the 2012 deadly attacks
there, and he worked with Re-
publicans to unearth information
about former national security
adviser Michael Flynn’s dealings
with Russian officials.
He is a liberal lawmaker who
counts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-
Mass.) as a partner in his causesand has long pushed to lower
prescription drug prices, rebuk-
ing business executives who ap-
peared before his committee after
being accused of inflating prices.
The 2015 riots in Baltimore
followed the funeral of Gray, a
young black man who died of
injuries sustained in police cus-
tody. Cummings emotionally eu-
logized Gray during the service,
urging those in the pews to re-
member him as an individual, in
addition to a symbol of injustice.
“Did anybody recognize Fred-
die when he was alive?” Cum-
mings thundered. “Did you see
him?”
Early in Cummings’s political
career, he faced financial strains.
According to a 1999 Baltimore
Sun article, he owed more than$30,000 to the Internal Revenue
Service (which he paid), and cred-
itors took him to court five times
to get him to pay $24,000 in
overdue debts.
Cummings told the paper he
lacked money partly because of a
major surgery that drained his
bank account and because he
helped support three children: a
daughter he had with his then-es-
tranged wife and two children he
had with other women.
In an era of hyperpartisanship,
Cummings has said both sides
need to be more willing to reach
across the aisle. He suggests that
his friendship with Rep. Mark
Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of
the conservative House Freedom
Caucus, could be a model.
“We need to get away from
party and deal with each other as
human beings,” Cummings said
this year.
Cummings has said he initially
believed he might be able to work
with Trump. He attended Trump’s
inauguration, while many other
Democrats stayed away, and he
chatted with the president at the
luncheon afterward about the
need to lower prescription drug
prices — a goal they share. But he
said his hopes for a productive
relationship were quickly dashed.
“He is a man who quite often
calls the truth a lie and calls a lie
the truth,” Cummings told The
Washington Post last year, after
the Democrats won the House
majority and as he prepared to
take over leadership of the Over-
sight Committee.
In recent years, Cummings has
had health problems that have
sometimes kept him out of the
day-to-day action on Capitol Hill.
Last year, he worked from his
home in Baltimore for three
months as he recovered from an
infection in his knee.
In 2017, Cummings was away
from Washington for about three
months after surgery to repair a
heart valve, followed by infection
and complications. His wife,
Maya Rockeymoore Cummings,
withdrew her bid for Maryland
governor while he was in a hospi-
tal. She is now the executive
director of Maryland’s Democrat-
ic Party.
[email protected]MARYLAND
Cummings: The son of Baltimore in Trump’s crosshairs
BY PETER JAMISONAll 13 members of the D.C.
Council are calling on Mayor Mu-
riel E. Bowser (D) to reconsider
her administration’s decision to
end a disabilities services con-
tract with Georgetown Univer-
sity, a rare show of unity among
the city’s fractious lawmakers on
an issue that advocates for dis-
abled people say has far-reaching
consequences.
The letter, sent Monday, comes
after dozens of advocates and
disabled people protested the
move by the D.C. Department on
Disability Services at a hearing
last week. It asks that Bowser
“reexamine” the decision of the
department’s director, Andrew
Reese, not to renew the contract
with Georgetown’s Center for Ex-
cellence in Developmental Dis-
abilities.
It also assails a transition plan
Reese has released, saying the
department has created “a patch-
work system of care” to replace
vital services Georgetown offers
for people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities.
“Essential details are missing
from the transition plan,” the let-
ter states. “Overall, the transition
plan seems to have been put
together at the eleventh hour in
order to satisfy the questions of
the community and council.”
Bowser and Reese did not re-
spond to requests for comment
Tuesday. Last week, Deputy May-
or for Health and Human Ser-
vices Wayne Turnage said the
Bowser administration stands by
Reese’s decision.Georgetown’s 14-year partner-
ship with the District is on track
to lapse at the end of August. A
team of medical professionals
and social workers provides a
range of services for approxi-
mately $1.4 million annually,
such as helping hospital patients
obtain the care and discharge
services they need, offering guid-
ance for new parents and devel-
oping best practices for other
service providers. University offi-
cials say the initiative serves
about 800 disabled people per
year.
Those services are credited
with helping the District just two
years ago exit decades of litiga-
tion over neglect and mistreat-
ment of disabled residents, first at
the notorious Forest Haven asy-
lum and afterward at a constella-tion of troubled group homes.
Reese has said the same sup-
ports will be maintained through
other providers.
“Everything is in place so thistransition should happen
smoothly, and everyone who re-
quires these services will contin-
ue to get them starting in Septem-
ber,” he told The Washington Post
last week.
But efforts by agency officials
to prepare in recent weeks for the
end of the Georgetown contract
have been marked by confusion
and late maneuvering. On July 22
— one day before council member
Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1)
called a hearing to address advo-
cates’ concerns — the city hired a
doctor to perform some of the
functions currently handled by a
Georgetown physician, according
to city records.
The new doctor’s services were
added to a contract that is not
directly related to Georgetown’s
work. They were initially estimat-ed to cost up to $688,000 annual-
ly, but that figure was revised
downward to $459,000, the rec-
ords show.
Other services offered by
Georgetown are to be handled by
city employees or providers that
qualify for a greater rate of reim-
bursement under Medicaid waiv-
ers, department officials have
said.
In its letter, the full council
asks that Bowser extend the tran-
sition period if she does opt to end
Georgetown’s contract, noting
that advocates have suggested a
one-year extension of the con-
tract would allow for “the most
seamless transition that ensures
there is opportunity for meaning-
ful engagement and no gaps in
services.”
[email protected]THE DISTRICT
Council unanimously urges an extension of disabilities services contract
Jarrett sat in the audience and
watched Holley receive it.
“Someone who earned that
flag needed to get that flag back,”
Jarrett had told police when he
brought the red-white-and-blue
triangle in.
Holley’s daughter had seen the
public notice about the flag and
called her father, who then called
detectives.
After some questions — where
would it have been lost? what did
FLAG FROM B1 it look like? what kind of case
was it in? — the detective deter-
mined Holley was the owner, and
the Tuesday presentation was
set.
Holley stood next to a picture
of his wife’s uncle and received
the flag in front of about 40
members of the police depart-
ment, including 12 veterans and
one officer who is still active
military.
A resident of the county since
1978, Holley is an Army veteran
who served 20 years during the
Vietnam War era and departed
as a first sergeant.
“It is my privilege on behalf of
this institution and on behalf of
Mr. Jarrett to return Marcellus
Herod’s flag to you,” Stawinksi
said.
Holley took the flag, which
normally had been kept atop a
bookcase at his home, and
thanked Jarrett.
“When we go overseas, one of
the first things we look for is the
colors,” Holley said. “We know
we have friends amongst others.
Thank you very much for bring-
ing this back.”
Herod was one of 380,000
African Americans who fought in
World War I in France. At that
time, Holley said, black soldiers
could not serve with white sol-
diers, so all black American sol-
diers fought under French com-
mand.
The chief said it’s important to
remember the past when think-
ing about the future, stressing
the need to also remember those
lost in the line of duty.
“Mr. Herod is part of why we
have the privilege of serving in
America now,” Stawinski said.
Returning the flag was a way
to extend the police depart-
ment’s gratitude to members of
the armed services in a more
personal way, Stawinski said.
He thanked Jarrett for having
the thoughtfulness to under-
stand the importance of return-
ing it to its rightful owner.
And as for where Holley will
be keeping the flag from now on:
“Where I can best watch it.”
[email protected]With the help of a stranger and police, a veteran’s family history is preserved
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings helps clear the streets before a curfew during 2015 protests over Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore police
custody. “He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district!” President Trump tweeted Saturday.MICHAEL ROBINSON CHAVEZ/THE WASHINGTON POST
William Holley, left, a 20-year Army veteran, speaks with Prince George’s Police Chief Hank Stawinski
and Tom Jarrett, right, who found the Holley family’s flag lying on the road and helped return it.
“Someone who earned that flag needed to get that flag back,” Jarrett had told police.“Mr. Herod is part of
why we have the
privilege of serving in
America now.”
Hank Stawinski, Prince George’s
County police chief, referring to
World War I soldier Marcellus Herod“Overall, the transition
plan seems to have been
put together at the
eleventh hour in order
to satisfy the questions
of the community and
council.”
D.C. Council letterSo handy. So reliable. Home delivery. 1-800-753-POST washingtonpost.com/subscribe
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