The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to honor the late Congressional Representative Elijah E. Cummings with a Baltimore United States Post Office (USPS) that will bear his name.
Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-MD-07) introduced the legislation (HR 9544) to redesignate the 340 S. Louden Ave. post office in Baltimore as the “United States Representative Elijah E. Cummings Post Office Building.”
The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate for consideration, where companion legislation has been introduced by Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (both D-MD).
Mfume spoke of Cummings’ deep intellect, limitless compassion, and tireless advocacy for working people everywhere. Calling Cummings a dear friend, he said, “I am elated that this legislation has prevailed out of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is a small but important gesture to say thank you to Congressman Elijah Cummings for the work he did, for so many years, for the people of Baltimore and the state of Maryland. Elijah was a trailblazer, consensus builder, peacemaker, and friend. His name and his image will now be a part of this building for all to see.”
“I am proud to have introduced this bill in the Senate and am glad to see it has passed the House. I look forward to this important bill passing the Senate so that we can honor the life and work of Elijah Cummings. His life of public service is an example for us all,” Cardin said.
Van Hollen extolled Cummings for his principles, dignity, and purpose. “Nowhere did he work harder to achieve the mission of equal justice and equal opportunity for all than in his beloved Baltimore community. With the House’s passage of our legislation today, we’re one step closer in recognizing all that Elijah did for his city, his state, and his country,” Van Hollen said.
The late congressman’s eldest daughter, Jennifer Cummings, expressed gratitude for the legislation’s introduction.
“On behalf of the Cummings family, we thank Congressman Mfume and Senators Cardin and Van Hollen for keeping alive the legacy of my father, their friend, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings,” Jennifer Cummings said. “We are deeply grateful for all of their work to rename a district post office in recognition of his commitment to public service, including his work on postal issues that came before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.”
The Cummings family wrote to Mfume in August 2024 about their support for honoring Congressman Cummings by renaming a post office after him. On Nov. 20, 2024, the bill unanimously passed the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and was sent to the floor of the House for consideration.
Cummings was born in Baltimore on Jan. 18, 1951. His parents came from Southern sharecropping families, and both worked difficult factory jobs while raising seven children. Elijah earned a BA from Howard University and a JD from University of Maryland Law School before becoming elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982.
He became the youngest Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and the first African American elected speaker pro tem, a permanent role in the Maryland House.
Cummings served in the House of Delegates for 14 years until he won the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated by Mfume when the latter became president of the NAACP. His congressional career lasted 23 years, seeing him become Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2002, and Ranking Member and then Chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
As chairman, Cummings had jurisdiction over postal issues and led the charge to pass the pass the Postal Service Reform Act to ensure the financial solvency of the U.S. Postal Service until his passing in 2019. A version of the legislation ultimately became law in 2022.
He also led much of the impeachment inquiry of former President Trump and led probes into Trump’s family members serving in the White House.
For many Baltimoreans, he’ll be remembered for rallying citizens after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Taking to the streets himself, he walked into anguished groups of constituents asking them to find a peaceful and productive way forward. Backing up his words with actions, he went to work pushing for policies and programs that would help the city recover and go deeper to solve the root causes of problems.
Cummings was also known for his speeches and questioning of people in Congress, which rang both incisive and brutal, while poetic at the same time. When speaking to Michael Cohen from the Chairman’s seat of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings asked, “When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked, ‘In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy in tact?’” Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called him a “master of the House” and the “North Star” of the chamber. And when eviscerating Kevin McAleenan, acting homeland security secretary, for the merciless treatment of immigrant children crossing the southern border into our country, Cummings boomed, “We are better than this.”
Mfume wrote, “He was passionate about rooting out corruption, protecting our democracy, and achieving equality and freedom for all. He fought for what was right, simply because it was right.”
