HR 39 — A Resolution commemorating the life and contributions of James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., and extending condolences on his passing.

PRINTER'S NO.   386

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



              HOUSE RESOLUTION
                 No. 39
                                                 Session of
                                                   2025

     INTRODUCED BY FREEMAN, WEBSTER, HILL-EVANS, VENKAT, ISAACSON,
        BRENNAN, GIRAL, PROBST, SANCHEZ, KENYATTA, CEPEDA-FREYTIZ,
        VITALI, MERSKI, PIELLI, OTTEN, McNEILL, SAPPEY, SCHLOSSBERG,
        CARROLL, KHAN, HOWARD, REICHARD, MAYES, HANBIDGE, STEELE,
        GUENST, HOHENSTEIN, NEILSON, DONAHUE, WARREN, RIVERA AND
        D. WILLIAMS, JANUARY 29, 2025

     INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
        JANUARY 29, 2025


                                  A RESOLUTION
 1   Commemorating the life and contributions of James Earl "Jimmy"
 2      Carter, Jr., and extending condolences on his passing.
 3         WHEREAS, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., the 39th President
 4   of the United States, died on December 29, 2024, at the age of
 5   100; and
 6         WHEREAS, Mr. Carter was born October 1, 1924, in Plains,
 7   Georgia, the son of James Earl Carter, Sr., and Lillian Gordon
 8   Carter; and
 9         WHEREAS, In 1941, Mr. Carter graduated from Plains High
10   School at the age of 16, making him the first in his family to
11   graduate from high school; and
12         WHEREAS, Mr. Carter graduated from the United States Naval
13   Academy in 1946 and is the only president to do so; and
14         WHEREAS, On July 7, 1946, Mr. Carter married Rosalynn Smith;
15   and
 1      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter achieved the rank of lieutenant in the
 2   United States Navy and served in the Navy's nuclear submarine
 3   program; and
 4      WHEREAS, Following the death of his father in 1953, Mr.
 5   Carter returned to Plains, Georgia, to take over the Carter
 6   farms and other family enterprises; and
 7      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter started his political career in local
 8   politics, serving on the Sumter County School Board and Planning
 9   Commission; and
10      WHEREAS, As a community leader, Mr. Carter helped spearhead
11   Plains' first community pool and other community improvements to
12   the rural town; and
13      WHEREAS, In 1962, Mr. Carter was elected to the Georgia
14   Senate; and
15      WHEREAS, After losing the gubernatorial election in 1966, Mr.
16   Carter was elected Governor of Georgia in 1970; and
17      WHEREAS, In his 1971 inaugural address, Mr. Carter marked a
18   new generation of Southern governors when he proclaimed the era
19   of racial discriminations to be over; and
20      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter's achievements as governor include
21   further desegregating the state government workforce, improving
22   Georgia's public schools and overhauling its judicial and prison
23   system; and
24      WHEREAS, When he launched his campaign for President of the
25   United States, Mr. Carter was a little known, longshot
26   candidate; and
27      WHEREAS, On July 15, 1976, Mr. Carter was nominated by the
28   Democratic Party as the Democratic Party's candidate for
29   President of the United States with Walter Mondale nominated as
30   the candidate for Vice President of the United States; and

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 1      WHEREAS, On November 2, 1976, Mr. Carter was elected
 2   President of the United States; and
 3      WHEREAS, On January 20, 1977, Mr. Carter was inaugurated as
 4   the 39th President of the United States; and
 5      WHEREAS, Notable domestic achievements of the Carter
 6   Presidency include civil service reform, deregulating the
 7   airline industry, reducing American dependency on foreign oil,
 8   establishing the Superfund Program to provide for environmental
 9   remediation, the largest conservation action in American history
10   through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act and
11   creating the Department of Education, Department of Energy and
12   the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and
13      WHEREAS, President Carter dedicated his foreign policy to the
14   promotion of peace and human rights, and most notably he hosted
15   Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President
16   Anwar el-Sadat at Camp David to end a decade-long conflict
17   between the two nations; and
18      WHEREAS, After 13 days of painstaking negotiations, President
19   Carter's persistence helped bring an agreement for a framework
20   for peace between the two nations; and
21      WHEREAS, When the framework for peace was seemingly in
22   jeopardy, President Carter intervened again and personally flew
23   to Egypt and Israel to save the agreement; and
24      WHEREAS, President Carter's perseverance on this issue earned
25   him his most important foreign policy achievement in what became
26   known as the Camp David Accords, which fostered long-term peace
27   between Egypt and Israel that continues to this day; and
28      WHEREAS, After his unsuccessful bid for reelection in 1980,
29   Mr. Carter left the presidency on January 20, 1981, and
30   dedicated the rest of his life to promoting peace, democracy,

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 1   human rights and other humanitarian causes; and
 2      WHEREAS, In 1982, Mr. Carter founded The Carter Center where
 3   he focused on promoting democracy, human rights and the
 4   eradication of disease; and
 5      WHEREAS, The Carter Center took a leading role in a decades-
 6   long effort to eradicate the Guinea worm disease which has led
 7   to the number of cases falling from an estimated 3.5 million in
 8   1986 to 14 in 2023; and
 9      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter started the Carter Work Project in 1984
10   with Habitat for Humanity, and, in the following decades, the
11   Carter Work Project has included more than 100,000 volunteers to
12   help build, repair and renovate more than 4,400 homes across the
13   United States and 14 countries; and
14      WHEREAS, The Carter Center monitored numerous elections in
15   various countries; and
16      WHEREAS, Following its defeat in a free and fair election in
17   Nicaragua, Mr. Carter convinced the Sandinista Government to
18   peacefully step down and transfer power to the rightful winner
19   of the election; and
20      WHEREAS, In 1994, alongside General Colin L. Powell and
21   Senator Sam Nunn, Mr. Carter persuaded the military junta in
22   Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's first
23   democratically elected president, to power; and
24      WHEREAS, In 2010, Mr. Carter traveled to North Korea and
25   secured the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American who had
26   been sentenced to eight years of hard labor in the country; and
27      WHEREAS, In 1999, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were awarded the
28   Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Clinton, the highest
29   civilian award in the United States, for their joint
30   humanitarian work which has lifted the dignity of people

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 1   everywhere; and
 2      WHEREAS, In 2002, Mr. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace
 3   Prize in recognition of "his decades of untiring effort to find
 4   peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance
 5   democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social
 6   development"; and
 7      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter had the longest and one of the most
 8   productive post-presidencies of any former President; and
 9      WHEREAS, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had four children, John
10   "Jack" Carter, James Earl "Chip" Carter III, Donnel Carter and
11   Amy Carter; and
12      WHEREAS, In addition to his four children, Mr. Carter is
13   survived by 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren; and
14      WHEREAS, Mr. Carter's life and legacy is a model of
15   perseverance, integrity in the face of adversity and service to
16   one's country and fellow man; therefore be it
17      RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the
18   Commonwealth of Pennsylvania commemorate the life and
19   contributions of James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., and extends
20   condolences on his passing; and be it further
21      RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
22   the family of James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., in care of the
23   Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, 441 John Lewis
24   Freedom Parkway, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30307-1498.




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