President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to the late Tom Lantos.
Lantos (D-Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, died in February. He was one of Congress’ foremost champions of human rights and the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress.
“We miss his vigorous defense of human rights and his powerful witness for the cause of human freedom,” Bush said Thursday in a White House ceremony for Lantos and five other recipients. “For a lifetime of leadership, for his commitment to liberty, and for his devoted service to his adopted nation, I am proud to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously, to Tom Lantos, and proud that his loving wife Annette will receive the award on behalf of his family.”
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