Cummings to lie in state at the Capitol

The late Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who died this week after a lengthy illness, will lie in state on Thursday in Statuary Hall, the old House chamber in the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced.

A memorial service in the Capitol will be held Thursday morning for members of Congress, the Cummings family and special guests. After the service, there will be a viewing for the public.

House votes originally scheduled for Thursday are canceled as is customary when a dignitary is lying in state or honor in the Capitol building. The last House votes of the week will be held late Wednesday night.{mosads}

Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who rose to become the chairman of the powerful Oversight and Reform Committee, will be laid to rest next week in his hometown of Baltimore, a city that he represented during his 23 years in Congress.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 25, at the New Psalmist Baptist Church, where he worshipped for decades in Baltimore. Dozens of lawmakers from both parties are expected to attend the funeral.

“In the House, Elijah was our North Star. He was a leader of towering character and integrity, who pushed the Congress and country always to rise to a higher purpose, reminding us why we are here,” Pelosi wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday.

“As he said whenever he saw that we were not living up to our Founders’ vision for America and meeting the needs of our children for the future: ‘We are better than this.’”

It’s a rare honor to lie in state or honor in the Capitol. The last person to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda was President George H.W. Bush after his death last December. Before that, it was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in August 2018.