“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and former colleague Dennis Moore, who faithfully and skillfully served the people of Kansas throughout his many years in public service.  Before representing Kansas’s Third District in the House for a dozen years, Dennis was a highly effective district attorney, state assistant attorney general, and captain in the U.S. Army.  His battle these past several years with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease was fought with tremendous courage and grace, and the efforts made by him and his beloved wife and partner Stephene, a great public servant as well, to educate the public and work toward new treatments and a cure contributed greatly toward those aims.  A talented musician, Dennis drew strength from song, playing his guitar even up to his final days, always holding in his heart the lyrics of his favorite tune – Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land,’ whose message of unity he made the hallmark of his service to Kansas and to our country.      “In all he did, Dennis sought to make life better, fairer, and safer for the people of his state and of our country.  As a district attorney, he won every case he tried and helped found a shelter for victims of domestic abuse so women in Johnson County could be safer from partner violence.  As the first Democrat to win election to the House from Kansas in four decades, he served as a consensus-builder among his colleagues and worked to promote bipartisanship during a time of rising divisions.  As a leader for the Blue Dog Coalition and an active member of the New Democrats Coalition, Dennis promoted fiscally sustainable policies like PAYGO to ensure that our country could continue to afford its investments in economic opportunity, national defense, and reducing poverty.  Instrumental in crafting the Dodd-Frank Act and overseeing implementation of recovery programs during the Great Recession, he used his position as Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to ensure that the lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis would lead to better policies safeguarding borrowers, local and community banks, and autoworkers for the future.  The men and women who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have Dennis to thank for improving their leave policies and securing more generous death benefits for their families.  His commitment to the environment and the fight against the climate crisis was second to none, and he played an important role in shaping and enacting the Affordable Care Act to help millions of Americans afford high-quality health care.    “Those of us who served with Dennis will never forget him, and neither will the people in Kansas he served with such dedication.  I join in expressing my condolences to Stephene and the entire Moore family – and to our colleague Sharice Davids, who continues Dennis’s work serving the people of Kansas’s Third District today.  May Dennis’s memory echo in the halls of the House and across Kansas’s ‘wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,’ calling us ever to remember that ‘this land was made for you and me.’”