Doris Matsui: “I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding this time to me. Today, Mr. Speaker, we are here to thank and honor…”

“I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding this time to me. Today, Mr. Speaker, we are here to thank and honor two of California's greatest congressional legislators and our dear friends, Henry Waxman and George Miller. This is an especially, as the Leader has said, bittersweet and poignant time because they are our dear friends. We are so proud of them, and we are going to miss them dearly. The reason why Henry and George are so significant here in this body are that they are the architects of the most significant legislation of the last 40 years. You think about anything we have done in this House, whether it is health care, environment, energy, consumer protection, communications, workforce protection, education opportunities, it goes on and on. The reason why they have been so successful and why they are so dearly respected and loved is that they are men of the House, they are men of the people. They love this institution and they honor this institution, and so this institution honors them. They are people, individuals, who understand this country and understand what makes it great, understand that it is the people that they are going to be helping. Henry has been a dear friend of mine for over 30 years and his absence will be keenly felt in the Halls of Congress and in the Energy and Commerce Committee, on which I serve.…”