Katie Porter: “Though I did this at the beginning, Mr. Chairman, I want to take just a minute to thank the Members of the subcommittee…”

“Though I did this at the beginning, Mr. Chairman, I want to take just a minute to thank the Members of the subcommittee and the staff. Members of the House should realize that the hearings on this bill take longer perhaps than most other appropriation bills, running months, running into hundreds of public witnesses, and hearing from literally 100 Members of Congress. The Members that serve on it serve a very long and hard year in bringing this bill to the floor. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bonilla), the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Istook), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller), the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Dickey), the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker), the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup), and the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) on our side; and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson) on the minority side. It has been a great source of pleasure for me to work with such fine people and to be able to, in the end, despite all the rhetoric, find the common ground to fund these very, very important programs that exist in the bill.”