Mark Takano: “I would just like to take a few moments to say even more words of praise for my colleague, Dr. Phil Roe, my ranking…”

“I would just like to take a few moments to say even more words of praise for my colleague, Dr. Phil Roe, my ranking member. We have served on two committees coterminously: the Veterans' Affairs Committee, which you chaired and which I now chair and which we have been both ranking members; and the Education and Labor Committee. It is sort of a fate of coincidence, but it has been an absolute pleasure to be your colleague, sir. I wish you well in this next chapter of your life. I especially want to take note of the example you set by organizing the congressional delegation trip to Afghanistan. I believe it was either my first term or my second term in Congress. What an honor that was to travel with you and a bipartisan delegation to serve turkey dinner during Thanksgiving. I never forgot that lesson. I vowed that if I ever became chairman of the committee, that we would do the same thing, we would continue that tradition of serving our troops who cannot be with their families during the holiday season. That spirit of service carried into the work that you have done and I have done together, with all the Members. We say it is a team effort. It is a special part of the Congress that we have staff that interact with each other, not primarily in an antagonistic mode. There are differences, but we work them out and we work them out bicamerally. I note that Mr.…”