Mike Levin: “I stand here not in the front in part because we come here with such heavy hearts and also with humility. Our hearts are…”

“I stand here not in the front in part because we come here with such heavy hearts and also with humility. Our hearts are growing heavier by the minute, by the minute. The tragic human face is coming into clearer and clearer focus. The images of family, of relatives on TV, are almost too hard for those of us to look at, though we are not directly involved, having no family member who lost his or her life. We also have a sense of humility. We know that whatever we do here is just a small step. It is difficult, as a result, to take them because we realize how inadequate any action of ours can be. This Committee on Ways and Means that sometimes is said to have such power, we realize today in this circumstance has very little; but we are doing whatever we can. There was an act of war, that was clear; and we need to approach this in that regard in every respect. So I am glad the chairman of the committee and my colleagues on the committee... we all want to join together to enact this legislation, to simply make sure that if we can diminish the pain just a bit, that we will do so; that those who are victims in this act of war, that they will be treated fully as such. So I rise in support of this legislation.”