Political Quotes

“Today, I rise to honor Neil McKiernan, an outstanding public servant who just recently announced his retirement from the House of Representatives where he has worked for over 20 years; 17 of those years in my office and 7 of those years as chief of staff. Neil is a native of the State of Connecticut and began his journey over 20 years ago on the Hill as a young assistant working in Congresswoman Linda Sanchez' office. He then worked for a short period of time for my colleague, John Larson. Then when I was first elected in 2006, Neil joined my office. Neil worked on a variety of issues during his time there. I see my friend Mr. Kelly from Pennsylvania here. We worked together to repeal the Cadillac tax in 2019, and Neil was part of that really massive bipartisan effort to protect and stabilize the health benefits of union and nonunion workers all across the country, which passed by a margin of 419-6 on the floor. Mike and I were here that day, and Neil--actually, one of his rare visits to the House floor--was there to join us. The centerpiece of Neil's work was the fact that I have the honor of representing the submarine capital of the world. It is the home of the oldest submarine base, the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, where there are 16 attack submarines tied up and doing great work for our Nation every single day, as well as General Dynamics Electric Boat Shipyard, a 120-year-old company that is building submarines for the Navy to this day.…”