Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to, again, thank my friend, Mr. Tonko, and salute his great work on the Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as Mr. Burgess and Mr. Kinzinger. For the last two Congresses we have worked together to get this legislation to the place we are at this evening. Again, it really recognizes the passionate work and highly skilled work that over 700,000 ham radio operators conduct every day in this country. A couple of years ago in Hartford, Connecticut, they had the Centennial Convention of the American Radio Relay League, which brought together thousands of ham operators from all over the country to share their skills and to look at the latest innovation and technology, which Mr. Kinzinger referred to and, again, talked about the networks that they collaborate on in terms of early weather warnings as well as assisting the American military. Last Congress, we had 69 bipartisan cosponsors. This year, it grew to 126, and, again, that is because of the external grassroots pressure which these groups brought forward. Again, they have no sort of skin in the game in terms of any personal benefit. As the Congressman from Illinois said, they are all basically volunteers. But I think it is important to realize this is not just a feel-good bill. This is about really strengthening our systems of emergency services and first responders that are out there. In the State of Connecticut in 2014 we got a pretty good taste of this when Hurricane Sandy hit.…”