Rep. Corrine Brown: “I thank the gentlewoman. Someone said earlier tonight, let the work I have done speak for me. It is clear that Secretary…”

“I thank the gentlewoman. Someone said earlier tonight, let the work I have done speak for me. It is clear that Secretary Brown has done the work, and we all are grateful. The gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Meek] wants to make a few closing remarks, but before she makes those remarks, I have a story that I want to share with America about Secretary Jesse Brown. Often in this Chamber I hear bashing of government employees on this and government employees on that. I have got a story that tells how government should work. In my district that extends from Jacksonville to Orlando, in the Orlando area we had a serious problem as far as a facility for veterans. When the Base Closure Commission recommended closing the Naval Training Center in Orlando, which was devastating, we came up with how we could take that lemon and make it lemonade. We invited the Secretary to come down to the Naval Training Center. He did. He viewed the hospital facility there. And he wrote the Secretary of Defense and asked him to give this facility to the veterans in this country. The Secretary of Defense gave the hospital to the veterans. They came, they needed an appropriation of $14 million. Well, they came to me and we were able to get that $14 million in the budget. It was a win-win for the veterans in the area. And, of course, taking a lemon, making it lemonade. But do you know that when the Republicans first took over, the first thing they did was to take that $14 million out?…”