David Perdue: “last month, we lost a true Georgia original. Mac Collins was a friend of mine. He was a Member of the U.S. House of…”

“last month, we lost a true Georgia original. Mac Collins was a friend of mine. He was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years. He was born in Flovilla, GA, in 1944. At the time, Flovilla had a population of 240 people. Mac always liked to say he was a graduate of the school of hard knocks. Together with his wife, Julie, he started a trucking company many years ago. Mac started with a single vehicle that he often had to repair at night. Julie kept the books, answered the phones, and sometimes helped load the trucks. The Collins family had a simple motto: ``Can't never could.'' They never gave up, and their hard work paid off. Today, Collins Trucking hauls timber and goods across the South and Midwest and is still a family owned and operated business. Eventually, Mac turned to public service. He won a seat on the Butts County Commission and a few years later became Butts County's first Republican county commission chairman. Eventually, Mac was elected to the Georgia State Senate, where he served from 1988 until 1982. Back then, I think you could count on one hand the number of Republicans in the entire State. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 and served for 12 years. He fought to make America more competitive by changing its archaic Tax Code. He worked on veterans issues and served on both the critical U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the prestigious Intelligence Committee.…”