Jack Kingston: “Mr. Speaker, what I want to talk about, something that happened on the mall outside of the Capitol this morning, and…”

“Mr. Speaker, what I want to talk about, something that happened on the mall outside of the Capitol this morning, and that was a celebration of National Day of Women and Girls in Sports. This was an important event for many reasons. There are so many different activities that go on in Washington that often we say, oh, that's just one more demonstration, so to speak. Today in high schools, 38 percent of the girls are participating in athletic programs. That is up from 24 percent 10 years ago. But I think the real story is actually in the elementary schools. The young girls are participating in sports. They are flooding the soccer fields. They are on the tee ball and baseball diamond. They are running out on the basketball courts, and all the other traditional boys arenas now have young ladies playing. Indeed, those of us who are fathers look forward to watching our girls just as much as fathers with sons look forward to watching their boys. I want to emphasize also that this is a national trend. This is not going to be stopped or end at the county recreation level.”