Jack Kingston: “I rise as a friend and mourn and share the loss not just to the Murtha family, the State of Pennsylvania, but to the…”

“I rise as a friend and mourn and share the loss not just to the Murtha family, the State of Pennsylvania, but to the entire Nation, and certainly every man and woman wearing a uniform. I was proud to know Jack Murtha, proud to serve in the U.S. Congress with Jack Murtha. He was a bipartisan guy. He was a knowledgeable guy. He was a hardworking guy. The military budget in appropriations is over $500 billion. It is a very thick bill. You have to know airplanes from submarines, from tanks to battleships. Jack Murtha knew that, and he would study it very deeply. Jack Murtha, though, beyond being a professional Congressman, taught this Chamber many things. For one thing, I learned as a guy who came up through some partisan battles and some nonpartisan battles that the Murtha-McDade relationship almost cast a certain circle around the State of Pennsylvania that made it a special place, that the Pennsylvania delegation had something that the other States did not have, and that was two great leaders--Republican and Democrat--who kind of set the tone not just for the entire State but for the rest of us to see how things could be.”