Phil Gingrey: “I have an hour as the designee to talk about the subject that I want to bring to my colleagues, but I think I need to…”

“I have an hour as the designee to talk about the subject that I want to bring to my colleagues, but I think I need to take at least a few seconds of my time from this side of the aisle to express my and our heartfelt sympathies to our colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard), on the death of her father. I spent the last 15 minutes listening to their special hour and learning about that great, great American who represented the State of California so well in this body for 30 years; and I want to express my sympathy to my colleague from California. Mr. Speaker, today, November 15, is a historic day and not just because it is my wife Billie's birthday, which it is. Happy birthday, honey. But really the historic aspect of today is the roll-out and the sign-up today for the first of a 6-month window of opportunity for our seniors to voluntarily sign up for the Medicare part D prescription drug plan which this Congress made available to them in December of 2003. So indeed, Mr. Speaker, today, November 15, is indeed a historic day. I have seen clips of the original signing of the Medicare legislation back in 1965 when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed that bill into law.…”