Rob Woodall: “I very much appreciate that, and I appreciate you being here with us on a Thursday afternoon. I know that you came to…”

“I very much appreciate that, and I appreciate you being here with us on a Thursday afternoon. I know that you came to Congress with the same optimism that I came to Congress with, and that is, if only we work hard enough together, if only we commit ourselves with earnestness to one another, we will be able to make a difference for folks. I still believe that, and I hope you still believe that, too, after your time here. I still believe that, if only we work hard enough, we are going to be able to serve the American people as we promised we would. But occasionally--occasionally--I don't want to vilify the entire fourth estate today, Madam Speaker. There is not enough time to go through that today. But occasionally, the fourth estate seems to suggest that we are failing the American people when, in fact, we are succeeding on their behalf, and that is what I want to talk about this afternoon. We just came through a difficult budget time, Madam Speaker. We came through that not because of any failures of any man or woman in this institution. I want to make that clear. This House came together as a body back in July of last year and passed every single national security appropriations bill that was upon us.…”