Rob Woodall: “I want to thank the gentleman from Florida, not just for yielding the time, but for his friendship over these 10 years…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Florida, not just for yielding the time, but for his friendship over these 10 years that I have had the honor of serving here. Mr. Speaker, he may not remember because he is just the kind of man that he is, but when I was assigned to the Rules Committee back in 2011, there were four Democrats on the Rules Committee and four freshman Republicans on Rules Committee. And Mr. Hastings came over to the four of us who were sitting on the Republican side of the aisle, introduced himself, and offered his advice and his counsel. He told us we were in for quite a treat, being on the Rules Committee, and he, of course, was absolutely right about that. I have made a lot of bad decisions in Congress, and I have made a lot of good decisions in Congress. Accepting Mr. Hastings' hand of friendship early on in this tenure and having been the beneficiary of his mentorship over these 10 years in Congress has been one of the best decisions that I have made. I am grateful to him for doing that. Mr. Speaker, we have six bills wrapped up in this rule today. I have the 30 minutes that the gentleman from Florida yielded me. That gives me 5 minutes to talk about racial justice, 5 minutes to talk about adding a new State to the Union, 5 minutes to talk about reassigning a half a trillion dollars in healthcare spending from one pot to another, and on and on.…”