Political Quotes

“regrettably I missed the special order on the gentleman from Alabama, Tom Bevill, one of our dear colleagues in this House, last week, and I wanted to make sure that I took this 1 minute to congratulate Mr. Bevill on his years of work in this House. When I came here as a freshman nearly 8 years ago, I had a terrific problem in the rural district which I represented. We had a levee along the Mississippi River that had been greatly compromised. It was well over 60 years old. The local folks in the poor part of the district had no funds to really repair that levee. As a young freshman legislator I went to Mr. Bevill and I said: "Tom, here is the problem." He helped me, as chairman of his committee. We went in, repaired that levee with the Corps of Engineers, and less than 2 years later a gigantic flood along the river broke through levees all up and down the Mississippi, threatened lives, threatened property, but that levee stayed, and it protected thousands of acres of farmland and thousands of homes for people who would have had no protection otherwise. That is the legacy of Tom Bevill to this institution. He has helped us all. Regrettably he is going to be leaving here. I wish him well in his retirement because he has made a great, great difference in the quality of life of many people across this country that have needed his help.”