Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I can't beat the chairman's long years of friendship and devotion and service with Ray. But we are down here to make sure that we remind the American people that most of us know that we are only as good as the people we have around us. That is why I wanted to come down and join my colleagues to talk about our former Republican staff director of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Ray Baum. Now, I don't have the long years that Chairman Walden has, but I do remember Ray coming to the city in 2011, as was noted, to be the senior policy adviser of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which I was fortunate to serve on. Right away, I personally noticed there was something different, and this is before I really knew Ray very well. But it all made sense when you found out that he had served in elected office and he had been reelected. He served as the majority leader, and then he moved on to the public utilities commission. We love our staff and we love the people who devote everything. But we all know, as elected officials, that really the crucible of what we do is election and standing in front of voters and being held accountable and responding to them. So to particularly have a staff director, or what I would call a chief of staff, the person who is trying to keep the trains running on time, it is all important, but one who knows the trials and tribulations of serving in elected office is very, very helpful.…”