Political Quotes

“I stand to echo all of those thoughts. Let me start with a lot of overdue thanks. First of all, let me thank a great partner in Chairman Boxer. As she said many times, we do not agree about a lot, including important issues within the jurisdiction of our committee, but we can come together constructively, really productively, on the infrastructure side of our committee--both highway infrastructure and water infrastructure. And that is what we wanted to do from the very beginning on this bill. The crucial element to any success is the will and the determination to do it. We both had that, but I really thank her for her leadership in that regard and being a great partner. I certainly echo all of her thoughts about the staff work. I am deeply indebted to all of the staff work, particularly on my side, that went into this bill. The chair and I personally dealt with probably a couple dozen issues and semicrises that would crop up over time. But if we did that with a couple of dozen, our staffs did that with hundreds and solved those problems to the satisfaction of a huge number of Members. That was reflected in the vote. I thank both staffs, but I am particularly indebted to my staff for all of that hard work, particularly Zak Baig, Charles Brittingham, Chris Tomassi, Sarah Veatch, Rebecca Louviere, Jill Landry, Luke Bolar, and Cheyenne Steel. They all put in enormous hours--of course, Charles much more than anyone else, but they all put in enormous hours.…”