On the recordFebruary 23, 2021
I thank my friend from Louisiana for yielding. Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I stand here today to pay tribute to Luke Letlow. Just like earlier tonight when we stood out on the steps of the Capitol to pay respects to the 500,000 people who we have lost from COVID-19, Luke, unfortunately, is in that number. He is not somebody you would have expected. He was young, healthy, and he had his whole life in front of him. He had already lived a rich life. He had already left such a powerful impact on people in the right kind of way, like my colleague, Congressman Graves, talked about. He had a big heart, Madam Speaker. He had a servant's heart. Luke was the kind of person who you want to get into public service to do it for the right reasons, to actually believe in something and want to make people's lives better. When he would go through the rural communities of his district--which is a very rural district--he would just talk to people, strike up conversations. He would want to hear their stories and he would want to help people. He had a lot of opportunities to do that, Madam Speaker. He started working for Congressman John Cooksey out of college at Louisiana Tech. He had already garnished a desire for public service. After he worked for Congressman Cooksey, I met him in 2004, when he was working on the campaign of my predecessor, Bobby Jindal, who got elected to Congress. Luke served with him there.…
