William Tauzin: “today I cast my last vote in this august Chamber, and today I spend my last day with my colleagues here with nearly 25…”

“today I cast my last vote in this august Chamber, and today I spend my last day with my colleagues here with nearly 25 years of service on behalf of the third congressional district and the great people who live there in Louisiana, and I wanted to take a minute to say good-bye and to say a few words of thanks. First, I want to thank the good Lord for giving me this week. Were it not for this lame duck session following a year of illness with cancer, I might not have had the chance to come back and spend this week with you where I could renew friendships and thank all of you on a personal level for the many acts of kindness and the extraordinary times we have had together over the last 25 years. Secondly, I want to thank all of you on both sides of the aisle for the amazing amounts of friendship. One of our esteemed colleagues who we lost to a brain tumor, Mr. Mike Sarne of Oklahoma, one of my dearest friends, once said the only reason he kept running for reelection was the immense honor and privilege of serving with such an amazing group of men and women who come to this great capital and serve their country and their individual districts and the honor and privilege of getting to know them and to work side by side with them, and I feel that today after this nearly 25-year term of service.”