Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, you can see this has been a collaborative effort that is going to help the children in the District of Columbia and be a model, I think, for the rest of the Nation. Anything good does not happen that easily. And so this is an example of something that has come from a lot of hard work. Again, I commend the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Delay) for his leadership in making sure that this bill was negotiated throughout to come to this point, and also to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for the work, her tenaciousness in having this bill again crafted and reach this point. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Davis) has always been involved with it, and I am certainly pleased that we have reached this point. I want to thank the staff also, John Bouker. Certainly Cassie Statuto Bevan has been there every inch of the way. My staff, Russell Smith and Heea Vazirani-Fales and the others who worked on it. Mr. Speaker, I identify myself with the idea that when you touch a rock, you touch the past; and when you touch a flower, you touch the present; but when you touch a child, you touch the future. And that is just what this bill does. So I urge all our colleagues to wholeheartedly endorse the bill.”