Elijah Cummings

The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, a Member of Congress from the State of Maryland, Opening Statement.

To Mr. Boardman, I want you to be real clear, and I know you are, but I want to make it real clear that on both sides of the aisle we want effectiveness and efficiency.

We hate to lose her, but we know, as someone said to me, Joyce, and I listened to this in a sermon by T.D. Jakes not too long ago.

I want to take a moment here before I even start to thank Joyce Rose for her 25 years of public service.

Quite often our Federal employees are unseen, unnoticed, unappreciated, and unapplauded.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and it is certainly my pleasure to be here.

I call upon MWAA today to continue to revise all of their internal practices, especially the code of ethics.

Just as I argued when we found that banks receiving TARP funds were continuing lavish spending, neither I nor any of my fellow taxpayers paid taxes with the intention of funding MWAA's lavish travel, fine wines, and trips to the Super Bowl.

I, too, have contributed a portion of my taxes to MWAA, so I come to this hearing both as a Member of Congress and as a disappointed taxpayer.

I think we have to be very careful... she made it emphatic, she said this is the information I have at this moment.

I believe we should conduct a thorough and responsible investigation into the attack on the United States mission in Benghazi.

It is not just your side of the aisle, Mr. Chairman, it is this side of the aisle and our entire country.

This is one of those moments. I give the Chairman credit; he has brought all of this to light.

You can't have motion, commotion, and emotion, and no results.

The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, a Member of Congress from the State of Maryland, Opening Statement.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will be brief.

Any death or injury is one too many. And, therefore, I look forward to learning today what more can be done to reduce these numbers.

The Majority is continuing its senseless attack--and I do consider it an attack--on Amtrak.

Let me be clear that I agree with Ms. Brown and with my other colleagues on this side of the aisle.

This claim, of course, is unfounded, and seems particularly bizarre, given that Amtrak is engaged by contract with only a few of the more than 25 commuter rail systems in operation in the United States.

As one who rose up from poverty to the Congress of the United States of America, I know that this Country, we can do anything we try hard enough to do.

I really want to see this law implemented to its fullest degree, because I know that right now, right this second, there are people watching us.

They are not collateral damage; they are our people. They are Americans. That is an amazing accomplishment that our Nation should be proud of.

The Affordable Care Act is a landmark achievement that will save huge sums of money for our Nation, while extending health insurance coverage to millions of people.

I have said it to my constituents and I have said it to my family, the 30 years that I have been in public life there is nothing that I have done, no vote that I have cast, that I am more proud of than the Affordable Care Act, and the…