Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Pallone of New Jersey. I appreciate his oversight of this bill and the way his committee has moved us to where we are today. Mr. Pallone and I go way back. When I left this body some time ago, I didn't know I would come back and he would be chair of the committee, but I couldn't think of a better person. I also say to Mr. Walden, the ranking member from Oregon, that the body obviously will miss you. And as you heard on both sides of the aisle with the comments that have been made, people have respected your leadership and the leadership that you have brought to that committee both as ranking member and as chair. By the way, let me tell you, there is life after Congress. I went out and found 24 years of it before coming back. So best of everything to you, sir. Members of the body, if I might, let me just talk a bit about a distinguished, in my opinion, woman whose picture is here beside me. Her name was Henrietta Lacks. She was born 100 years ago in Roanoke, Virginia. Mrs. Lacks and her husband and her family later moved to Baltimore County in 1941, seeking, as a lot of people did, what they thought were jobs that were available the further north you moved. They moved to an area near what was known as the old Bethlehem Steel Plant. Henrietta and her family lived not far from me and my family in a segregated Black enclave known as Turner Station. Ironically, Mrs. Lacks got ill.…”