Wayne Gilchrest: “I think it is vital for the defense authorization bill to go through this House today, and I would hope that we could…”

“I think it is vital for the defense authorization bill to go through this House today, and I would hope that we could pass it with the unanimous votes of the Members on both sides of the aisle. We also come here today to express our condolences to those families and victims of this cruel tragedy; praise, with as much compassion and encouragement to those people who have responded, and in particular the firefighters, the medical teams, the police officers, our military services, and all those volunteers that have contributed to that effort, as well as the nongovernmental organizations like people of religious faiths, and also certainly the Red Cross. In essence, the long-term victory will come in this battle when we as Members of Congress and the Nation come together to focus our attention and our hearts to those tragedies that have been brought to America, and with our allies in the international community, to know that we need to make this worldwide effort to replace arrogance with humility, to replace ignorance with knowledge, and to replace dogma with tolerance.”