Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I will take a minute to talk a little bit about the journey of this bill. When this tragedy happened and we took a look at what possibly could be done to make sure that this doesn't happen again, I talked with the family and asked them if we could put Laken Riley's name on it. {time} 1500 Their response was: Congressman, if there is anything that Congress can do to make sure that this doesn't happen to another family, then please put her name on it and get this thing passed. Mr. Speaker, and that we did. Thirty-seven Democrats with all Republicans in the House passed that bill in the 118th Congress. We sent it over to the Senate and where so many of the other good bills went, it fell into the black hole of the Senate never to be seen again. I had another discussion with the family later and told them where the bill was sitting and what was going on. I told them that I can never let it go. I just couldn't let this go because Laken fought with every ounce in her body to stay alive that day. I vowed I would fight with every ounce I had to make sure that we protected families across this country, and that we did. Mr. Speaker, I thank the family for allowing us to do that. I also thank my colleagues for sticking in here and voting with us, not just the Republicans but the Democrats, people on the other side of the aisle and not just in the House, it went through the Senate.…”