Dan Kildee: “Today we will be saying farewell to the pages who have served this House so well. They are standing in the back of the…”

“Today we will be saying farewell to the pages who have served this House so well. They are standing in the back of the Chamber here now. We wish to thank you for your service. I've been on the Page Board for about 30 years. Speaker Tip O'Neill appointed me to that board, and this has been a tremendous group of pages. You've worked hard, you've worked well, and you've worked honorably. You've seen history. You've seen a change of party control of this House. You've seen our joys and our sorrows. You witnessed the sorrow we all experienced and you experienced when a Member of this House was attacked back in her district. There is a program called Close Up where people come to Washington, people your age, to observe the Congress, and they learn a lot. It's a great program. But no one sees the Congress as close up as you do. And we appreciate the fact that you recognize that as a great responsibility and a great honor, and you will go back home and tell others about this Congress. I think you can tell them that everyone who serves in this Congress, even though we may have differences--sometimes very sharp differences-- the one thing that does bind us together is that everyone here in this Congress loves this country. Go back and tell them that we are imperfect people trying to make a more perfect Republic.”