Melton Hancock: “this probably is the last opportunity that I will ever have to speak on the House floor of the United States Congress.…”

“this probably is the last opportunity that I will ever have to speak on the House floor of the United States Congress. You know that is restricted to only Members of Congress, and we are going to be adjourning shortly, and I am not coming back next year. After 8 years of representing the voters in the seventh district in the U.S. Congress, I am voluntarily leaving. I would like to take this opportunity specifically to thank the staff of the House floor that have extended me outstanding courtesy and also for their dedication to this great institution called the United States Congress. I said 8 years ago I would only ask the voters to elect me for four terms, if they decided to do so, and even though the Republicans are now in the majority and I have had the opportunity to serve on what I think is the greatest committee in the United States Congress, the Committee on Ways and Means, I am still going to keep my word and go back to the private sector and my home in southwest Missouri.”