Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today to give my last speech as a Member of the House of Representatives. What an incredible honor this has been. It has never been lost on me that the privilege of serving here was granted by the people I represent, people who trusted me to listen to them, speak for them, and conduct myself with integrity. Every time I have stepped onto this floor, I have felt the weight of our Nation's history and the hope of millions of people that we will conduct ourselves and do work that serves them well. One of the joys of serving in Congress has been the surprise of learning how much good work you can do if you are here to do work. I thank my staff, an incredible group of young people who woke up every morning asking themselves: How much good can I do today? A big part of the reason serving here was such a joy and such an honor was because I was able to do the work with them. I won't go down the big list of everything that we got done, but we were able to do a lot: improve water systems for small towns; expand parental leave for members of the National Guard, parents who had earned it; and improve weather radar detection for the people of North Carolina's 14th District who have needed that for decades. When people come up to me now that I am leaving and say: Boy, Jeff, I bet you are glad to be getting out of that place, I say, no, that hasn't been my experience here at all.…”