Virginia Foxx: “I want to thank all of my colleagues who have come down tonight. I did not thank them on an individual basis because I…”

“I want to thank all of my colleagues who have come down tonight. I did not thank them on an individual basis because I wanted to save as much time as possible for people to make the comments that they have made. I think the fact that we have had such a bipartisan presentation here tonight supports the comments that have been made tonight. The comments that have been made, notwithstanding what our colleague said, have been extremely eloquent, and I want to thank everybody for coming down. I want you to know that we did our best to have this event earlier this year, but we could not get on Mr. Coble's schedule because there were so many parties going on on his behalf that we had an awful time finding a night to do it. I don't know anybody who has more people paying him tribute than our friend Howard Coble. We are going to miss him tremendously and his North Carolina values of hard work, common sense, and sacrifice on behalf of those he has served. It has been a personal joy for me to work alongside Howard Coble in the Congress for the last 10 years, and it really is hard to imagine how we will go on without him. His friendship and leadership on our State delegation will be dearly missed in the coming years. But his legacy of service and devotion to our home State and all North Carolinians will continue to be a standard for current and future leaders to follow. He will always be our dean. He will always be our ``leadah.'' And, Mr.…”