Virginia Foxx: “I thank the majority leader for his compliments of me. When Howard Coble first introduced me to the Republican…”

“I thank the majority leader for his compliments of me. When Howard Coble first introduced me to the Republican Conference here he said, I was ``a feisty mountain woman from the Blue Ridge, who goes bear hunting with a switch.'' And so I have cherished that description of me over the years. I am a feisty woman because I grew up extraordinarily poor. And the majority leader is correct, I would not tolerate discrimination against me. I won't tolerate discrimination against anyone. I abhor discrimination. I am also an Italian American. I abhor that kind of discrimination and have fought against that. I fought against racial discrimination. I doubt there are many people in this body that fought more against discrimination against women than I have or mentored more women than I have. However, the majority leader also said something that made me think of the phrase, ``all things being equal.'' Well, rarely are all things equal. Obviously, when all things are equal, we want no discrimination, everybody to be treated the same. That is what I want. I have one child, a daughter. I have two grandchildren, a grandson and a granddaughter. I certainly don't want either one of them discriminated against on the basis of anything. But, I say to Mr. Hoyer, yes, 82 cents has been disputed. We hear the same old tired ``statistics.'' They are not accurate. So let's stop doing that. Let's deal with the facts. H.R.…”