Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank my friend and colleague from Oklahoma. He is a colleague on the Natural Resources Committee with me, as well as the Indian and Alaska Native Affairs Subcommittee, and Mr. Mullin has demonstrated great leadership on this important legislation. In my State of North Dakota, our citizens enlist in the military at a rate four times the national average. Much of the credit for this impressive statistic really belongs to the thousands of our native citizens who have enlisted at very, very high rates, citizens from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, from the Fort Berthold Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, from our Sioux Nations at Fort Yates and Fort Totten, from the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake Nations as well as Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Nation who have demonstrated exemplary patriotism in their enlistment. And furthermore, they carry out this patriotism with incredible pride, understandable and appropriate pride in the way they participate with their honor and color guards at veterans' events throughout our State. This memorial and these amendments are really a very appropriate and important recognition of their sacrifice and their service and their unique contribution to our society, especially given the history of our Nation's birth. So, Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of our colleagues to honor our native veterans by voting ``yes'' on this important legislation.”