Chris Smith: “I will begin by thanking our distinguished chairman, Eliot Engel, for his extraordinary leadership as chairman of the…”

“I will begin by thanking our distinguished chairman, Eliot Engel, for his extraordinary leadership as chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for all these years. He is a good friend. We have worked on so many issues together. I thank him again for his leadership. It has been extraordinary. Your bipartisanship has been an example to us all, so I thank you for that, Eliot, and I really mean that deeply. I also thank my good friend and colleague from Texas, the ranking member, Michael McCaul, for his support of this legislation and other important initiatives. Also, Eliot, thank you again. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7276, the Desert Locust Control Act, which I introduced along with my good friend and colleague, Karen Bass. She is chairwoman, as you know, of the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee. I am the ranking member. In previous times I was the chairman, and she was my ranking member, and we have worked very closely together on all issues dealing with the health and well-being of people around the world through the global health portion of our portfolio, but also, with a very particular emphasis on Africa.…”