Political Quotes

“In addition, we have supported the work of the House Democratic Partnership, so ably led by two of our good friends and colleagues, David Price and Peter Roskam, both of whom will be with us today. The HDP aims to support the legislative branches of emerging democracies and when invited to do so, we involved former Members in overseas legislative strengthening projects. This year, for instance, former Members have traveled to places like Kenya, North Macedonia, or Guyana to support the important work of the HDP. These are some of the 2023 highlights of two of our three objectives: teaching about Congress and supporting Congress as an institution. The third is FMC's original mission: to serve as an alumni group for former Senators and Representatives. We are aware that this is an important aspect of our work, and today's annual meeting clearly is a good example of that work. In addition, we have hosted author presentations. We have tapped into our membership's institutional knowledge. For example, during the recent debt ceiling negotiations, our members held seminars that others learned from. When the new rules package was adopted by the Congress in January, we explained to the public what that meant, and we have sent former Member delegations overseas to places like Iceland and Korea. At this point, I want to give my colleagues an opportunity to talk more about our two main programming staples that the Former Members of Congress are rightfully very proud of.…”