Frank Lautenberg: “there are so many things here we can disagree about, but I wish to say thank you to all of my colleagues. One hundred of…”

“there are so many things here we can disagree about, but I wish to say thank you to all of my colleagues. One hundred of us have joined together in overwhelming numbers to support this historic legislation which creates a national moment of remembrance to commemorate the tragedy of 9/11. Few events, if any, have done more to change the course of American history as much as the horrifying terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001--nearly 10 years ago. It was one of the worst days in American history on our soil--a day that placed a permanent cloud over America and the free world. Few, if any, Americans can forget where they were that fateful Tuesday morning when our country was gripped with shock and disbelief and it felt as though our world had turned upside down. I was traveling at the time. I was in the Middle East. When the news came that an airplane struck the trade towers, the first conclusion I came to was it was a stray airplane from a nearby airfield, and that was it. But the news kept coming, and people in the streets of the city I was in were tearing at the terrible news about what happened to America. Almost 3,000 people, including more than 700 people from my own State of New Jersey, were brutally massacred in that attack. That is more American lives lost than on D-day when thousands of Americans stormed Normandy. Many of the victims were hard at work.…”