Rob Andrews: “Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my family and on behalf of the people of the First Congressional District of New Jersey, I…”

“Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my family and on behalf of the people of the First Congressional District of New Jersey, I rise to offer my condolences and thanks to the families of Officer Chestnut and Detective Gibson. They have given us many gifts in their lives, a gift of courage, a gift of discipline, ultimately the gift of their very lives. Let me also suggest that I believe they have given us a gift in death. I have had the privilege of standing in this Chamber for eight years, and I have never once felt the feeling that I feel here this evening of a truly collective broken heart of those of us who stand on this floor and those who serve their country and us around these environs. Their deaths have served to remind us that we are not Republican and Democrat, or liberal and conservative, or northerner or southerner; we are men and women, people bonded by the human spirit. Today that spirit is bruised and broken, but as they have given to us in their lives, I believe they will give to us in their deaths and hereafter a spirit of unity and cooperation. May God bless their families, and we thank them for their contribution.”