Representative Heather Wilson: “in the 108th Congress the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) introduced and we passed through this House legislation…”

“in the 108th Congress the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) introduced and we passed through this House legislation almost identical to this and we reintroduced it in this Congress. It has had a companion bill in the Senate which has now passed the Senate. And after conferring with the committee and with the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) we decided to take up the Senate version of the bill in this House rather than passing the House bill because that means that the next stop for this legislation is the President's desk. The bill that the gentleman and I pass today will not have the gentleman's name on it, but it certainly is a result of his leadership that was brought here to the floor of the House, and I want to commend the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall). I also wanted to commend Johanna Polsenberg for her work on this piece of legislation. It has been a real joy to work with her. And my staff member, Colin Hunter, I think also deserves some credit. Without the two of them, all of the little things that had to get done would have been left to others and might not have gotten done. So they have had a tremendous impact. I also thank the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) very much for his leadership. This legislation is locally developed and locally supported.…”