Joe Crowley: “I rise today to speak with a very heavy heart and a tightened throat. Our Nation has suffered a terrible blow.…”

“I rise today to speak with a very heavy heart and a tightened throat. Our Nation has suffered a terrible blow. Yesterday, I, along with my colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Weiner), as mentioned before, visited the epicenter, or ground zero as it has been called, of this monstrous crime. As I stood in a crater of what was once a grand and majestic building, I was looking into the heart of a criminal, of a cold thing and of an awful thing. But I also saw a picture of the American heart and of the American nature, that of the New York Police Department, Fire Department, and emergency rescue technicians. These men, who did not and have not faltered for even one second, were and continue to fight tirelessly to find any person who may have been lost and is yet still alive. My cousin, John Moran, who I spoke of not too long ago on this floor, is one of those men. John is an amazing man. He is a battalion chief, a lawyer, and a second generation fireman.”