Political Quotes

“I rise with great sadness to join in the sorrow of this institution at the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Bill Emerson. As our friend and leader from Missouri stated so aptly, Bill was one of our colleagues who was always there to work in a bipartisan way on the priorities of this country. Whether it would be the problem of hunger in the world or in this country, or agricultural problems that affect so many districts, or whether it be our relations with Germany, where Bill was so instrumental in starting the Bundestag, the congressional effort to strengthen ties, Bill Emerson was in fact this institution's leader. However, I knew Bill Emerson in a different light, Mr. Speaker. In the last session of Congress he was named to be a bipartisan cochair of a task force dealing with disaster issues with our friend and colleague, the gentleman from Illinois. Having had the pleasure of serving with both of them, we worked for 6 months on looking at ways that we could improve the response to handle those disasters that affect all of our districts, and in Bill's case the terrible floods that ravaged the people of Missouri and the central part of this great Nation.”