Joe Cunningham: “Mr. Chairman, this committee used to be a drudgery. If you asked somebody to serve on the D.C. committee, you had to…”

“Mr. Chairman, this committee used to be a drudgery. If you asked somebody to serve on the D.C. committee, you had to pull them out from under the bed to get them to come to work. I would say that thanks to the ranking member, the chairman, and the work that the committee has done over the past few years, it has gotten to be one of the better committees. I think if one looks at what has been done in a bipartisan way, and, yes, we do have some differences, but in a bipartisan way, with the help of a Mayor that is business-oriented, Mayor Williams, who I think has done a good job, I think we can be proud of the committee and the output of this, with a couple of exceptions. I have volunteered to stay on the committee all these years I have been in Congress because I have an education background and I had several goals. One was to help the education system in Washington because it had some of the highest cost and lowest productivity. Any Member that would go out into the city will find some very dedicated, very good teachers in Washington, D.C.”