Political Quotes

“As a former member of the staff here on Capitol Hill for 11 years, I have to mention some of our staff members' names particularly because they did a phenomenal job in this. Dr. Pearl Alice Marsh, of course, Kristin Wells, David Abramowitz, Peter Yeo, Bob King, Yleem Poblete, Mark Gage, Joan Condon, Heather Flynn, Sheri Rickert, Naomi Seiler, Jessica Boyer, and of course Christos Tsentas of my staff. These staff members and other members, they deserved, their work deserves really to be applauded because this was not just work as a professional on the Hill. This is part of their life's work and I have to thank them again for their diligence and their competence. This is a bipartisan compromise, so there were things that we had to give up and things that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle had to give up, but that's what compromise is all about. Let me just mention a few of the items that were included in this bill. Of course it included language taken from my bill, H.R. 1713, the PATHWAY Act, to strike the 33 percent abstinence-until-marriage and provide a comprehensive prevention strategy to address the needs of women and children. It also includes language taken from my bill, H.R. 3812, the African Health Capacity and Investment Act, to build health capacity by recruiting, training and retaining health professionals and strengthen health systems. Now, of course there's still some issues I think need to be addressed which aren't in this bill.”