On the recordMarch 15, 2017
I will conclude by joining the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hurd) in thanking the teams that made this possible in our office, led by David Wysong, my chief of staff; John Meza, who manned the communications; Samantha Stiles, chief of logistics, also known as our scheduler; Cynthia Cano, our district director back in El Paso; and everyone who works with them. As my friend says, I also want to thank the tens of thousands of people who participated in this over the course of the last 36 hours. Some folks tuned in and they had to tune out because they had to go to work, take care of a kid, get some sleep, or they were just bored by what we were doing. But they understood the premise was that we were not able or, in the gentleman from Texas' (Mr. Hurd) case, his flight was canceled into Washington, D.C., because of the weather--I feared that mine might as well be--and that we rented a car and that we had to be in Washington, D.C., after leaving San Antonio at 7:00 a.m., by 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in order to be there and vote and represent the interest of our constituency. If we are to be honest with each other, it was touch and go for a little while. We ran into a two-hour pileup just south of Waco when we were still in Texas. My friend from Texas (Mr. Hurd) has a penchant for getting to know a town and wanting to spend some time in a coffee shop talking to the owner about the art of making coffee and the philosophy that accompanies that.…
