Political Quotes

“Thank you very much for yielding. I would like to thank my colleague, Randy Weber, my neighbor. I represent the 36th District in Texas and he represents the 14th, and he also represents my hometown of Beaumont, Texas, for this Special Order. I really appreciate that. It was about a month ago that Hurricane Harvey began wreaking havoc on southeast Texas, dumping record amounts of rainfall across our region, upending the lives of thousands of families, businesses, and communities. Across our congressional district, the 36th District of Texas, we saw anywhere between 20 and 50 inches of rain, setting a new record for the United States. In fact, unofficially, ranchers in Liberty County, which I also represent, measured over 60 inches of rain. Our entire district, from Houston to the Louisiana border, turned into, essentially, one gigantic lake, as thousands of homes that had never flooded before succumbed to Harvey's floodwaters. The impact was devastating and widespread. No one was spared. People from all walks of life and socioeconomic situations, with the majority never having been displaced before, were baffled and desperate in their situations. Each of the nine counties that I have the privilege of representing have been declared Federal disaster areas. The devastation is simply overwhelming, and the vast lake now is a vast debris field. But in the midst of this devastation, there were, and still continue to be, incredible stories of goodness.…”