On the recordMay 23, 2017
I certainly thank the gentleman for yielding. I have had many opportunities in my career to come to this House floor and speak about topics of great importance, but few are as near and dear to my heart as is Scouting. So, one, I want to thank the gentleman from New York for his leadership and the gentleman from Texas for his leadership and keeping Scouting alive not only in their hearts, but in the heart of the House and in the hearts of so many young men in America today. Mr. Speaker, as I think about my own life, I think how terribly blessed I have been. I think about the molders of my character, and, certainly, I thank the Lord for the blessing of being able to worship Him in the land of the free. And I think about the impact my church has had upon my life. I think how blessed I am to have parents like Charles and Ann Hensarling, who raised me in College Station, Texas, and how proud I am to be my mother's son and how proud I was to be my late father's son. But I also think about what Scouting meant as a molder of my character. Mr. Speaker, that is not what originally drew me to Scouting. I was originally drawn to the fun of it, to the high adventure, to the camping trips, to those Capture the Flag games that went on to the wee hours of the morning. Little did I know how long one could actually hunt for a snipe back in the early days of my Scouting career. And so I was drawn to Indian lore and canoeing and camping, and that was so exciting to me.…





