Joe Barton: “Today is the 19th anniversary, if you can call it an anniversary, of a shooting in the United States Capitol in which…”

“Today is the 19th anniversary, if you can call it an anniversary, of a shooting in the United States Capitol in which two Capitol Police officers, Officer Chestnut and Detective Gibson, were killed. They were defending the Capitol, and a gunman got in and was heading towards the majority leader at the time, Tom DeLay's office. And they, in defending that office, were shot and killed. The Speaker at the time and the Congress at the time established a Wounded Officers Fund, but they made it specific to those two fallen officers. As we all know, on June 14, we had another shooting, although it was at a baseball practice for the charity baseball game where the Republican Members were practicing out in Alexandria, Virginia. Two officers, Officers Bailey and Griner, were both seriously injured in defending the 20-some-odd Republican Members that were at practice that morning. What this bill does, Mr. Speaker, is simply take an existing fund that was established for two officers that were killed in the line of duty and open it up, now and in the future, for Capitol Police officers who were seriously injured in the line of duty defending the Capitol and defending the Members. I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Michael F. Doyle), the Democratic manager, for being an original sponsor with me. I want to thank every member of the Republican and Democratic baseball teams who have signed on as original sponsors.…”