On the recordNovember 19, 2014
Congressman Paulsen, thank you for allowing me to join you tonight. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to honor our late colleague and friend, Bill Frenzel, who faithfully and with great distinction served his constituents in Minnesota for 20 years and, I would say, served his country for a lifetime. As you can tell from my accent, I am not from Minnesota. I am from Texas. I had a chance to meet Bill when I started on the Ways and Means Committee where I now serve with Mr. Paulsen, who is one of our, frankly, most respected members, and his predecessor, Jim Ramstad, as well, all following in the Bill Frenzel mold. When I started on Ways and Means, I just came quickly to appreciate his willingness to share his vast wealth of knowledge on trade issues, big and small. Even though he was no longer an elected official, I was always struck by Bill's just endless willingness to give of himself, of finding ways to advance the cause of free trade and economic freedom throughout the world. I think it is important to note that historically in Congress, trade has always been a bipartisan issue, Republicans and Democrats working together; and throughout his career, Bill's constructive work across the aisle exemplified the best of this ideal. Everyone knew he was open to new ideas, was a straight shooter, respected others, and worked hard to get people to come and arrive at a consensus. Quite simply, Mr. Speaker, Bill was elected to do a job, and he just wanted to get things done.…
