Michael Burgess: “Madam Speaker, the morning of February 1 was a tragic day for our space program, our Nation, and the world when the…”

“Madam Speaker, the morning of February 1 was a tragic day for our space program, our Nation, and the world when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart upon re-entry over the skies of Texas. Our Nation and our Congress have honored the memory of the seven astronauts who gave the last full measure of devotion to the cause of space exploration, and we pay our respects to the families of those affected by the tragedy. Today, with this resolution, we honor over 20,000 Americans who worked long hours over the past several months under difficult weather and terrain conditions to find the remains of the Columbia crew and scattered pieces of the space shuttle. In a painstaking search over 680,000 acres, the search teams recovered over 83,000 pieces of the shuttle in order to piece together a puzzle and find answers for what went terribly wrong that morning. This resolution honors the great Americans from NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the EPA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, the United States Forest Service, the Park Service, the Texas National Guard, Louisiana National Guard, fire crews from 42 States, State and local authorities, as well as many farmers, land owners, and citizens who helped locate, document, and pick up the pieces over the past several months.”