Sheila Jackson Lee: “I want to take this opportunity to express on the floor of the House my appreciation to Chairman Obey for his years of…”

“I want to take this opportunity to express on the floor of the House my appreciation to Chairman Obey for his years of service. We have had opportunities to thank him personally, but I wanted the Record to reflect that this may be his last CR, and I don't want to misspeak because I know that he finds ways to do good so we may see him again, but I do want to express my appreciation. And I also want to recognize his partner, the ranking member, Mr. Lewis, as well. I want to acknowledge that this is something we have to do to keep the government open, so I wanted to express my appreciation and my concern. First of all, let me go to the Transportation Security Administration. I am the subcommittee chair on the Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee. It is interesting as we near the holiday, Christmas coming on Saturday, we are reminded certainly of the Christmas Day bomber of 2009. So as millions of Americans are now traveling and will continue to travel through this holiday season to gather with friends and family, domestically and internationally, we recognize the importance of providing transfer authority for TSA to allow for efforts against terrorist attacks such as what occurred in the Northwest Flight 253 and the recent attempts against all cargo.”