David Obey: “I think it is ironic that on a day when we are swearing in a new colleague, the House is losing one of its best Members.…”

“I think it is ironic that on a day when we are swearing in a new colleague, the House is losing one of its best Members. I have known the gentleman from Louisiana a long time. He came here a little over 20 years ago. He served as my ranking member on the Foreign Operations appropriations subcommittee. We had many differences. But I have to say that never for one moment did I doubt that he felt that he was putting the national interest above every other consideration in dealing with American foreign policy. I have to say that I think the chances of the peace process moving forward in the Middle East would have been much less without his steadfast commitment to sometimes taking the tough actions on this floor that were necessary to help promote that process. I also have to say that I think that we would not see countries such as Poland and some of the other former East European captives of the Soviet Union, we would not see those countries in nearly the good shape they are in today if it were not for the very active efforts made on a bipartisan basis by the gentleman from Louisiana and his predecessor in that same committee slot, Mickey Edwards. He served honorably and fairly when he served as my ranking member on the committee. He then succeeded me as chairman of the full committee and again we had very large differences, but we never surprised each other and we learned to trust each other implicitly.”