Alan Simpson: “I thank the gentleman from Iowa. Let me say, Madam Speaker, that Mr. King just mentioned the difference between Iowa and…”

“I thank the gentleman from Iowa. Let me say, Madam Speaker, that Mr. King just mentioned the difference between Iowa and Idaho. I will tell you a funny story. When I was first elected, Tom had been here for 4 years. When I got elected, they used to have a function with a lot of the D.C. reporters and political reporters in town at the Washington Hilton, and they would select a freshman Republican and Democrat from both the House and the Senate to give little speeches, and they were supposed to be kind of funny speeches and stuff. So I didn't know what to do. They selected me as one of them. So I decided that I was going to explain the difference between Iowa and Idaho because there is a difference. So I went through all the differences in Idaho and Iowa. Of course I recorded it, and I got home and turned it on to see how I had done. Underneath, and this is on C-SPAN, underneath it said, Congressman Mike Simpson, Republican, Ohio. So we not only get mixed up with Idaho and Iowa also, but also between Ohio and Idaho and Iowa. So that has always made it a little more challenging. But Tom and I have served together on the Appropriations Committee for, I guess the last 12 years that I have been on it, and he was on it before that. He has been, as was mentioned, the chairman of the Transportation Committee and chairman of the Energy and Water Committee, both committees very important to both Idaho and Iowa and to the country.…”