Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my friends on the minority talk about the reasons they are opposing this bill, and a normal piece of legislation that would have some merit didn't go through regular order, things of this sort. But, Mr. Speaker, when the house is burning down and you need the fire department, you don't ask if they followed proper procedure to get somebody out there to put out the fire.

My brother had liver cancer at the age of 44. He had tried every conventional therapy known to modern medicine, and it wasn't working. Now, he had a brother, myself, who was a subcommittee chairman of the committee of jurisdiction over the FDA. I contacted the FDA, and we got him in a special protocol for an investigational drug that was under approval. It wasn't approved. And the doctors and the people at the FDA told my brother and his family: If it works, it is going to really help you. But if it doesn't, you are going to die sooner.

Well, he was going to die anyway, Mr. Speaker. So he signed the informed consent and he took the drug and it didn't work, but he had that last shot. Now, I don't know what this debate about false hope is. When you have no hope, perhaps false hope is better than none at all.

All this bill does is let people who have no other hope for conventional therapy, if a drug has at least passed stage one at the FDA approval process, and their doctor thinks it will help them, if they give an informed consent, they can try it.

Now, my friends on the Democratic side are correct that, most of the time under the existing protocol, the FDA approves it without a problem. But why should the FDA approve it if you are about to die anyway? That is what this bill does. By the way, it passed the Senate with unanimous consent. Now, that is a miracle in itself.

Let's pass it here in the House and give hope a chance for these patients who are terminally ill and have no hope at all today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished Appropriations Committee chairman for yielding me time.

I rise in support of this continuing resolution. Obviously, we would rather fund the government for the entire year before the start of the fiscal year, but that is in a perfect world, and one thing that the Congress has never been accused of is being a perfect world. So we are here dealing in the real world.

To my good friend from Connecticut who just spoke, and she is my good friend, I would point out that the bill before us doesn't cut money from the Prevention Fund. It directs money from the Prevention Fund to spend on healthcare programs. In other words, it is taking some discretion from the executive branch and directing that spending that Congress thinks it should be spent for.

One of the programs that we are going to fund for 2 years is the community health centers. Twenty-four million people each year get their healthcare from these community health centers, and one of them is in my home county, the Hope Clinic. Its main facility is in Waxahachie, Texas. But in my hometown of Ennis, we have the Nell Barton Hope Clinic Annex. These two facilities in Ellis County this year are providing healthcare for over 10,000 Ellis Countians.

This is not exotic care. It is checkups, screenings, mammograms, and all the odds and ends that you have in your basic healthcare facilities. If they need more specific treatment, they are referred to specialists in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

But for the 10,000 citizens of Ellis County who depend on the Hope Clinic for their healthcare, this is a big bill. In fact, the executive director of the Hope Clinic was in my office today, saying: We want to expand, but we don't know if we are going to have the funds. We really need to get some certainty.

That is what this bill is all about. So I rise in strong support, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on the CR later this evening.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from the Garden State of New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), my good friend, just told you all the things that weren't in this bill that he wished were. My distinguished chairman, Mr. Walden, just whispered in my ear that we have put everything you talked about in bills, subcommittee, full committee, and on the floor, and you voted against them every time this year, every time.

Now, where I come from, you vote for what is in the bill, not what is not in the bill. I wished we had a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in this bill. I wish we fully funded our military for the rest of the year in this bill. I wish we, by an act of Congress, gave Texas A&M the national championship in football in this bill. That is not going to happen.

What is in this bill? We fully fund the Children's Health Insurance Program for every State of the Union and the territories for 6 years; never been done before. Fully fund children's health insurance for every State and territory in the Union for 6 years, at existing levels, and it increases each year for the next 6 years. It is fully paid for, fully offset.

Not every Democrat, but almost every Democrat, has voted against that already twice, and if they vote against it this evening, they will vote against it for the third time.

I am the manager of the Republican baseball team. If you strike, if you miss it three times, it normally means you are out. I hope that some of my friends on the minority side will, tonight, vote with us to fund SCHIP and to fund the government for the next month.

I am one of the Republicans who support DACA. I am on the Dream Act. I am also on the Republican alternative. I would love to vote for DACA, but the deadline for DACA is not until March. The SCHIP programs expired in September. We need to pass this CR and send it to the Senate. Vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I am one of the few Members that was here back in 1986 when we had the last major tax cut before this body. The President was Ronald Reagan and the Speaker of the House was Tip O'Neill. They worked together on a bipartisan basis to cut taxes across the board. The result was the economic growth of the late 1980s and the early 1990s, up until the early 2000s, when we had 9/11. It is one of the best votes that I have ever taken as a Member of this body.

Well, now we are here on another major tax bill. The problem this time around is that there is no bipartisanship.

Why is that, Mr. Speaker?

It is not because the Republicans don't want to be bipartisan. It is because the Democratic leadership this time around has just said no.

This tax bill is a good bill.

The distinguished gentleman from Vermont who just spoke is correct in that it is not revenue neutral. But, Mr. Speaker, revenues are at an all-time high. We are going to raise more money this year than we have ever raised before at the Federal level. Let me repeat that: raise more money than we have ever raised before at the Federal level.

Isn't it time to give hardworking Americans a little of that money back?

That is what this bill does. It cuts rates for every working American. Let me repeat that: it cuts rates for every working American.

No matter what your tax rate is today, under this bill, it is going to be lower if you are an individual. If you are a corporation, it is going to be lower. If you are one of these passthroughs, it is going to be lower.

Every American who is paying taxes today is going to pay less taxes starting January 1, 2018. That is a good deal. That is a good deal. We are cutting taxes across the board for every working American.

We repeal the individual mandate under ObamaCare.

Unfortunately, it doesn't kick in until 2019, but we still repeal that.

This is a good bill. It is a historic bill. It is a bill that everybody in this Chamber will benefit from, regardless of whether you vote for it or vote against it. So when the time comes this afternoon to vote ``yes'' or ``no,'' I am voting ``yes'' for America. I am voting ``yes'' for America's future. I am voting ``yes'' for every working American who is paying taxes today. Let's put more money back in their pocket. Let's double the rate of growth for the economy. Let's put more Americans at work. Let's show some faith in the American people, vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, we have talked a lot today on the floor about the children's component of this bill, the S-CHIP. It is a good program. It covers about 45 percent of the low-income children in Texas. It is a very worthwhile program and needs to be reauthorized and funded.

I also want to talk about the community health centers. In Ennis, Texas, there is the Nell Barton Hope Clinic Annex. Nell Barton was my mother.

The Joe Barton Family Foundation purchased a building for the Hope Clinic, which is a federally funded health center that is primarily located in Waxahachie, Texas. Every day, several dozen low-income people go to the Nell Barton Hope Clinic. Over the course of the year, several thousand people go to the Hope Clinic in both Ennis and Waxahachie. This bill reauthorizes those health centers for 2 years.

Now, my friends on the Democratic side, I am not sure what they are complaining about. This is a program that funds healthcare for children and for low-income people through the community health centers. It is fully offset, and funding is increasing, Mr. Speaker, not decreasing, but it is doing so in a way that it is offset. What is the big offset?

I hope we vote for this bill when it comes up for a vote later today.

Mr. Speaker, today is the 19th anniversary, if you can call it an anniversary, of a shooting in the United States Capitol in which two Capitol Police officers, Officer Chestnut and Detective Gibson, were killed. They were defending the Capitol, and a gunman got in and was heading towards the majority leader at the time, Tom DeLay's office. And they, in defending that office, were shot and killed.

The Speaker at the time and the Congress at the time established a Wounded Officers Fund, but they made it specific to those two fallen officers.

As we all know, on June 14, we had another shooting, although it was at a baseball practice for the charity baseball game where the Republican Members were practicing out in Alexandria, Virginia. Two officers, Officers Bailey and Griner, were both seriously injured in defending the 20-some-odd Republican Members that were at practice that morning.

What this bill does, Mr. Speaker, is simply take an existing fund that was established for two officers that were killed in the line of duty and open it up, now and in the future, for Capitol Police officers who were seriously injured in the line of duty defending the Capitol and defending the Members.

I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Michael F. Doyle), the Democratic manager, for being an original sponsor with me. I want to thank every member of the Republican and Democratic baseball teams who have signed on as original sponsors.

I want to thank Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi, leadership on both sides of the aisle, for making it possible to bring this bill to the floor. We introduced it last Thursday, and we are voting on it tonight; and wonder of wonders, the Senate is probably going to vote on it tomorrow, and there is a chance the President will sign it this week.

We are showing the American people that we can work together for a noble cause. As has already been pointed out, Officers Bailey and Griner both, at risk to their own lives, defended the Members, staff, and volunteers at that baseball practice on June 14.

I watched Officer Bailey run past me directly at the shooter, risking his life, and two other Alexandria Police officers who had arrived on the scene assisted him. Officer Griner was wounded but was providing covering fire, and that is when they brought down the shooter.

They are heroes. They have sustained injuries. They deserve some assistance. The American people have donated probably $600,000 or $700,000 to provide some assistance, and this technical change in the existing fund would allow that to happen.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Davis. I hope everybody can support this.

Mr. Speaker, it is the great State of Texas. I want to set the Record straight on that.

I commend Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Rush for bringing this bipartisan bill the floor. All we hear is about how we don't get along, Mr. Speaker. Nobody is watching when we do get along. And all of the bills that are being debated and voted on on the House floor today are examples of bipartisanship at the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Mr. Upton, Mr. Rush, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Walden, and the other ranking members and subcommittee chairmen are to be commended for that.

One of the bipartisan amendments, which was adopted in full committee on this bill, is a bipartisan amendment from Mr. McNerney, a Democrat from California, and myself, that deals with the cybersecurity and would suggest that, as these States provide these energy security plans to the Department of Energy, they include an assessment of cybersecurity.

So I can't tell you that this is the most important amendment that has ever been added to a bill in our committee, but it is a very good amendment, a very positive amendment. As plans are developed, including an assessment of cybersecurity threats and solutions to those threats, it should make the grid better, more reliable, and help make our country safer.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 3050. Again, I commend Mr. Upton and Mr. Rush for working together, and I hope the House very quickly passes this and sends it to the other body.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone, along with subcommittee Chairman Burgess and subcommittee Ranking Member Green for their excellent leadership on this piece of legislation.

If you look at the front page of The Washington Post this morning, you will see on the left-hand column the story about a miracle living drug to help cure cancer in children that have leukemia.

In the legislation before us, as the chairman just pointed out, there is the RACE for Children Act, which was introduced by Congressmen McCaul, Butterfield, and Mullin, and which I am a original cosponsor, that will make it possible to help children sooner.

This particular drug that is discussed on the front page of The Washington Post took decades to develop and has just now been approved.

How many thousands of children have died while that drug was being developed?

The legislation before us includes, as I said, the RACE for Children Act, which will make it possible to bring these innovative drugs to market much more quickly.

Mr. Speaker, I commend all the leaders and the members of the committee for this bipartisan piece of legislation, as Mr. Pallone has just pointed out. I am proud to vote for it, and I encourage all Members of the House to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, last Thursday evening, we played the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. This is normally the time when the losing manager has to congratulate the winning manager. Over the last 10 years, I have become fairly proficient at congratulating Mr. Doyle.

Today, Mr. Speaker, I am not going to tell a lot of jokes because, as we all know, at the Republican practice the Wednesday morning before, an individual opened fire on the Republican team and wounded the majority whip, Mr. Scalise; both Capitol Police officers who were part of Mr. Scalise's security detail; and two volunteers who were assisting us in our practice. So I don't have a lot of jokes today, Mr. Speaker.

I do want to congratulate Mr. Doyle and his team. They played fair and square. They were extremely gracious before the game. We had a unity prayer. We had a unity introduction of the players. The night before, Mr. Doyle and his team invited the Republican team, believe it or not, to the Democratic political headquarters. I went with my two sons. The food was great, and the fellowship was even better.

So I do sincerely want to congratulate him and his players for playing the best game. They deserved to win.

Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the Republican team. We had approximately 25 of our Members at the practice. Every one of them exhibited courage and composure. They all looked out for their fellow teammates.

We had an equivalent number of staff and volunteers. We had two of the best Capitol Hill police officers it is possible to have. They risked their lives.

I want to say this, and then I will yield to my good friend, Mr. Doyle.

The shooter that attacked the Republican baseball team, Mr. Speaker, was attacking democracy. When we are at full strength on this floor, there are 435 of us. Every one of us is a winner. We get here because we have won an election. We get here because we have got the faith of approximately 600,000 or 700,000 people who are depending on us to be their voice for democracy. We argue. We debate. But as I said in one of my interviews, before our names is United States Representative. United.

Last Thursday, at the baseball game, we were united. I could not be prouder of being a Member of this body, Mr. Speaker. I could not be prouder of the Republican team, including our MVP, Ron DeSantis; our honorary MVP, Steve Scalise; and every member of the Republican team.

Would the members of the Republican team stand and let's acknowledge their heroism.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Michael F. Doyle).

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, May 20th, is the first anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen's inauguration. Having met President Tsai twice during her first year in office, I would like to congratulate her and the people of Taiwan on this occasion.

Taiwan has become a vibrant democracy, where power at the presidential level has been peacefully transferred from one political party to another three times--most recently in last year's election. Taiwan's democracy is a shining example for both the Asia-Pacific region, and for the world. At the same time, Taiwan has endeavored to be a good global citizen.

Mr. Speaker, I treasure the U.S.-Taiwan relationship, which is one between like-minded friends who share the same values. I admire the distance the people of Taiwan have come in the face of many challenges. As a friend to Taiwan, I commend its people and President Tsai on this anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the House's attention two fine Texans who are sitting up in the House gallery, Ben and Dan Matheson.

Ben has been on my Air Force advisory committee down in Texas for the entire 32 years that I have been in Congress. He and the other two members of that nominating committee have recommended to me over 100 young men and women whom we have nominated to the Air Force Academy and who are now serving, defending our Nation.

His son is Dan Matheson, one of my best friends, a proud graduate of the University of Texas Law School, former head of the Texas State Fed office, and a successful practicing attorney in Austin, Texas.

I am very proud to have their friendship, and I am glad to bring to the attention of the House these two fine Americans.

Mr. Speaker, mandates seldom work. Markets do work.

My friends on the Democratic side of the aisle haven't pointed out that 19 million Americans have chosen to pay the tax penalty to the IRS, rather than be forced into one of these ObamaCare plans.

They talk about all the people who have gotten coverage. Most of them got coverage when the bill that is now called ObamaCare expanded Medicaid to healthy adults and paid 100 percent of the cost to cover those individuals at a cost right now of about $70 billion a year.

Mandates don't work; markets do. I choose less government mandate, more personal freedom.

Vote for the rule; vote for the bill. Let's restore markets and freedom to health care in America.

Mr. Speaker, I supported this bill when it came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I want to thank Chairman Walden for his excellent leadership.

As he knows, I had some concerns about the bill at the time. I didn't think it addressed all the problems that we needed to address.

At the start of this week, I was a ``no'' vote--a friendly ``no'' vote, but I was a ``no'' vote. Our Republican leadership in the House and the President and his senior advisers continued to involve themselves in constructive discussions with people like myself. Yesterday they agreed to put back in the repeal of the essential health benefits provision, and that is a big win for conservative values, so I am now a ``yes'' vote.

My friends on the left seem to think the only way to get a benefit is to have the Federal Government mandate it and then have the Federal Government pay for it. I am here to tell you, Mr. Speaker, that markets work. If we create a healthcare market where people can choose their insurance that fits their needs, there will be plans that provide for every so-called essential health benefit. But there will also be plans that provide for specific markets of young people without children or elderly couples or whatever it is.

Mr. Speaker, markets work, and you don't have to mandate benefits for those markets to work.

Mr. Speaker, we always want to score a touchdown. Sometimes we take a field goal. What we don't want to do today is take a safety.

Vote for this bill. Let's send it to the other body and continue to work to improve it. It is a good bill. Please vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to remember an exceptional young lady taken from us far too soon.

20-year-old Kelly Walters was killed in a tragic hit and run accident on January 16, 2015 as she crossed the street in her hometown of Arlington, Texas. While her death made headlines back home--today I want to focus on the way Kelly lived.

I met Kelly several years ago at one of my town hall meetings. When I asked the crowd if they had any questions, hers was the first hand that shot up. She couldn't vote yet, but her love of our community and interest in government was already on full display.

A few months later, I was proud to sponsor her for the prestigious House Page program. While in Washington, her love of the civic process and politics only grew.

She came by my office regularly to chat with me and my staff. She was too young at the time, but was already expressing interest in serving as an intern in my office.

I understand she wasn't shy about sharing her future political aspirations telling people she was going to run for my seat as soon as I retired. I do appreciate her waiting for my career in Congress to end before hers began. I have since learned she was aiming even higher. She wrote a letter to President Clinton in December of 2000, at the ripe old age of six, saying she wanted his job. Kelly said, ``I think I would be a good President because I care about people and how they treat others . . . Please let me know when I need to come to Washington to begin my new assignment. I will need to let people know I will be out of school and have my work mailed to me.''

Kelly possessed a rare understanding of the importance of American politics and the impact that it has on everyday life. She had a keen interest and genuine curiosity about the legislative process.

After her semester in the Nation's Capitol, she returned home where she continued to cultivate her deep dedication to civic duty. She volunteered in our community, worked on campaigns, interned for a state representative and excelled in the classroom.

Kelly was a junior at the University of Texas at Arlington and was days from leaving to study abroad in Morocco. She wanted to promote women's rights in the Arabic world.

So what drove this exceptional young woman? Kelly says it best in her own words. This is an excerpt from an essay she wrote a few years ago: ``America is based on many beliefs, but they all boil down to one simple word: Freedom. Life in America is free, it is one most people take for granted, but it was not cheap. Freedom is bought on the back of soldiers who were willing to risk their lives to fight for their country and America's right to be free. Thus Freedom is built on service, on a willingness to give back for what has been given. I don't pretend to know or understand why others volunteer, but for me it is a need to give back for all the opportunities that are standing open for me simply because I am an American.''

Profound words that everyone in this body should take to heart. It is rare to see someone so young so engaged. Kelly will be missed, but her love of our community and of our nation will not be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the subject of this 1 hour Special Order for Ralph Hall.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Speaker for granting us this Special Order to honor Congressman Ralph Hall of the Fourth Congressional District and for granting me this time today.

Although Congressman Hall has been sidelined by a recent accident, he is blessed to be on the mend, and he hopes to express his thanks in person sometime next year. Hopefully he is watching on C-SPAN television right now from Rockwall, Texas. I cannot tell him how many Members wish him the speediest of recoveries and wish that he was with us now.

Ralph has asked me to put in the Record the following statement from himself:

``I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to those in the Fourth Congressional District who gave me their vote of confidence time and again, who gave me the benefit of their wisdom and good ideas, and who inspired me to do my best to represent their views and their vision in Washington. You will always be dear to my heart.''

With that, I yield to the distinguished Congressman from Collin County, Texas, Congressman Sam Johnson.

Thank you, Congressman Johnson.

Before I yield to Congresswoman Granger, I want to say that most of Ralph's Washington, D.C., staff is watching this.

Janet Poppleton, Christopher Roper Schell, Leslie Coppler, Jessica Carter, Mitzyn De La Rosa, and Van Carver: Ralph wanted me to thank you-all for your service to himself and to the people of the Fourth District of Texas.

And with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlelady from the 12th District of Texas, the Honorable Kay Granger.

Mr. Speaker, before I introduce Congressman Neugebauer, I have already put one statement in the Record that Ralph wanted me to read, but by electronic device, he has sent a second statement.

So this is another direct quote from Congressman Hall:

``Although sidelined by a recent accident, I am blessed to be on the mend and hope to express my thanks in person some time next year. It has been a great honor and privilege to represent the good people of the Fourth Congressional District for the past 33 years. I thank them for their vote of confidence over the years, for their wisdom and good ideas, and for inspiring me to represent their views and their vision to the best of my ability.''

With that, I yield to the Congressman representing Lubbock, Texas, where the Ennis Lions will play a high school football game this Friday night, the Honorable Randy Neugebauer.

I want to thank the gentleman from Lubbock.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the Congressman from the 25th Congressional District of Texas, Mr. Roger Williams. Under the newest configuration, he is the only Congressman to ever represent that district, so they must love him.

I want to thank you, Congressman.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the Congressman from the First Congressional District, deep east Texas, the soft-spoken Congressman Louie Gohmert.

I thank Congressman Gohmert.

I now yield to the gentlewoman that represents part of Dallas County in Dallas, Texas, the Honorable Eddie Bernice Johnson, who comes from the same hometown as I do: Waco, Texas.

I want to thank you, Congressman Johnson.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the Congressman from Fort Bend County, Sugar Land, Texas, a Navy pilot himself, as Ralph Hall was in World War II, the Honorable Pete Olson.

Will the gentleman yield?

There is no proof of that. I know the Congressman actually states it as a fact, but I have repeatedly asked him to prove it, and he has absolutely failed. So that is an urban myth of the Fourth Congressional District.

Will the gentleman yield on that point?

Well, while the Bonnie and Clyde story is more fiction than fact--Ralph would have been pumping gas at the ripe old age of 8 or 9 years old for that to be true--the Ted Williams story is fact and is true.

I thank the gentleman from Sugar Land. I now yield to Congressman Gene Green, who represents the Houston ship channel and the battleship Texas and other such notable Texas landmarks.

Mr. Green.

Now I yield to the distinguished Congressman from, I believe, Flower Mound, Texas, in Denton County, the Honorable Michael Burgess.

I now yield to Mr. Blake Farenthold, the Congressman from Corpus Christi, Texas.

I now yield to the gentleman from the 14th District of Illinois, Congressman Hultgren.

I would now like to yield to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the gentlelady from Houston, Texas.

I now yield to Randy Weber, the Congressman from the 14th District from Friendswood, Texas.

I thank the gentleman.

I now want to yield to the Honorable Dana Rohrabacher from California's 48th District in Orange County.

I want to thank you, Congressman.

I now want to yield to the gentleman from the Fifth District in Dallas, Texas, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, the Honorable Jeb Hensarling.

I thank the gentleman.

I now yield to the gentleman from Round Rock, Texas, the distinguished John Carter.

I thank the gentleman.

May I inquire how much time I have remaining, Mr. Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, we have had a number of Congressmen come on the House floor and tell anecdotes about Ralph, about how funny he was and how smart he was, and they are all--at least the ones about how smart he was--very true.

We have heard the urban myth about waiting on Bonnie and Clyde, which I do not believe is true. We have heard about Ted Williams and Ralph and Ted playing on the same baseball team in World War II, and that is true. We have heard about the offer to serve as a fight promoter for Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, and that is true.

A few more that you may not know:

He was good friends with the Hunt brothers in Dallas and Clint Murchison, who was the original owner of the Dallas Cowboys. At one time, he was asked to be general counsel for what we today call the NFL, which he turned down.

I got to know Ralph when I got elected in 1984. He and I served districts that touch each other. We both live in our districts in Texas, and so we became good buddies because we were always on the first flight to Texas after the last vote at the end of the week and on the last flight before the first vote to Washington at the beginning of the week.

Once we built up enough frequent flyer miles, when there was a complimentary upgrade--we never spent taxpayer dollars to fly in first class--we would fight over who got seat 4F. Because Ralph sweet-talked the special service people at American Airlines, he always won. The only time I have ever gotten seat 4F on American Airlines was when Ralph was not on the plane.

You have heard about the fact that he used to be a Democrat. He was until 2003 or 2004 when he switched parties. One of the first times that I realized how important Ralph Hall was is when the first President Bush won the election to be President of the United States. They called a special meeting over at the Capitol Hill Club on behalf of the National Republican Campaign Committee so that the Republicans in the Congress, who were in the minority, could have a meeting with the incoming President. We thought that was pretty special.

There was a stir in the crowd. We thought it was the President coming in, and it was. The President walked into the room of the Eisenhower Lounge, which the Republicans will know is on the first floor at the Capitol Hill Club.

Before the President began to speak, there was another stir. Through another door that I have never seen used who do you think came into the Capitol Hill Club but Ralph Hall.

Now, what is surprising about that is that at the time, Ralph Hall was a Democrat. Ralph Hall had endorsed George H.W. Bush for President when he was a Democrat, and so he got special recognition at that Capitol Hill meeting.

There have been many great Members from Texas that served in the House since our creation as a State in 1845, Mr. Speaker. Some of the ones that I have enjoyed working with in my tenure are people like Bill Archer of Houston, Jake Pickle, Steve Bartlett, and Sam Hall, but none has been more beloved and none has been more effective than Ralph Hall of Rockwall, Texas.

I have some other things to say, but I see that others are here, so I yield to Mr. Waxman, the chairman emeritus and current ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

I yield to Mr. Smith, the chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

I now yield to the gentleman from Houston, Texas (Mr. Culberson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Upton.

Ralph, we love you. We will miss you. You are a great guy. We will see you soon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.