[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11940]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REPUBLICAN RUNAWAY FREIGHT TRAIN

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I read a poignant article in the Fort Worth 
Star-Telegram this morning. Mr. Sanders compares the legislative body 
in Texas and its lack of leadership to a runaway freight train that has 
been hijacked by a self-serving Congressman, Mr. Tom DeLay, who is 
willing to put his own agenda and the presumed agenda of the national 
Republican leadership ahead of the people of Texas.

                              {time}  1115

  He describes the freight train as carrying redistricting, but that it 
is also carrying other important cargo like school finance and the 
CHIPS program, and that this train with DeLay and Craddick at the helm 
is headed for a wreck. Fifty-three House Members saw the wreck coming, 
did what they thought was best for the State of Texas, and hightailed 
to Oklahoma to prevent this train from slamming into the Texas House. 
It is a stand that I see as nothing short of heroic.
  They have put DeLay and Craddick, and in fact, the Nation, on notice 
that there are many of us out here who are willing to put it all on the 
line for what we think is right; that there are many of us who will not 
be threatened or bullied into an agenda that is bad for Texas. Joe 
Deshotel, Craig Eiland, and Alan Ritter, as well as their colleagues 
who have joined them, are risking everything for the people of Texas, 
not their party.

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