[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 23610]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, we've had a long, tough Congress, and 
we come to the end of it, and I'm sorry that my good friend from Texas 
implied the vote was held open for some nefarious reasons.
  We passed the bill for our first responders a long time ago, and they 
finally got around to it over in the Senate. Those people were 
important, and it was important that we wait and make sure it gets over 
here and we get it passed into law.
  Unfortunately, one of our Members had gone home to visit her 
grandmother, who is near the end of her life, and the plane was coming 
in and trying to drive in the traffic of the rush hour makes it a 
little difficult. And so it didn't happen quite as quickly as we 
wanted, but I'm sure at this time of Christmas, when we all believe 
that we want good will for all men and all women around the world, we 
can extend a moment to finish the business of taking care of the first 
responders who on the 11th of September 2001 didn't hesitate on our 
behalf.

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