[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9775-9776]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  2013 ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE YOUTH TOUR

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page 9776]]


  Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, today I rise to recognize the more than 
1,600 young men and women who have come to our Capitol from across 
America this week to participate in the 49th annual Electric 
Cooperative Youth Tour.
  These high school juniors and seniors that you see around the Capitol 
this week are here to get firsthand insights about our Nation's 
government and its political process and gain a greater understanding 
of our history. They will meet with their Representatives and Senators 
and watch Congress in action from the galleries and also visit many 
memorials and the museums.
  I look forward to meeting with the 106 students from the State of 
Georgia, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
  These students coming from the Electric Cooperative Tour are part of 
a great tradition. In 1957, Texas Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson 
inspired the youth tour when he addressed the National Rural Electric 
Cooperative Association meeting in Chicago. The Senator and future 
President declared:

       If one thing comes out of this meeting, it will be sending 
     youngsters to the Nation's capital where they can actually 
     see what the flag stands for and represents.

  So every June, for the past 49 years, over 50,000 young citizens and 
future leaders have put those words into action, and you can see the 
results of this tradition right here in the Capitol. Several of the 
groups have spawned congressional aides and elected Representatives 
themselves.
  Back home in Georgia, the chairman of our State House Appropriations 
Committee, Terry England, is a prime example of someone who had the 
desire for public office and ran for elective office when it was fueled 
as a student when he came up here on the electric co-op tour some 20 
years ago.
  I congratulate Terry and thousands of others just like him who have 
engaged in this great tour. And I commend the national Electric 
Cooperative Youth Tour and thank the Georgia EMCs for all the great 
work they are doing in developing America's youth.

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