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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, last week, the Senate passed the Sergeant First Class Sean Cooley and Specialist Christopher Horton Congressional Gold Star Family Fellowship Program Act.

I would like to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who lent their support, because creation of this program was a long time coming.

I have spent the past few years working with and talking with Gold Star families, and the one thing they have consistently told me is that they want a more powerful voice here on Capitol Hill.

This legislation will create a Senate fellowship program open only to Gold Star family members. These fellows will have the opportunity to come to Washington, at no cost to their families, and work within the system our servicemembers work so very hard to defend.

And, Madam President, we thank you for your service in defense of this Nation.

Just as we here in the Senate are bound together by a duty to serve the country, Gold Star families are also bound together by a common thread of loss, grief, sacrifice.

It has been my privilege to work with so many of them, and I hope that these fellowships will create a renewed sense of healing and purpose in the hearts of those who come to work with us here in Washington.

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