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Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise with an incredibly heavy heart to honor the life of my friend, Congressman Doug LaMalfa.

Doug was one of the most effective Members of this Chamber. He was deeply passionate about issues that affected his constituents in northern California.

As most of the Members of this Chamber know, we all have little silos where people come to us for advice. I always could count on Doug to give me the straight scoop on anything related to water, agriculture, or rural America. That is why we elected him as the chairman of the Western Caucus 2 years ago, and he did a phenomenal job in that role. I will miss his service there.

I will also miss the man that he was. He was an incredibly decent man, a man of exceptionally high moral character. Everyone that knew Doug would remark on his authenticity. When you met Doug, what you saw is what you got. He was a man of deep kindness, never had a cruel or unkind word for anyone in the years that I knew him. He was a man of incredible humility, and anyone in this Chamber knows that we could use some more of that in here.

Above all, Mr. Speaker, I will miss my friend. I will miss our conversations about cars. He was a car guy; I am a car guy. I would tease him every summer when we came back into session because he was restoring a De Tomaso Pantera, and I would ask him: Doug, what progress did you make on the Pantera this summer? He would hang his head and say: Nothing.

On this playing Galaga with him, a little known fact about Doug LaMalfa, he was a fierce competitor at Galaga. Above all, I will miss our conversations.

I am honored to be here joining my colleagues in saying farewell to Doug and to honor his life. Godspeed to my friend, Doug. We will miss him.

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