Fallen Heroes of 9/11 Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Being a New Yorker, I still, to this day, as I walk the streets of downtown Manhattan, cannot believe that the Twin Towers are not there. I taught my daughters how to navigate the streets of New York looking up at those towers as some look up to see the North Star. I will never really, in my heart, conceive of the towers not being there, even as we build this great memorial.

But when I think about the families, how they must feel--if I just utilized them as a tool for my daughters and they're gone--but when you think about the families whose loved ones are gone, we have to do everything in our power so they know that we will always be thinking of the ones that are not able to have dinner with them this evening.

These coins--when tourists come to visit the various sites or when individuals want to purchase them for the commemorative event so they can always remember these heroes--are a symbol of the United States House of Representatives and Congress that in these kinds of times we do come together and we will work together in a bipartisan manner to salute Americans and others, because some lost their lives who were not American citizens, that we shall never forget. And we thank them for their courage, we thank them for their heroism, and we thank the families for the sacrifices that they have made as a result of not having those loved ones.

Let me also thank my colleagues and Mr. Shuster for introducing this bill and working collectively together in a spirit of being Americans. I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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