Welcoming New Republican Members of Congress

WELCOMING NEW REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS -- (House of Representatives - November 16, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Chocola) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.

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Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Indiana.

I am so pleased today to be able to introduce three brilliant Members to the United States Congress, three brilliant additions to our conference.

The first one is a person I have had the privilege to know for a number of years. He comes from a very strong background. His name is CONNIE MACK. That is a name that is very familiar in the State of Florida. We all know that his father served with such great distinction here in the United States Congress.

This CONNIE MACK, his son, was born and raised in Southwest Florida. He is, again, the son of the former Senator Connie Mack. He will represent the Fourteenth District of Florida, which borders the district that I am honored to represent, and also the district that has been so ably represented until now by our now CIA Director Porter Goss, who was for many years the chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

CONNIE, though, I got to know during his tenure, our joint tenure, in the Florida State Legislature. He was a great leader in the Florida legislature, an active member of that legislature. He helped create and chaired the Freedom Caucus in the State House of Representatives, the Florida State House of Representatives, which fought hard and successfully, I may add, through the leadership of CONNIE MACK, to keep taxes low, to cut taxes, to cut regulation, to shrink the size of government.

CONNIE comes with a wealth of experience. He will help promote President Bush's fiscally conservative agenda and tax relief and make sure that America's families are not overburdened by excessive taxation.

Again, CONNIE MACK, now Congressman-elect CONNIE MACK, has a wealth of experience coming from the Florida legislature, particularly on issues of fiscal responsibility. He has shown great leadership, and I am anxious to have him as my partner because, again, we have adjoining districts. We are going to be working very closely together, as we have in the past, and I am excited to have him as part of the team.

Another person who joins us now from the State California with just a huge wealth of experience is Congressman-elect DAN LUNGREN. He had served, by the way, here in the House between 1979 to 1989. He now returns to the House after serving as the Attorney General of California, which, by the way, he did so for 8 years until 1998.

He, along with Newt Gingrich, formed the Conservative Opportunity Society here and really laid the foundation for the Contract with America. He is a man who, again, has been tested, really tested, and has always shown great leadership qualities, the ability to lead, the ability to fight for the issues that he believes are important. It is wonderful to have his wealth of experience back now on the majority team.

The third person that I am just excited, Madam Speaker, to be able to introduce is Congressman-elect LUIS FORTUNO, La Isla Del Encanto, representing Puerto Rico.

LUIS is a brilliant lawyer who has had significant experience in the business community, including being, by the way, for example, appointed as Puerto Rico's first Secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, an area he cares so deeply about.

I am just so excited to have him in the majority party, to work on issues that are dear to his heart, including economic development and many, many other issues.

LUIS is going to be the first Republican Resident Commissioner in the history of Puerto Rico. Think what that means, Madam Speaker. LUIS FORTUNO now will be in the majority party, will be speaking from the side of the majority when he speaks for the people that he represents. What a difference that is going to make for the people of Puerto Rico.

LUIS is also going to be a member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a growing group here of members of the majority who are concerned about, obviously, everybody in the country, but particularly concerned about the issues that particularly affect those of Hispanic descent and Portuguese descent.

So we are excited to have LUIS FORTUNO. It is a huge deal for the Island of Puerto Rico and for the people there, and it is a huge deal for us to have now as a member of the majority party a person who will now represent the Island of Puerto Rico. It is a distinct honor.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana for this opportunity to introduce three extremely capable, extremely talented members now of the growing majority conference.

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