09.30.15

Senator McConnell Honors Congressman Whitfield on the Senate Floor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding U.S. Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY-01) announcing his retirement following the end of his term:

“Yesterday, Representative Ed Whitfield announced that he will retire at this end of this term. Ed has served Kentucky’s first district for more than 20 years. He will be missed here in the Capitol when he retires. It’s clear that his leadership will be missed back in Kentucky too.

“Our troops at Fort Campbell will miss it.

“Workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant will miss it.

“Kentucky’s countless coal families — hardworking Kentuckians he never failed to stand up for — will certainly miss it as well.

“Ed was rightly considered a Western Kentucky trailblazer when he became the first Republican elected to represent that district back in 1994. Our party, the Republican Party, never held it going back to the Civil War…an enormous breakthrough.

“Ed has worked hard to deliver for the Commonwealth in the two decades since. He will leave behind a record of service and of accomplishment.”

Related Issues: Tributes