WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) released the following statement upon the news that committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) will retire at the end of the 113th Congress:
“Despite our policy differences, Henry Waxman and I have forged a friendship and respect for one another based on our shared experience as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - a special privilege that for us feels like the best job in Congress. Working together over the last three years, we have never allowed our principled differences to prevent us from finding common ground where we can and delivering a number of bipartisan successes, especially in the effort to improve the public health. Our proudest collaboration was in the 1990s, when we teamed with the late Senator Paul Wellstone and Senator John McCain to double research funding for the National Institutes of Health. Providing hope for cures and medical breakthroughs is a goal that transcends politics, and one we continue to share today. We still have much work to do in 2014 I look forward to building upon our committee’s record of bipartisan success."
