Recognizing Joe Schumacher
Floor Speech
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Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Joe Schumacher for his 25 years of dedicated service to the great folks in Virginia's First Congressional District and to our Nation.
Joe first served as chief of staff and district director for my predecessor, Jo Ann Davis. He started with her in 2001 and then in 2007 came over and worked as a district director in our office.
Joe has been incredible, a great leader, a great servant leader. He is connected in every way, shape, or form to the district, to the folks that either knock on the door or call him on the telephone. In fact, he is proactive. He gets out there and interacts with folks to understand what is needed in our community. He also is making sure that we are a one-stop shop. Anything that comes in our office, we are going to help somebody. Even if it doesn't involve a Federal agency or there is a Federal nexus, Joe is going to make sure that we help those folks.
His pride in the First Congressional District extends to everything that he does, and it is that caring about people and about issues important to the district that really make a difference. He is very energetic, and his commitment to bettering the lives of Virginians and the folks in the First District is unparalleled.
I am deeply grateful to Joe for his years of service, his expertise, and his countless number of hours that he has spent--many, many hours of overtime out there working on behalf of the great folks in the First Congressional District.
He has had a profound impact not only on the district but on my work. I look to him to make sure we understand what needs to happen, and he is there to help motivate me to get those things done.
He is truly one of the finest leaders that I know, and I deeply appreciate his dedication to the great folks in the First District.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join me in recognizing Joe Schumacher for his 25 years of service to Virginia's First Congressional District and to our Nation. Funding Community Projects
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Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I will speak briefly about community project funding. Through fiscal year 2026, the appropriations process, I was able to advocate and secure 20 million taxpayer dollars, money to come back to the First Congressional District. This is about making sure we do our job here and making sure those districts get the dollars that our constituents pay into the Federal system, making sure some of those dollars come back. I am proud to deliver results that matter to Chesterfield County, Matthews County, Bethel Manor Elementary School, the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority, the city of Williamsburg, Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Colonial Behavioral Mental Health.
It is not just abstract investments. These are projects that have an impact on communities. Things like Collier Behavioral Health, where they are actually going to increase access, starting with primary care and enhancing behavioral and mental health services.
We are going to do things like protecting drinking water there in the city of Williamsburg, supporting working waterfronts to make sure our economy continues to grow with industries that rely on having access to these creeks. That means dredging the creeks to keep them open for boating traffic. We talked about the importance of access to mental health services but comprehensive healthcare, and investing in major infrastructure projects. These things have massive impacts on communities and are leveraged in many ways to as much as ten or twentyfold over the Federal dollars that come to these localities.
Community project funding, again, does the things that we are intended to do here in Congress, and that is bring back the dollars that our taxpayers pay to the Federal Government, bring them back to communities in ways that matter the most. Members of Congress that are elected to serve those people are the best judgment pieces or places where those decisions are made. It is our job to make sure we advocate for those projects.
I am proud to work on behalf of the Commonwealth to secure $20 million that come back to these critical projects there in the First Congressional District and will make a difference, a tangible, meaningful difference, a visual difference in what happens in the quality of lives of folks in the First Congressional District. It allows us, too, to make sure that we do the most basic job here and our constitutional duty of making sure that we appropriate in ways that advance the interest and improve the quality of life in our communities.
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