Isakson Honors Rep. Westmoreland in Floor Speech

Sen. Johnny Isakson honored Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R, GA-3) from the Senate Floor on Thursday. Isakson recognized Westmoreland’s many years of leadership in the U.S. House, while also noting some of his professional accomplishments prior to joining Congress. Sen. Isakson also took a few moments to share a little about Westmoreland’s family, including his 47 years of marriage to his wife Joan.

Westmoreland will retire from Congress in January after serving six consecutive terms. He is serving on the House Financial Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, and the Steering Committee in his final term.

Drew Ferguson (R), who was endorsed by Westmoreland in the GOP primary runoff, faces Angela Pendley (D) in November to replace Rep. Westmoreland.

A transcript of Sen. Isakson’s remarks can be seen after the break.

“I want to pause for a moment and pay tribute to a great Georgian who will be retiring at the end of December who served our state for six terms in the United States House of Representatives, Mr. Lynn Westmoreland.

Lynn Westmoreland is a true entrepreneur, a native Georgian, a dedicated father, an outstanding businessman and an unquestionable leader in the United States House of Representatives. As a member of the Intelligence Committee in the House, he has been instrumental since 9/11 to seeing to it that we remain safe in this country and that we have the information we need to make the decisions we need to make to keep America safe.

I go back with Lynn Westmoreland a long, long time. I was a Realtor in Georgia in the brokerage business for 33 years and dealt with homebuilders all the time. One was Lynn Westmoreland. Early in his career he founded his own construction company called L.A.W. Builders. He was an outstanding home builder in Fayette County, Ga., in our state. He built that business to be one of the best building and construction businesses in our state, and I’m proud of what he accomplished.

He’s also a guy that gives back, so Lynn decided to run for public office. He ran for the Georgia House of Representatives from Fayette County and won. He served 12 years in the Georgia House, rising to Republican leader in the Georgia House of Representatives. He was the leader at the time when the Georgia Republican Party went from the minority party to the majority party.

Wherever Lynn has been, he has been a leader and fighter for what’s right for our country and to be a dynamic leader for our state.

Lynn’s married to beautiful lady named Joan. They have three children and seven grandchildren. She has been a great supporter of Lynn, side by side since they first met at the age of 15 and began their 47-year marriage a few years later.

Lynn will be retiring, and we will miss him. We want to say thank you to Lynn for all that he’s done for Georgia when he was in our legislature, and for America in the Congress of the United States. He will be sorely missed but he will be appreciated always as a man of courage, a man of conviction, a man of commitment and a true son of Georgia that excelled in the United States of America.”