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Published January 10, 2017
What is in that Texas air?
Several members of the Lone Star state’s congressional delegation have the distinction of being among the lead gabbers on Capitol Hill.
The state’s two senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both Republicans, spoke as frequently as all of the 30 least verbal members of their chamber combined, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of floor speeches.
The analysis found that Cornyn debated on the floor 23 days, while Cruz out-talked all his first-year colleagues with six days of speaking.
“On the flip side, it took all 30 senators who had spoken twice, once or zero times to equal the Texans’ 29-day total,” the newspaper said.
The Chronicle looked at the Senate, but Texans in the House made their own mark.
Rep. Ted Poe, also a Republican, is known as Congress’ top talker, and actually has a record to back that.
The former judge took to the floor more than 200 days in the last session last year, and 235 days in the 2009-2010 one, according to C-SPAN.
"The 64-year-old former judge is an oratory throwback in the age of text messages and Twitter," wrote Richard Simon in the Los Angeles Times, adding that Poe has figured out that it takes 175 words to comply with keeping a statement to a minute.
Simon noted, however, that "it's hard to tell whether Poe's speeches have any impact, because the chamber often is mostly empty when he talks."
Right behind Poe in the top talkers in the House is none other than fellow Texan Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texans-in-congress-hold-records-for-talking-most