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When Senator Harkin was retiring,
and I was in the House and running for

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the Senate, he called me over and he said,
"Tammy, I'm handing the reins over to you."

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(laughing)

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♪ (music) ♪

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It has just sort of fallen to me to

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champion ADA issues, being a wheelchair user.

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And then, Senator Harkin was retiring
and I was in the House

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and running for the Senate,
he called me over

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and he said,
"Tammy, I'm handing the reins over to you."

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(laughter) "I'm handing the torch to you.
You need to be the torch bearer

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and you need to really represent
the entire disability community

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because you, frankly, would't be here
had the disability community

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not been there
before you even became disabled."

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And he was absolutely right.

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I find myself being the go-to person
on a lot of the ADA issues

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as they come up in Congress.

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♪ (music) ♪

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I said, yes, I was honored.

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I mean, to be able to be handed
the mantle from

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Tome Harkin is quite the honor.

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And you know,
I don't know that I can fill his shoes,

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but I try everyday to make sure
I do my best to represent the community,

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but also to just fight for basic common--

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and this is what I did in the Army,
I fought for freedom,

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I fought for people's rights.
And this is just a basic human right,