Welcoming the Honorable Mary Peltola to the House of Representatives

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, it is a rare privilege to be able to introduce as a new Member the dean of a delegation, but that is my particular pleasure today.

There are few honors greater, Madam Speaker, in this country than being elected by your neighbors and fellow Americans to represent them in the House of Representatives. I welcome Senator Murkowski and Senator Sullivan to our Chamber and remind them you cannot be appointed to the House of Representatives. Only by election can one serve in the people's House.

It is an extraordinary honor to have your friends and neighbors choose you to represent them in this body. When our friend and colleague Don Young passed away earlier this year, this House lost a giant. The people of Alaska lost a Representative who had served them with great ability, energy, courage, and commitment for half a century.

Earlier this month, Alaskans cast their votes to send a new Representative to carry their voice and views in Washington. The woman they chose just made history with the oath that she took. She made history by becoming the first Alaska Native to be elected to the Congress of the United States.

Madam Speaker, she also made history as the first woman not to represent Alaska but to represent Alaskans in the House of Representatives. Obviously, Senator Murkowski represents them in the Senate.

In Representative Mary Peltola, Alaskans chose someone who was not only a friend of former Representative Don Young but also someone cut from the same cloth, someone who believes fundamentally in pragmatism, independence, and putting Alaska's unique needs first. The Senators applaud that, apparently.

Representative Peltola is widely known across Alaska not only for her strong record as a State legislator but as a champion for rural and Native communities who are too often overlooked by policymakers. Don Young did not let that happen. She won't, either.

She has built solid relationships across both parties in Alaska because of what many have called her extreme kindness and her determination to befriend all that she meets.

Her record reflects Alaskans' independent approach to the most divisive issues, and in her election, she appealed to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Her campaign slogan reflected what she and many others consider the three fundamentals of Alaska: fish, family, and freedom.

Indeed, she has already begun to assemble a bipartisan staff to serve her constituents. Representative Peltola has a long record of working well with Alaska Republicans and even campaigning for Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who is with us here today, when she faced a primary challenge from an extreme candidate.

What Alaskans have known and shown by them electing Mary Peltola is that, like so many other Americans, they want to be represented by someone who is focused on bipartisanship and not on confrontation. They want someone who will put people over politics and get things done.

That has been Representative Peltola's record back home in Alaska, and I know it will be her philosophy here in Washington. In so many ways, she is a perfect successor to Representative Young, who worked hard to make sure his fellow Republicans understood Alaskans' unique challenges and preferences on major issues.

In similar fashion, Representative Peltola will be an important addition to the House, helping us better understand the perspectives of rural and Native communities and the special concerns of Alaskans as our majority works to deliver results and expand opportunities for all Americans.

I know, Madam Speaker, Mary will be warmly welcomed to the House by all of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Because Alaska has only one at-large Representative in the House, the honor falls to me today, as the senior-most Member of our party, to introduce her. It is an honor I wholeheartedly accept, and I now ask my colleagues to join me in welcoming Alaska's new Representative and someone we will all very shortly be calling our good friend, Mary Peltola.

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Alaska (Mrs. Peltola).

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