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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BICE. Thank you very much.
First of all, thank you, Barbara, and to the former Members for honoring me. It is truly an incredible honor for me to receive this.
I think it would be wise for me to share with all of you how I got here because it is sort of a fun story.
When I came to Congress, it was 2021. COVID was rampant. Being a freshman and going through orientation was challenging for a lot of reasons. I had served in the State legislature prior, and I had done a sort of mentor program. As I did orientation here in Washington, there were some things that I thought should be different.
The Speaker talked about coming on the House floor with the midshipmen last night. When I was a Member-elect, I walked onto this floor after about 3 days of orientation, and I thought to myself: Why did it take so long?
When you have that first moment on this House floor, there is no greater moment. You have worked so hard to get here. You never forget it.
I wanted that opportunity to be the first thing that happened on orientation. When you got to D.C., it should be at night. It should be quiet. You should get to come and sit in these chairs, where only a few thousand people before us have sat, and take this moment in.
I decided to take it upon myself to make a suggestion to the Speaker, the leader at the time, on what should be different, should we be in the majority and be able to sort of decide how orientation goes.
Fast-forward a year, I landed in D.C. from the Marshall Scholars trip. I got a call from the Speaker at the time, Kevin McCarthy, who said: I have some great news for you. I am going to put you on the House Administration Committee, and you are going to be the chairwoman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Modernization.
I didn't call him ``Mr. Speaker'' for a reason that you will understand in a second. I said: Kevin, you have waived me onto the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. I am now the designee to Budget from Appropriations. I am an appropriator, and now you have put me on House Administration.
His response was: It is going to be great.
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Mrs. BICE. It is true, Mr. Upton. It is better than the House Committee on Ethics.
For those Members that have been around for a while, I tell you that to say that I was in for a challenge. As the Members know, being on four committees is not an easy task.
The coolest part of that experience, though, is I had just landed and had just spent 4 days with Derek Kilmer, who I did not know until that trip. I think it was serendipitous that I was given this opportunity.
It has been a great pleasure. It has taken a lot of work because I was not on the select committee to be able to understand what had been done the 4 years prior.
I feel honored and privileged to be in this role. I hope that I am making the former Members proud, and I hope that I am making this institution better for the long term.
I could not do this job, this role, without staff. I see Derek Harley sitting over here, who, sadly, is leaving me soon. I couldn't do it without an incredible staff on the Committee on House Administration team, so thank you to Derek and Marian and all of those who have been a part of this.
My personal office staff, Robert Sar, Wesley Harkins, my deputy chief, Jett Thompson, these individuals have all been a tremendous part of making sure that I am successful in this role. I couldn't do this without them.
I want to say thank you. Thank you for this great opportunity and for this honor to be recognized today.
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