Election of Speaker

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. It is a high honor to welcome all Members of Congress and their families to the House of Representatives.

To the new Members and their families, a special congratulations and welcome to you. We all wish you great success. Congratulations to you.

We all come here to represent our constituents. Our respect for each other is founded in our respect for the people that we represent.

This month, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States.

As a student, I was there in the freezing cold. For some of you, you have read about it in the history books, but to Bob and me, it was our youth.

Right, Bob?

I was there in the freezing cold and heard the stirring address that inspired generations of Americans to public service.

In his 1962 State of the Union Address, right from here, from this dais, President Kennedy said to the Congress: the Constitution makes us all trustees of the American people, custodians of the American heritage.

Today, as we take the oath of office to support and defend our Constitution, we do so as trustees of America's best hopes and as custodians of America's highest values. However we may differ, let us never lose sight of our common laws for this exceptional Nation and our shared obligation to the way forward.

I started off by acknowledging and welcoming and congratulating the Members and their families. Our families have always helped light the way forward for all of us. With a full and grateful heart, I want to thank my family: my husband of 47 years, Paul Pelosi; my children, Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul, and Alexandra; and my grandchildren. I am proud, too, to be from a large family--the youngest of seven--and to acknowledge my brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, the former mayor of Baltimore, Maryland.

Welcome, Thomas.

Let me thank my constituents in San Francisco, whom I am proud to represent in the spirit of the anthem of our city of Saint Francis--the song of Saint Francis--and I am so pleased that that was recited by all of us at the interdenominational service this morning.

I am grateful to my colleagues for their commitment to equality, which is both our heritage and our hope, giving me the historic honor of being the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives. Now more doors are wide open for all of America's daughters and granddaughters.

I am also honored to be the first Italian-American Speaker. Like many Americans, our heritage is a source of great pride and of deeply ingrained patriotism which summons us to build a stronger Nation. We recognize that the proudest title we will ever hold is not accorded on this floor. It is the simple dignity of the title ``American''--part of our great democracy that continues to be the greatest hope of liberty and progress for the entire world.

When I was first elected Speaker, I called the House to order on behalf of America's children; and now, as I prepare to hand the gavel over to Speaker Boehner, I know one thing above all else: Thanks to you, we have stood with those children and for their families--for their health, their education, the safety of the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the food they eat.

Thanks to you, for those children and their families, we have made the largest ever commitment to making college more affordable, enacted Wall Street reform with the greatest consumer protections in history, and passed a strong Patients' Bill of Rights. It means that children with preexisting conditions can get care; young people can stay on their parents' policies until they are 26; pregnant women and breast and prostate cancer patients can no longer be thrown off their insurance; our seniors are paying less for their medical prescriptions. Taken together, it will save taxpayers $1.3 trillion.

Thanks to you, thanks to all of us, we advanced the defining American cause of ``equality for all'' from the first days of the Congress with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to the last days with the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

And thanks to you, we achieved more for America's veterans than at any time since the passage of the GI Bill of Rights in 1944. Because of our courageous troops and our veterans, we will always be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Let us now salute our men and women in uniform.

To honor them, we must build a future worthy of their sacrifice, which includes good-paying jobs when they come home. It is not enough that we staved off a depression. Much more needs to be done to open up the American Dream and lift up the American economy. The only acceptable outcome is to fully and finally restore fair prosperity that good-paying jobs provide.

Our most important job is to fight for American jobs, to make it in America--Steny--and so Democrats will judge what comes before Congress, from either side of the aisle, as to whether it creates jobs, strengthens the middle class, and reduces the deficit, not burdening future generations. When the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and the new Republican majority--and congratulations, again--come forward with solutions that will address these American challenges, you will find us a willing partner.

As we congratulate Speaker Boehner and our Republican colleagues, as we wish them success, we must stand ready to find common ground, to solve problems, and to build a more secure future for all Americans.

And as we take the oath of office today to support and defend the Constitution, we must be ever mindful that it makes us trustees for the American people, with an obligation to do what is right for them, and custodian of the American heritage--our great values.

Thank you, my colleagues, for the honor of serving in that tradition as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. I thank you, my colleagues.

Again, I want to congratulate all of the new Members of Congress, all of you who have been reelected, but especially the new majority and the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner.

Now, the House will be led by a proud son of Ohio, a man of conviction, a public servant of resolve, and a legislative leader of skill. Speaker Boehner is a leader who has earned the confidence of his conference and the respect of his colleagues in the Congress. He is a man of faith: faith in God, faith in our country, and faith in his family.

It is very important for us, in acknowledging that, for us to acknowledge his family, his wife, Mrs. Boehner. As we congratulate him, we congratulate and thank Debbie for sharing him with us and Lindsay and Trisha and, indeed, the entire Boehner family. Thank you and congratulations to all of you.

Now, recognizing our roles under the Constitution, united in our love of our country, we now engage in a strong symbol of American democracy, the peaceful and respectful exchange of power. I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here, but the gavel of choice of Speaker Boehner--I now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes with it to the new Speaker. God bless you, Speaker Boehner. God bless this Congress and God bless America.

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