[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 76 (Thursday, June 3, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H3750-H3753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FAREWELL TO PAGES

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, this is the longest 1-minute that we will 
see on the House floor in a year, and this is the annual farewell to 
our pages who have served us so well this last year. I would like to 
ask the page class of 2003-2004 to come on down to the well of the 
Chamber. Come on. Come on down, and find a place in the first two rows 
here.
  Well, here we are. It is a special time. As you finalize your 
activities today on the floor and you go through your graduation 
tomorrow and you get loaded up, first of all, thanks. Thanks for 
serving us. Thanks for serving your country. We are going to miss you.
  As chairman of the House Page Board, it is my privilege to 
acknowledge and thank this outstanding group of young men and women. 
Today marks your last day of service in the 2004 page class. You are 
starting another phase of your life, and all of these phases of life 
always continue. New phases, new challenges.
  While today is the ending of the page experience, it is the beginning 
of a multitude of opportunities that may not even be revealed to you 
yet. Universities and careers, travels and adventures, families and 
friends all lie on the horizon for each one of you.
  It is true that whenever one door closes, another one opens. Go 
boldly through each new door that presents itself during the course of 
your life and embrace the challenge that the world puts in front of you 
with the same vigor and expertise and the commitment to work that you 
have shown here on the floor.
  We really are proud of you. You have had an insider's view that a lot 
of people would pay a lot of money for. As many of you know, part of my 
West Point experience was leadership; it is a leadership school. What 
we teach at West Point is that there are good examples of leadership 
and there are bad examples of leadership, and take the good and 
remember the bad and try not to replicate the bad.
  As you have seen, a multitude of things happened in this last year, I 
challenge you to do the same thing. Look at the good qualities of the 
Members and the staff, not just the page program staff, from the dorm 
to the school, to here on the floor, but also your interaction with 
Members of Congress, your interaction with their staffs. Take the good. 
Remember that. Use that to help mold you into the kind of adult you 
want to be. But also remember the bad experiences, how maybe some of 
you saw the treatment of other individuals that you did not really 
think was right or proper, and use that and commit yourself to say, 
that is not going to be me when I am an adult. That is part of the 
learning and growing experience.
  I am going to be able to interject as we have a chance to share, but 
I want to yield now to the ranking member of the Page Board, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), a man who has been involved with 
this program, I would like to say forever, although he may not agree 
with that.
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
express my personal gratitude to all of the pages who have served so 
diligently here in the 108th Congress. We all recognize the important 
role that congressional pages play in helping the U.S. House of 
Representatives operate. You come from across the Nation. You represent 
what is good about our country.
  To become a page, you have had to prove yourselves to be academically 
qualified. You have ventured away from the security of your homes and 
families to spend time in an unfamiliar city. But through this 
experience, you have witnessed a new culture; you have made new friends 
and learned the details of how government operates. And you have seen 
Congress at its best and sometimes at its worst. We are human beings, 
but this is the greatest democracy in the world.
  As we all know, the job of congressional page is not an easy one, and 
no one knows that more than you. Along with being away from home, the 
pages must possess the maturity to balance the competing demands for 
their time and their energy. In addition, you must have the dedication 
to work long hours and the ability to interact with people on a 
personal level; from the powerful to everyone. You have had to deal 
with people, and I am very proud of how you have dealt with them.
  At the same time, you face a challenging academic schedule of classes 
in the House page school. I am sure that you will consider your time 
spent here in Washington, DC, to be one of the most valuable and 
exciting experiences of your lives. With that experience, you will move 
ahead and lead successful and productive lives.
  Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in the mid-1930s uttered these words, 
but they are as relevant today as they were during those very difficult 
times. He said, ``There is a strange cycle in human events. To some 
generations, much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.''
  This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

                              {time}  1445

  And having met all of you and seen you at work, I am confident that 
you will meet the challenges of that rendezvous.
  Mr. Speaker, as the Democratic member of the House Page Board, 
appointed by Speaker Tip O'Neill. I ask my colleagues to join me in 
honoring this group of distinguished young Americans. I am personally 
proud of you. I have benefited from you. I think we all add to one 
another. You added to my experiences. You have presented to me a 
challenge to do better. And when you go back home, you will have had a 
special experience that no one else will have had.
  There is a great program in this country called Close Up. It is a 
great

[[Page H3751]]

program, and I always meet with all my Close Up students. But no one 
has seen this government as close up as you. When you go back home, you 
will have every opportunity to talk about government and how, despite 
the faults and shortcomings, this is a great body and this is the 
greatest democracy in the world. And you are one of the reasons it is.
  Thank you very much, and God bless you.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, at this point, I will submit for the Record 
the names of the class of 2003-2004.

                            2003-2004 Pages


                              republicans

       Rebecca Ball-WA, Manfred Bekeris--AK, Ryan Bieshaar--CO, 
     Daniel Boden--CA, Anthony Bonna--FL, Clinton Brown--MO, 
     Diamond Bruner--VA, Tiffany Cannon--GA, and Michael 
     Capovilla--NV.
       Tom Church--MI (Camp), Dominique Clay--MI, Michael Dennis--
     PA, Jenna Douglass--DE, Andy Duberstein--VA, Chris 
     Fitzwater--CO, Patrick Fortune--CA, Andrew Gall--PA, and Tim 
     George--MD.
       Andrea Hall--KY, Clay Hammock--SD, Katelyn Hancock--IN, 
     Weston Jones--SC, Clara Kang--CA, Jenna Kelsey--NJ, Craig 
     Kreinbihl--OH, Carolina Krohne--FL, and Allison Kushner--NY.
       Nicholas Lane--AR, Matthew Mazzetta--IL, Elizabeth McCune--
     TX, Rachael McMillan--NC, Matthew Merighi--NJ, James 
     Orlando--NY, Sarah Reed--WY, Liesel Rickhoff--TX, and Ashley 
     Rubenstein--WV.
       Taylor St. Claire--AZ, Michael Sala--PA, Rebecca Sher--TX, 
     Kara Skarda--NC, Nicholas Smith--MI, Katherine Souza--CA, 
     Lynda Thorne--GA, Nicholas Vorpagel--WI, and Christine 
     Wright--CO.


                               democrats

       Clarice Bennett--IL, Kathryn Byerly--KS, Joseph Carliner--
     MD, Melissa Eddy--NC, Alexander Gates--PA, Omar Halabi--OH, 
     Demetrius Harrison--IL, and Ian Herron-Cary--IN.
       Corinna Holden--VT, David Horvath--MA, Sarah Johnson--WI, 
     Frances Mercedes--NY, David Miller--CA, Monica Ramos--CA, 
     Jennifer Ridder--CO, and Mallory Scarritt--FL.
       Samantha Shinberg--DC, Alison Shott--PA, Mary Swick--PA, 
     Maza Men-asche-Untemeyer--FL, Jeffrey Waters--NY, Brian 
     Wright--MN, and Blake Yocum--IA.

  Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the Minority Whip of the House 
of Representatives, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who has 
always been very, very supportive of the program and very gracious with 
his time to come down on the floor.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I thank all of you for participating in this program. It is important 
for America that you do so. You have gotten, obviously, something from 
this program, perhaps a great deal, but, in my opinion, America is 
getting more from this program.
  The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), who has served on this 
board for longer than any other Member and with whom I served on the 
board for a short period of time, observed that you have been given a 
unique privilege, an insight into democracy that few Americans get. 
They see us on C-SPAN, they read about us in the newspaper, they see 
short clips, the 30 seconds or the 15 seconds, but you know better than 
almost all of your colleagues, your peers, that that 30-second clip is 
not necessarily the truth of what happens.
  You have seen firsthand the dedication of Members. You have seen 
firsthand, as the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) pointed out, and 
the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) has as well, that those of us 
who have the great honor and privilege of serving here are just like 
you but a little older.
  You are all different. You have different points of view. I am sure 
you have had discussions about some of the issues that you have heard 
debated on this floor. You have seen that in your own peer group that 
you differ, and that, in fact, probably each of you reflects to some 
degree some of the sentiment expressed on this floor and you agree with 
that. And you will find the gal sitting next to you say that, no, I do 
not agree with that; I think X was right and not Y.
  That is the glory of our democracy, that we have created an 
institution in which the different points of view can come together and 
be discussed and be debated. You have seen that sometimes that debate 
becomes relatively heated and passionate, and it is because the issues 
discussed on this floor are very important and impact on all of us, but 
on you particularly, because you will live longer under the policies 
that we adopt today than the rest of us, at least on average.
  You have been given a special opportunity, and I would hope that you 
would feel that that comes with a particular responsibility. One of the 
concerns that those of us who are older have is that those of you who 
are younger do not participate in very high levels, at least in 
percentages, of impacting on the decisions we make in our democracy. 
The way most citizens impact on those decisions is, obviously, through 
voting in elections. Young people, as all of you know, do not vote at a 
very high percentage. That is of concern.
  I want to read you something that was said by an Englishman. He said, 
``We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no 
longer synonymous.'' Think of that. ``To be young and indifferent,'' he 
said, can no longer be synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. 
The claims of the future are represented by suffering millions; and the 
youth of a nation are the trustees of prosperity.''
  That was said by a gentleman who was the Prime Minister of Great 
Britain, Benjamin Disraeli. He said that in 1845. It is true today. It 
is true, in fact, as, again, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) 
pointed out, in every generation.
  We had a dedication to perhaps some of your grandfathers, the World 
War II Memorial, and perhaps your grandmothers as well who were called 
by Tom Brokaw the Greatest Generation. But, in fact, as Roosevelt 
indicated and as the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) pointed out, 
every generation is called upon to make its contribution.
  In some generations, the challenge is greater than it is in others. 
In World War II, we lost 60 million people in the world. 60 million. 
407,000 Americans killed in that war. We are engaged in another war 
today in your generation and in my generation, a war on terrorism. It 
calls upon a lot of young people and some middle-aged people, your 
parents' age, perhaps, in the Reserve or National Guard, to be deployed 
overseas, to confront those who would undermine our democracy and our 
security and our safety. And very soon, very, very soon, you will be 
called upon to be on the front line, perhaps not overseas but here 
certainly.
  So I would ask you to take from this House, from this well and this 
room that we call the People's House, to which one can only come by 
election, we just had a debate on that this week that you will recall, 
and I hope that you will go back and you will talk to your friends, 
perhaps your brothers and your sisters, your schoolmates, your peers, 
and tell them what you have seen.
  My experience has been that when I was president of the Maryland 
Senate, and we had a page program there, was that invariably those who 
were pages in the Senate, and my experience has been here with pages 
who have served in this House, that you leave with a more positive view 
than when you came. That does not mean that you have a rose-colored 
version of the House of Representatives. It is, after all, peopled by, 
as I said, people like you, with some strengths, some weaknesses, some 
faults and some extraordinarily good points.
  So I urge all of you to return to your schools, return to your homes, 
return to your communities and spread the word about the fact that 
democracy works, that your participation makes a difference, and that 
in the final analysis, if democracy is to work well, if it is to work 
as our Founding Fathers conceived it, it will be because we all 
participate.
  Good luck and God bless you. Thank you very much for your service.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, now I would like to ask my colleague, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), who, as many of you know, has been 
very involved in following your progress and lack thereof throughout 
this year, to address you all.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, first, let us all give each other a round of 
applause for a very, very successful year here in Congress.
  The first time you have actually been able to sit in the seats of 
Members on Congress and be on national TV. Congratulations. You really 
are living in a unique time in our country.
  I think my colleagues have well expressed the sentiments all of us 
having

[[Page H3752]]

watched you arrive one day as very young and excited newcomers to 
Washington, some with fear in your eyes because you have left friends 
and family, others with a sense of optimism and pride that you are 
getting to represent your districts from around this country.
  It is fun to watch the transformation from that first day to the last 
week. Because I see in all of you that sense of kind of reluctance to 
some degree to leave this place. You have met and have established 
lifelong friends in this very process.
  What is exciting for all of us that serve here is that you truly 
represent the best and brightest in this country. It is very, very 
difficult, as you know, to become a page in the Congress. It requires a 
number of skill sets that will serve you in life: leadership, 
intelligence, personality, perseverance, and faith; and those are 
attributes that, as you mature and go forward in life, will serve you 
in phenomenal ways.
  Many of you know that several Members of Congress originated in the 
page class. So it is not only a training and testing ground. You 
certainly got a long exposure to the good and bad Congress has to 
offer. The good is the fact that in this democracy, in this Chamber, we 
get to express our opinions about what goes on in the world. We get to 
weigh in on behalf of the district that I represent and the other 
Members represent, those 600-plus thousand people who count on us to 
come to this Nation's Capital every day to work on their behalf.
  Disagreements are the joy of democracy. You get to argue and discuss 
and debate and create hopeful solutions that do not reflect the 
partisan views of the people in this Chamber but reflect the views of 
all Americans.
  Now, I know you have one more year of high school to conclude and 
that probably is some degree of relief or maybe, to those you feel like 
you are probably well equipped to enter your first year of college, 
some of you, I think, in conversing with you, some are actually mature 
enough to enter college right away.
  I want to thank you for taking time out of your life. This is a 
sacrifice. It is unique.
  I know my page Anthony was, and is, expected to deliver the 
commencement speech. So a word of warning, Anthony, the 16th district 
is watching you very carefully.
  This Member of Congress, of course, is delighted that there is an age 
requirement to run for the job. He lives in my community, and he 
certainly has to reach 25 before he campaigns for this job.
  But congratulations on behalf of our district, our mutual district 
that you have been selected by your peers to have this high honor; and 
I will be looking for transcripts of that speech.
  Anthony came here as a page on the recommendation of several in our 
community. It was kind of interesting to watch this little mini-
campaign take place and those friends that he had in the northern part 
of my community urging and cajoling and talking to me about submitting 
his name to be a page. Of course, for those Members of Congress, we get 
to submit names, but, ultimately, it is the choice of the Page Board 
and the Speaker of the House that bestows on you this high honor. So 
you are, in essence, the Speaker's appointment.
  Take with you the valuable knowledge you have gained. Never forget 
your friends. Stay in touch. The interesting thing is that, years from 
now, as you look around the country and you have your page reunions, 
you will see each and every one of you doing something unique and 
different.

                              {time}  1500

  Hopefully, some of you will be going on to better communities by 
being teachers, police officers, firefighters, members of the military, 
nurses, veterans, whatever your chosen profession. A few may go on to 
be Congressmen, Congresswomen, Governors, Senators. In fact, in this 
very room may be the future President of the United States. God bless 
you. I wish you well, have a great life, and thank you for your service 
to this Congress.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his chance 
to share with you.
  Did he not mention that maybe it might be your high privilege and 
honor to be the chairman of the Page Board some year? He always leaves 
that off. I do not know why that is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Etheridge), who has a great history in education as a superintendent of 
schools, and I thank my colleague.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  To all of you, let me thank you. As the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Shimkus) has shared with you, prior to my coming to Washington, I had 
the distinct privilege of being the State superintendent of schools for 
the State of North Carolina. I consider that a high privilege because I 
got to work with wonderful young folks like you every day. And I was 
seated back there looking at the backs of your heads and said, I really 
want to see your faces because I have seen you in here from day to day.
  I want to associate myself with my colleagues' comments. I may repeat 
some of them, and I will be brief, but I do not want to. The truth is 
as they have said, and Lord knows how many commencement speeches I have 
made and groups I have spoken to, you are the future. You will move on 
the stage very quickly. And you will finish the work. It may be here in 
this Chamber or in the State legislative chamber or as a doctor, 
lawyer, preacher, teacher, whatever it may be. You will finish the work 
that others have started. And always remember that.
  I think it is good to remember that there are new ideas from time to 
time, and we have breakthroughs, but the greatest contributions are 
made by those who are willing to keep their hands on the steady plow, 
as we say in rural North Carolina, and you plow a straight furrow. In 
other words, you do the right thing. You were made out of the right 
stuff, and we are awful proud of you.
  I only wish that every student in America could have the same 
experiences that you have had for the last number of weeks you have 
been here. We would have a lot better country because they would go 
home with a different understanding of Washington, DC.
  I started to ask for a show of hands, but I will not do it, of how 
many of you when you came to Washington, this was the first time you 
had ever been to Washington. And if that is not true, this would be the 
first class we have had that that is not true of. For some of you, it 
may be the very first time you have been away from home for an extended 
period of time. You have adapted and adjusted to that.
  All of us can remember when we went away to camp for the first time, 
and a week is a long time, and you have been gone for a week and you 
have adapted well. You brought your school books with you. You were not 
sure how in the world you were going to handle all of that, right? But 
you did and you did a heck of a job, and we are proud of you.
  You have already shown that you can achieve before you came and you 
have added to that knowledge. So let me thank you for coming. I have 
full confidence in whatever you choose to do you will do well because 
you have already done well.
  Let me say to Melissa Eddy, who is from my congressional district, 
the Second District of North Carolina, we are proud of you. We are glad 
to have you here this week. And for all of you as you leave this week, 
including you, Melissa, when you leave here tomorrow and when you head 
home, you are going to get a little vacation probably. And depending on 
whether you are going to college or back to high school, it is going to 
be a short summer because some schools start pretty quick, college and 
otherwise.
  This has already been shared with you, but I want to share it with 
you again, that is, if you have not gotten everyone's mailing addresses 
and their known numbers and e-mails, get it and keep it. Your paths 
will cross again, sometime sooner than you think.
  Stay in touch. There are not many places you will ever go again in 
your life that you will spend and share the time you have shared one 
with another, with people all across America from virtually every State 
and have the opportunity to share ideas, whether you agree or disagree 
and have the kind of positive discourse and great understanding and 
learning you have had here.

[[Page H3753]]

  Have a safe trip home. Have a great summer. God bless all of you 
because you are special, special folks. I wish you all the luck in the 
world in whatever you choose to do.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) 
to come up as he wants to address the group. This is a perfect example. 
The gentleman and I are very good friends. We do not agree very much on 
about anything, but one thing we agree on is the service that you all 
conduct and the honor of this institution and the hard work that 
everybody puts into it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown).
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus). I know you really want to listen to one more 
speech because you have not heard enough speeches since you have been 
here.
  It is a pleasure to be here. I particularly thank the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) for 
their good work; to Wren, to all of your supervisors, your new 
supervisor, Joy Malleen, and to all of you especially for your public 
service at a very young age.
  The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) says this is an almost 200-
year tradition of pages working in the greatest legislative body in the 
world, and this is an achievement you can look back on. It is an 
achievement especially because if you are like Omar Halabi in my 
district, if you are like most people here, I think, it was not by 
accident you ended up here. You are obviously achievers at home. Many 
of you went through a competitive process to get here. You obviously 
have shown self-discipline; you are self-starters. You already have the 
kinds of values and the kind of work ethic that will get you ahead as 
you go off to college, and you go off in to the military and you go off 
into the workforce.
  I have watched Omar from Brecksville, Ohio, in my district and 
watched some others of you and talked to you, for some of you it is a 
semester, for others as Omar got to re-up as they say. I have gotten to 
see the personal growth and the kind of growing into the whole idea of 
public service.
  My short remarks, I will just say that I hope when you go home, I 
heard the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) talking about young 
people not registering to vote in very high numbers. I hope you will go 
home, those of you that are 18 now or soon will be 18 or have plenty of 
friends that are 18, that you make it your mission to register your 
friends to vote, to get involved, whichever side you want to be on in 
the Presidential race this year, whichever side you want to be on on 
any number of political campaigns at home in community service and 
encourage people, as President Theodore Roosevelt, my favorite 
Republican said, ``Get in the arena. That is where you really make a 
difference.''
  You have already been in the arena by working in this legislative 
body, by serving the Congress, by serving your country. You can 
accelerate that and go home and build on that and really be in the 
arena every day, back at school, back in the workplace, in the 
military, at home doing what you already know how to do. You have the 
leadership skills. You have the interpersonal skills. I hope that you 
will share those skills with people all over the 50 States of this 
country and get into the arena and do it.
  Congratulations to all of you.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to send my regards for the gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), who has visited with many of you. He is 
receiving an award down at the EPA. I know he is trying to get back 
here on time, but it looks like he will not. As you know, he has been 
very close to the program. He will get a chance to extend his remarks.
  To whom much is given, much is expected. And I think that is really 
is summary of what the Members who have come on the floor have 
attempted to say in their own way. We thank you for your service. We 
have all bled a little bit this year. We have all sweated a little bit 
this year. We have all cried a little bit this year, not only the pages 
but of course, of course, the dorm staff, the school staff, the floor 
staff. Make sure you go and tell them to thank the adult supervision 
folks who have been so patient to get us through this year.
  Again, from the House of Representatives, from the Speaker, from the 
minority leader, thank you for your service. Have a great graduation 
tomorrow. May God bless you all, and may God bless the United States of 
America. You are now dismissed.


                             GENERAL LEAVE

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks on the subject of my Farewell to the Pages 1-minute speech.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ose). Is there objection to the request 
of the gentleman from Illinois?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my 
colleagues in recognizing the Congressional Pages that will be ending 
their term of service this week. I would also like to commend 
Congressman Shimkus and Peggy Sampson for all of their hard work.
  The House Pages have made up the critically important support staff 
that has kept the House floor running smoothly for over 200 years.
  The 2003-2004 full-school year Pages were selected from hundreds of 
applicants, following an incredibly competitive process that 
scrutinizes their individual achievements in academics, leadership, and 
commitment to social and civic service.
  Page duties include delivering all types of correspondence and 
legislative materials throughout the Capitol and House Office 
Buildings, answering phones in the Members' Cloakrooms, relaying 
messages, flying flags over the Capitol, and preparing the House floor 
for session.
  These pages have spent their entire junior year of high school in 
Washington, D.C., living, taking classes and working for the House.
  The typical day of a Page begins very early at 5:45 am or 6:00 am to 
eat breakfast prior to attending classes for school at 6:45 am. At 
10:00 am, their legislative workday begins and lasts until the House 
adjourns in the evening; and sometimes into the early morning hour.
  These individuals have demonstrated their true commitment to playing 
an important role in our Nation's future by learning and working in the 
nation's capitol.
  We honor those Pages that have shown the same generosity of spirit, 
depth of intelligence, and capacity for human service that is so 
important to leaders.
  These exceptional students have consistently displayed their 
dedication, intelligence and concern throughout their time as a Page in 
Congress. They stand out among their peers not only because of their 
many achievements, but also the disciplined manner in which they meet 
all challenges. Although they have already accomplished a great deal, 
these young people possess unlimited potential.
  The House Pages are young men and women of character, ambition, and 
initiative, who have made a significant contribution to the United 
States House of Representatives and already learned well the value of 
hard work and commitment. Their efforts and dedication is very much 
appreciated and our best wishes bestowed upon them in all of their 
future endeavors that I am sure for some will include elected office 
including Congress. I suspect all will be leaders.
  On behalf of the United States House of Representatives, we extend 
our thanks and highest praise and congratulations to each Congressional 
Page.

                          ____________________