[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H2635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  WELCOMING THE HONORABLE MARK SANFORD TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from South Carolina 
(Mr. Wilson) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, South Carolina is very 
fortunate. Due to the quality of life in South Carolina, tens of 
thousands are moving to the Palmetto State from the Midwest and 
Northeast, and from around the world.
  South Carolina has gained a new seat in Congress to include the 
communities of Myrtle Beach and Florence, now held by Tom Rice. This 
new Seventh District rotated all districts, creating a unique district 
of the First. The First District of South Carolina is virtually 10 
miles wide along the Atlantic Coast from McClellanville in Charleston 
County to Defauskie Island in Beaufort County. It's a special district 
to Tom and myself in that we were both born in Charleston, America's 
most historic city. The district is a composite of America.
  In the district's first election, Tim Scott was elected as only the 
second African American from South Carolina elected to Congress in 100 
years. We are grateful Governor Nikki Haley appointed Congressman Tim 
Scott to serve in the U.S. Senate. This created a replacement primary 
with 16 participants, the largest number ever in a congressional 
primary.
  We are here today to recognize the survivor of the primary, run-off, 
and general election--Congressman Mark Sanford.
  I yield to Congressman David Price of North Carolina.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in place of the dean of the South Carolina 
delegation, Congressman Jim Clyburn, who is away this week on family 
medical leave, and asked me to read this statement:

       Swearing-in Day is always about new beginnings. In that 
     spirit, I want to extend the hand of collegiality to Mark 
     Sanford as he begins a new chapter of service to the people 
     of South Carolina and this great country in the U.S. House of 
     Representatives. Though our past differences have been widely 
     chronicled and we bring different sets of experiences to the 
     public square, I will always work to find common ground as we 
     fulfill our duties and responsibilities to the people who 
     sent us here.

  Mr. Speaker, Mark Sanford's colleagues in the Carolinas delegations 
join Mr. Clyburn in wishing Mark well and welcoming him back to the 
House.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. I yield to Congressman Mark Sanford of 
the First District of South Carolina.
  Mr. SANFORD. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House of 
Representatives of the United States Congress, I look forward to 
working with each one of you. Republican and Democrat, different 
perspectives we may hold, but at the end of the day we are here to 
represent the people of South Carolina, and I look forward to going 
about that business with you.
  I see friends, like Eliot Engel, who were so kind to call me in the 
wake of the events of 2009, Democrat that he may be. I see a whole host 
of Republicans, long friends; and it is, indeed, an honor to be back 
with each one of you.
  I look forward to working with you on a whole host of issues. 
Obviously, the greatest among them for me will be efforts to get our 
financial house back in order here in Washington, D.C. But above all 
else, here on this day, I am simply humbled to be here.
  Each one of our lives involves different journeys, but on that 
journey I think that we can, in essence, be taken to places wherein we 
develop levels of appreciation perhaps that we never had before.
  And so I stand here before each one of you more appreciative than I 
ever could have been for the honor of working with each one of you here 
in the United States Congress, the Congress of the Nation most blessed 
of all nations here on this Earth. I stand before you most appreciative 
of the people of the First Congressional District of South Carolina 
that Joe just alluded to, a people who have taught me a whole lot about 
love and humility, about wisdom, and about grace. I stand before you, I 
guess, with a whole new appreciation, indeed, for a God of second 
chances, and how in the events of our lives, up or down they may be, 
how every one of us can be refined as human beings in that process. I 
stand before you as a human being most appreciative in whole new ways 
for the significance of family and friends.
  In that regard, I see Belen up there; I see my sons Marshall and 
Landon; I see my sister Sarah and her husband, Bill; I see my mom, Peg; 
I see a long list of different friends.

                              {time}  1740

  I would thank them for their presence here to share this day. I would 
thank a long list of friends, whether that's Buff Chace, whom I've 
known for the whole of my life, or somebody like Joe Taylor, who was my 
Secretary of Commerce while I was Governor.
  In essence, each one of them is an emissary, a representative, to 
thousands who were so kind to hold me up through the last couple of 
years and to be instrumental in this election that brought me to this 
very place. Above all else, though, I am simply humbled to be here, and 
I look forward to working with each one of you.
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance 
of my time.

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