[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26105]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 STAFF DESERVE RESPECT AND APPRECIATION

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, the Bible tells us that the testing of our 
faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work that 
we might be mature, complete, not lacking in anything.
  At this hour, Mr. Speaker, as every day since the emergency 
adjournment of the Congress on October 17, my Washington staff labors 
on card tables and folding chairs in the relative obscurity of a 
Rayburn office building banquet hall. These dedicated young people have 
been exiled from our Washington office ever since we learned that trace 
elements of anthrax were discovered there; and they have been laboring, 
Mr. Speaker, with astonishing integrity and astonishing commitment and 
dedication to the thousands of people we serve across east central 
Indiana. Bill Smith, Ron Arnold, Jennifer Marsh, Patrick Wilson, 
Stephen Piepgrass, Ryan Fisher, Andrew Kincaid, Chris Kiefer, and Mary 
Breeding all deserve recognition for their patient endurance in the 
trial of serving and especially for their patience in putting up with 
me.
  When I asked each one of them whether or not they might talk with 
their parents about a better place to work after 9-11 and even after 
the anthrax scare, I told them there was only one family that had to be 
in Washington, D.C. to serve the people in this district and that was 
mine; and to their undying credit, every one of them stayed. They labor 
at this very hour on behalf of the people of the second district, and 
they deserve our respect and appreciation.

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