[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 WELCOMING THE HONORABLE STEVE SCALISE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. 
McCrery) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McCRERY. Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure for me on behalf of the 
Louisiana delegation to introduce to the Members of the House our 
newest Member, Steve Scalise. Steve is a graduate of the home of the 
current national college football champions, the LSU Tigers. And he has 
a degree in computer science. And he told me to tell you all that if 
you are having problems with your computer, feel free to call him.
  Steve comes to us after 12 years' experience in the Louisiana 
legislature where he had a distinguished career. He was known as a 
reformer in a place where there was not much reform on the minds of 
many people in State government. So Steve comes to us with a 
distinguished record of service for the people of Louisiana already. 
And I am sure he will bring that same distinction to his service here 
in the House.
  Steve has a lovely family, which I will give him the honor of 
introducing. Please help me welcome to our ranks Steve Scalise.
  Mr. SCALISE. Thank you, Congressman McCrery. Thank you, Madam 
Speaker, Leader Boehner, the rest of the members of the Louisiana 
delegation and all of my new colleagues here in the House of 
Representatives.
  It is truly an honor to serve in this distinguished body. I must 
thank so many people. But I have got to first thank God for helping to 
give me the strength to get here. I want to thank my family and my 
wife, Jennifer, who is in the balcony with our beautiful daughter, 
Madison. It is also Jennifer's birthday today, so it is an even extra 
special day. I promise I will not sing here on the floor, maybe later. 
We do have a 13-month-old beautiful daughter, Madison.
  My father is here with his wife, Maggie. I want to thank him and 
Maggie for coming. My sister, Tara, is here as well. And my brother, 
Glenn, could not be with us. I know my mom, Carol, is looking from 
above and smiling. And so many other friends and family, we have got a 
wonderful group of friends that are here with us today as well. And it 
is truly an honor. I want to thank the voters of the First 
Congressional District for giving me this honor.
  While we have many challenges, while we are still recovering, I want 
to thank each of you for all the help you have given us in the recovery 
from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. There is still work to do, but the 
help you have given has really helped people start to get their lives 
back in order. I know our country faces many great challenges too, but 
our Founding Fathers created the greatest democracy in the history of 
the world when they created this system that we have, this House and 
Senate. In this building we have got the ability, the talent and the 
people to solve those problems. I look very forward to working with 
each and every one of you to help tackle those challenges.
  Thanks again to the voters of the district and my family. God bless 
Louisiana, and God bless the United States of America.

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