Donald M. Payne: “Good morning. Barbara, thank you very much. It is always a great honor and a real pleasure to be back here in the House…”

“Good morning. Barbara, thank you very much. It is always a great honor and a real pleasure to be back here in the House Chamber and especially being here with friends and so many colleagues. Thank you all for being here. Let me begin by thanking Speaker McCarthy for inviting our association into the House Chamber for this annual report. You may recall that it wasn't that long ago in December when we were here to do the 2022 report. You may wonder why are we back so soon. Well, the reason for that is that we are returning to normal. We had changes during COVID, and now we are back to what we have done for a very long time. I am so pleased that we are here and so pleased that you all have joined us. I want to welcome a very special group of guests who are with us today. We are very pleased to have more than a dozen of the Irish Association of Former Parliamentarians and their guests who traveled to Washington to join our annual meeting. They are led by their association's president, Mary Flaherty, and they will be with us today for the activities of the day. They will experience the Gettysburg battlefield tomorrow and Congressional Baseball Game tonight, which is a wonderful bipartisan tradition where the Democrats and Republicans play each other at the Nationals Ballpark. We thank you all so much for coming a long way to join us, and we are very honored by your presence here.…”