 Now if you will repeat after me, I, Margaret Mary Hecker, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, on which I am about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. Thank you. Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Madam Justice and my family today sharing a very special moment. I say that the glory and honor of this moment because the longs to the Lord who made it possible for me to be here and to experience it and indeed the strength that I will call upon in fulfilling the oath that has just been expressed again will be his strength. This is an exciting day for me, Mr. President and for my family, especially so because on my first day as a new member of Congress, two colleagues stood behind me and one said to the other, how did this secretary get into the Congress? And the other colleague said she was elected. She defeated Joseph Martin. And now I find that from being called a secretary that I will have the great honor in my life to be Madam Secretary, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Mr. President, I cannot express my gratitude to you and my desire to indeed symbolize the compassion and caring I know you feel for the American people. In a sense as a member of Congress, I saw your prescription for America and indeed I could call you Dr. Reagan because I believe the medicine is working. Indeed, although we enjoy spring in Washington, in a sense we are enjoying as well the beginning of a harvest of the economic wisdom that you have so wisely shared with our government and with the American people. But there are still people in need and they will be my special concerns as Secretary of the People's Department of the Government. I want to say, Mr. President, that my loyalty to you is not exceeded by any other concern, but it will be expressed in loyalty to the people. In serving the people in the Congress for all these years, I will draw upon that congressional experience and will serve you and the nation with that same spirit. I will do everything in my power to make you and the nation proud that a woman has been nominated to head this important department. As awesome as the task is, the resources of the good Lord and your own leadership are unlimited. I draw upon them and thank you for making this moment possible. Well, Mr. Vice President, Justice O'Connor, today I'm pleased to say that we welcome aboard someone that I know will be a valuable member of this administration. Now, some have charged that Margaret Heckler was offered the job because this administration is partial to a certain ethnic group in our society, and that I want to keep their favor. Now, let me be telling you that Margaret Heckler being an Irish Colleen has nothing at all to do with this appointment. Seriously, Margaret is the daughter of Irish immigrants, and her first ambition was to play the concert piano. Lucky for us, she chose a political career instead, where she might add harmony in a much more difficult place to create it. During the 16 years in Congress, Margaret has been known for her boundless energy, her enthusiasm, and she'll need it in the job that she takes on as of today. And Margaret, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, I know that you'll oversee the federal department with 142,000 employees and an annual budget of $274 billion. Only two budgets in the world are greater than that, the entire budget of the United States government and the budget of the Soviet Union. It's a tough job, and I'm happy that a hard-working, dedicated and thoroughly decent individual has been named as Secretary of that awesome job. And I'm delighted and grateful that Margaret Heckler has accepted this responsibility. So welcome to the team, and good luck. And I say that with all my heart. And in case you don't know, this is Margaret's talk. Yes, two other children are here. Oh, no, she's in here and is now completed. All except doing the job. Yeah, John is here and my children over, father. John, John, would you come with me? All right. I'll even let her give you the line that I put bad here, so you'll get a kick out of it. I hope you're going to go to war on this one.