First Lady Touts Treasury Employees

First Lady Michelle Obama continued her tour of federal agencies today, with her shortest trip so far--across the street from the White House to the Treasury Department.

Some excerpts from her remarks:

And I want to join the Secretary in recognizing Valerie [Hunter, whose husband, Vernon, was killed in an attack on an IRS office earlier this year]. It is an honor to have you here. As the Secretary said, you've put in your share of years at the IRS in Austin, Texas, and working in the same building where her husband was killed. We are so incredibly sorry for your loss, but you should know that we are praying with you. And it is just wonderful to see such a strong support system here for you. So we are grateful that you're here. And I was honored to be able to take a picture with you and show it to -- if you can believe, she's got six kids, seven grandkids. She doesn't look like she would have all that. But thank you so much for being here today.

I also want to give a special welcome to someone else: Pauline Fenderson. Where is Pauline? Is that -- I could have known it was you. It was the hat that tipped me off. But Pauline is from the IRS in Detroit, and Pauline started her career as a typist when Harry Truman was President of the United States. So she was a typing prodigy. She was probably two when she did that. Because she looks fantastic. But now, 60 years later, she's still working as an individual taxpayer assistance specialist. And even though she says that sometimes -- just like all of us, she's a mere mortal -- sometimes getting up on Mondays is hard, she does it because she enjoys giving folks a helping hand. ...

But whether you've been here for 60 years or 60 days -- because we also know there are a lot of new folks who are just joining Treasury -- it's wonderful to see a group of people who work so hard every day and make such a strong commitment to this country. And it is a privilege, one of my greatest privileges as First Lady, to be able to travel throughout Washington to say hello and to thank you all for the work that you're doing, because as my husband always says, he gets a lot of the glory and a lot of the sympathy for working long hours, but the truth is, you all are working hard, you're making sacrifices. And we couldn't have accomplished the things that we have in this administration so quickly without your dedication. So my job here is simply to say thank you for all that you do and all that you'll continue to do. We are truly grateful for your service.