The Arizona congresswoman received at least three long rounds of applause from colleagues as she entered the Capitol building for the first time since she was shot in the head in Tucson in January during a meeting with constituents at an Arizona Safeway. The gunman was Jared Lee Loughner, who ended up killing six people.
After months of partisan impasse, the House on Monday approved a budget agreement intended to head off a potential government default, pushing Congress a big step closer to the conclusion of a bitter fight that has left both parties bruised and exhausted.
Despite the tension and uncertainty that has surrounded efforts to raise the debt ceiling, the vote of 269-161 was relatively strong in support of the plan, which would cut more than $2.1 trillion in government spending over 10 years while extending the borrowing authority of the Treasury Department.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi recognized Giffords on the floor, saying she is "the personification of courage, of sincerity, of admiration throughout the country."
Pelosi said, "Throughout America, there isn't a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her than the name Gabby Giffords."
Giffords was all smiles as she was met with hugs and handshakes and surrounded by her colleagues. It has been less than two months since she was released from Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital. At the time of her release, doctors said it may take months, or even years, of intensive therapy for her to relearn how to speak and walk.