Mary Kevin Niland is a former

Reading Clerk of the United States House of Representatives The Reading Clerk of the United States House of Representatives reads bills, motions, and other papers before the House and keeps track of changes to legislation made on the floor. During the vote for Speaker at the beginning of each Congress, or ...

, a face familiar to viewers of

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

, the network which covers House proceedings. The reading clerk reads bills,

motions In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and meas ...

, and other papers before the House and keeps track of changes to

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

made on the floor. During the vote for

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. ...

at the beginning of each

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

(or when the electronic voting system fails), the Reading Clerk calls the roll of members for voting ''

viva voce ''Viva voce'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice" but most often translated as "by word of mouth." It may refer to: *Word of mouth *A voice vote in a deliberative assembly *An oral exam **Thesis defence, in academia *Spoken evi ...

''. Niland became Democratic clerk in 1998 at the recommendation of then-

House Minority Leader Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...

Dick Gephardt Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as a United States House of Representatives, United States Representative from Missouri from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. She replaced

Meg Goetz Meg Goetz was the first woman to be appointed as a Reading clerk of the United States House of Representatives, a face familiar to viewers of C-SPAN, the network which covers House proceedings.

. Niland served until 2008, when she became Deputy Chief of Legislative Operations in the

Office of the Clerk The Clerk of the United States House of Representatives is an officer of the United States House of Representatives, whose primary duty is to act as the chief record-keeper for the House. Along with the other House officers, the Clerk is elec ...

. Her successor as Reading Clerk was Jaime Zapata. Niland's

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

counterpart was Susan Cole.

References

External links

C-SPAN on the reading clerk, with photo of Niland
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Reading Clerks of the United States House of Representatives {{US-gov-bio-stub