Signature Pens - Emily (011130075)

Ms. Brown: I'm not quite sure when it started. We know that President Kennedy and President Johnson each use a number of pens when they were -- when they signed bills and the Clerk believes that it started with either Truman or Roosevelt. And the practice is that a -- the President uses a number of pens and -- then gives the pens to people who worked particularly hard on a bill, who sponsored the bill, who really fought to get it done, or to whom the bill means a great deal. Four, five, six, seven eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, no, there's one more. This is the most pens that we've ever used. It will be 20 pens today. He has gotten much better at this. He, in fact, jokes about this, actually, that he's -- at the beginning it was just not -- come naturally, to use a number of pens when you're signing your name, and so -- but he has now gotten very much in the groove