Representativeelect brian mast, representing the 18th district. What were you doing before you when this house seat . Rep. Elect. Mast counterterrorism and a political career and a little bit of time with the Israeli Military. What was your work in counterterrorism . Rep. Elect. Mast explosive specialist. I worked with the National NuclearSecurity Administration on issues of nonproliferation and nonterrorism and the federal bureau of firearms on homemade explosives and postblast and analysis. Continuing my expertise is a bomb technician which is how i spent my crew in the military, as a bomb technician. How did you start your career . Rep. Elect. Mast you get a little bit of taste of explosives as an engineer. I had a propensity for it so i decided i wanted to advance and ultimately became a bomb technician. For me, in entailed i was a technician at our highest level of special operations, a little bit different than the movies people see where you use a bomb suit or robots. I was the wreck action related missions where you go after targets which means you are disarming bombs and tripwires and things like that with your hands. Tell our viewers what happened in 2010. Rep. Elect. Mast i was working in kandahar afghanistan under the cover of darkness following a target. We knew where they were going to lay their head down for the night. I was clearing the way for my Assault Force on that evening. We came to a spot on the battlefield where i calculated there had to be an explosive device there and i told my men to let me check things out because i had to look where it could have been buried there. I did not find it until i ultimately triggered the device. I remember very vividly, it did not knock me out. When the device went off it was a pressure plate under my feet. I remember it tumbled me through the air, i landed five or 10 feet from where i had been standing previous to the detonation and when it detonated there was a large plume of dust and it was buried in the grounds i could not seeing anything browingthere was a haze out everything around. The wind was knocked out of me and i was realizing there was a good reason i cannot stand up. I can hear my men and the situation around me radioing what had happened. They were saying, eod is hit. Eod is down. I was the only eod technician, so i know it was me. They started to render aid. They placed tourniquets on what was left of each body legs and arms and loaded bee you a stretcher in transported be off the battlefield. They got me onto a helicopter and that is the last thing i remembered so they either knocked out or i passed out and that is the last remember until i woke up at Walter Reed Medical Center here in washington, easy here in washington, d. C. When you were recovering, when you think to that now, are you surprised at all that here you are about to be a new member of the house of representatives . Rep. Elect. Mast i am honored that i get to be a new member of the house of representatives right now. But it was that moment in time that brought me to this moment of time. When i woke up in a hospital bed at walter reed, it was not my life plan to become a member of congress. I was happy jumping out of planes and kicking in doors and jumping out of helicopters but that was not in the cards anymore at that point and that was a very difficult inc. To swallow. Difficult for any person if you think you are losing your amonge in life, it ranks the most difficult things you can lose. I was laying in my hospital bed talking to my wife about how it would find another bountiful to fight on indepth that time i was having a lot of members of the house and senate and staffers visiting through walter reed and that is where i came to the idea that a be my next that maybe my next data field would be right here as a member of congress. That is where i started to think about it. How did you get from their to hear . From there to here . Rep. Elect. Mast i thought like a military person about a mission took up his. That was my next goal, my next mission and part of how to show how i would best become a good representative. At that point, i had spent a career in military that was a good background. But i could do more. I had to get back to work. Recover, learn to walk again. I spent about 1. 5 years learning to walk and during that time i was working with federal agencies, continuing to hone my expertise and counterterrorism. The day i retired from the military was the day i officially started with a federal Agency Working in counterterrorism. I started studying economics at harvard. And the environment and government. I continued my degree and tried my best to become it a pillar of the community by volunteering with a countless number of organizations what might immunity. I took time and served with the Israeli Military. I am told i am the only member of congress to have served with the Israeli Military and i were and i wear that badge very, very proudly. Then it became the time to ultimately throw my hat in the ring and see if my community would let me represent them. What did you do with the Israeli Military . Rep. Elect. Mast i worked in a difficult logistical role at the medical base working with their medical logistical infrastructure that was there in a role that allows individuals from around the world go and follow to the Israeli Military which is a program they rely on quite heavily to accomplish a lot of what needs to go on with their military because they do not have nearly as large of a military is the United States of america does. What would you like to accomplish out here . Rep. Elect. Mast is a lot i would like to accomplish and a lot with the legislative agenda coming from the top down. The things that matter to me personally is number one, issues from my district. We have some major waterrelated issues going on in my district, the Treasure Coast of florida. You know, it dirty water in an area where people love to vacation. People live there because of the water and weather. That is a major issue. And issues with the department of Veterans Affairs. I would like to see legislation that helps our veterans at every level of disability to have a greater access to the choice program. That should be expanded. That is a good way to stem the tide of the long waits for veterans and a good way to make the department of Veterans Affairs have to to compete for the care they provide veterans which i think will ultimately make them more accountable as an institution to those there met to serve. How do you plan to balance your life out here with your home and three children and life back in florida . Rep. Elect. Mast i have three little ones, six years old, a boy, and almost fouryearold anotherirl fouryearold little boy and a twoyearold little girl. That is a hardest part, hoping they understand why am away. Hoping i am doing Something Big and important and the time away. My wife and i decided around the process of this that we would start homeschooling the kid sometimes after so she and the kids can go back and forth with me if they desire. If they want to be in washington they can. If the weather is bad and they want to be a beautiful, sunny flutter, they can go there. We can go back and for this we need but still maintain the semblance of family. Thank you for your time. Rep. Elect. Mast thank you. Announcers on newsmakers, our guest heads the federal Emergency Management agency. He talked about how to address disasters in the future. Watch tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. In six caught p. M. Eastern on and 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. The new Congress Starts tuesday. Watch all of the activities on cspan. We are live from the u. S. Capitol starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Youll meet new representatives and hear from returning members. The house gavels in at noon. Opening day business includes the election of the house speaker. His address to the whole house and debate and a vote on rules for the new congress. One rule in particular is getting attention, a proposal to fine members who live stream video from the house floor, in response to last summers democratic sitin that was streamed by several democrats. On cspan2, our live coverage of the Senate Starts at noon eastern and includes the swearing in of senators. Opening day continues on cspan3 with live coverage of the ceremonial swearingin of members of congress. At 1 00 p. M. Eastern, Vice President joe biden presides over the swearing in of individual senators. At 3 00 p. M. , Speaker Paul Ryan swears in members of the house. We will have a full replay at 8 00 eastern on cspan and cspan 2. S