WASHINGTON D.C. - A year after she was shot during a public event in Arizona, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is resigning.
Giffords made the announcement in a video on her website.
“I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week,” she said.
“I’m getting better,” she said. “Every day my spirit is high. I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country.”
In the two-minute video, Giffords looked back on her career and urged her colleagues in Congress to continue her practice of working across party lines for the good of the country.
"A lot has happened over the past year," she said. "We cannot change that. But I know on the issues we fought for, we can change things for the better. Jobs, border security, veterans. We can do so much more by working together."
According to officials in Washington, her resignation is expected to take effect on Monday.
The Democratic congresswoman was shot in the head last January as she was meeting with constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson, Ariz.
The 41-year-old Giffords has spent the last year in Houston undergoing intensive physical and speech therapy. Doctors and family have called her recovery miraculous after the shooting; she is able to walk and talk, vote in Congress and gave a televised interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer in May. But doctors have said it would take many months to determine the lasting effects of her brain injury.
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