May 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 87 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S3081-S3082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MARY NAYLOR

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise, accompanied by an amazing public 
servant who is completing 29 years and 10 months of working in the U.S. 
Senate--Mary Naylor, my legislative director. She is angry with me 
right now for tricking her into this and walking into the Chamber and 
seeing my whole staff, but I wanted to just say a word to honor her.
  When I came to the Senate--elected in 2012 and sworn in in January 
2013--obviously, hiring a legislative director was a very, very 
important challenge that I was dealing with, and I had a number of 
people who wanted to do the job. There was a wonderful Senate staffer 
who was about to leave the Hill to see if there was life after the 
Senate. She wasn't sure whether there was but was really excited to see 
that. Yet, as tough a negotiator as she was, she let me persuade her to 
stay for one more term after she had wanted to leave to do other 
things. She did a remarkable job for me in my first term and has done a 
remarkable job now into my second term in the Senate. She has been my 
legislative director since my first day in the body, but as I pointed 
out, she is now nearly 30 years into serving this institution.
  Let me tell you some things about Mary.
  She is from Fargo, ND. She came to the Senate in 1989, which was 
right after she graduated with honors--Phi Beta Kappa--from 
Northwestern. She first became a legislative assistant for the late 
Senator Paul Simon in 1991. Then she eventually became the deputy chief 
of staff to Senator Kent Conrad of her home State. For most of her 
career in the Senate, she worked with Senator Conrad. When Senator 
Conrad became the Budget chairman in 2001, she became the Democratic 
staff director for the committee, and she remained in that position for 
12 years until she became my legislative director in 2013.
  Some highlights of her tenure with Budget include 10 budget 
resolutions, the Simpson-Bowles Commission, walking us back from a 
fiscal cliff in 2011, and a C-SPAN debut--oh, my gosh, a C-SPAN debut--
in March 2008 when she testified before the Budget Committee on the 
fiscal year 2009 budget.

[[Page S3082]]

  Mary Naylor played a critical role in the Affordable Care Act. With 
members of the Budget Committee, she helped to iron out the fiscal 
details of such a monumental bill, and she captivated a lot of my 
staffers in the office with tales of the high stakes parliamentary 
maneuvering she undertook to make sure the reconciliation component of 
the ACA complied with the Byrd rule.
  One of the things that Mary does in my office that my staff loves is 
the parliamentary minute. At the end of every week, after I have gone 
back to Richmond, she will do a parliamentary minute and put an 
interesting problem or challenge on the table from the past and walk my 
legislative staff through how we should deal with it.
  In 2011, the ``Washingtonian'' named Mary one of the 100 most 
powerful women in DC, and the ``National Journal'' named her among the 
top 14 women on the Hill.
  Mary has helped me out in so many ways. She has learned more about 
aircraft carrier refueling than she ever thought possible and has 
helped me overcome now two bouts of the decommissioning of aircraft.
  All of my staff understands that Mary has really been kind of the 
brains of the operation. She is in a league of her own. Every single 
bill of mine that has passed has her fingerprints on it, and I guess I 
am getting up to--I don't know--over 40 or 50 bills. She comes up with 
the ideas. She makes my ideas a lot better. She builds supports for our 
proposals. She tells me when my ideas are bad, and she is almost always 
right--not always right. She is almost always right. She helps me on my 
committees and floor strategy. She recruits, trains, and advises all of 
the amazing policy staffers I have working with me and all who have 
worked with me over the years.
  That is what Mary has done for me and for the people of Virginia for 
6 years. That is what she has done for the Senate for the United States 
for now 30 years. She is a policy whiz. She is a dogged go-getter, and 
I emphasize ``dogged.'' That is a character reference if you know 
Mary's love of dogs. She is a walking parliamentary encyclopedia, and 
her dedication has helped me to achieve much more than I would have 
imagined as a Senator.
  I recognize Mary to say, like so many in the offices in this 
building, her persistent service to Senator Conrad, to Senator Simon, 
to me, to the Budget Committee, to the Senate more broadly, and to the 
country have really made a difference in an awful lot of people's 
lives.
  Anybody leaving, it is always bittersweet. I think that she is now 
going to find there is life after the Senate, and she has a cool next 
opportunity that she can pursue.
  Whenever one of my staffers goes on to pursue a new cool opportunity, 
I am really happy for them, and yet it is hard to imagine what it will 
be like walking into the office every day and not having Mary there as 
the brains of the operation and a great right hand at getting good 
things done.
  So with that, I know my whole staff is thinking the same thought 
right now. We want to just thank Mary Naylor for her great service and 
commend her.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Braun). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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