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June 29, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 119 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

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TRIBUTE TO DOTTIE REICHARD; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 119
(Extensions of Remarks - June 29, 2020)

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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO DOTTIE REICHARD

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 29, 2020

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to include in the Record a 
statement on behalf of my predecessor, Congressman Barney Frank.

       One of the great bargains the American people get is the 
     hard work done by the unselfish men and women who work for 
     members of Congress.
       No one I have been lucky enough to work with exemplifies 
     that better than Dottie Reichard, who died last week after a 
     great public career.
       Sometimes the smartest things you do take the least effort. 
     I inherited Dottie in 1980 in my first run for the House from 
     my predecessor, Fr. Robert Drinan. No decision I made in 
     fifty years in government did as much good, not just for me, 
     but for the people and values I tried to serve.
       She was an exemplary combination of all the virtues 
     required to make government work the way it is supposed to. A 
     first rate intelligence, unshakeable integrity, and 
     unstinting compassion rarely coexist in equal force in one 
     person with perfect political instincts, great organizational 
     ability, and niceness. They did in Dottie.
       The skill, generosity and absolute efficiency with which 
     she coped with two unconventional and sometimes challenging 
     personalities--Fr. Drinan and me--were all the more 
     remarkable for how easy she made it look. But she didn't fool 
     everybody. When I had the sad responsibility to share the 
     news of her death with the people she had worked with, the 
     genuine sadness was universal that we lost someone special.
       No politician ever had a better supporter, teacher, friend, 
     counselor, or--most of all-colleague--than I had in Dottie 
     Reichard.

                          ____________________