[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 149 (Friday, September 22, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S14136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       GRATITUDE TO ELLEN SHAFFER

 Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I ask to have printed in the 
Record the text of a letter to Ellen Shaffer expressing my gratitude 
for her service as a member of my staff since 1992.
  The letter follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,

                               Washington, DC, September 20, 1995.
     Ms. Ellen R. Shaffer
     807 Arrington Drive, Silver Spring, MD.
       Dear Ellen: I want to express to you my deep gratitude and 
     appreciation for your contributions to my overall efforts to 
     improve health care for people, and in particular to national 
     health care reform legislation, during your tenure with my 
     office. As my principal legislative assistant for national 
     health policy since January 1992, you have worked tirelessly 
     on this subject with great knowledge and skill.
       Because of your long experience in this area, you were able 
     to craft the American Health Security Act, my legislative 
     proposal for a national single payer health care system. You 
     worked diligently with the organizations supporting the bill, 
     and, as a result, they became important participants in 
     advancing our proposal. As a result of your expertise and 
     writing skills, we were able to propose and have published in 
     the New England Journal of Medicine an outstanding piece on 
     the merits of a single payer approach to national health care 
     reform
       I, along with Senator Domenici, was able to lead 
     effectively the Senate's Working Group on Mental Health as a 
     direct result of your strategic skills and your ability to 
     establish a coalition among those parties having diverse 
     views. Similarly, you were instrumental in working with the 
     American Medical Association to develop the legislation known 
     as the Patient Protection Act, a measure which enabled me to 
     fulfill my role as an advocate for health care consumers.
       I greatly valued your skills at financial analysis and your 
     ability to expand quickly those skills, which were so 
     critical to our work on health care legislation, and your 
     successful efforts to communicate the merits of our 
     legislative work through the media to the public at large.
       Ellen, I have often said in public that your brilliance and 
     dedication led people to believe that I had a health care 
     staff of ten. I consider myself enormously fortunate that you 
     have been my health care staff of one--supplemented, 
     certainly, by the excellent contributions of talented fellows 
     with whom you collaborated in our office. I wish you well in 
     your future endeavors, and I look forward to continuing to 
     see the positive results of the work we have done together.
           Sincerely,
     Paul Wellstone 

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