[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 1, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4566-S4567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO PAUL D. BARNES

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, we are quick to criticize those who 
work for our Government but rarely recognize the people who have 
dedicated long careers to making Government work better and more cost 
effectively for all of us. For that reason, I want to pay tribute today 
to Paul D. Barnes.
  Mr. Barnes is currently the Regional Commissioner for the Social 
Security Administration's Chicago region. His fine service in Chicago 
will end in late May, when he assumes his new position as Assistant 
Deputy Commissioner for Operations in Baltimore, MD. I am confident 
that Chicago's loss will be Baltimore's gain as Mr. Barnes brings his 
strong work ethic and demonstrated leadership to his new job.
  Paul Barnes has served as Regional Commissioner for the Social 
Security Administration's Chicago region, which includes all six 
Midwestern States, since November 1990. As regional commissioner, he 
has been responsible for providing executive direction and leadership 
to the region's 7,500 Federal employees and the 2,200 State employees 
with whom they contract for disability determinations. These employees 
provide Social Security services as well as administer the Supplemental 
Security Income Program for the 45 million people who reside in the 
region.

[[Page S4567]]

  Mr. Barnes began his career with the Social Security Administration 
in Columbia, TN in 1968. He has held a number of management positions 
since joining the agency, including serving as director of the 
southeastern Program Service Center in Birmingham, AL from July 1987 
through May 1989. Before taking the top post in the Chicago region, he 
was serving as the deputy regional commissioner for the Atlanta region 
in Georgia.
  He was a magna cum laude graduate of Lane College in 1968, and earned 
a master's degree in public administration from the University of 
Southern California. He currently serves as a member of the Executive 
Committee of Chicago's Federal Executive Board. He has served as the 
federal executive board's executive vice-president and in 1993, he led 
the metro-Chicago Combined Federal Campaign to the city's first ever $3 
million charity drive.
  In 1995, Mr. Barnes received a Presidential Distinguished Executive 
Award from President Clinton in recognition of his efforts to meet the 
national performance review objectives of producing a Government that 
works better and costs less. In 1992, he received a Meritorious 
Executive Award from President Bush and the Social Security 
Administration's National Leadership Award.
  Mr. Barnes has touched many lives in Illinois and he will be missed. 
I wish him the best of luck in the future and thank him for his support 
and dedication to the people of Illinois and our entire region.

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