[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 26 (Friday, February 12, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1638-S1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO LINDA NERSESIAN

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to lament the 
too early death on December 19, after a four-year long battle with 
breast cancer, of a former staff member and friend, Linda Nersesian, 
and to offer my heartfelt sympathy to her husband Robert Rae Gordon; 
her two children, nine year old George Raeburn Gordon, and six year old 
Louise Grace Gordon; her parents, Elsie Louise Nazarian and Serop S. 
Nersesian; her brother Robert S. Nersesian; and the many, many friends 
and associates in the Congress and in Washington who will miss her 
greatly.
  Linda served in the Senate for six and one-half years, from August 4, 
1980 to January 5, 1987. She began her Senate career in the office of 
Senator Dole where she worked on energy and environmental issues. Linda 
left Senator Dole's office in April of 1981 to join my staff as a staff 
attorney on the Subcommittee on Agency Administration of the Judiciary 
Committee, which I then chaired. On the Subcommittee, Linda worked on a 
number of my highest legislative priorities. She consistently 
demonstrated initiative, intelligence, and savvy.
  When I became Chairman of the Subcommittee on Aging of the Labor and 
Human Resources Committee at the beginning of the 98th Congress in 
1983, the strong leadership qualities that Linda consistently 
demonstrated in her work on the Administrative Practices Subcommittee 
made her the perfect choice to serve as chief counsel and staff 
director of the Subcommittee on Aging. In that capacity, she organized 
the office, recruited a staff, and oversaw the work of the Subcommittee 
through 1983. She was also responsible for advising me on major bills 
relating to pharmaceutical drugs which were then under consideration by 
the Committee.
  In late 1983, Linda once again seemed the perfect choice for a 
position of major responsibility, this time as the chief counsel and 
staff director of the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and 
Procedure. In that capacity, she was responsible for the child 
Pornography Act. She also worked on what became the 1986 amendments to 
the False Claims Act and the Equal Access to Justice Act. And she 
worked on defense procurement fraud. These were among my highest 
legislative and oversight priorities at that time.
  After serving as chief counsel of the Subcommittee until January 21, 
185, Senator Dole asked Linda to be the assistant secretary of the 
Senate. She served in that capacity until January 5, 1987, when she 
left the Senate to become legislative counsel to the Pharmaceutical 
Manufacturers' Association. In due course, Linda again assumed greater 
responsibility, becoming the Association's vice president for 
government relations, a position she held until she left to build her 
own consulting firm, the Columbia Consulting Group.
  Mr. President, Linda Nersesian was a unique and remarkable 
individual. Her

[[Page S1639]]

personal qualities of drive, decisiveness, intelligence, common sense, 
persistence, and good humor were evident to all who came in contact 
with her. It was easy to have confidence in Linda; she always knew what 
to do. Her manifest talents invariably led her to be entrusted with 
positions of responsibility. She contributed much in the time given to 
her. She will be greatly missed.

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