[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 151 (Friday, October 24, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13193-S13194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DENISE GREENLAW RAMONAS

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, the Senate works well when it is served by 
very competent and dedicated staff members--on our personal staff, the 
people who operate the elevators, the security people, the policemen, 
but most importantly our staff at the committee level and here on the 
floor of the Senate.
  Over the past few years, I think most of the staff members know how 
much I have appreciated their good work because I have taken the time 
occasionally to say so and because I tried to make the Senate a family-
friendly place. Although they may look like just part of the furniture, 
there are really some fine, dedicated people who spend long hours here 
who really live outside this Chamber. Sometimes I see members of our 
floor staff in other parts of the Capitol complex, or at Pentagon City, 
and I am shocked to see them out of the cave they work in. Far too 
often, we don't take the time to say ``thank you'' and ``job well 
done'' because you have made us look good, because you have served some 
State in our great Nation well, and because you made America a better 
place.
  So I am here today to say thank you to one of our dedicated staff 
members who has now retired and is moving on to her next life--probably 
the third generation of her very important life--one who has served us 
well and one whom I will miss seeing on the floor of the Senate every 
day. That person is Denise Greenlaw Ramonas.

  I first got to know Denise because she lives in my neighborhood, but 
also because she was such a competent assistant to Pete Domenici. I 
noticed her when Senator Domenici, one of the most able legislators in 
this body, would come to the floor to handle a budget resolution or 
piece of legislation, perhaps from the Subcommittee on Energy that he 
serves on of the appropriations committee or something on behalf of New 
Mexico. There was this obviously competent staff member working with 
him in the Senate. I learned to talk to her and listen to her when she 
was in the Senate with Pete Domenici.
  Over the years, I got to know more about Denise. Denise is from Utah. 
She graduated from the University of Utah College of Law, receiving her 
juris doctorate degree. She also graduated magna cum laude from 
undergraduate school. She has had a number of outstanding experiences 
in her life including serving as a law clerk in a Houston law firm, one 
of the best in the state, the Boswell, O'Toole and Pickering law firm. 
She has been an instructor at the University of Utah College of 
Business. That clearly is an interesting experience. To be an 
instructor you have to know your subject matter and you get to work 
with young people. I have learned from personal experience, sometimes 
hard experience, students are tougher in their questioning than people 
you might talk to at a chamber of commerce or civic club. Being a 
professor is a challenge, I am sure.
  She has worked for the Department of Business Regulation for the 
State of Utah. She was an adjunct professor, City College of Chicago, 
in West Berlin and Weisbaden, Germany. She also has a business on the 
side selling a line of women's clothes.
  Beginning in 1982, she served as legislative assistant to Senator 
Pete

[[Page S13194]]

Domenici, as I noted. She was legislative director to Senator Domenici 
from 1985 to 1991. Obviously she developed and executed legislative 
strategies on a wide range of domestic and international issues, 
including tax reform issues, the omnibus trade bill of 1998, the United 
States-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and gained a lot of valuable 
experience in that position with Senator Domenici. She was counsel to 
the minority for the Senate Budget Committee where she worked the 
closest with Senator Domenici but a lot of Senators, Democrats and 
Republicans, learned to know her and respect her.
  Finally, from 1992 to 1996, she was general counsel to the Senate 
Budget Committee, a committee that has played a huge part in what the 
Senate has done over the last 20 years. Keep in mind, we did not have a 
Budget Committee until the late 1970s because we never got around to 
having a process where we add up how much we take in and how much we 
send out. Senator Domenici deserves a lot of credit for us eventually 
moving for the first time in 30 years to balanced budgets in the late 
1990s and early in this century. Right there beside him, time and time 
again, was Denise Ramonas.
  As majority leader, you do have some staff turnover occasionally and 
when we had a retirement here on our floor staff in 2001, I stole, once 
again from Senator Domenici, a great staff member. Over the years I 
think I have acquired about three of Senator Domenici's former staff 
members, and Denise Ramonas became assistant secretary to the majority 
serving on the floor, keeping track of the flow of legislation, making 
sure Senators were properly notified, keeping track of the votes. It is 
a demanding job with long hours, dealing with a clientele that is not 
always pleasant. But she did it with a smile, with a radiant beauty and 
with a high intellect. She served in that position from 2001 to October 
the 10th, I believe, was her final day.
  I wish nothing but the best for Denise as she goes forward into the 
rest of her life seeking other opportunities. I am sure she will find 
some good ones and it will be rewarding to her.
  I also thank her for her dedicated service over the years to this 
institution, particularly her years on the Senate floor. She did a 
great job. I personally appreciated it. So to Denise and her loved 
ones, I say a fond adieu and a great deal of thanks for your service 
here. I hope she will stay in touch with the Senate, with the Senators, 
and maybe even we will find a way to call on her services again.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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