[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 164 (Wednesday, November 12, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HONORING ANDREA BAGLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TAMMY BALDWIN

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 2003

  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a woman who 
has ably served the House of Representatives and the citizens of 
Wisconsin for more than 20 years. In the offices of four Members of 
Congress, on both sides of the aisle, Andrea Bagley has worked 
diligently and compassionately to better the lives of our constituents.
  Andrea first became a congressional caseworker in 1983, in the office 
of Representative Steve Gunderson, for whose father she had initially 
worked as a bookkeeper. In her first case, she helped a young person 
resolve a problem with a student loan. As a mother of three sons, Andy 
was already adept at solving problems and offering caring support.
  When she began her congressional service, Andy handled roughly 500 
cases a year, without benefit of fax machines or computers. It's hard 
for young staffers to even imagine a world of onion skins and carbon 
copies or the joy of an electric typewriter with memory. In 20 years, 
she's seen the technology grow with her caseload . . . to more than a 
thousand a year, yet she's handled them all with calm persistence. To 
every constituent with a problem she says, ``We can't guarantee you'll 
get the answer you want, but we guarantee you'll get fair 
consideration.'' Thanks to her, they have.
  Andy describes her job as being part detective, part problem-solver, 
part researcher, and part social worker. For every case, she 
meticulously amasses bits of information, institutional knowledge, 
documentation, and paper trails to piece together solutions to problems 
as finely stitched as the elaborate quilts she makes for her dozens of 
fortunate friends and family.
  The gratitude of our constituents is apparent--from the thanks Andy 
recently received from a man gaining citizenship, to the wedding photos 
of a bride whose family needed visas to attend the wedding, to the 
visits of grateful parents and the children they adopted from foreign 
lands.
  Congressmen Gunderson, Klug, and Barrett join me in adding our words 
of gratitude to Andrea Bagley for her 20 years of honorable service to 
our offices and our constituents. Selfishly, I wish for many more.




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