[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 23 (Thursday, March 3, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E347]]


      TRIBUTE TO VIRGINIA R. SAUNDERS' 60 YEARS OF FEDERAL SERVICE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 3, 2005

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in tribute to Virginia Saunders, 
Program Operations and Evaluation Specialist for Congressional 
Documents, in the Office of Congressional Publishing Services at the 
Government Printing Office, as she approaches her 60th anniversary of 
dedicated Federal service, May 26, 2005.
  Mr. Speaker, this is becoming a habit: Ten years ago, on the occasion 
of Ms. Saunders' 50th anniversary of Federal service, I rose to 
recognize Ms. Saunders' achievements, and I expect to do so again ten 
years from now. Born Virginia R. Frisbie in Darlington, Maryland, on 
October 11, 1926, Ms. Saunders spent her entire career in service to 
her fellow Americans. After working briefly at the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, she came to the Government Printing Office on February 
4, 1946, as a war service junior clerk-typist in the division of public 
documents, stock section. Two years later, she was promoted to the 
division of public documents reference section. In February 1951, Ms. 
Saunders was promoted to indexing clerk and earned subsequent 
promotions in the same classification. In July 1958, she was promoted 
to library technician. Becoming a congressional documents specialist in 
April 1970, she was then promoted to supervisor of the congressional 
documents section in July 1974. In October 1983, Ms. Saunders assumed 
the position of congressional documents specialist in the congressional 
printing management division, customer services, and in September 2004 
she was promoted to her current position.
  As I pointed out ten years ago, although one may not yet recognize 
the name of this outstanding GPO employee, the end product of her 
dedicated efforts is certainly familiar. Ms. Saunders has primary 
responsibility for the Congressional Serial Set, which is a compilation 
of all the House and Senate documents and reports issued for each 
session of Congress. Dummy volumes establishing the format for each 
edition are prepared and assigned a serial number following each 
session of Congress. The actual books are produced by GPO's binding 
division, often as many as 100 volumes per set for each session of 
Congress. As a chronicle of work of the Congress over the years, the 
Congressional Serial Set is rivaled only by the Congressional Record. 
While the Serial Set records behind-the-scenes legislative activities 
for the United States, the Congressional Record reflects the ``in-
session'' proceedings. Distributed to the House and Senate libraries, 
the Archives, the Library of Congress, and depository libraries, the 
Congressional Serial Set joins the Congressional Record in offering 
students and historians a rich insight into the American system of 
government. Virginia Saunders makes all that possible.

  In late 1989, Ms. Saunders recognized the importance of the 
depository library program in informing the Nation, and drew upon her 
then-43 years of GPO experience to submit an employee suggestion 
regarding the appendix to the Iran-Contra Report to Congress. She 
suggested that this 40-volume publication, which was printed as both a 
Senate and House report, be bound only once for the serial set volumes 
of House and Senate reports that are sent to depository libraries. She 
further suggested that the Schedule of Volumes, a listing of the bound 
volumes, contain a notation explaining the missing serial number 
volumes. The implementation of this suggestion resulted in a reduction 
of 13,740 book volumes to be bound, saving the Federal Government over 
$600,000. In recognition of these efforts, she received GPO's top 
monetary Suggestion Award for that year. In ceremonies held on January 
9, 1991, Ms. Saunders received a Presidential letter of commendation 
under the Quality and Management Improvement Award Program. In his 
letter to Ms. Saunders, President George H.W. Bush noted, ``You have 
demonstrated to an exceptional degree my belief that Federal employees 
have the knowledge, ability, and desire to make a difference.'' As one 
with the privilege of representing tens of thousands of Marylanders in 
Federal service, I know this to be true.
  In tribute to her work on the Congressional Serial Set, in 1999 Ms. 
Saunders received the James Bennett Childs Award from the Government 
Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association. The ALA 
honored Ms. Saunders' ``distinguished contribution to documents 
librarianship,'' and paid ``grateful recognition'' of a lifetime of 
exceptional achievements in this important field of endeavor.
  I know my colleagues and Ms. Saunders' family, friends, and co-
workers join me in congratulating her on 60 years of exemplary Federal 
service. See you in 10 years, Virginia!

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