[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 129 (Monday, September 14, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2259-E2260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             GRATITUDE FOR THE SERVICE OF LILLIAN V. GERMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 14, 2009

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
thank one of the most dedicated and indispensable members of the 
Judiciary Committee staff, Lillian German. For the past 6 years, 
Lillian has served as a counsel to the Committee, working principally 
as the Deputy Chief Oversight Counsel during the 110th and 111th 
Congresses.
  A proud native of Houston, Texas, Lillian graduated from the 
University of North Texas where she was a leader in student government 
and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She earned her law 
degree from Southern Methodist University, and, following

[[Page E2260]]

her graduation, served as a briefing attorney for the Texas Attorney 
General and in private practice in Dallas.
  Lillian came to Washington 15 years ago to work on the Hill, and has 
served in the offices of many of our dear friends and colleagues. 
Lillian first worked as press secretary and then Chief of Staff to 
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. With Congresswoman Johnson, 
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., and the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund, Lillian helped 
organize a historic bus tour throughout the south to highlight the 
impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Shaw v. Reno (1993) on voting 
rights and minority districts. Lillian went on to serve as the 
Legislative Director for Congresswoman Barbara Rose Collins, with whom 
she worked to draft several amendments to the 1996 Telecommunications 
Act to increase minority ownership of commercial broadcasting 
companies. Lillian continued on as Press Secretary and Chief of Staff 
for Congressman Alcee Hastings. She organized Vice President Al Gore's 
first environmental justice site tours of southern Florida's minority 
communities and brownfield lands, and during the 2000 Presidential 
election, Lillian served as an area political director for the Gore 
recount committee. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, 
Lillian helped usher through a $125 million grant to assist the 
Nation's tourism industry, and she successfully managed the effort to 
secure the Health Care Financing Administration's approval of the Dean 
Ornish Program for reversing coronary heart disease. Lillian then 
served as the Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, where 
she worked with the Houston community in the wake of Enron's collapse. 
During the 2002 Florida Governor's race, Lillian worked as the Get-Out-
the-Vote director for Miami-Dade County Democrats.
  Lillian joined the Judiciary Committee in 2003 and has made numerous 
contributions to the committee's civil rights, criminal justice, and 
government oversight work. She helped secure funding for the expansion 
of the U.S. Marshal Service's Safe Surrender Initiative to seven 
additional States, including the District of Columbia and my home State 
of Michigan. She visited the Texas-Mexico border several times to 
investigate government's response to the high-death tolls and helped 
with the committee's immigration field hearings in Texas, Michigan, 
California, and Iowa. She led the House's investigation into the 
wrongful firing of rail workers under the Transportation Security 
Administration's Transportation Worker Identification Card program, 
which ultimately resulted in the reinstatement of 36 workers. She 
successfully led the Committee's effort to release three inmates 
wrongfully incarcerated in solitary confinement for 36 years in the 
Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana, and she and I recently met with 
Governor Bobby Jindal to discuss the prisoners' final release. She 
organized committee hearings on FBI whistleblower protections; the 
Justice Department's role in the Jena Six cases; and voter intimidation 
during the 2006 elections, which featured then-Senator Barack Obama as 
a witness.
  On behalf of the Judiciary Committee, its staff, and this 
distinguished body, I would like to thank Lillian for her service. 
Throughout her time on the Hill, she has been a stalwart voice for 
social justice and the under-represented. Lillian is a tour-de-force 
that will be sorely missed. Her spirit, loyalty, wit, generosity, and 
professionalism have made all of the offices in which she has worked 
places to belong and places to thrive. We are losing a dear advisor, 
mentor, and friend.
  We wish her the best of luck and extend to her our deepest gratitude.

                          ____________________