[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 93 (Monday, June 21, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S5199]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    TRIBUTE TO PATRICIA J. COVINGTON

 Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, it has been nearly five decades 
since Patricia J. Covington, Director of VA's Congressional Liaison 
Service, began her public service, and nearly all of it has been with 
VA, first when it was the Veterans Administration, and, since 1989, as 
the Department of Veterans Affairs. Although she served in various 
capacities, it is in connection with her long and distinguished tenure 
at the Congressional Liaison Service that my colleagues and I, along 
with our staffs, know her. I am sure that there is not a Member's 
office in the U.S. Senate that does not regularly call upon her 
services. Over the years, Pat has worked tirelessly to ensure that our 
requests for information about VA or for help for veteran constituents 
are handled in a timely, thorough, and nonpartisan manner. On the 
occasion of her upcoming retirement, I call on my colleagues to join me 
in thanking her for assistance to us and to countless veterans, most of 
whom will never know the critical role she has played in our efforts to 
improve their lives.
  Pat entered public service in 1963. After an initial period of 
employment with another Federal agency, she moved to VA where she 
gained experience at the Board of Veterans Appeals with the appeals 
process for denials of disability claims. She also helped administer 
the Presidential Memorial Certificate Program, established by President 
John F. Kennedy to honor the memories of deceased veterans. As my 
colleagues know, each certificate bears the President's signature and 
conveys to the families of deceased veterans the Nation's gratitude for 
their service.
  After gaining a hands-on understanding of many VA benefits and 
services, Pat joined the Congressional Liaison Service in 1971. The 
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, which I have the privilege of chairing, 
was established that year, marking the Senate's heightened commitment 
to addressing the then-emerging challenges facing veterans of the 
Vietnam war. I was not in the Senate at that time, but looking back at 
the large and impressive work of the early days of the committee in 
responding to a host of complex issues, along with the fact that there 
were thousands of new veterans seeking assistance from their Federal 
elected officials, it must have been a very challenging time in Pat's 
new assignment. From the start, she nevertheless kept pace with the 
unprecedented number of demands, deepening her knowledge about VA as 
she took on new responsibilities. In fact, Pat was so good at her job 
that over time she was repeatedly tapped to serve as Acting Director of 
the Congressional Liaison Service. In 2002, she was appointed as 
Director, and has continued to excel in that position.
  Not long after I became committee chairman in 2007, a veteran arrived 
at the committee to seek help after being turned down by VA for 
additional benefits in connection with post-traumatic stress disorder. 
He had driven thousands of miles and related to committee staff that he 
had struggled with suicidal feelings. At the time, although VA had not 
begun to reckon with the rising tide of veteran suicides, Pat knew who 
to contact to provide counseling and other suicide-prevention services 
to the veteran and promptly secured a thorough review of his claim. Her 
compassionate and deeply informed assistance to this veteran was in 
keeping with her longstanding excellent work.
  Committee staff and I have relied on Pat and the excellent staff she 
oversees for information about a wide range of matters relating to the 
large and complex dimensions of VA's mandate. From disability 
compensation to health care, construction and cemeteries, home long 
guaranties and the new G.I. bill, her office has consistently responded 
with the highest professional standards. With a war on two fronts and 
increasing numbers of returning servicemembers from Iraq and 
Afghanistan, along with serious issues facing veterans from earlier 
wars, her contributions have never been more valued nor her services 
more needed. Yet to everything there is a season, and a time to every 
purpose under the heaven. Pat is ending this chapter in her life and 
will soon open a new one. Again, I thank her for her long service to 
the committee and her unsurpassed commitment to the veterans of the 
Nation. I wish her every happiness in the days to come. We shall miss 
her.

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