[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 162 (Thursday, December 9, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF DR. MITCH KATZ

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JACKIE SPEIER-

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 9, 2010

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Dr. Mitch Katz for his 13 
years of remarkable service as director of the San Francisco Department 
of Public Health.
  Mitch has worn many hats since he joined the public health department 
in 1991. He has served as the director and chief of research for San 
Francisco's AIDS office, director of the Emergency Medical Services 
Agency, and director of the department's health and safety branch. In 
1997, he took the helm of the department as its director, and has been 
building a stunning record of achievements ever since.
  In each of these capacities, he has been a champion for progressive, 
forward-thinking policies and programs designed to improve the health 
of all of San Francisco's citizens. As director of the Department of 
Public Health, he fought tirelessly alongside Mayor Gavin Newsom to 
create Healthy San Francisco, a groundbreaking, first-in-the-nation 
effort that provides a universal health care program to the city's 
uninsured. He has advocated labeling menus with calorie counts, banning 
the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies, and compelling employers in San 
Francisco to provide sick leave and health care to their workers. He 
has also overseen the mammoth reconstruction of the Laguna Honda 
Hospital & Rehabilitation Center and started the process of rebuilding 
San Francisco General Hospital.
  In addition to this tremendous record, Mitch still finds time to 
teach and care for patients as Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine 
at UCSF, and to be a loving and devoted father to his two sons.
  Dr. Katz practices what he preaches, commuting everywhere by bicycle 
or by transit. The access to health care that all San Franciscans enjoy 
is because Mitch Katz was at the helm. He leaves a lasting impact on 
the City by the Bay.
  Madam Speaker, you and I share representation of the city and I know 
we share great admiration for one of San Francisco's greatest health 
care leaders. I ask that the members join me in saluting Dr. Katz for 
his years of service to San Francisco, and extend our best wishes to 
him and his family as he assumes the directorship of Los Angeles 
County's Department of Public Health next year. He will be greatly 
missed.

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