[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 26 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S812]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO L. CHRISTINE HEALEY

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 
dedicated career and service to the Congress and the Nation of Louise 
Christine ``Chris'' Healey, who is retiring at the end of this week 
after nearly 30 years of work for the legislative branch. I am pleased 
to have the opportunity to publicly thank her and to note my 
appreciation for her dedicated and dignified efforts.
  Chris is leaving the Senate as the general counsel on the Senate 
Select Committee on Intelligence, serving as the top legal advisor to 
the committee.
  As committee counsel and general counsel over the past 8 years, Chris 
has been instrumental in the debating and drafting of every significant 
piece of intelligence legislation passed, and in some cases not passed, 
over the past decade. She was the principal drafter of the FISA 
Amendments Act of 2008, which is among the most complex pieces of 
legislation recently enacted, and certainly one of the most important 
to the security of our Nation. She has been as responsible as anyone 
for the passage of a string of four annual intelligence authorization 
bills, including the fiscal year 2013 act that was completed in 
December.
  In her time at the SSCI, Chris has exemplified the professional and 
bipartisan spirit of the committee, working closely with Members and 
staff on both sides of the aisle. She has invested herself in 
conducting oversight, drafting bills, carrying out investigations, and 
reviewing and shepherding the President's nominees to Senate-confirmed 
positions, among many other things.
  Her approach has always been dignified and calm. I am proud to be 
able to say that the rancor and divisiveness of the Senate over the 
past years has not infiltrated the work of the committee. Among the 
reasons we have been able to work together, review and debate serious 
issues, and come to bipartisan solutions is that we have people like 
Chris Healey who are more interested in getting the right results the 
right way rather than succeeding at the expense of someone else.
  Prior to working for the committee, Ms. Healey worked for the 
Government Affairs Committee on the landmark legislation that reformed 
the intelligence community and created the position of the Director of 
National Intelligence. She was a senior counsel and team leader on the 
9/11 Commission. And prior to that, she spent a decade on the House 
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, including as staff 
director. Chris has been the institutional memory of intelligence in 
the Congress, and her expertise and experience will be sorely missed.
  But while a leading voice within these congressional committees and 
commissions and in interactions with the nonprofit community and 
executive branch, Chris has managed the rare feat of having a life as 
well.
  She married musician Ryan Brown in 1989 and had her first son, 
Nathaniel, in 1990. Nathaniel has begun following Chris' footsteps, 
exploring his own work in government and politics. Chris and Ryan had 
their second son, Gabriel, in 1994, and he, too, has now grown up and 
is nearing his graduation from Oberlin College. Chris has walked to 
work every day from her Capitol Hill home, while supporting in many 
ways Ryan Brown's Opera Lafayette. He notes that in addition to her 
dedication to public service, Chris is an avid reader and an 
enthusiastic theater and concert goer, and looks forward to exploring 
the wider world in the years to come. I wish her the very best as she 
now has the time to pursue those interests, rather than being stuck in 
a windowless office in front of multiple computers for long hours.
  Mr. President, I am one of many Members of Congress to have benefited 
from the advice and hard work of Chris Healey, starting with Barbara 
Kennelly, including Nancy Pelosi and Jane Harman, and ending with Jay 
Rockefeller and myself. On behalf of them, and the Senate Intelligence 
Committee, I thank Chris Healey and wish her the very best in what I 
know will be a long and productive retirement from the Congress.

                          ____________________