[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 174 (Tuesday, December 10, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S8598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO MARY ELLEN McCARTHY

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, when people think of government, 
some of the first words that may come to mind are politics and 
bureaucracy, two things that tend to stifle progress. Today, however, I 
have the great pleasure of honoring someone who has spent her many 
years on the Hill overcoming these barriers. She has implemented 
changes and fixed problems to improve the lives of veterans and their 
families in a very real way. Now, as she moves into retirement, she 
leaves behind an example to which we should all aspire.
  Mary Ellen McCarthy has spent the last 7 years of her distinguished 
career serving as the lead investigator for the Senate Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs and the decade before that as staff director for two 
subcommittees of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. In that 
time, she has visited nearly every Department of Veterans Affairs 
regional office and reviewed thousands of benefits claims. She has not 
only identified gaps in services to veterans and their families, but 
also problems within VA. Most importantly, Mary Ellen never rested with 
the identification of a problem. Instead, she found solutions to meet 
the needs of veterans and their families and worked relentlessly to 
ensure they were put into place as quickly as possible.
  Among her many achievements, Mary Ellen will be forever recognized 
for her extraordinary work in ensuring Vietnam era veterans and their 
families receive the benefits to which they are entitled. She has 
worked tirelessly to identify the many veterans whose exposure to 
dangerous toxins was previously overlooked. Her efforts have helped 
veterans with service on the inland waterways of Vietnam, along the DMZ 
in Korea, and on the perimeters of Air Force Bases in Thailand. Her 
work has led to vindication and assistance to those suffering from 
health problems related to Agent Orange exposure. Her efforts did not 
stop with the veterans themselves, however. She also brought attention 
to the children who are born with spina bifida, as a result of their 
parents' exposure to Agent Orange.
  So much of Mary Ellen's work has focused on those most in need--
elderly and low-income veterans and surviving family members. For 
example, one of Mary Ellen's investigations revealed the surviving 
spouses of veterans who had been receiving VA disability benefits were 
not receiving the payments to which they were entitled during the month 
of their spouse's passing. These payments not only help with funeral 
costs, but provide some time to make other financial arrangements. Her 
discovery of this oversight and subsequent actions resulted in 
approximately 200,000 surviving spouses receiving more than $124 
million in benefits, allowing them to focus on moving forward after the 
death of a loved one.
  Mary Ellen has also been heavily involved in working toward 
elimination of the claims backlog, a challenge that has plagued the 
Department for decades and caused far too many veterans unnecessary 
hardship. Before she came to Capitol Hill, she spent two decades 
working as a nurse and then a lawyer, helping low-income and elderly 
individuals obtain government benefits. This experience gave her a 
unique insight into the challenges of claims processing and she has 
been able to offer a number of solutions that may otherwise have been 
overlooked.
  These are just a few examples of the very real contributions Mary 
Ellen has made to the veterans community throughout her career. To 
those who have had the pleasure of working with her, Mary Ellen has 
been an inspiration--working tirelessly to provide assistance to those 
who have served this great Nation--a true veterans' advocate.
  As she enters into her much deserved retirement, she can rest easy 
knowing her efforts will continue benefiting veterans and their 
families for generations to come, which is, as she is known to say, not 
bad for an old lady.
  Mary Ellen, thank you for your years of advocacy on behalf of our 
Nation's veterans. I wish you only the best in retirement.

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