[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 182 (Friday, December 20, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9096-S9097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO NICHOLE DISTEFANO

  Mrs. McCASKILL. Madam President, as we come to the end of 2013, I 
wish to pay tribute to a friend and a stellar long-term staff member of 
mine, Nichole Distefano. Nichole left my office earlier this year to 
pursue an exceptional opportunity with the Environmental Protection 
Agency. She spent more than 6 years as an indispensable member of my 
Washington, DC, staff and was an exceptional member of staffs of mine 
going back to 2004.
  Nichole is affectionately known as ``H'' in our office, initially 
because of the ``h'' in her first name and later for reasons best not 
shared on the Senate floor but related to her tenacity and direct 
nature. Nichole was the absolute rock and foundation of our legislative 
staff during her tenure.
  She was, in fact, the first legislative aide that I hired. It did not 
matter--although was a shock to some--that she had no previous 
experience in DC. I knew she would dive right into her responsibilities 
with attention to detail and skill. In fact, within 2 years on the 
staff, she assumed responsibility for my government reform portfolio, 
which encompassed the issues that I focused on most intently during my 
first 6 years in the Senate. During that time we promoted her four 
times and continually increased her responsibility. In each case, she 
performed beyond even my highest expectations. There was no challenge 
and no issue Nichole could not tackle.
  Nichole's policy accomplishments are too many to number. She was our 
lead staffer on earmark reform work; whistleblower legislation for both 
Federal employees and contractors; our complex regulatory reform 
efforts; everything and anything that had to do with empowering our 
inspectors general. She led all the office work on screening policies 
at the airports along with handling innumerable challenging situations 
with the GSA in regards to Missouri and was the lead staffer in writing 
bills to curb some of the excesses that we discovered in that Agency. 
She also patiently waded through all of the difficult policy and 
politics of energy issues, including the challenging and politically 
sensitive debate on cap and trade. There was no detail too small for 
Nichole to master and no nuance she could not grasp. One of her 
earliest policy responsibilities had to do with an energy issue much 
smaller than cap and trade, however. She prepared legislation dealing 
with the measurement of gasoline as it relates to temperature--hot gas 
was not the most exciting issue. It involved no bright lights and no 
headlines, just hard, complicated, solid, public policy work--the exact 
kind of thing Nichole thrived at. Those issues that take more than a 
cut-and-paste memo were Nichole's specialty.
  I have known Nichole since she was 8 years old, as the granddaughter 
of a strong public servant, Carole Roper Park Vaughn, who served with 
me in the Missouri State Legislature. As Nichole ran around Carole's 
Jefferson City office, Carole helped instill in her that leadership 
spark. In 2004, when I ran for Governor, I hired Nichole for the first 
time to help run our Kansas City volunteer crew. By the end, most 
people on staff thought she was the one really running our KC office--
and for all intent and purposes, she was.
  By our 2006 Senate race, she became my rural outreach director, 
helping us

[[Page S9097]]

find some of the gems of our campaign, like Sweet Corn Charlie. On both 
campaigns she was always willing to do whatever was needed at any level 
from literally boosting me up onto an RV so we could grab a picture of 
our ``McCaskill for Senate''-wrapped RV in front of my family's old 
flour mill in Houston, MO, to walking into a field office unannounced 
one day and saying she was there to go door-to-door, despite her senior 
role on the campaign.
  She is a take-charge kind of woman but taking charge by immersing 
herself in a subject. That became her trademark. We all grew to expect 
her remarkable technical competence on very complicated issues and her 
penchant for digging deeper to find the real answer. Of course, at 
times, she let her desire to dig deep bleed into her personal life, 
too. Just ask her new husband Ryan what her first two responses to his 
marriage proposal were: ``Are you serious?''
  Because of this knack for asking the right questions and learning the 
detailed answers, I always listened to what she had to say--I did not 
always agree, of course, but listened nonetheless. As one of her male 
colleagues said, ``She looks tiny and sweet, but everyone is a little 
terrified of her because she's tougher and smarter than most everyone 
out there.'' And have no doubt, when Nichole believes something, she 
will let you know, and she will fight for it. I cherish this attribute 
because in this kind of job you need people who aren't just smart, 
aren't just aggressive, but who are real and honest.
  Now no one stays terrified of Nichole for too long because they 
figure out how genuine she is, and funny too. The gifted members of our 
staffs are both intense and blessed with great humor.
  Our legislative correspondents have been lucky to have her as a 
mentor, as well--someone who expects a high level of performance, gives 
praise when it is due, and encourages professional development. It is 
no accident that one of the first LC's to work for her grew into one of 
my staff's most important legislative assistants today.
  It is always bittersweet for me when these kinds of junctures 
happen--these times when you want your staff to blast forward and make 
you proud as much as you want them to stay--because they have been so 
essential to your work.
  With Nichole now working as a senior advisor within the Office of 
Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations at the EPA, she is 
providing the kind of public service that embraces intellect, 
curiosity, and precision. It is why they brought her on, of course. 
They quickly saw what we already knew. They are benefiting greatly from 
her deep vein of common sense and her refusal to stop working until she 
has asked every question and gotten every answer.
  I am proud to say thank you to Nichole Distefano as 2013 comes to an 
end, to express my deep gratitude for all she has done for me, for 
Missouri, and for our great Nation over so many years. I am proud to 
see her continue to grow and excel. I know she is doing exceptional 
things in her new position. She is my friend. She is a rock. And I miss 
her.

                          ____________________