[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 152 (Friday, December 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S6769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JIM FRANSEN

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, there is no shortage of attorneys here in 
Washington, DC, but some of the most talented lawyers work in the 
Office of Legislative Counsel here in the Senate. Drafting legislation 
is often a complicated exercise. It takes years under the mentorship 
and tutelage of others to grasp the difficult process of drafting 
complicated bills. At the end of this Congress, after nearly 40 years 
of service, legislative counsel Jim Fransen will retire. His family's 
gain will be the Senate's loss.
  Jim first joined the Office of Legislative Counsel in 1975--the same 
year Vermonters elected me to the Senate. He served as an assistant 
counsel and a senior counsel, rising to become the finance and tax team 
leader. For the last 15 years, he has served as legislative counsel. He 
is the second longest serving legislative counsel, and his career has 
seen many accomplishments.
  Jim has been one of the key drafters of Federal tax legislation since 
joining the office in 1975. He has had a hand in drafting such 
monumental bills as the Tax Reform Acts of 1976 and 1986, the Economic 
Recovery Act of 1981, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and the 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. He helped to draft the 
Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and he 
was a key drafter of the most sweeping health reform legislation in 
generations, the Affordable Care Act.
  Through Republican and Democratic administrations, Republican and 
Democratic Senate majorities, Jim has been a true public servant. I 
know in his retirement, he will enjoy spending time with his family: 
his wife Margaret, his three daughters and his two grandsons. Wherever 
his retirement travels may take him, Marcelle and I wish him the best.

                          ____________________