[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 27, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1271-H1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING MY GOOD FRIEND, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER ED JOHNSON, FOR HIS 
                      SERVICE TO THIS INSTITUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and to give thanks to a 
very good friend of mine, our Deputy Chief Reporter of the House of 
Representatives, Ed Johnson, whose last day for us is this Friday 
before he returns to our home State of Wisconsin.
  Ed began his official court reporting career back in Wisconsin in 
1980, hooking up with a judge. He eventually made his way here to the 
House of Representatives in 2007 and, ultimately, became Deputy Chief 
Reporter in 2015.
  Ed took his role as our guardian of the public record very seriously: 
with great integrity, with great professionalism, and with great 
respect from everyone who had a chance to work with him.
  And what do these Official Reporters do for us? Like today, this 
young lady here to my left brings her stenograph machine down to the 
well of the House or to a committee that they might be assigned, and 
they record everything that is said. With a single stroke of the key, 
they are able to record whole words, phrases, sometimes whole sentences 
if they know what is being said, sometimes when Members are speaking 
over each other. It is an incredibly difficult talent that they have to 
learn,

[[Page H1272]]

and they all do it so very, very well for us.
  Now, some of Ed's highlights during his career here: He was able to 
report President Obama's State of the Union Address in 2015 by sitting 
here at the dais.
  And listen to this: He served as ``Mr. February'' in the ``2013 Men 
of Court Reporting'' calendar, which is probably appropriate, given 
Ed's legendary sense of humor. He has also been known to do some 
standup comedy.
  Having spent time with my good friend, Ed, here in Washington, I have 
a feeling that he is going to miss a lot of the aspects that he has 
been privy to Capitol Hill, given his appreciation for our history, 
politics, policy, the personalities of this place, and we will 
certainly be missing him.
  So I want to wish him and his wife, Liz, and their two dogs, Bucky 
and Angus--I mean, what could be more Wisconsin than that--as they 
return home to our home State of Wisconsin where they will be a little 
bit closer to their families.
  I want to thank Ed for his service to this institution, but also to 
our country and the distinguished career that he had here in 
Washington.
  I wish him and Liz all the best as they return home to Wisconsin 
where Tawni and I look forward to continuing our friendship.

                          ____________________