[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 27, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Maura Keefe

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I come to the floor this afternoon 
with mixed emotions--mixed emotions because I feel a tremendous sense 
of gratitude but also sadness because at the end of this month, 
tomorrow, after more than a decade of working together, my chief of 
staff, Maura Keefe, will leave to start a new adventure.
  Maura is here on the floor today with my new chief of staff, Chad 
Kreikemeier, and most of our staff here in DC are in the Gallery 
watching. Everyone is here because we think so much of Maura, and we 
are so sad that she is leaving but wish her Godspeed in everything she 
does. She has been an incredible asset as we worked together to improve 
the lives of Granite Staters.
  I must thank her for her service and share some of the memories from 
the past 10 years. In New Hampshire, where we are the home of the first 
primary State, public service and political engagement are part of our 
culture. It is a culture that is epitomized by Maura and her family.
  Maura helped me get elected in 2008. Actually, she helped me before 
that--in 2002, when I didn't win the election. Despite our loss, she 
came back and she worked with me in 2008, and then when we won, she set 
up the office. She had already accumulated several careers by that time 
in political campaigns and nonprofits and in the private sector. At 
each and every step along the way, Maura made new friendships, and she 
blazed a trail of accomplishments. Her time with us has certainly been 
no different.
  I remember right after that election, she and a small group of people 
were working to set up the office. She showed me the files of people 
who were interested in working on the staff. I was down here for 
orientation, and she and the woman who would become the deputy chief of 
staff spent the whole weekend--while I was running around doing fun 
things, they were working into the night to go through those resumes to 
hire the best possible people to open the office.
  Maura's father, who served as chief of staff to New Hampshire Senator 
Tom McIntyre, whose seat I now hold, would be very proud of everything 
she has done and all of her accomplishments.
  I will never be able to thank her enough for building our wonderful 
team, for hiring a staff of dedicated public servants who work hard for 
the people of New Hampshire.
  Those of us who have had the pleasure to work with Maura know her 
sense of humor. She does great birthday cards that are very funny. 
Every month when we do birthdays in the office, she does farewell cards 
that are sort of testimonials but more roasts--or equally roast and 
testimonial. Her sense of humanity is also what makes her special. I 
have certainly benefited from both of these over the last 10 years.
  Maura is going to be missed, not just in our offices here in 
Washington and in New Hampshire but throughout the Senate because for 
the last several years, she has played an important leadership role 
among the Democratic chiefs of staff and among the women chiefs of 
staff. She has made a positive difference for all of our offices, and 
she has made important and constructive inroads with Senate leadership 
on both sides of the aisle. Her presence will be missed by so many 
people in this institution.
  Of course she is going to be missed for forging important consensus 
on the golf course as well. Our office does a golf outing every summer, 
and Maura is always the one who comes out on top in those golf outings. 
She has two holes in one, and she displays the plaques for those holes 
in one on the wall that is between our two offices. They are a reminder 
that from the Capitol to the tee box and everywhere in between, Maura 
is a fierce competitor.
  Over the last 10 years, there have been real historic moments. I hope 
those moments will be the cornerstone of Maura's memories from the 
Senate--the passage of healthcare reform that was decades in the 
making, ushering in the first bipartisan energy efficiency legislation 
in a generation, working to put a woman on the twenty-dollar bill, 
increasing funding and resources to combat the opioid crisis, expanding 
critical investments for the Office on Violence Against Women, and so 
many other critical infrastructure projects, changes in New Hampshire 
that have meant jobs and that have improved the lives of so many of our 
citizens.
  Perhaps the most succinct description of Maura can be credited to 
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, for whom Maura worked as chief of staff in 
the 1990s. Congresswoman DeLauro once told a reporter aptly that Maura 
is ``someone who doesn't mince words.'' I can attest to that. When I do 
things that she thinks are not quite what I ought to be doing, she 
doesn't mince words; she lets me have it.
  I am going to greatly miss her daily doses of wisdom and wit. Her 
supporting counsel has always been invaluable to me. I can't thank her 
enough for her dedicated service.
  Thank you, Maura. We are all going to miss you but me, most of all.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.