[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Mark Powden

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the career of my 
longtime chief of staff, staff director of the Democratic staff on the 
Senate Banking Committee, former staff director for Republicans on the 
HELP Committee, and my good friend Mark Powden.
  Mark is the model of a public servant and of a Senate staffer. He 
spent decades serving in these Halls, first for Senator Jeffords, and 
then, in 2007, he joined my office, becoming my chief of staff less 
than 2 years later.
  I was a brandnew Senator. I still had a lot to learn. There were few 
better teachers in this institution and this city than Mark Powden. He 
helped steer our office in its early days, setting up a well-oiled 
machine, I would like to think, that would serve Ohioans at home and 
advocate for them in Washington. Under Mark's leadership, we delivered 
results for the 12 million people in Ohio.
  When the country wanted to write off the American auto industry, we 
said no. We weren't going to abandon this industry and millions of 
American workers--literally hundreds of thousands in Ohio. Mark was 
passionate about making sure we got the best deal possible for Ohio 
workers. It wasn't just auto workers.
  Mark took over the job as chief of staff in my office during the 
depths of the recession around the time President Obama took office, 
after the economy was tanking with a loss of 800,000 jobs a month at 
the end of the Bush administration. Ohio had lost 423,000 jobs over a 
2-year period--nearly 8 percent of the jobs in the State. Under Mark's 
leadership, we worked to create the Hardest Hit Fund, which targeted 
resources to communities in places like Ohio that had been devastated 
by the financial crisis. Mark and so many others have heard me say that 
the ZIP Code where my wife Connie and I live in Cleveland, OH--ZIP Code 
44105--at that point, in the first half of 2007, there were more 
foreclosures in that ZIP Code than in any other ZIP Code in the United 
States of America.
  Mark always made sure that investing in Ohio was a priority. We 
helped secure $100 million to expand cancer research and treatment at 
the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and James Cancer 
Hospital.
  Through all of these accomplishments, Mark remained true to his 
Vermont roots. It is where he grew up. His first major job in 
Washington was with a Republican in those days, a Senator from Vermont. 
He tried his hardest always to bring Vermont's bucolic vales to the 
Nation's Capital, and he maintained the utmost respect for the 
institution of the Senate.
  He had an incredible wealth of knowledge on the history of this place 
and on legislative procedure and tradition, and he passed it on to 
other staffers--from my new chief of staff, when Mark moved over to 
lead the Senate Banking Committee, to the LCs new to the Senate, hoping 
to learn. We will miss all that about Mark Powden.
  I will miss Mark's counsel. I will miss his hard work. I will miss 
his sense of humor. I will miss his modesty. I will particularly miss 
his farmer jokes that he tells so well after growing up in rural 
Vermont. It is not surprising that Mark would not want to be here today 
as I honor him because he just doesn't want to show up to be honored. 
But after decades in public service, he has earned a long retirement 
with his wife Wendy; his two sons, Joseph and Russell; and his entire 
family.
  Mark, thank you for what you did for me, thank you for what you did 
for our State, and thank you for what you do for our country.
  I would add to this that one of the people Mark helped to teach is 
with me on the floor today. She is about to join a Presidential 
campaign. Her name is Hannah Fine. I want to recognize her service. 
This is the first time, I believe, she has been on the Senate floor for 
a moment like this. So, Hannah, thank you.