[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2873-S2874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO DR. BRIAN MONAHAN
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, under normal circumstances, thousands of
visitors, staff, and members file through the United States Capitol and
Senate and House offices every day. As we slowly begin to reopen our
economy, businesses, and other public places, all eyes on Capitol Hill
turn to the guidance and counsel of Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending
physician of the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court. Since 2009, when he
joined us in the Capitol, Dr. Monahan has been a trusted voice of
reason and an exceptional healthcare provider to me and hundreds of
other lawmakers.
Dr. Monahan is an accomplished physician and rear admiral of the U.S.
Navy. He began his career as a public servant after college, when he
joined the Navy as a member of the Health Professions Scholarship
Program. In 1989, while working as a resident at the National Naval
Medical Center, Dr. Monahan discovered a connection between cardiac
arrhythmias and the antihistamine, Seldane, a discovery that lead to
the removal of the drug from the market. Dr. Monahan has spent years
working in the attending physician's office, as a staff physician and
later as the assistant attending physician. Dr. Monahan has also served
as the chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Uniformed Services
University of Health Services and has taught at the university as a
professor of pathology and medicine focusing on cancer, oncology, and
hematology. Dr. Monahan's many achievements, medical expertise, and
decades of public service make him an asset to the Capitol and an
invaluable colleague.
Dr. Monahan has played a particularly important role lately, as both
the Senate and the House of Representatives work to strike a balance
between limiting exposure to a pandemic and continuing to work for the
American people. Dr. Monahan has provided remarkable guidance to House
and Senate leaders on how to safely conduct business and operate in the
Capitol. Moving forward, as we continue to deal with the COVID-19
pandemic's economic and public health consequences, I am grateful to
have Dr. Monahan to guide us along the way.
Dr. Monahan is an accomplished photographer, and I have had the
privilege of seeing many of his photographs and being with him in
different parts of the world when he has taken some. All make one
seeing them wish they were there. The reality but especially the
artistry of his photographs are wonderful. Visits to his office are
healthy and healing in so many ways.
Dr. Monahan was recently profiled in The New York Times, and I ask
unanimous consent that the article, ``Doctor to Congress and Supreme
Court Toils to Sidestep Politics amid Pandemic,'' be printed in the
Record.
[[Page S2874]]
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, May 16, 2020]
Doctor to Congress and Supreme Court Toils to Sidestep Politics Amid
Pandemic
Dr. Brian P. Monahan has found himself in the middle of politicized
debates over how quickly to reopen the country and who should be
testing for Covid-19
(By Emily Cochrane)
Washington.--When Senator John Barrasso, Republican of
Wyoming, sought guidance on how to protect his family,
including his 94-year-old father-in-law, when he returned
home from the nation's capital amid the coronavirus pandemic,
a doctor offered him some blunt advice.
Don't go home just yet, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending
physician of Congress, told Mr. Barrasso, directing him to
quarantine for 14 days before rejoining his family. ``You're
a visitor,'' Dr. Monahan said.
But when House Democratic leaders wanted counsel on whether
they could safely reconvene in the Capitol with Covid-19
still spreading--a debate with political dimensions as a
partisan divide was emerging across the country over how
quickly to reopen--Dr. Monahan was less absolute. Returning
to Washington carried health risks he would not recommend
taking, he told Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority
leader. But it was up to them to decide what to do.
They opted to delay their return, and on Friday, partly
because of Dr. Monahan's warnings, moved forward with plans
to institute remote voting in the future.
It was typical of Dr. Monahan, the 59-year-old Navy rear
admiral who is known in the halls of the Capitol as much for
his meticulous attention to medical detail as he is for his
efforts to stay completely out of politics.
``He is both an executive with lots of health care
responsibilities--particularly now--and also has the unique
relationship with members that a small-town doctor would have
with the patients he knows and sees,'' said Senator Roy
Blunt, Republican of Missouri and chairman of the Senate
Rules Committee. ``He's in a unique role at a unique time.''
As government doctors have emerged as trusted public voices
and political figures in the face of a fearsome pandemic--
appearing in White House news conferences and as witnesses at
marquee hearings--Dr. Monahan has maintained an uncommonly
low profile.
He never issued a public statement offering his opinion on
whether Congress should reconvene, although he shared his
warnings with House leaders and privately told senior
Republican officials that his office did not have the
capacity to screen all 100 senators for the coronavirus when
they returned to work. When Alex M. Azar II, the health
secretary, said he would send 1,000 tests to Capitol Hill to
accommodate them, Ms. Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell,
Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, turned down
the offer, wary of the optics of receiving special treatment
at a time when testing was scarce--and prompting President
Trump to suggest on Twitter that ``maybe you need a new
Doctor over there.''
Dr. Monahan, who declined to be interviewed, has been a
calm and professional voice of reason during the pandemic,
according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers,
Capitol officials and medical professionals who know him.
They say he has taken a personal interest in his influential
clientele, which also includes the nine Supreme Court
justices, even as he fields politically charged questions
about reopening, testing and precautionary measures.
Operating out of a nondescript clinic tucked away in the
heart of the Capitol, Dr. Monahan and a small staff have been
exceedingly busy since the pandemic took hold, consulting
with lawmakers who have contracted Covid-19 or exposed to
someone infected with it, doling out health recommendations
in detailed memos ahead of votes, and producing a series of
videos released on an internal website to educate lawmakers
and their staff on how to protect themselves.
Dr. Monahan has filmed and produced the videos by himself
in his office, often seated next to an elaborate bouquet of
white flowers and a tiny plastic model of a pangolin, the
scaly mammal that may have been an intermediary carrier of
the virus.
In the videos, he typically walks through the most recent
recommendations offered by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and demonstrates medical equipment, such as a
thermometer and a variety of masks (including one made by his
wife, using a black shopping bag and a sewing machine).
``He has a big job--two houses of Congress, two parties to
deal with--but he's not political in any way,'' Ms. Pelosi
said. ``He treats us all with respect, and we respect his
judgment in return.''
Dr. Monahan in 2009 became the seventh man to serve as
attending physician, taking up a position that has always
been held by a Navy doctor. The House first approved a Navy
officer to work out of the Democratic cloakroom in 1928 after
one lawmaker died and two collapsed, with several hours
passing before a doctor could arrive in each case. Two years
later, the Senate extended that doctor's jurisdiction to
include its own members, leading to the establishment of the
Office of the Attending Physician.
The office provides care to lawmakers for a fee, as well as
offering some services and emergency care to staff and
tourists. The first physician, Dr. George W. Calver, who
began his work just before the start of the Great Depression,
displayed placards in cloakrooms and elevators across the
Capitol with his nine ``Commandments of Health,'' including
``Accept Inevitables (don't worry)'' and ``Relax
Completely.''
Dr. Monahan was born in Connecticut, the son of Irish
immigrants who came to the United States in the 1950s. His
mother grew up in Kilkee, while his father grew up in a house
with a thatched roof without running water or electricity in
Lissycasey. The first in his family to attend college, he
worked full-time at a supermarket while commuting in a yellow
Volkswagen Beetle to Fairfield University, a Jesuit college--
an education, he would tell graduates in 2011, that meant,
``you are called to be `men and women for others.' ''
He studied biology and chemistry, and after graduating,
joined the Navy through its Health Professions Scholarship
Program, enticed in part by the offer of free tuition and a
living allowance in exchange for a commitment to three years
of service.
``Brian was always the smartest kid in the class,'' said
Dr. William Dahut, a medical oncologist who spent time with
him in both medical school and the Navy. ``If there was a
publication or data, Brian knew that data and knew that
well.''
In 1989, as a resident in the cardiology ward in what was
then the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., he
treated a 39-year-old woman for potentially fatal cardiac
arrhythmias. The patient had taken the popular antihistamine
Seldane, and his contribution to research on that medicine--
and its connection to the arrhythmias--later helped lead to
its removal from the market.
Dr. Monahan rose through the ranks of the Navy, becoming a
professor of medicine and pathology at the Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, as well as
participating in a number of national organizations related
to cancer, oncology and hematology.
While serving as the Chairman of the Department of Medicine
at the university, he received a call for a meeting in which
officials with congressional leadership asked him to become
the attending physician on Capitol Hill when his predecessor
retired.
He has since become a fixture on Capitol Hill,
participating in congressional trips and functions and
releasing health assessments for presidential and vice-
presidential contenders, including Senators Bernie Sanders,
the Vermont independent, and Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia.
(Mr. Kaine also asked him for ``a tuneup'' before hiking the
Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail.)
In 2016, it was Dr. Monahan's assessment of Justice Antonin
Scalia's health at the time of his death--including sleep
apnea, coronary artery disease, obesity and diabetes--that
influenced the decision to decline an autopsy of the justice,
The Associated Press reported at the time.
``He was the one who advised me to go to the hospital,''
said Representative Ben McAdams, Democrat of Utah and one of
the first lawmakers to contract the virus, said of Dr.
Monahan. ``He was clear: `I strongly recommend you go to the
hospital--this is serious.' ''
The congressman has spoken with the doctor at least a dozen
times since, he said in an interview on Thursday--but had yet
to meet Dr. Monahan in person.
An avid photographer, Dr. Monahan's photos are present in
offices around the Capitol--and he has been known to offer
advice on how to best capture a scenic landmark or vista on
trips overseas.
He checks in with his powerful patients frequently,
including long after they have recovered.
``I've been around for a long period of time, and he just
takes more of a personal interest than anyone else I've ever
known in that position,'' said Senator James M. Inhofe,
Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, who has been on Capitol Hill for more
than three decades. ``He just seems to be genuinely
interested in me--and he's that way with everybody.''
____________________