[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 166 (Thursday, September 24, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5849-S5850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Amy Amrhein

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, Senators come to this floor with 
greatly diverse life experiences and political theories and 
representing enormously different States. But we all share this in 
common: a vast appreciation of our team members, our staff, who enable 
us to do our work as U.S. Senators on behalf of our own States, but 
also on behalf of the Nation.
  These team members are not just staff. They are family. We share in 
moments of joy--marriage, the birth of a child. We grieve with them in 
those life moments that are so difficult. And when the team members 
choose to move on, it is a bittersweet moment.
  I come to the floor today to recognize and pay tribute to a beloved 
member of my team, Amy Amrhein, who in just a few short days will be 
leaving us to a well-deserved retirement. Even after knowing for months 
that this day was coming, it is still hard for me not to be saddened by 
her departure. She has been on my team from the very beginning of my 
time as a Senator, serving as my field representative in Southern 
Oregon and staffing our Medford office. That is now a dozen years.
  She took on the task of learning complicated natural resource issues 
and learning them with determination and insight, working to 
internalize the issues and challenges of every community in the region, 
from the smallest port to the biggest county.
  She mastered the art of putting on a townhall, as I do one in every 
county every year, and I think at last count that is about 80 townhalls 
she has conducted over the years.
  She has worked to bring the community together to discuss visions for 
the future. One of those was the potential expansion of the Cascade-
Siskiyou Monument. She organized a gathering that gave public 
testimony, which helped share insights from all the stakeholders. Local 
leaders and regional Tribes and all members of the public shared their 
insights and perspectives.
  It is no exaggeration to say that there are few people in the world 
with a better grasp of the complicated water issues in the Klamath 
Basin. We have a saying in the West that ``whiskey, that's for 
drinking; water, that's for fighting'' because it is so essential to so 
many aspects of our economy and our natural system.
  For 12 years, Amy engaged in shuttle diplomacy over long-term 
solutions to water shortages. She found ways to help farmers and 
ranchers save their livelihoods through shattering droughts, truly 
making herself an indispensable facilitator to stakeholders across the 
board and an indispensable facilitator as I tried to work out 
agreements. That really came in handy with the Klamath Basin 
Restoration Agreement, developing that effort to have the stakeholders 
share a common vision for the future. It really came in handy when we 
worked to get funds to address the devastating droughts in 2010 and 
2013--funds that would help the farmers who depended on irrigation but 
had no water to be able to temporarily, for a season, retire their 
water rights and therefore have some income for their ranch or their 
farm or be able to have money to pump groundwater to compensate for the 
lack of irrigation water during those drought years.
  One of the issues has been the water quality in the Klamath Basin and 
the competing environmental rules regarding the river and the lake, and 
a piece of that is the survival of two endangered species. So she 
helped to put all the details together to hold the Sucker Science 
Summit, which brought together again the farmers, ranchers, Tribes, 
scientists, local government officials, and Federal officials to devise 
a plan for the long-term survival of the C'waam and Koptu suckerfish in 
the Klamath Basin.
  There is no doubt that Southern Oregon could not have asked for a 
better advocate over these past 12 years. I have appreciated her 
diligence, her humor, her positive attitude, and her candor about our 
smart political tactics or policy tactics and our mistakes. I could 
share some of those stories, but perhaps they are better shared through 
the eyes of our fellow team members, so I will read some of their 
comments.
  The first goes as follows:

       Amy is the definition of dedication. No one can out work 
     her. She is committed and she will keep asking questions and 
     pushing buttons until she makes progress on an issue. She is 
     fearless. She has been such a great leader and mentor for not 
     only the field team, but the entire state staff. I'm so 
     grateful for the opportunity to learn from her. Oregon is a 
     better place to live because of her service and she will be 
     dearly missed.

  A second team member expressed this:

       When I think of Amy I think about her fearlessness. A 
     distant field rep's job is really challenging--[the rep] is 
     the face and the voice of the Senator and you are all alone, 
     far from DC, even far from Portland. Despite all our 
     communications breakthroughs you are still all by yourself, 
     driving remote highways, walking into rooms full of 
     strangers, never knowing what is going to be thrown at you. 
     They want a Senator, and instead they get you. Amy was open 
     about her questions and concerns, but once she was out there 
     and on her own, we always had confidence she would do and say 
     the right thing.

  A third team member said this:

       No surprise that she is leaving behind big shoes. She makes 
     covering some of the largest counties and most difficult 
     issues in the state look easy. Her knowledge of the issues 
     run deep and her contacts in counties is impressive. When you 
     ask about a county, she'll give you the breakdown of all her 
     contacts: who would give me straight answers and who has the 
     juicy county political/social gossip. She has also been a 
     great mentor to those in the field. I am pretty sure she has 
     walked every one of us through our first town halls, 
     roundtables and site visits. She was someone you could rely 
     on to give you feedback and let you know if you were on the 
     right path.

  The final comment from a team member:

       I would just say that every time I have ever come into 
     contact with a community leader or elected official that has 
     worked with Amy, no matter the political party, they 
     absolutely love her. She has done so much for the Southern 
     Oregon communities. Just a beautiful human who has worked 
     incredibly hard over the last decade-plus to help rural 
     Oregonians. She is funny, kind, and blunt--always tells you 
     like it is. I cannot reiterate enough how imperative her 
     mentorship has been. She is a wealth of knowledge and 
     experience that can't be replaced.

  I certainly could not have said it better, so I appreciate the team 
members who contributed those thoughts.
  On behalf of myself and the entire team, thank you, Amy Amrhein, for 
all you have done for our team, for all you have done for the State, 
and for all you have done for so many constituents, working on so many 
complex and difficult issues. You are going to be deeply missed by the 
entire team but by me most of all. It is the wish of the entire team 
that you will have a joyous, healthy retirement.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Young nomination?
  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Johnson), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Johnson) would have voted yea.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Ms. Harris) 
and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?

[[Page S5850]]

  The result was announced--yeas 93, nays 2, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 194 Ex.]

                                YEAS--93

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Braun
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hawley
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Loeffler
     Manchin
     Markey
     McConnell
     McSally
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--2

     Blumenthal
     Schumer
       

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Capito
     Harris
     Johnson
     Moran
     Sanders
  The nomination was confirmed
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________