[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 19, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S53-S54]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO REEMA DODIN

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as we begin the Congress and prepare to 
welcome President Biden and Vice President Harris, I find myself 
thinking of the words of the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi. He wrote, 
``Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. 
I'll meet you there.''
  For the moment that we are living through, I would edit his words 
slightly. I would say: Out beyond the ideas of right versus left, out 
beyond the rigid confines of our current polarized politics, there is a 
field of common good and common purpose. I hope we will all find the 
courage to meet there, to work together in this place.
  At another moment of dangerous division in America, Abraham Lincoln 
prayed that the ``better angels of our nature'' would help us to 
rediscover our common bond and pull back from the brink of a civil war.
  Today, the Union, preserved through that war, is battered and 
divided. For the first time since the Civil War, thousands of Federal 
troops stand guard at our Nation's Capitol to protect it from attack by 
American citizens.
  Carpenters and other crafts people are still hard at work repairing 
the doors and windows and furniture smashed to bits less than 2 weeks 
ago by the insurrectionist mob. We must be better than this or we risk 
losing our democracy.
  I believe that beyond the killing field of weaponized politics, there 
is still a field of shared dreams, which brings me to a specific reason 
I take the floor of the Senate today.
  I come to thank a remarkable woman who has devoted countless hours 
over many years trying to help the Members of this Senate, Democrats 
and Republicans, find that field on which we can work together.
  Reema Dodin has been a member of my staff for more than 14 years. She 
started as a law school intern in my Chicago office, and over the 
years, she rose through the ranks: legislative assistant; research 
director; Judiciary Committee staff member; floor counsel; and finally 
my deputy chief of staff.
  For years, my person on the Senate floor has been this woman, this 
amazing woman. I am grateful for her service to the Senate and her 
service to the people of Illinois and to our Nation. But tomorrow Reema 
begins a new challenge as Deputy Director of the White House Office of 
Legislative Affairs. This daughter of immigrants will make history as 
the highest ranking Palestinian-American woman ever to work in the 
executive branch of the President of the United States.
  As the liaison to the U.S. Senate, she will continue to help the 
Senate search for common ground on which to build a better future; only 
now she will be doing it from a different office, with a much better 
boss.
  I know that she will be a tremendous asset to President Biden and the 
Nation. In these divided times, it is rare to find a public servant 
like Reema, whose excellence and integrity is so widely admired on both 
sides of the aisle.
  No one understands better than Reema--well, perhaps two people in the 
Chamber might understand better--how this Senate works but only two. As 
the saying goes, she wrote the book on it, coauthoring an insightful 
tome entitled ``Inside Congress: A Guide for Navigating the Politics of 
the House and Senate Floors,'' published in 2017 by the Brookings 
Institution. It came this close to being a New York Times bestseller. 
But maybe still, with this speech today, it will reinvigorate sales.
  As floor director for the Senate Democrats, Reema has worked closely 
with staff and Members on both sides of the aisle to whip bills and 
overcome hurdles. No matter how long or pitched the debate, she has 
always remained friendly, decent, optimistic, and dedicated. It was not 
unusual to find her still at her desk at midnight or 2 in the morning, 
sending her final whip alert or email of the day to Senate staffers 
summarizing the day's activities and the next day's Senate agenda.
  Reema acquired her political and diplomatic acumen through hard work

[[Page S54]]

and partly, it seems, through genetics. Her grandfather served as 
Social Affairs Minister for the Kingdom of Jordan under King Hussein 
and was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in the 
1970s.
  As I mentioned, Reema, like so many Americans, including myself, is a 
child of immigrants. Her parents both came to the United States as 
college students from Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
  Reema was born in North Carolina and grew up in Orange County, CA. 
She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, earned her 
law degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and we 
made her an honorary daughter of the land of Lincoln. She also is a 
Truman National Security fellow; a New Leaders Council fellow; an Aspen 
Socrates alumnus; a former term-member of the Council on Foreign 
Relations; and a member of the Jenkins Hill Society, a consortium of 
women in politics supporting women politicians.
  Reema loves the Senate, and she loves the challenge of this great 
Chamber. She loves to give tours in this Chamber to those who want to 
know the procedure and the history of this beautiful room in American 
history and the Capitol of our Nation. She cares about the people who 
protect and preserve this building, including the maintenance people, 
cafeteria workers, and everyone who works here.
  Even after so many years of climbing the marble staircase from the 
Senate floor to my office, she and I remain in awe of those time-worn 
steps, the colorful Minton tiles that brighten the Senate floors, and 
the majestic Brumidi frescos that adorn the walls.
  During the recent siege of the Capitol, Reema worried for the safety 
of Senators and their staff, police officers, and troops who were 
defending this building, but she also worried about the priceless 
paintings, statues, and other historical treasures that had been passed 
down from one generation to the next as part of our national legacy.
  Most of all, I know that Reema reveres the Senate as the place where 
men and women representing all of the people and all of the competing 
interests of the United States can reason and work together for the 
common good of our Nation.
  In her personal inscription to her book on the Senate, Reema thanked 
me for taking a chance on folks with only dreams and no connections.
  Well, Reema, tomorrow when you join the staff of the President of the 
United States, Joe Biden, you will have the best connections in 
Washington, and I know that you will use whatever opportunity presents 
itself on this new assignment to bridge the gaps in America and bring 
together the people of this country in a better, more caring nation.
  I will forever be grateful for your many years of brilliant, loyal 
service, and I wish you the best.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. WICKER). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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