[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING PHIL MATIER

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. ERIC SWALWELL

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 24, 2021

  Mr. SWALWELL. Madam Speaker, along with Speaker of the House Nancy 
Pelosi and Representatives Mark DeSaulnier, Anna G. Eshoo, Jared 
Huffman, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Jerry McNerney, Jackie 
Speier, and Mike Thompson, I rise to recognize California journalist 
Phil Matier on the occasion of his retirement from the San Francisco 
Chronicle.
  Phil for decades has enlightened and entertained Bay Area readers 
with his well-sourced, trenchant columns. He has helped to clearly 
explain our region's ups and downs to generations of residents, often 
shining light on details that politicians and the well-connected would 
have preferred to keep hidden.
  Phil, a graduate of the University of Arizona, worked at the Tucson 
(AZ) Citizen before joining the San Francisco Examiner in the 1980s to 
report on city hall, where he met and soon partnered with Andy Ross. A 
Matier & Ross column became a fixture first at the Examiner and then at 
the Chronicle, even as Phil also expanded his media footprint into work 
with Bay Area television and radio stations.
  Through his columns as well as his broadcast presence, Phil has 
explained the fine details of pressing issues, probed policymakers' 
personalities and character, and pushed for accountability and 
transparency in government.
  His uncanny ability to elicit information from political figures, 
whether or not they wish to share it, is legendary. And his own 
personality--insightful, sometimes pugnacious, often expressed at high 
volume, but always fair--has shone through all of his work.
  We thank Phil for sharing his talents with generations of newspaper 
readers, and we are glad we will continue to see and hear his 
broadcasts.

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