[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 46 (Thursday, March 11, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO MARY SUIT JONES

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on one final matter, as I have 
mentioned, it is customary for some top Senate staff positions to see 
new faces when party control changes hands.
  Today, it is my honor to pay tribute to Mary Suit Jones, a huge asset 
to this institution who has become an institution herself.
  Tomorrow, Mary will finish her second separate run as Assistant 
Secretary of the Senate and conclude a Senate career that has spanned 
more than a quarter of a century.
  I first met Mary Jones in the mid-1990s when we brought her on board 
to help manage my office. Neither I nor Mary's colleagues back then 
could have predicted that nearly 30 years later, she would depart as 
one of the most senior officers in the entire place. But the truth is, 
if you had told us, nobody would have been even a little surprised 
either.
  I have entrusted Mary with a lot of different responsibilities over 
the years. She served as our office manager just a few years out of 
college. She came with me to the Rules Committee, first as deputy staff 
director and then the top job. Senator Frist had the good judgment to 
ask her to be Assistant Secretary in the early 2000s. Then she returned 
to Rules and resumed serving as our staff director under Senators Bob 
Bennett, Lamar Alexander, and then Pat Roberts. Finally, she generously 
brought all of this expertise and institutional knowledge back to the 
Assistant Secretary role 6 years ago.
  In her first job in my office, Mary organized one team of people and 
our infrastructure. In her current job, she has overseen 26 departments 
and scores of Senate staff, pushing resources and guidance down and 
pushing information up. In between, at Rules, she tackled things like 
helping run Presidential inaugurations.
  Through it all, I cannot name one time when Mary Jones did not 
deliver. She is consistent, competent, and completely reliable. No 
wonder her name has become a kind of catchphrase around the Senate when 
anyone is trying to track down some key piece of wisdom or is puzzling 
over how to get something done: ``Well, let's ask Mary Jones.'' ``Have 
you checked with Mary Jones?'' ``I think Mary knows all about that.''
  Everyone from junior staff to senior Senators, Republicans and 
Democrats, have been able to count on Mary for expertise and execution. 
On a million different subjects, she knows the answer to the question 
you are going to ask before you even finish asking it. A rock-solid 
administrator, a consummate professional--she is just that good.
  So I am sorry to see Mary depart the Senate, but she has given 
generously to this place. She has certainly earned the opportunity to 
apply her many talents to some new challenges and perhaps knock a few 
miles off of her famously epic commute while she is at it.
  The whole Senate thanks Mary for her excellent service. We wish her, 
her husband, and their kids all the best in the exciting new chapters 
that lie ahead.

                          ____________________