[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 147 (Tuesday, August 17, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E903]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                        IN HONOR OF RAYNA LEHMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 17, 2021

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rayna Lehman as 
she retires from her position of community service with the San Mateo 
County Central Labor Council. Rayna's remarkable 39-year career at the 
council, and her years of work in labor before joining the central 
labor council, were labors of love.
  It is impossible to fully describe the scope of Rayna Lehman's work 
in our community since she first joined us in 1970, a young woman with 
a cat, a guitar and a big smile. In the past 51 years, she became a 
union painter, led the union, served on the labor council, and filled 
numerous civic positions including on the San Mateo County Childcare 
Partnership Council, the First Five Community Steering Committee, a 
countywide Blue Ribbon Task Force on Healthcare to expand healthcare 
access, a taskforce to ensure the equitable rollout of the Affordable 
Care Act, the county planning commission, the state Workforce 
Investment Board, the countywide school to career partnership 
committee, and dozens of other positions of leadership leading to 
improvements in the health, earning power and dignity of San Mateo 
County residents.
  From 1982 to the present, Rayna Lehman served the labor council as 
the first Community Services Director and Labor Liaison to the United 
Way Bay Area. It's been a wild ride.
  The community services director is an all-encompassing title. Her 
efforts to fight hunger and deter evictions during recessions were 
lifelines for thousands. During one recession in the 2000's, Rayna 
created a program to retool union members to work in the emerging 
biotechnology sector. Time and again, Rayna distributed thousands of 
bags of groceries to unemployed workers. During the 2020 pandemic, the 
total reached 22,600 families. If you estimate four persons per family, 
that's 12 percent of the county's population.
  Rayna Lehman is about success for all. She knew that in San Mateo 
County, both parents need to work. She helped found Palcare, a 
nonprofit center offering care for children from three months to five 
years of age 24 hours a day. Palcare focuses on meeting the special 
needs of workers whose schedules require very early and nighttime work. 
It's an extraordinary success, affordable by design, and it allows 
workers to know that their children are safe and offered a quality 
preschool education while their parents are at work. Rayna served on 
the board and in other leadership positions at Palcare for many years.
  Equal opportunity is the promise of America and a requirement if we 
are to sustain our democracy. Good jobs in labor begin with 
apprenticeships. In fact, Rayna was the first female apprentice in 
Painters District Council 33. In her job with the labor council, she 
noticed that San Mateo County's union halls were not recruiting enough 
women or young people from marginalized communities. Rayna began a pre-
apprenticeship program that allowed students to improve their math and 
social skills, and to learn about safety on the job, among many 
subjects. The program is a wild success, always full, and a pathway to 
the middle class for hundreds.
  In 1982, while I served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, 
it was my honor to serve with Rayna on the first San Mateo County 
Advisory Council on Women, later to become the Commission on the Status 
of Women. The purpose of the council/commission is simple yet profound: 
To improve the lives of women in San Mateo County. Rayna served from 
1982 to 1986 and during that time we held Feminization of Poverty 
hearings and made many recommendations ultimately leading to change. We 
also created the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame. In 1990, Rayna 
was inducted into the hall of fame she helped create.
  San Mateo County is a beautiful place but in recent years a troubling 
undercurrent has emerged. The lack of affordable housing makes life 
increasingly difficult for tens of thousands. Rayna Lehman has been a 
strong advocate at city councils for affordable housing and for a 
livable minimum wage. She cannot help herself--she believes in the 
dignity of human beings and in the possibility of any honest and caring 
person to contribute greatly to our nation.
  As I close these remarks, let me note the obvious: Rayna Lehman is a 
loving person. She loves her twin sons Patrick and Benjamin and their 
spouses Amanda and Kelly. She loves Bill, a truly fortunate husband. In 
addition, Rayna's expanded family is all of us in San Mateo County. She 
expresses her love by protecting and celebrating as many as possible.
  Rayna is now retiring. The concrete reality of human beings fed, 
ennobled and celebrated is evidenced in ways large and enduring 
throughout our county. Farewell Rayna. If that guitar is still around, 
please strike a chord for justice. Truth be told, you wrote the song.

                          ____________________