[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 212 (Wednesday, December 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9009-S9010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Tribute to Sara Hottman

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, few things are harder in this job than 
when you have to say goodbye to a member of your team. With all of the 
time we spend together, it is impossible not to grow close to the men 
and women who make up that team. The team members become our 
colleagues, our friends, our families.
  I am here on the floor today to recognize and bid farewell to a 
valued and integral member of my Senate family who, after more than 5 
years, is leaving to start the next chapter of her career. She is my 
State communications director, Sara Hottman.
  During her time on Team Merkley, Sara has not only helped communicate 
my message to the people back home in Oregon about the work I am doing 
on their behalf here in DC, but she has used her well-connected ear to 
the ground to help keep me in the loop on issues evolving back home.
  I have come to depend on her to keep me on the right track. She never 
shies away from delivering hard truths when they are needed. She has 
used her vast experience in all different facets of the communications 
world--as a reporter, as the communications director for a 
municipality, as head of strategic communications for the Oregon Zoo--
to help deliver our message to the people of the State. It doesn't hurt 
that in her spare time, Sara is a prolific kickboxer. So when she tells 
me something, I listen. She has been a real leader in our team, 
including participation in our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering 
Committee.
  She has done an amazing job time and time again putting together 
State events. We have traveled all across our sizable State for events 
that included press conferences to announce policies; press conferences 
to hear from stakeholders in our State--for example, roundtables with 
nurses and medical professionals who are on the frontlines fighting the 
pandemic. Our events included townhalls--a gathering with community 
leaders in every county every year, followed by a public townhall with 
people who will ask any question they want. Our events included tours 
of State disasters. She expertly organized every event, ensuring media 
exposure and successfully striving to bring together a wide variety of 
expert and local voices to ensure that I was always learning more 
insights and perspectives on the issues that face us.
  At the end of the day, as we prepared to overnight somewhere around 
the State in preparation for another long day, she always knew the 
perfect local watering hole for the team to post up at to reminisce on 
how things had gone and to recover in preparation for the day that 
followed.
  When something went off the rails unexpectedly, she found a way to 
turn

[[Page S9010]]

it into an opportunity. When I was surveying damage to a town 
incinerated by the 2020 Labor Day fires, I became so immersed in 
examining the fire damage that the rest of the delegation went on to 
the next event, and suddenly I realized we were left behind. She didn't 
miss a beat. She used that time to gather more local community members 
who had been so impacted by the devastation of losing their homes. She 
managed to find a reporter who had also been left behind and arranged 
an impromptu one-on-one exclusive. So I utilized that opportunity to 
learn more and to communicate more when it could have just been a 
misstep. Well, that is what she does--turns missteps into 
opportunities.
  Cool and calm under pressure, she has a way of making everyone feel 
important and seen. She connects with folks everywhere she goes.
  I was thinking back to one townhall we did in early 2020 before the 
pandemic hit and shut things down. It was a small gathering in a 
classroom of a local school, but in that group was a young girl who was 
simply entranced by Sara. Throughout the townhall, she was following 
her around, imitating when Sara would take photos and asking questions 
of Sara even though the townhall was underway. Sara, being the person 
she is, kept answering those questions, kept letting the girl shadow 
her, still managing to get all of her work done while also inspiring 
this admirer. That is kind of just the charming ability to connect with 
folks and to stay calm in unexpected situations that have made 
traveling around the State long, busy travel days a real joy for the 
entire team.
  When the pandemic turned our world upside down in March of last year, 
she used her leadership and organizing skills to help me and the entire 
team transition to the new virtual world we were suddenly thrown into. 
She turned our townhalls and our weekly sessions of local Oregon 
reporters and television stations into virtual events so I could 
continue to provide information and connect with constituents during 
this extraordinary national crisis. She led the charge in updating our 
website to provide a one-stop shop of resources for residents and local 
businesses for information on how to get the help they needed.
  To say that Sara will leave a large hole in our team when she heads 
off to her new responsibilities would be an understatement. Every 
member of our office, whether in Washington, DC, or back home in 
Oregon, is going to miss her bright smile, her sharp wit, her 
infectious energy, and her brilliant mind--not to mention that we will 
also miss her border collie, Liz, who has been a therapy dog for all of 
us.
  Sara, if you are watching, and I hope you are, know that we all, the 
extended Team Merkley family, wish you well in the next phase of your 
career. Thank you for all you have done these past 5-plus years, and 
thank you for all you will continue to do to help build a better world 
for the people of Oregon and the people of our Nation.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.