[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 4 (Thursday, January 6, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E10-E11]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               RECOGNIZING LESTER CASH ON HIS RETIREMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 6, 2022

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and 
congratulate Lester Cash on his exemplary 37 years of service to the 
Federal Government, including 24 years at the Department of Health and 
Human Services.
  After growing up in North Carolina, Lester Cash began his federal 
career as a statistician planning for the 1990 Census, which was 
followed by a decade as a senior examiner at the Office of Management 
and Budget. In 1997, Mr. Cash moved to HHS and spent eight years 
overseeing budgets for some of the Federal Government's most important 
agencies, including the NIH, CDC, and FDA. In 2005, he was appointed to 
the Senior Executive Service.
  Since 2007, Mr. Cash has served as HHS's Associate Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Budget, often managing the most difficult budgetary 
issues across a Department whose programs and services reach virtually 
every American at some point in their lives--from Head Start for early 
childhood education to Medicare for seniors.
  Throughout his 24 years of service at HHS's Office of Budget, Mr. 
Cash frequently served as the Department's liaison to the Committees on 
Appropriations. During that time, he became an indispensable resource 
to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. 
Mr. Cash's budgetary and programmatic expertise has helped the 
subcommittee to draft annual appropriations bills and emergency 
supplementals--for which I am deeply grateful.
  Most recently, Mr. Cash provided important technical assistance on 
emergency supplemental appropriations to respond to the COVID pandemic. 
He has been instrumental in HHS's procurement of life-saving vaccines,

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therapeutics, and antivirals, as well as the distribution of emergency 
relief funding to healthcare providers affected by the pandemic.
  In 2018, Mr. Cash earned the Presidential Rank Award, one of the most 
prestigious awards in the Federal career civil service, which 
recognizes members of the Senior Executive Service for ``sustained 
extraordinary accomplishment.'' It was aptly awarded and richly 
deserved.
  In addition to his professional achievements, Mr. Cash has earned 
three master's degrees, including a master's degree in public policy 
from Duke University, a master's degree in philosophy from the 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a master's degree in 
theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
  I thank Mr. Cash for his tireless public service--which often 
included long days, evenings, and weekends--as he worked to ensure that 
critical health and human services programs had the necessary resources 
to serve millions of American families who relied on them. His talents 
and contributions will be sorely missed.
  I congratulate him on a distinguished career and wish him the best in 
his upcoming retirement.