[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 107 (Thursday, June 23, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Leona I. Faust

  Madam President, yesterday was a sad day for the Senate. We learned 
that we had lost a distinguished, long-serving staff leader in our 
institution.
  Leona Faust had served her country as Senate Librarian for the past 
12 years, and that key position was the capstone of a long and storied 
Senate career that had just entered its 45th year.
  Everyone who knew Leona had sterling praise for her work. I have 
heard our Librarian described by her friends and colleagues as being 
devoted to the institution--as a true Senate all-star, as the first to 
volunteer whenever a task needed tackling.
  Leona was a beloved colleague. She was also an expert whose 
professionalism and institutional knowledge filled an essential niche 
in the Senate's day-to-day functioning.
  As leader of a talented team, Leona was constantly looking for new 
ways to expand the resources the Library offers to Senators and to our 
staff. She was instrumental in expanding the references and databases 
of the Senate's information system, especially as the pandemic left big 
chunks of the institution to working and researching remotely for a 
while. Year after year, she demonstrated her devotion, often without 
much fanfare.
  The Senate Library staff pull long hours attending to pressing 
questions here on the floor. Leona led by example. She made herself 
available at all hours. So the Senate hasn't just lost a talented 
Librarian who helped people find resources they needed, we lost a true 
steward of the institution who had become a resource herself in her own 
right.
  Our prayers today are with Leona's family and with her colleagues at 
the Senate Library and with everyone across the Senate who spent 
decades admiring Leona's commitment and her expertise and who are now 
joined together in mourning her loss.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.