[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 146 (Monday, September 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4537-S4538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO RENEE COHEN

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to Renee 
Cohen, a member of my staff who is retiring after more than 37 years of 
service to the people of Maryland. Renee has been with me since I 
served as speaker of the house in the Maryland General Assembly before 
I won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986.
  W.H. Auden said, ``We are all here on earth to help others; what on 
earth the others are here for I don't know.'' Certainly, Renee has 
devoted her life to helping others, and she has made an extraordinary 
difference in the lives of so many people and families. She is a native 
Baltimorean and a graduate of Forest Park High School, where she was an 
officer in her sorority and excelled academically. She grew up 
surrounded by aunts and uncles, especially the Pollakoffs on her 
mother's side of the family. She attended Temple University, where she 
earned an associate's degree that allowed her to work as a dental 
hygienist. She worked to help support her mother, who was widowed when 
Renee was a young teenager.
  Renee married the love of her life, Jonas Cohen, in 1960, and they 
had three wonderful sons, Mark, Adam, and Ethan. Renee has been a 
devoted mother and grandmother. When her sons

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were old enough, she returned to school, to Notre Dame College of 
Maryland, now known as Notre Dame of Maryland University, to earn a 
bachelor's degree in fine arts. She is a gifted artist.
  Renee and Jonas found many opportunities for volunteer work and 
leadership roles through the Associate Jewish Charities. Her influence 
and reach in local civic life and politics continued to expand to the 
point where I knew I needed her on my staff as a constituent liaison. 
When I entered the House of Representatives in 1987, Renee became a 
caseworker, focusing on healthcare and senior citizen issues. She has 
had a special interest and insight into these issues after caring for 
her mother, Rose Katz, who lived to be 105, and her husband, who had a 
progressive illness before he passed away in 2020. Since I joined the 
Senate, Renee has been an indefatigable field representative for me on 
health and senior issues and a liaison to the Jewish community.
  Try as we might, Senators cannot be in two places at once. We depend 
on staff to represent us. If you were to Google Renee, you would find 
numerous articles and pictures of her representing me in Baltimore and 
around the State, at healthcare fairs and other events, where she 
shared her knowledge, contacts, and other information with constituents 
who needed Federal assistance of some kind. She particularly relished 
helping people to understand and navigate the Affordable Care Act.
  Much of what Senators do can seem ethereal or intangible. Staffers 
like Renee represent where ``the rubber hits the road.'' Casework and 
the sort of outreach Renee performed is intensely personal. Renee 
helped people receive their Social Security retirement, Social Security 
disability, and supplemental security income payments and Medicare 
benefits. She excelled because she is empathetic and has a passion for 
service, for problem-solving, and for strategic thinking. If, for any 
reason, she was unable to offer assistance--which was exceedingly 
rare--she had a knack for finding agencies that the rest of us never 
knew existed for a referral. She would never end a call with, ``I'm 
sorry, we can't help you.'' She always went the proverbial extra mile.
  Another keen interest of Renee's has been science, technology, 
engineering, and mathematics--STEM--education. Renee was instrumental 
in helping to establish STEM programs for underserved students in 
schools across Maryland and the annual STEM Expo at Morgan State 
University. She calls these projects ``my baby,'' and educators 
affectionately refer to Renee as ``the STEM Queen.''
  Renee has worked for me longer than any other member of my staff. It 
was inevitable that I would consider her as a member of my extended 
family and vice versa. I have been so fortunate to have her by my side 
for nearly 40 years. The positive difference she has made in so many 
people's lives is incalculable. She has run the race and is ready to 
retire--sort of. Renee is not someone who lets the grass grow under her 
feet so she will return to the office occasionally as a ``senior 
intern,'' helping answer the phones and pitching in on casework. I am 
grateful we will stay connected. But she will have more time to devote 
to her family and friends and her avocation, which is painting. Renee 
sees the beauty in the people she has faithfully served and in the 
natural world, which she captures on canvas. On behalf of my Senate 
colleagues and the people of Maryland, I want to express my undying 
gratitude to Renee for nearly four decades of exemplary service, 
congratulate her on her retirement, and extend my best wishes to her as 
she turns the page, paint brushes in hand, to a new chapter in a life 
well-lived.

                          ____________________