[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 158 (Thursday, September 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5522-S5524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Greg Dotson

  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I am delighted to rise today to salute a 
member of my committee staff who has made literally invaluable 
contributions to not just the Congress but to our Nation and not just 
for a couple of months or years but for literally decades.
  Greg Dotson, the chief counsel for the Senate Committee on 
Environment and Public Works, which I am privileged to chair, will be 
retiring on September 30 following a distinguished career in service to 
this country of ours. On this occasion, I want to take note of his 
remarkable legacy and extraordinary service to the people of America.
  As many of my colleagues will attest, true leaders in this body and 
true leaders elsewhere are only as good as the team that works for 
them. Like I say, I hire people smarter than me, and that is one of the 
reasons I think I have had some success. But good leaders are always 
looking for the best people they can find.
  For many of us who are elected officials in this body and others, 
those teams of staff members too often toil in the background and are 
rarely recognized publicly for their service.
  While all the members of the Environment and Public Works Committee 
staff that I am privileged to lead are wonderful public servants, there 
are sometimes rare individuals who stand out as having made an 
extraordinary

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impact on the American people and on this country as a whole. Greg 
Dotson is one of those exceptional people. He has emerged as an 
invaluable leader in the effort to address the urgent threat of climate 
change and has dedicated his life to that vital calling.
  Greg first joined this mission as a staffer to Congressman Henry 
Waxman in 1996. Greg followed Congressman Waxman to the House Oversight 
Committee and, later, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which 
Henry led.
  During his nearly 20 years in the House, Greg Dotson helped lead a 
team that produced the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, 
a landmark, comprehensive climate change and energy bill that passed 
the House of Representatives in June of 2009.
  He has worked on a number of major legislative achievements, 
including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; the 
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; the Energy Policy Act of 
2005; the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, and many, many 
more. Greg also spearheaded vital congressional oversight and 
investigative efforts with environmental significance, including high-
profile inquiries into political interference with climate science, the 
BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, and the energy market abuses of Enron.
  After his illustrious service in the House of Representatives, Greg 
went on to share his wisdom and passion with young people who are eager 
to follow in his footsteps and protect our planet. In 2017, he became a 
professor in environmental policy at the University of Oregon's 
Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, a role which has 
enabled him to take the lessons of his congressional service and use 
them to help inform the next generation of legal scholars and 
environmentalists.
  It was from there that he came to the Environment and Public Works 
Committee in early 2021, when I was becoming chairman of the committee. 
When we began a new Congress that year with a new Senate majority and a 
new President who was committed to action on addressing climate change 
and our Nation's infrastructure needs, while creating lots of jobs, we 
knew that EPW needed a seasoned, thoughtful counsel who could help 
guide our committee through this historic time. Greg was just the man 
for the job.
  As chief counsel, he played an invaluable role in helping negotiate 
and craft the transformational bipartisan infrastructure law enacted 
last year, working to find common ground with our Republican colleagues 
and including remarkably strong climate investments in our 
infrastructure legislation. He also led the charge on efforts to boost 
electric vehicle infrastructure, clean up our air and our water, and 
protect communities who are facing the worst consequences of our 
climate crisis.
  In addition, Greg played a leading role in efforts to boost the clean 
energy revolution for our automotive industry. He worked with me to lay 
out a vision for how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could 
adopt standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the automotive 
industry and eliminate tailpipe pollution from new cars by 2035.
  The letter we ultimately sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan was 
met with applause from both auto manufacturers and environmental groups 
alike. And as someone who has been here a few years, that doesn't 
happen every day.
  A few months after we unveiled our proposal, the Biden administration 
followed up by announcing a new plan that adopted our recommendations 
for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, from trucks, 
while embracing zero-emission vehicles.
  And by calling for half of the new vehicles sold in the United States 
to be zero-emission vehicles by the year 2030 and adopting a 
multipollutant approach--as we recommended--our Nation will reap major 
health benefits for millions of Americans while accelerating market 
trends to the clean cars of the future.
  This was Greg's vision, and it will remain his legacy for years and 
years to come. And just a few weeks ago, Greg was here on the Senate 
floor with Mary Frances Repko, myself, and others on our team, our 
colleagues as well--on the floor for the crowning achievement of his 
decades of government service on climate crisis: the Inflation 
Reduction Act. Greg's countless hours of work were on that landmark 
bill and were critical to making possible the largest investment in 
climate in our Nation's history.
  Let me just say that again, the Inflation Reduction Act. Greg's 
countless hours of work were on that landmark bill, and they were 
critical to making possible the largest investment--the largest 
investment--in climate in our Nation's history.
  He didn't stop there either, going on to work tirelessly on the 
methane emissions reduction program--methane is many, many times more 
harmful than carbon dioxide with respect to climate--an initiative that 
will have significant impact in our efforts to combat the threat of 
climate change and safeguard our planet for future generations.
  Throughout all of his dedicated service to our Nation and the 
environment, Greg has been just as committed to his family. All of us 
here in the Senate and, indeed, our Nation as a whole are grateful to 
his wife Janine and to their two children, Dahlia and Bryce. I believe 
they are today in Oregon, at their home in Oregon. We want to thank 
them, the three of them, for generously sharing with us the time and 
extraordinary talents of their husband and their father.
  And when he wasn't here in Washington, DC, working tirelessly to make 
history and improve the lives of the American people, Greg was at home 
in an equally important role as husband and dad. Those are maybe the 
two most important roles that all of us can hope for ourselves, and we 
also hope that he can now begin to devote even more time to them in the 
days ahead.
  Greg's public service follows his own family legacy. His father was a 
Navy man, like my own dad and many of my uncles. That dedication to the 
greater good, to the betterment of society, which ran through his 
family, is a beautiful family legacy that Greg continues today.
  I am deeply grateful--I am deeply grateful--for his sage counsel and 
know that he will continue to make this world a better place as he 
returns to teach at the University of Oregon.
  And so, in closing, I say to Greg something that we like to say in 
the Navy when people do extraordinary things with their lives. We say: 
Bravo Zulu, Bravo Zulu. So, Greg, to you and your family, Bravo Zulu.
  Thank you, my friend. I bid you fair winds and following seas as you 
prepare to set off on the next set of adventures that lie ahead. And I 
know that many Members of Congress, along with their staffs, both past 
and present, join me in this salute.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The majority leader.


                 Unanimous Consent Agreement--H.R. 7900

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that upon the 
conclusion of morning business on Tuesday, October 11, the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 467, H.R. 7900.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, 
the next rollcall vote will be on Tuesday, November 14, at 5:30 p.m.
  While we have accomplished a great deal so far, more than any 
Congress in recent memory--and we all should be proud of what we have 
accomplished--we still have much to do and many important bills to 
consider. Proceeding to the NDAA will save us valuable time, enabling 
us to get more done. But Members should be prepared for an extremely--
underline ``extremely''--busy agenda in the last 2 months of this 
Congress.
  I yield the floor.
  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. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, when I made the announcement for the 
information of Senators, I said we will return--the next vote, rollcall 
vote, will be on November 14 at 5:30 p.m. That is correct, but that is 
a Monday, not a Tuesday.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

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