[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S9771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     
     
                        RECOGNIZING BUDGET COMMITTEE STAFF
     
       Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, at the end of this Congress, I will 
     leave my role as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, where I have had 
     the privilege of leading the Democratic side since 2015.
       In January, I look forward to chairing the Committee on Health, 
     Education, Labor, and Pensions, which has been led so ably by our 
     colleague, the senior Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, who is 
     going to chair the Appropriations Committee. At the HELP committee, I 
     look forward to focusing on universal healthcare, prescription drug 
     prices, and workers' rights, among other priorities for the people of 
     Vermont and America.
       As I leave the helm of the Budget Committee, I want to express my 
     thanks to the excellent Budget Committee staff, led so well by my 
     longtime staff director Warren Gunnels and his deputy staff director 
     Mike Jones.
       Not many people realize it, but the Budget Committee staff played an 
     important role in getting this Congress' two major budget laws, the 
     American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, enacted into 
     law. Budget Committee staff worked tirelessly with the staff of 
     authorizing committees to ensure that their work would comply with the 
     arcane and often-changing Senate rules.
       I believe that history will show that the American Rescue Plan Act 
     averted what would have been a prolonged, painful recession in the wake 
     of the COVID-19 pandemic. Budget Committee staff deserve part of the 
     credit for that achievement.
       The Budget Committee staff and I would very much have preferred that 
     Congress had enacted all of President Biden's more transformational 
     Build Back Better Plan. And Budget Committee staff worked long and hard 
     to make that so. But that we were not able to bring that entire package 
     across the finish line in no way diminishes the recognition that the 
     Budget Committee staff deserve for their efforts to make it happen.
       I want to commend the Democratic staff who served the Budget 
     Committee this Congress: Joey Alpert, Olga Bakun, Nicolas Ballon, 
     Merissa Barrera, Alex Beaton, Sion Bell, Michaela Brown, Montana Cruz, 
     Bill Dauster, Robert Etter, Tyler Evilsizer, Liam Fagan, Danielle 
     Gardner, Billy Gendell, Zachary Green, Nikhil Goyal, Warren Gunnels, 
     Ethan Hinch, Hufsa Husain, Alex Jacquez, Mike Jones, Melissa Kaplan-
     Pistiner, Mike Lawliss, April Lobo, Katrina Menard, Chris Neubert, 
     Jimmy O'Donnell, Liz Pancotti, Richard Phillips, Ethan Rosenkranz, 
     Hannah Sachs, Joshua Smith, David Snower, Camila Thorndike, Roberto 
     Velez, and Melinda Warner. I believe that there is no finer committee 
     staff in Congress.
       I also want to thank our nonpartisan administrative staff, who have 
     so ably served both Democratic and Republican Senators on the Budget 
     Committee this Congress: Ben Mason, Mallory Nersesian, Maeve Poulson, 
     Alex Scioscia, Katie Smith, Carlile Soldo, and George Woodall.
       In the congress to come, our Colleague Sheldon Whitehouse will chair 
     the Budget Committee. I wish him every success as he takes on that 
     important job. Some of the Budget Committee staff will stay to work 
     with him, and some will come to work with me at the HELP Committee, 
     where they will join able staff that Senator Murray has assembled 
     there.
       I thank all these staff for the important work that they have done in 
     this Congress and for the important work that they will do in the 
     Congress to come.
     
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