[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 200 (Thursday, December 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10097-S10098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO ANNA TAYLOR AND REGGIE BABIN

  Mr. SCHUMER. Well, Madam President, as you know, there are a lot of 
good things that occur at the end of the year. We have our holidays--
our Christmas and Hanukkah holidays--with our families. We passed a lot 
of good legislation, and that is a job well done. A feeling of pride 
swells in all of our hearts that we were able to help so many American 
people in so many different ways and make our country and our world a 
better place.
  But it is also a moment of sadness in a certain sense for those of us 
who some of our great staff members are leaving. I have a few, and I 
would like to talk about two today, two of the top people.
  I am blessed. I have a great staff. I know how good you all think 
they are, our Senators, because you are always talking to my staff, and 
that shows the respect that they have for them and the respect I have 
for them as well.
  One of the nice things about my staff is they are with me for many, 
many years. In fact, Mike Lynch, my chief in New York and Washington, 
who I think is the best chief for a leader that anyone has ever had, 
and Martin Brennan, my chief in Washington, have been with me virtually 
since I began in the Senate 24 years ago. So people stay awhile.
  And these two have. I am going to miss them dearly.
  First, let me begin with my Director of Economic Policy, Anna Taylor.
  How did I meet Anna Taylor? Blanche Lambert Lincoln, a Senator from 
Arkansas, had just lost her race. She came into my office, and we 
hugged and cried a little bit because she was such a great person and 
we knew we would miss her in the Senate.
  But she said: I want to give you a gift. And she said: Anna Taylor. 
Anna Taylor--that is how they would say her name. They are from 
northeast Arkansas. They call it the rice country. That means rice.
  And she has been the best tax staffer--trade, economic policy--on the 
Hill. Every Senator on our side of the aisle and many on other sides of 
the aisle, when they have problems on tax policy, the watchword is: Go 
to Anna.
  I don't know. Are they here? Are they--no. Well, I hope they are 
listening. Anyway: Go to Anna. She knows it better than anyone.
  And she is brilliant. She is hardworking. She takes the most complex 
problems and figures out how to solve them in a substantive way but in 
a way that could be acceptable politically to a broad and diverse 
Senate. And she just knows it all. When there are these complicated 
economic issues that need explaining, she explains them in a way that 
is totally accurate and deep but also makes us able to understand them.
  And, of course, she knows she is number 38 on my speed dial on my 
well-known famous--or infamous, whatever way you look at it--flip 
phone. She takes my calls from about 6 in the morning until about 
midnight because I so depend on her.
  She is also such a decent person. She is amazing. She is kind. She is 
nice. She is caring. And she is so dedicated. Let me tell you, during 
the IRA, one of the most important pieces of legislation passed in 
decades--and she, more than anyone else, had written the tax parts of 
it, trying to take the diverse views of everybody--she was having her 
baby, her first baby. She got married while she was working on our 
staff. And she had little Posey. What a nice name. She kept working. I 
said: Anna, don't come here. Don't get on the phone. You just became a 
new momma.
  But, no, there she was being a great momma as well as somebody 
helping get us past this historic legislation.
  So now Anna is moving on. It will be a little less frenetic life and 
a life where she can enjoy Posey and her husband. And all of us--not 
just Chuck Schumer, not just all of my wonderful staff, but the whole 
Senate--she leaves a huge hole, a huge cavity of knowledge, of 
dedication, of reliance.
  We will miss you, Anna, but you deserve the best. And you will 
always, always, always be a member of the Schumer family.
  And she is not the only one who is leaving. Another great one is 
leaving too--my chief counsel--and that is Reggie Babin. He, too, is 
from the South. This kid from southern Brooklyn is hiring a lot of 
southern Americans--not southern Americans--people from the South of 
the United States.
  Reggie is from Louisiana. He still loves LSU and many other 
Louisiana-type things. And he is my departing chief counsel.
  When I became leader--then minority leader--I needed a really good 
counsel. The minute I interviewed Reggie, who had worked on the House 
side for Cedric Richmond and in the Black Caucus, I said: Whoa, this 
guy has got it all. We have got to hire him.
  And sure enough, my faith in that initial meeting was totally 
vindicated. Reggie is deep. He is a thinker. And when you have a 
problem, he has always turned it over six different ways with many 
different sides of the prism. He sees them all. And he is careful, and 
he is thoughtful.
  I am sort of a ``yes'' person. I like to get everything done. He is a 
little bit more of a ``no'' person and has stopped me from doing things 
that I am glad I never did. And he is just amazing.
  And he has had such dedication in so many pieces of legislation that 
we have passed. And probably at the top of the list is judges. As 
Senator Durbin, the chairman of Judiciary knows, we have appointed so 
many good people on the bench. And Dick and his committee did a great 
job, but so did Reggie Babin--who worked with the White House, who 
worked with the Judiciary Committee, who worked with everybody. And we 
have a record number of judges, and I would say it is the finest cohort 
of judges that has ever come before the Senate in 2 years. And it is in 
good part because of Reggie.

  There are a couple of things that he didn't get done--his goal to 
help us decriminalize marijuana, one of his passions because he had 
seen how badly it had hurt communities throughout the country. We came 
close, but we didn't make it. But, Reggie, a pledge to you. We are 
going to continue your work and your legacy next year. You have built a 
great bipartisan coalition, and I believe we can get it done.
  So, Reggie, just like Anna, we will miss you. You have left your mark 
on this institution, both Anna and Reggie. They have both left their 
mark on our country. There are millions of Americans right now whose 
lives are better because Reggie Babin and Anna Taylor trod the Halls of 
Congress and did great work for all of us.
  So I want to thank them for their sacrifice. I want to thank them for 
their good will. I want to thank them for their friendship. We got to 
know each other on a personal basis.
  And I want to say to both: You are always members of the Schumer 
family. We will always be in touch. We miss you, wish you Godspeed, and 
know you will continue to have great success with your families and in 
making the world a better place.
  We have a little housekeeping business, the last bit of the season, 
of 2022, a great year for us. Not the last bit. OK. Not the last today, 
but we don't have to do anything tomorrow. OK. Good.

[[Page S10098]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pro forma.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Pro forma. Excellent. All right.

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