[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 19 (Monday, January 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S143-S144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MAYA ASHWAL

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I rise today, with a unique combination of 
joy, sorrow, and pride. For the last 8 years, Maya Ashwal has been my 
right arm in the Senate, serving as my director of scheduling and 
operations in our Washington office.
  I rise with joy today because my life and the lives of everyone who 
works in or with our office has been made better by Maya Ashwal. Maya 
is this wonderful combination of hard-nosed, no-nonsense grit, and 
gracious compassion. She brings a seriousness of purpose to her work, 
but she treats everyone around her with kindness and caring. Over the 
last 8 years, I watched Maya overcome obstacles that would have 
swallowed up lesser people. She has persevered through personal loss, 
finding a way to grow her compassion for others in the face of tragedy. 
She has conquered a litany of bad health luck, at one point finding 
herself stuck in South America dealing with a serious health emergency. 
Somehow, we all knew that Maya would find a way to come back stronger, 
with a smile on her face.
  Through it all, it has been so wondrous to watch her grow as a 
person. Since she has been with our office, Maya has gotten married to 
Jeremy and welcomed a gorgeous daughter, Piper, into the world in the 
middle of the pandemic. She is a wonderful mother, who deftly balances 
work and family life.
  But I also rise with sorrow today, because it is hard for me to 
imagine life without Maya. My colleagues will understand how a great 
scheduler or great assistant ends up becoming an extension of you, a 
part of you. That is what Maya is. She knows my preferences before I 
speak anything out loud. She guesses what I need before I know I need 
it. She smooths over bumps and rough spots before they are visible to 
me.
  But she also provides great advice and counsel. I am lucky that we 
share many passions--like mental health and gun safety--and Maya has 
become a whip smart political counselor who I rely on to make sure that 
my daily agenda best aligns with my policy goals. The Bipartisan Safer 
Communities Act could not have happened without Maya's leadership. 
Never before has such a complicated bill been written and passed in 
such a short amount of time. Over 30 days and countless meetings, 
zooms, and phone calls--with advocates, Senators, House Members, staff, 
administration officials--we negotiated, wrote, and passed the most 
serious gun safety bill in three decades. During that time, Maya was 
the air traffic controller for the negotiations, managing to create 
organization out of potential chaos. That bill is part of her legacy.
  In addition to her work on policy, Maya has also been such a comfort 
to my family. Being a parent of young children, with a wife who works 
equally long hours, is an unsurprising anomaly in the Senate. Maya's 
job over the last 8 years has been made infinitely harder since my 
schedule has had to

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balance not just work obligations, but a myriad of sports practices, 
school events, playdates, and Cub Scout meetings. Never once has Maya 
balked at my insistence of putting my family first, ahead of the 
Senate. In fact, she has been instrumental in protecting and supporting 
my family, continually pushing back against the pressures to put the 
children second. When my wife Cathy learned of Maya's departure, she 
audibly gasped. She knew what a loss this would be for our family.
  And finally, today, I also feel a ton of pride. I feel pride because 
Maya is part of what makes the Senate work. She believes that this 
place is still capable of great things, and she is committed to making 
our institution live up to its potential. After spending 16 years 
between our office and the office of former Senator Mark Begich, Maya 
could have hightailed it for private sector pastures. But she didn't. 
She leaves our office to join Senator John Fetterman as his new 
administrative director. The job of standing up a brandnew Senate 
office is a daunting one, but Maya doesn't shirk from the challenge. 
She wants the Senate to work, and she is willing to do the hard work to 
make this possible.
  I also feel pride today in who Maya has become while she has worked 
in our office. As she proudly told me when she informed me of her next 
move, she has undergone the most important changes in her life during 
her time with our office. She was amazing when she showed up here, but 
I would like to think that she is even more amazing today. And maybe 
the people she has spent the last 8 years with have had a little to do 
with her growth. I hope she would say this is the case.
  I am glad Maya isn't going far. I have a feeling she will be a part 
of my life and our team members' lives for a long time. I feel joy, 
sadness, and pride today, all at the same time. But mostly, I just feel 
lucky that for the last 8 years, I have had Maya Ashwal as my right 
arm.

                          ____________________