[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S770-S771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO BERNARD E. DOYLE

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I rise to acknowledge Bernard E. 
``Bernie'' Doyle, who is retiring on 20 April 2023, after more than 40 
years of combined military and Federal civil service to our country. 
After graduating from the George Washington University with a bachelor 
of arts degree in journalism and speech, Mr. Doyle received his Air 
Force officer commission in April 1979 as a public affairs officer. 
With unbounded ambition, Mr. Doyle was selected for the Air Force's 
Funded Legal Education Program and attended the University of Maryland 
Law School from 1981 to 1984. Upon his graduation from law school in 
October 1984, Mr. Doyle entered the second chapter of his military 
service as a judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate 
General's Corps and never looked back.
  Rising through military ranks and responsibilities through the years, 
Mr. Doyle was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and oversaw 11 
attorneys in the Air Force Legal Service Agency's Employment Litigation 
Branch. He also personally conducted over 200 trials and appellate 
litigation in Federal employment discrimination cases and trial and 
appellate litigation before military courts martial and the appellate 
courts for the Air Force and the Armed Forces. Among the highlights of 
his military legal career was his experience defending the accused in 
three capital murder courts martial. With humility, he would share the 
profound impact that this experience had on his formative years as a 
military officer and an attorney in finding courage and compassion 
within the military justice system.
  After his retirement from the Air Force in December 1998, Mr. Doyle 
continued his public service as an administrative judge with the Merit 
Systems Protection Board--MSPB--an appeals counsel in the MSPB's Office 
of the Appeals Counsel, and then as an assistant general counsel for 
the MSPB Office of the General Counsel. To no one's surprise, Mr. 
Doyle's managerial skills and legal acumen were quickly recognized by 
his leaders and peers, which led to his selection as the chief counsel 
to the vice chairman in a non-career Senior Executive Service position. 
During Mr. Doyle's 11-year tenure at MSPB, he worked extensively on 
MSPB precedential opinions and successfully defended MSPB final 
decisions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 
Several of his cases, such as Ward v. U.S. Postal Service, Kirkendall 
v. Army, Butterbaugh v. Department of Justice, and Becker v. Department 
of Veterans Affairs, continue to serve as the guiding principles on due 
process rights for Federal employees and employment benefits and 
protections for veterans and military servicemembers.
  Mr. Doyle joined the National Guard Bureau Office of the General 
Counsel as an associate general counsel in the Litigation and 
Employment Law Division in September 2014. His leadership and 
dedication to excellence was critical in managing and advocating for

[[Page S771]]

the National Guard's interests in the most complex novel litigation 
against the National Guard. Specifically, he worked tirelessly with the 
Office of the Solicitor General on several cases concerning National 
Guard members' State and Federal military service, benefits, and 
employment protections before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Doyle was 
also instrumental in drafting and implementing key reform legislation 
that improved the workplace conditions and benefits for 54,000 National 
Guard military technicians and civil service employees in the 54 
States, Territories, and the District of Columbia. He also led the 
effort to overhaul the National Guard Discrimination Complaint Program, 
the first in the program's 21 years of existence, to ensure that the 
National Guard in the 54 States, Territories, and the District of 
Columbia maintains a workplace free of unlawful employment 
discrimination.
  Mr. Doyle has dedicated his entire career to public service, 
improving the quality of employment conditions for Federal civilian 
employees and Air Force and National Guard servicemembers. He did so by 
changing minds person by person, by litigating case by case, and by 
providing technical assistance for statutory drafting line by line. 
Throughout his career, Mr. Doyle also mentored countless employment and 
labor relations military and civil service attorneys nationwide. For 
many attorneys, Mr. Doyle was often their first port of call when 
facing a complicated employment law case or when they just needed words 
of encouragement. Because of his legal advocacy and effect on those 
whom he influenced, Mr. Doyle's impact on labor and employment law will 
be felt for many years to come, as will his impact on the many, many 
lives he changed for the better.

                          ____________________