[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1356-S1357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Tribute to Michael Zamore

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, it was John Quincy Adams who once said:

       If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, 
     do more and become more, you are a leader.

  For the last 14 years, the members of my team have had an outstanding 
leader in our chief of staff, Michael Zamore, who has constantly and 
consistently inspired the team and me to dream, to grow, to strive to 
do better every single day for ourselves and the people we serve.
  But after nearly a decade and a half, as the heart and soul of Team 
Merkley and more than 22 years on Capitol Hill, Mr. Zamore has decided 
to close this chapter of his life and career and set off to begin 
writing the next chapter. I know I speak for many when I say how hard 
it is to imagine our office or the Senate without Mike Zamore.
  Mike has been with me from the very beginning. He was one of the 
small crew working out of the temporary basement office the day I was 
sworn in. Five new Members of the Senate and a couple of staff members 
crowded into a single, little, expanded room downstairs, trying to 
figure out what we were doing, how to get around.
  Where are those hearing rooms? How do we get the paper for the 
printers? How do we get staples for the staplers?
  He has been a pivotal part of every success that our team has 
achieved since, and there have been a lot of legislative highlights in 
the time that he has led Team Merkley--to name just a few: outlawing 
predatory mortgages; passing financial reform to shut down the Wall 
Street proprietary trading casino; winning Senate passage of ENDA, the 
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, to end job discrimination against 
our LGBTQ+ community; drafting and introducing the Equality Act to end 
LGBTQ discrimination across the board; leading the effort to end the 
horrific Trump policy of ripping children out of their parents' arms at 
the border; ending the importation of Chinese products produced with 
slave labor; and so many more and so many different initiatives to 
improve healthcare, to establish more decent and affordable housing, to 
expand quality education, and to increase the number of good-paying 
jobs for working Americans.
  But it isn't just policy that is relevant to the role of a chief of 
staff. Mike has worked to ensure that our team has the best operation 
for answering constituents' letters to be found on Capitol Hill, to 
empower the Oregon half of our operation to build a fabulous 
constituent services team and an excellent set of field representatives 
to work with Oregon's counties and cities to address the challenges and 
opportunities within our State, and to keep our DC team and our Oregon 
team working closely together as one.
  He did this through many trips to the State and by encouraging staff 
here in DC to travel and be in Oregon as well and by ensuring we 
connected and coordinated through weekly all-staff meetings and that we 
connected through biannual retreats: getting everyone together face-to-
face with the Oregon team and the DC team, spending time together to 
know one another, enjoy each other's company, and expand the 
connections that lead to successful progress forward on issue after 
issue.
  And because we like to be a team that not only works hard but plays 
hard, Mike always had a little special presentation for those occasions 
when we were all gathered together, on one occasion dressing up in 
colonial garb to perform a special Team Merkley rendition of a song 
from ``Hamilton'' or, on another occasion, doing a sea shanty during 
our nautical-themed virtual retreat. In doing these presentations, he 
proved himself to be a far, far braver man than most of the rest of us, 
but I know that that extra bit of effort has always been beloved by 
everyone on the team.
  His most lasting legacy will be through the talented individuals he 
has carefully recruited to be members of our team over the last 14-plus 
years and the way that he inspired them and led them, with heart and 
humility, imbuing them with the same passion for public service that 
has guided Mike throughout his entire career.
  I believe we have had one of the most energetic, capable, and 
motivated teams ever assembled on Capitol Hill, and that is because we 
have had one of the most energetic, capable, and motivated chiefs of 
staff in Mike Zamore.
  As chief, Mike worked hard to champion and reinforce specific values. 
One of them that has resonated over the years is the idea of continuous 
self-improvement--the idea that none of us are perfect and never will 
be and that we should always be striving to be better ourselves as 
individuals and as a team.
  Mike never exempted himself from that same spirit of continual self-
improvement. He sought out and welcomed honest feedback from everyone, 
from the newest intern to the most senior staffer, on how he was doing 
and how the office was doing and how we could do better.
  Jack Welch, the former head of GE, once said:

       When you become a leader, success is all about growing 
     others.

  Mike has always cared deeply about helping the members of our team 
grow. That is why he has always loved outside-the-box thinking, like 
when a staff member suggested that I should hop on a plane and go down 
to the border to find out for myself what was really happening with the 
administration's zero-tolerance family separation policy. It is why he 
enthusiastically embraced and championed our office's mission of 
inclusivity and was so supportive of the creation of a diversity, 
equity, and inclusion committee. Our DE&I team members have created 
learning opportunities, and they share information to educate and 
inform the rest of the team about a wide range of issues, and they work 
to inspire honest, open, and sometimes uncomfortable dialogues so that 
we can all be the best versions of ourselves and so that we can serve 
all of the people of Oregon with the highest level of respect and 
responsiveness.
  It is why his door was always open for what he called ``Z hours,'' 
when folks would come in and talk about anything whether it was work 
related or not.

[[Page S1357]]

  The office and Team Merkley won't be the same without Mike. It won't 
be the same without the ringer on his phone quacking like a duck and 
interrupting meetings. It won't be the same without our office mascot--
Mike's loving husky, Juneau--around to brighten everyone's day.
  The writer Walter Lippmannn noted:

       The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in 
     others the conviction and will to carry on.

  And I can tell you that the values of service, compassion, and 
humility that Mike has enshrined in the heart of Team Merkley will 
carry on because the folks whom he has painstakingly brought together 
have the conviction and will to do so.
  Thank you, Mike. Thank you for all you have done for the team, all 
you have done for the Senate, and all you have done in advocating for 
policies to make our State, our country, and the world a better place. 
We wish you and your family the best as you start writing that next 
chapter of your life.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.