[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 172 (Thursday, October 19, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5104-S5105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO BETTY K. KOED, SENATE HISTORIAN

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, today I rise to honor and pay tribute 
to Senate Historian Betty Koed who is retiring this week after 25 years 
of service to the U.S. Senate. Betty is only the third person--and the 
first woman--to hold the position of Senate Historian, and our entire 
institution has benefited from her knowledge and expertise.
  Betty has seen it all. She not only knows what is behind every door 
in this building, she also knows the stories behind so many important 
decisions that have been made in this Chamber over the years. She has 
been an invaluable resource who has dedicated her career to 
safeguarding the history that surrounds us and ensuring that it endures 
for generations to come. She has spent the past 25 years preserving, 
protecting, and promoting the history of the Senate and its Members, 
turning the records on our institution into stories for all Americans 
to experience both here at the Capitol and online.
  Betty also provided critical support last Congress when I joined with 
former Senator Roy Blunt to pass a bipartisan resolution to dedicate 
the first two rooms in the Senate wing of the Capitol to women in 
recognition of former Senators Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and 
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.
  To commemorate her decades of esteemed service, this week, my 
colleagues and I joined together to unanimously pass a resolution led 
by Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell to designate Betty as the first 
ever Historian Emerita of the U.S. Senate. I thank her for her 
dedication and service to this institution and to our democracy, and I 
wish her all the best in her retirement.

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