[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 183 (Monday, November 6, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5355-S5356]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Tribute to Dan Mahr

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, the great American labor organizer 
Delores Huerta said:

       Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person [is 
     a] potential activist, [and] every minute [is] a chance to 
     change the world.

  In that spirit, I rise to bid farewell to a member of my team, Dan 
Mahr.
  Dan sees every constituent as an opportunity to connect and every 
townhall meeting as a chance to change someone's world.
  I host a lot of townhall meetings in Oregon--one in every one of our 
36 counties every year. One time, Dan and I were hosting a townhall 
meeting in rural eastern Oregon, where an older, conservative rancher 
was waiting in line to talk to me and had that look on his face where 
he just knew he was pretty unhappy and wanted to let me know why. Well, 
Dan noticed him too. He started chatting with him, and pretty soon, 
that stony expression began to crack, and the conversation began to 
warm up. By the time that stern rancher had made it to me, he was 
chuckling and patting Dan on the back.
  As we left that meeting, everyone, including our church ladies and 
our ranchers and our farmers--everyone--to our rural hippies, was 
giving Dan extra handshakes on the way out the door. That is how it was 
in townhalls where Dan was staffing.
  He joined my team in 2016, 7 years ago, after a decade of fighting 
for unions and working families across America. As my senior labor 
adviser, he has stood up to the powerful on behalf of the working 
people all across our State. He has been one of my field 
representatives, serving folks in North Central Oregon, in Clackamas 
County and Wasco and Hood River and Sherman and Gilliam Counties. But 
he didn't just get the job done in those counties; he was always the 
first person to volunteer to staff a townhall meeting for his teammates 
no matter how far away it is across the State. He just loves being out 
on the road in Oregon. He has driven thousands of miles, set up 
thousands of chairs, met thousands of Oregonians. Whenever a new field 
representative joined our team, he was the first to welcome that 
individual to Team Merkley, to go with him or her to their first 
townhall, to lend a helping hand at the events.
  Our work is important to him because if folks are taking their time 
out of busy lives to come to a townhall meeting, he wants to give them 
the respect that goes with feeling welcome and feeling heard. And, of 
course, that is exactly the attitude I take to those meetings.
  Well, Dan's dedication to constituents' services is renowned on the 
team, not just for his personal touch but also for his personal 
tenacity. There is a saying--a saying I like a lot--that tenacity is a 
superpower. I experienced that a few times in my life. I certainly 
believe it is true.
  Ever since I was first elected to the Senate in 2008, I have been 
hearing about funding for economic development in the Columbia River 
Gorge.

[[Page S5356]]

That funding had been authorized when the Columbia River National 
Scenic Area was established in 1986. In that scenic area, every 
community had restrictions on what additional buildings they could 
create, so they felt for sure the Federal Government would hold up its 
side of the deal and deliver that money for economic development in 
compensation. They did get some of that money in the 1990s but not the 
full amount. They were millions of dollars short. It came up at meeting 
after meeting after meeting: Where is that money the Federal Government 
promised us? It was an issue folks were not going to let go of.
  Of course, I wanted to deliver that funding, but I had to have a key 
staff member work on it, and that key staff member was Dan--working on 
it for 5 years, finding strategies in which we could get additional 
pieces of funding delivered until every single dollar had made it 
through tricky local politics, bistate politics, to help the 
stakeholders who live throughout the Columbia Gorge. There was no 
silver-bullet moment; it was just year after year of planning and 
pushing and seizing key opportunities to fulfill promises to ordinary 
Oregonians. In the end, fulfill they did. Dan secured those millions of 
dollars in economic development for the Columbia Gorge.
  He was just as tenacious about protecting local services, too, like 
when he kept open the West Linn Post Office. After 2 years of searching 
for a permanent site, one day in August, we heard that the U.S. Postal 
Service had decided to just close the doors on the post office in 
September, right before the November election. Just 6 weeks before the 
2020 Presidential election, in a State where we vote by mail, in the 
midst of COVID, right before the holidays, the post office is going to 
close the doors on that post office. They had just given up on finding 
a new location. That post office serves a city of 26,000 people.
  Dan went immediately to work, organizing our delegation, our local 
officials, working with the Postal Service to find a better solution, 
insisting that no way those doors could be closed, making sure that 
everyone felt the urgency, and ultimately secured the extension of that 
post office and kept it open. At the election, people could cast their 
ballots. People could receive their medications, and they could mail 
their gifts to their loved ones during the holidays.
  But there is more to the story because the post office continued to 
insist on closing. Well, again, Dan helped organize. He helped carry 
the message that that was unacceptable, and eventually the U.S. Postal 
Service got the message, found a suitable location, and the people of 
West Linn, OR, were overjoyed. But it took tenacity, and that is what 
Dan brought to the ballot.

  He is also tenacious, by the way, when he is trying to win a game of 
table tennis. I can neither confirm nor deny that he ripped a pair of 
suit pants in a table tennis match with an unnamed U.S. Senator.
  He has been tenacious as my labor adviser. Whether working with 
bakers, the building trades, nurses, teachers, timber workers, public 
employees, everyone knows that Dan is a partner they can trust. He has 
navigated countless labor issues to ensure the working families of 
Oregon get the pay and benefits they earned.
  A few years ago, there was a difficult discussion about a major 
project in Oregon. It would have created a lot of construction jobs, 
but it also would have done a lot of damage to the climate. In that 
situation, with this benefit and this problem, Dan was a supreme 
professional, the supreme diplomat, ensuring that full and accurate 
information was brought to bear and that everyone's perspectives was 
carefully considered and weighed. In the end, of course, not everyone 
agreed with the ultimate outcome, but so many were impressed by the 
thorough and transparent process that Dan facilitated.
  Dan is the kind of guy who brings a positive angle to every 
situation. One time, my team members, after driving 8 hours across 
Oregon--big State; I know that is hard to envision here on the east 
coast--they were driving 8 hours to host an event and discovered the 
local motel rooms were out of commission, so they would have to drive 
after the event an additional 3 hours to find accommodation. The team 
really was exhausted and just wanted to climb in bed and go to sleep, 
but they couldn't. But Dan said:

       Hey, let's use this as an opportunity to see Oregon's only 
     geyser.

  The water table had come up, and the geyser was back in action. So 
they went in search of the geyser before hitting the road, and they 
found it, and they were thrilled to see it because few in Oregon ever 
have. It was an effective pivot for an exhausted and quite cranky crew. 
As one of them said afterward:

       It was very, very cool. I'm so grateful that Dan made us 
     slow down a bit. He always encourages us to enjoy the trip, 
     enjoy the sights, and enjoy each other's company.

  I know he has done that for me. I remember a day after many miles and 
many events when we had a little bit of time before our next stop. We 
went by his house in Hood River, sat on his porch--sat on his rocking 
chairs on his porch--hung out, laughed, relaxed, and played with his 
dog. It was just what we all needed, and Dan knew it.
  I began these remarks quoting Dolores Huerta, who said that ``every 
minute is a chance to change the world.'' She also said:

       I think the importance of doing activist work is to engage 
     people and give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for 
     a better tomorrow. Hope that change is possible, and that 
     they can be part of that transformation.

  Dan has engaged and given hope to so many ordinary people--hope for a 
better Oregon, hope for a better community, hope for a better tomorrow. 
Most importantly, he has shown folks that, working together, change is 
possible and that they can be part of that transformation.
  So many people I met have a great story about Dan and some way he has 
helped them or helped their town or just that they have enjoyed knowing 
him. He embodies the best spirit of Team Merkley. So it is with deep 
gratitude that Team Merkley and I thank Dan Mahr for his service to the 
people of Oregon, and we wish him all the best in his next chapter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.

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