[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 202 (Thursday, December 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DEBORA G. JUAREZ

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to honor and congratulate 
Ms. Debora Juarez on her retirement following nearly 35 years of public 
service and 8 years in elected office. Debora retires from the Seattle 
City Council. where she was the first representative of Seattle's 
District 5 (D5) and was elected by her peers to be council president. 
She also served as a King County Superior Court judge. A proud member 
of the Blackfoot Nation, she was the first Native American to serve in 
any of these roles.
  In her many years of service to the Tribes, the State, and to 
Seattle, she has been guided by a simple mantra shared with her by her 
Uncle Billy Frank Jr.: ``lead to leave''--a mantra that has brought 
clarity of purpose to her work and she expanded upon by saying ``leave 
a legacy.'' Whether it was her legal work to save the historical 
village of Tse-whit-zen, doubling Seattle's 2016 housing levy to build 
more affordable housing, or her forceful advocacy for the 130th Street 
light rail station for the people of District 5 as a Sound Transit 
board member, Debora leaves behind a worthy legacy.
  As the chair of the civic development, public assets, and Native 
communities committee, she oversaw the exciting reimagining of major 
projects in Seattle: saving the aging Seattle Coliseum from the 1962 
World's Fair and turning it into a state-of-art arena without taxpayer 
dollars, revitalizing the Seattle Waterfront with a new park and 
boulevard, and dramatically expanding the Seattle Aquarium. Known to 
many as a bridge builder--both literally and figuratively--she 
shepherded the effort to add a bridge to reconnect the waterfront to 
Pike Place Market and helped build the John Lewis Memorial Bridge that 
connects light rail to North Seattle College and the University of 
Washington's Northwest Hospital. She also led the effort to revitalize 
Northgate Mall, considered to be the first indoor shopping mall in 
America, which is transforming around the new Kraken Community Iceplex 
to create a vibrant place for the community. In addition to three 
sheets of ice and light rail, Northgate will soon have hundreds of 
units of affordable housing and opportunity for more jobs and economic 
development, thanks to her strong vision.
  As the council's first and only Native American councilmember in its 
154-year history, Debora leaves an important Indigenous legacy. She 
worked with myself and my office to address the crisis of Missing and 
Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls--MMIWG--with the passage of 
Savanna's Act and on the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 
2022 to increase protections for women on Tribal lands. Knowing that 
Seattle has one of the highest numbers of MMIWG cases among U.S. 
cities, she passed first-of-its-kind local legislation to respond to 
the crisis and funded a data specialist position within the Seattle 
Police Department to review these cases. To improve access to 
healthcare and culturally appropriate medical services. Debora 
initiated a partnership between Seattle Indian Health Board and North 
Helpline to open a medical clinic in 2022 in Lake City. She created an 
Indigenous advisory council for the city and organized the first ever 
Tribal Nations summit to further the government-to-government 
relationship between Seattle and Tribes. One hundred and sixty-eight 
years after the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliot, Debora brought 
11 Tribal Nations and six urban Indian organizations to meet directly 
with the mayor, city departments, and other city officials in a 
historic gathering.
  While we have different taste in shoes, with Debora often rocking the 
highest heels imaginable, she has also been known to pull on her 
signature red tennis shoes when it is time to get to work, and like me, 
Debora has spent much of her life fighting for equal rights and greater 
opportunities for women. A champion for women's sports, Debora 
facilitated bringing the Seattle Storm Center for Basketball 
Performance to Interbay and successfully advocated for the NHL to 
include space for girl's hockey. Earlier in her career, as a mother to 
two young daughters, she breastfed and traveled between Olympia and 
Seattle every day to care for her family and serve as an adviser to two 
Governors.
  Working with Debora over the years has been an immense privilege, and 
it is my honor to thank her for her lifetime of dedicated service. I 
wish her the very best during her well-earned retirement and know that 
she is looking forward to spending more time with her daughters, Raven 
and Memphis, and her grandbabies, Yvie and Cyrus.

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