[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1037-S1038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Tribute to Martina McLennan

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, Ann Bancroft, the first woman to reach 
both the North and South Poles, said:

       It looks like I do these journeys alone, but it takes great 
     support from people in the wings pushing you along these 
     journeys and helping you.

  The same can be said of us here in the U.S. Senate. It might look 
like Senators here in this Chamber lead and legislate alone; but, in 
fact, we are only able to do our work with support of the people in the 
wings--our dedicated and our tireless staff.
  Tonight, I am here to bid farewell to one of the Senate's most 
dedicated staffers and one of the longest serving members of Team 
Merkley, my communications director Martina McLennan.
  Martina, like Ann Bancroft, is a daughter of Minnesota. Martina, like 
Ann Bancroft, then connected with Oregon--Ann by attending the 
University of Oregon, and Martina, by serving the people of Oregon for 
the last 13 years.
  She joined our communications team in 2011. Back then, President 
Obama and I were still in our first terms. Social media was still 
pretty new. Our world and our media landscape have, in fact, changed a 
lot since then.
  Along the way, Martina has done every possible role in 
communications: writing speeches, drafting press releases, creating 
social media content,

[[Page S1038]]

crafting op-eds, jotting talking points, compiling newsletters, 
pitching reporters on both coasts, and reading and translating my 
handwriting, which may have been the most difficult task of all because 
I can't read it 5 minutes after the ink dries--all the while 
thoughtfully advising and gently guiding me.
  She has been by my side through some of the biggest and most 
challenging moments of the time that I have been here in the Senate: 
helping secure more funding for the U.S. Forest Service to fight 
wildfires in 2012; supporting Janet Yellen, the first woman to chair 
the Federal Reserve; ensuring that regulators actually implemented our 
stronger Volcker rule in 2013; mourning with the citizens of Roseburg, 
OR, after the Umpqua Community College shooting in 2015; ensuring that 
we led the resistance at rallies and protests following President 
Trump's election in 2016; preparing and staffing me through the night 
during my 15-hour-and-27-minute marathon speech against Neil Gorsuch's 
Supreme Court nomination in 2017; traveling to the southern border with 
me in 2018 to show the world how the Trump administration was ripping 
immigrant children out of their parents' arms; writing, editing, and 
annotating our office's comprehensive 80-page report on the Trump 
administration's attacks on immigration and asylum in 2019; reorienting 
our entire communications operation to a virtual operation when the 
pandemic hit; supporting Oregon communities after the Labor Day 
wildfires in 2020; cleaning up my hideaway after it was ransacked by 
insurrectionists on January 6, 2021; and, through it all, finally, for 
filling in for long stretches when we were down a digital director or 
speechwriter or a deputy press secretary.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S1038, February 28, 2024, first column, the following 
appears: preparing and staffing me through the night during my 15-
hour-and-27-minute marathon speech against Brett Kavanaugh's 
Supreme Court nomination in 2017;
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: preparing and 
staffing me through the night during my 15-hour-and-27-minute 
marathon speech against Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court nomination in 
2017;


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  As one of our team members put it, ``She's unstoppable.''
  And my staff talk about how Martina, in addition to her communication 
talents, is always the first to welcome and support a new member of our 
team, whether that member is in Washington, DC, or in Oregon.
  In 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, the turnout of 
our townhalls was extraordinary, including one townhall where more than 
3,000 people showed up. So Martina flew out from DC to support our new 
Oregon team with her years of experience, wisdom, and lightning-quick 
wit.
  And every year, when Senate staff dress up their dogs in Halloween 
costumes for Senator Tillis's annual ``Bipawtisan'' puppy parade 
through the atrium of the Hart Office Building, Martina goes down to 
take the pictures and share the joy with our team on both coasts.
  As one of our former Oregon team members put it:

       I looked forward to each Halloween because Martina would 
     send [those] pictures, keeping stateside staff informed about 
     the best day of the year in [Washington], DC.

  I am not sure what it says about our work here when the best day is 
when there is a puppy parade.
  She is also a brilliant writer. One of our team conservatively 
estimates that she has written millions of words for our office, 
putting dry policy language into punchy, plain English with stunning 
speed and navigating thorny political issues with eloquence and grace.
  One of her longtime colleagues said:

       I always liken her to a piano virtuoso taking their seat in 
     a concert hall and banging out Mozart or Rachmaninoff and 
     making it look effortless while I struggled just to keep up.

  Her colleagues will line up to tell you that, working every day in 
the chaos of the Senate, Martina is ``refreshingly calm,'' 
``thoughtful,'' ``kind,'' and an ``encyclopedic fountain of 
knowledge,'' who is ``rarely seen without a smile or funny remark, even 
in the most stressful of times.''
  When she speaks in a meeting, people listen. I listen. She was one of 
the very first in our office to speak about the need for what has 
become our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee.
  Generations of our staff have stories about her quiet gestures of 
kindness and support that have meant so much to so many over so many 
years. That is especially true of her communications team, past and 
present, some of whom have been able to join us tonight.
  Even in the toughest moments, she is always there to laugh and 
commiserate while still delivering the most professional and effective 
communications operation in the Senate. Whether it has been struggling 
through late-night shutdown shenanigans while she and another colleague 
were battling the flu, to encouraging new staff members to offer 
creative ideas even if the office had never tried anything like that 
action before, she has always been there for her team.
  As one said:

       I'm still in major denial. I have never felt like I was 
     more a part of a team than here, and a huge part of that is 
     Martina.

  Another said:

       It's hard for me to put into words the difference Martina 
     has made in my life as she has continued to mentor and guide 
     me--always a text message or email away with invaluable 
     insights.

  Yet another colleague summed it up by saying:

       I . . . feel constantly lucky to have worked with, for, and 
     alongside Martina. I always admired and respected the way she 
     approached her work--with humility, grace, and humor--and 
     more than a little bit of sarcasm.
       And I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate to have not 
     only been able to call her a colleague but to be able to 
     continue to call her a very dear friend.

  I couldn't have said that better myself.
  Next week, for the first time in 13 years, I will attend the State of 
the Union Address without Martina by my side. For more than a decade, 
we have elbowed our way through the television cameras in crowded 
Statuary Hall, rushing from interview to interview late into the night. 
I am going to miss her next week.
  Then there are those thousands of floor charts and hundreds of 
interviews that have occurred over more than two terms in the Senate.
  Tonight, Martina is here, staffing me on the Senate floor for the 
last time.
  At the beginning of my remarks, I quoted Ann Bancroft, who went on to 
say the following:

       Stay curious, keep learning, and keep experiencing. Life is 
     wild and wonderful, and it's good to challenge yourself now 
     and then.

  Ann went on to say:

       I always say that my best advice is to ``get lost''--
     because . . . that's when the good life stories are created, 
     and you will always find your way back.

  Well, soon, Martina will be following Ann Bancroft's advice as she 
sets off for Southern California and the start of the Pacific Crest 
Trail, which she will follow north, all the way to Canada, with Ann 
Bancroft's words in her ears, saying:

       It's good to challenge yourself now and then.

  And her best advice is to ``get lost'' as ``that's when good life 
stories are created, and you will . . . find your way back.''
  Well, I look forward to her stopping on the Pacific Crest Trail in 
Oregon and saying hello.
  For now, though, I will simply say it is with deep gratitude that 
Team Merkley and I thank Martina McLennan for her many years of service 
to the U.S. Senate and to the people of Oregon. We toast her tonight 
with an appropriate saying: ``Happy trails.''
  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. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________