[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 142 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6016]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        TRIBUTE TO NILS JOHNSON

 Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, along with my Idaho congressional 
delegation colleagues Senator Jim Risch and Representatives Mike 
Simpson and Russ Fulcher, we honor and thank Nils Johnson for his years 
of service to Idaho. We know that we are joined by all those who served 
in the Idaho congressional delegation from 1991 until now, particularly 
Senator Larry Craig, who was Nils' boss during his tenure in the U.S. 
Senate. Those former Members of Congress include: Senators Dirk 
Kempthorne, the late Steve Symms, and the late James McClure; and 
former Representatives Raul Labrador, Bill Sali, the late Helen 
Chenoweth, C.L. ``Butch'' Otter, Walt Minnick, Richard Stallings, and 
Larry LaRocco.
  Originally from New Hampshire, Nils has dedicated much of his 
professional career to working on behalf of Idahoans, and we are 
profoundly grateful. Although he left working for Congress more than 20 
years ago, he continued to serve Idaho through other positions, 
including his current position as director of legislative and 
regulatory affairs at Holland & Hart for the past 17 years, where his 
focus has been on issues of particular importance to Idaho among 
Western States. This includes public land and natural resource 
management, Western water quality and quantity, nuclear waste, Federal 
and State mining, Federal energy, and Federal appropriations issues. 
Previously, he served as a senior consultant at MGN, Inc., and he was 
principal and partner at McClure, Gerard and Neuenschwander, Inc.
  Throughout, he has utilized and built on his significant experience 
in both Houses of Congress and natural resources to advance needed 
improvements to Federal policy. Nils had a more than 15-year career as 
a hydrologist for the U.S. Forest Service before coming to the Hill. 
This knowledge base undoubtedly shaped his approach to his work in the 
U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Republican staff 
director of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Mining, Energy, 
Interior, and Insular Affairs and his later more than a decade of 
service as director of natural resources, environment and energy and 
senior legislative assistant to U.S. Senator for Idaho Larry E. Craig. 
Working on natural resources issues for Idaho requires tackling some of 
the most pressing challenges in our great State, where the productivity 
and beauty of our public and private lands also carry competing 
interests requiring his practical and thoughtful problem solving. He 
established himself as a mentor for younger, newer staffers throughout 
the delegation and provided insight and leadership as our State has 
navigated some difficult natural resources and energy issues.
  Upon leaving the Senate in 2000, we have also greatly benefited from 
Nils' steadfast management of a regular breakfast on Capitol Hill for 
the past 20 or so years. These breakfasts, called the Idaho Industries 
Breakfasts, have been held regularly in Washington, DC, when Congress 
is in session. They bring together representatives of Idaho's 
businesses and producers with the Idaho congressional delegation and 
staff for valuable, informal personal gatherings. The breakfasts have 
been instrumental in broadening friendships and advancing the many 
common interests in our vast but still deeply connected State. It is 
impossible to quantify the relationships that have been strengthened 
and the progress Nils has had a hand in shaping through his unwavering 
commitment to organizing these forums all these years.
  As we thank Nils for the years of hard work he has devoted to Idaho 
and our country, we wish him well as he retires from DC life to spend 
more time between Maryland and South Carolina with his family, 
particularly his six grandchildren. We hope the years ahead afford him 
the fulfillment of more time spent enjoying the natural resources he 
worked to sustain through his decades of sound and pragmatic work. 
Nils, we congratulate you and wish you all the best.

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