[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 167 (Wednesday, November 13, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO LaSHAWNDA SMITH

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I wish to recognize LaShawnda Smith on 
her retirement after 29 years of service with the Senate Appropriations 
Committee.
  LaShawnda first joined the committee in 1993 as a detailee from the 
Department of Veterans Affairs, working on what was then the 
Subcommittee on the VA, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent 
Agencies. She later accepted a role at the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development's Office of Congressional Affairs. It was not long, 
however, until she would find herself back on the committee as a 
detailee, this time on loan from HUD.
  LaShawnda eventually joined the committee full-time in 1995 under the 
leadership of then-Chairman Mark Hatfield and Vice Chairman Robert 
Byrd. Since then, LaShawnda has faithfully served under the Republican 
leadership of Senators Ted Stevens, Thad Cochran, Richard Shelby, and 
now me, providing support to the committee and its various 
subcommittees.
  Anyone who has worked with LaShawnda knows what a dependable member 
of the Senate community she has been. She has helped the wheels of the 
Appropriations Committee move forward in service to the American people 
throughout her career. LaShawnda will be missed by her colleagues and 
friends, and she deserves this Chamber's collective thanks for her 
dedicated work as she leaves to spend time with her family in 
Tennessee, including her daughters Dominique and Briana, two 
granddaughters Nyelah and Nyani, and two grandpups Lucci and Cairo.
  The committee will miss LaShawnda's steady, stabilizing presence, and 
we wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement from the 
Senate and in her new full-time role as a doting grandmother.

                          ____________________