[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 70 (Monday, April 28, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2592-S2593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO AMANDA LINCOLN

  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, oh my gosh, I wish I didn't have to 
rise today because I rise to say goodbye but also to honor someone who 
has been an incredibly important member of our Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee team and, before that, in my personal 
office team. Amanda Lincoln is leaving Capitol Hill after 15 years of 
service to the Congress and to our country.
  Amanda joined my personal office after she had served as staff 
director and legislative director for the late Senator Mike Enzi. In my 
personal office, she was integral to advancing policies to improve the 
lives of all Americans, spearheading laws that increase access to 
generic drugs, boost domestic manufacturing of medical products, and 
enhance forecasting of epidemics. She also was a partner in 
brainstorming solutions to emerging and vexing policy challenges, like 
how to finance gene therapies and protect patient privacy.
  Now, it was interesting. When we began to work on the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill, I had a group of six, and there was no one of them 
that had been tapped as a leader. And there were just alpha males in 
there, and there was this and there was that. And just organically, 
Amanda emerged as the leader among that group.
  One of the young men who was on that project, with strong personality 
and strong intellect--and I just kind of wasn't quite sure how that 
would manage--and he goes: I just got to tell you, Amanda is doing a 
great job.
  I am thinking: Well, how in the heck did that happen that she emerged 
as the leader among all of these strong possibilities, and there was 
never any sort of jostling?
  It was just her talent, her ability to understand process and direct 
negotiations that, once more, organically made her the leader.
  She never worked before on transportation and energy, and yet 
transportation and energy became something in which she is expert at.
  So although she left my office after that--my personal office--when I 
became the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions Committee, I was asked: Well, who is going to be your staff 
director?
  And I remembered her ability to lead so well that I said: Let's ask 
Amanda Lincoln.
  Fortunately, she took the job. Since then, I have learned to trust 
her for consequential decisions that helped us on that committee chart 
a successful path.
  Now, first in the Republican minority and now as Republican chair, we 
have been able to pass laws enhancing research into childhood cancer 
and making sure students receive financial aid packages on time to 
choose the best affordable college option for them. We have passed 
legislation to address hazing incidents on college campuses, to reform 
Federal programs that better address Alzheimer's and autism, and to 
promote access to healthcare in rural areas.

  We passed legislation through the committee to strengthen services 
for American seniors, to improve public health readiness toward the 
next pandemic, to make sure that healthcare workers could access mental 
health

[[Page S2593]]

and substance use care--if you will, those healthcare workers burned 
out, stressed out, sometimes to the point of suicide by things such as 
the COVID pandemic, they now have greater support--to help Americans 
caring for family members with disabilities and other challenging 
medical conditions.
  Amanda also led oversight efforts, including the recapturing of $375 
million of taxpayer funds wrongfully paid.
  As in my personal office, Amanda led efforts to develop policy 
solutions to some of the most pressing issues of our time--personally, 
I think it is important for our country to address the potential risks 
and benefits that artificial intelligence pose to society, and to make 
sure that it is designed, developed, and deployed responsibly--also, to 
modernize the National Institutes of Health, ensuring we sustain our 
advantage in biomedical research and that Americans get innovative 
treatments first; to ensure that gig workers have access to portable 
benefits, like retirement and healthcare; to modernize HIPAA or the 
medical privacy framework to ensure it keeps pace with new technologies 
and that Americans' private health data is properly protected.
  Amanda has been on the ground floor of all of these ideas, helping to 
kick-start debate and to generate solutions that I hope to pass into 
law as chair of that committee. She also led the committee's efforts to 
swiftly confirm all of President Trump's Cabinet officials under our 
jurisdiction and to ensure rapid confirmation for key public health 
officials, like the FDA Commissioner and the NIH Director.
  Occasionally, I would get some phone call: How come these appointees 
are not advancing?
  I would say: That is because we have not received the paperwork.
  But once we got the paperwork, we took care of it. And that was 
Amanda's husbanding of the process.
  All that I have described would not have been possible without her 
leadership and guidance. I just thank her, and I am incredibly indebted 
for her loyalty, service, and steadfastness.
  Now, as you know, Madam President, someone who works here on the 
Hill--particularly if it is a ``madam,'' particularly if it is a she, 
particularly if it is a mom, a wife--has not only the responsibilities 
of being that staffer or that Senator or that Congresswoman, but she 
has the responsibility, as well, of being that mom and of being that 
spouse, that partner.
  Everybody sacrifices weekends, nights, precious times with family in 
the service of our Nation. Amanda embraces that--perhaps embraced it 
too much.
  I say, again, that this is bittersweet. Her departure is a loss for 
my office, but a loss for the institution of the Senate. She will be 
missed by all. But our loss is the gain of her husband JP and their 
beautiful girls, Caroline and Amelie.
  It has been an incredible pleasure watching Amanda grow personally 
and professionally. I am proud to call her not only a trusted adviser 
but a dear friend.
  I wish her well. I look forward to seeing her start a new chapter in 
her professional journey.
  Once more, I thank her for her service to this body, the Senate, and 
to the United States of America.
  I yield the floor.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Texas.

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