[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 134 (Saturday, August 2, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S5491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Tribute to Mark Crowley

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I want to highlight one of my members, a 
former member of my staff, Mark Crowley.
  For the past 8 years, I have benefited from the service, the hard 
work, and the loyalty of my legislative director, Mark Crowley. After 
12 years of working here on Capitol Hill, Mark is leaving public 
service, but he has made a positive--a very positive--change during the 
time that he has spent here working in the U.S. Senate.
  Before coming to work for me, he was working for his home State 
senator, Mark Kirk of Illinois. He was with Senator Kirk from 2013 to 
2017. He first joined my office as a legislative assistant covering 
issues that surrounded the topic of justice, the Department of Justice. 
He also became my counsel, helping me on issues ranging from 
technology, taxes, to consumer protection.
  Mark's contribution to the Senate has been both wide-ranging and 
deeply meaningful. One of the examples of this impact of his work was 
in 2018. The subcommittee in the Commerce Committee that I chaired 
completed a Senate investigation into the sexual abuse of Olympic 
athletes. He helped lead a thorough investigation that uncovered 
systemic failures that allowed abuse to persist way too long.
  The joint investigation included four subcommittee hearings, 
interviews with Olympic athletes and survivors, and the retrieval of 
more than 70,000 pages of documents.
  This work culminated in the development and passage of the Empowering 
Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Act of 2019. This landmark 
law made critical improvements to the Olympic movement that 
strengthened oversight and accountability for the safety of American 
athletes, and Mark was a critical component of the team that saw this 
legislation become law.
  After serving as an LA and then as counsel, Mark shifted his work to 
the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, which, as general counsel, 
he was greatly helpful to me after I became that committee's chair.
  In that role, he talked to whistleblowers, provided in-depth 
oversight of the operations and policy of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs, and helped veterans navigate legal challenges within the VA.
  Mark has played a key role in passing some of the most consequential 
veterans legislation in recent memory, including the Commander John 
Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act and the PACT 
Act.
  Through his work on behalf of veterans, Mark has showed the same 
qualities that defined his work on the Olympic investigation: deep 
policy expertise, a strong desire to get things done--and done right--
and great care for the people who are involved.
  At the beginning of 2023, Mark then took over the policy team, 
serving as my legislative director back in my personal office. Most 
recently, Mark helped to guide the ACRE Act and the Financing Our 
Energy Future Act to passage during the reconciliation process.
  Whether we are talking about veterans, technology, the Olympics, 
complex Senate procedure, Mark could be counted on to effectively 
advise me and lead our team to the success that we have had.
  He has been a mentor and guiding hand to several legislative 
assistants who have come through my office. My junior staff would tell 
you that Mark brings a steady hand, a steady presence, and even under 
pressure, he recognizes the importance of thoughtful decision making 
before taking action. They would also tell you that Mark is quick to 
crack a joke and often brings much needed humor to Capitol Hill on 
stressful days. More importantly, he has a real interest in getting to 
know the people he works with--not just knowing them, not just knowing 
what makes them tick, but being a mentor and a friend.
  Mark leads in a way that earns respect. He makes sure that everyone 
on the team knows their role, and they know that it matters. He is the 
kind of person who listens first, gives clear feedback, and never 
dismisses an idea out of hand. I have many ideas that I thought would 
be shot down from the very beginning, and Mark, at least, took time to 
convince me that I was wrong. Because of that, my staff and I have been 
more encouraged to take ownership and to work harder.
  While Mark has expressed to me and to his colleagues how much he 
loves working in the Senate as a legislative director, there is another 
role that he loves even more, and that of being a husband and a dad.
  The fact that the Senate never seems to end its business anytime 
during the normal business hours really has created problems in 
people's family lives. I am grateful to Mark's wife Colleen for letting 
me keep Mark at work late into these nights for evening votes and vote-
aramas, even when that meant he missed out on helping with bedtime and 
other tasks related to being a dad.
  Mark is the father to Ilsa, James, Hallee, and has a fourth baby on 
the way. As much as he loves working in the Senate, he loves his 
family. And with a fourth child on the way, he recognized it is time to 
really put his family first.
  I will miss Mark's presence in my office and in the Senate. I will 
miss his skills and expertise. They don't come along every day. He has 
a lot to offer our country. While he wasn't a Kansan--perhaps his only 
shortcoming--he embodies many of the traits that we value in the 
Midwest: hard work, a cheerful attitude, and determination to get 
things done.
  My many thanks to Mark. I thank Mark for his years of service to me, 
to Kansans, and to our country. I am wishing him well as a father and a 
husband and in his new line of work.
  I ask the Senate to acknowledge with me, today in these remarks, the 
contribution that we all find from those who work side by side with us 
every day in hopes for a great outcome.