[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 20, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S2388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tribute to Jesse Mahan

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, there are many days that I come to this 
floor to talk about a lot of different policy issues and things we need 
to get done--and there are a lot of things needing to get done. Our 
list is long here in the Senate.
  I did just want to take a moment of personal privilege to not talk 
about policy for just a moment but to talk about some people.
  I have got two staff members that are leaving my team that my State 
and the Nation may or may not know their name, but they have been 
exceptionally impactful in what they have done.
  Jesse Mahan has been on my team, as he reminds me, so long that when 
he first came on the team, he was issued a BlackBerry when he first 
came on the team.
  He came on writing letters and doing background work. He led Indian 
Affairs. He is a Tribal member. He was a terrific hand in a lot of 
different areas, and he ended up leading a lot of my budget work and 
then eventually tax work.
  He has led through a lot of really complicated issues over the years, 
and every single time--whether it is Tribal law or whether it is tax 
law, which both of them are very complicated--he thrived. He did his 
homework, and he helped this Nation.
  There were significant areas of the Working Families Tax Cut last 
year that we got over the finish line because of his work with some of 
the staff behind the scenes to be able to explain some of the 
complexity and to be able to convince some people this is actually good 
for the economy. He did a terrific job through that process.
  Unfortunately, we are losing him in the next week, and he will be 
dearly missed on our team.