[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1390]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            LORETTA F. SYMMS

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, let me take a few additional moments to 
speak to the Senate about a friend of ours who has worked with us in 
the Senate for a good number of years. This week marks the last week of 
work for the Senate in the career of Loretta Symms. Loretta, as I 
mentioned, has become a friend of all of us while she has worked n the 
Senate.
  Loretta, who is originally from Coeur d'Alene, IO, moved to 
Washington in the midseventies and began her career working for then-
Congressman Steve Symms as executive assistant and office manager. In 
1981, after Congressman Symms was elected to the Senate, Loretta became 
his executive secretary and then office manager.
  Most in the Senate got to know Loretta in 1987 when Senator Bob Dole 
appointed her as the Republican representative to the Sergeant at Arms 
Office. Between 1987 and 1996, Loretta filled a number of positions 
within that organization. As its director, she restructured the Capitol 
Facilities Department, providing career ladders, formal position 
descriptions, instituting reading programs, basic computer classes for 
employees, and other training programs--clearly, an effort to build a 
more professional staff within the Sergeant at Arms Office.
  Loretta also participated in the renovation and the opening of 
Webster Hall, the first and current Senate page dormitory.
  Like you, Mr. President, I have had the privilege now of having 
several Senate pages, and I know they appreciate the facilities that 
are made available for them and, of course, the educational program 
that is provided to them while they serve us in the Senate.
  Loretta worked closely with the Office of the Secretary of the Senate 
and has been actively involved in the oversight and the management of 
the Senate page program.
  In 1996, Senator Trent Lott named Loretta Deputy Sergeant at Arms, 
the post in which she still serves. As deputy, Loretta has managed the 
day-to-day operations of 750 employees of the Sergeant at Arms 
organization. In addition to assisting Presidents, Vice Presidents, and 
foreign heads of state on official visits to our Senate, Loretta has 
led Senate delegations to the funerals of former President Richard 
Nixon, the late Senator John Heinz, the late Senator John Chafee, the 
late Senator Paul Coverdell, and a good number of other Senators.
  During her tenure as deputy, and working closely with the Assistant 
Secretary of the Senate, Loretta was instrumental in the formation of 
the Joint Office of Education and Training which provides a wide 
variety of professional seminars and training for the staff of the 
Senate offices and committees.
  Loretta is married to former U.S. Senator Steve Symms. They have 7 
children and 10 grandchildren. Retirement plans, she tells me, include 
building a new home that I think is under construction at this moment, 
traveling--that is if she can get Steve out of town--needlepoint, which 
she already does very well, and spending a lot of time with her 
children and grandchildren who live as far away as Atlanta, GA, and in 
her original home of Coeur d'Alene, ID. Of course, we Idahoans look 
forward to seeing her back home in our State.
  Yes, Mr. President, we will miss Loretta and, of course, the fine 
work she has always provided us in the Senate. As a fellow Idahoan, I 
stand before you today to say how proud I am of Loretta Symms for the 
work she has done for all of us and to make the Senate a better place 
to be and to work.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith of Oregon). The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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