[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 22731]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RETIREMENT OF JOHN TREZISE

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, as the chairman of the Interior and Related 
Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I wish to speak for a few moments 
about the coming retirement of one of the most dedicated public 
servants I have had the pleasure of knowing. Shortly after the first of 
the year, John Trezise will be leaving the Department of the Interior 
after 35 productive years..
  Since 1998, John has served as the Director of the Interior 
Department's Office of Budget and for the 5 years before that as the 
Chief of the Office's Division of Budget. In short, John has been 
``running the numbers'' at the Interior Department for the past 13 
years. And I can vouch for the fact that during those years, no one has 
known more about the Department's budget than John. He is, to put it 
bluntly, a walking ledger.
  John first got his start with the Department in 1971 when he hired on 
as a young attorney in the Office of the Solicitor. For a number of 
years, he was Assistant Solicitor for administrative law and General 
Legal Services, specializing in appropriations law issues.
  It is this legal background that has made John such an important 
asset to those of us on the Appropriations Committee. The guidance and 
counsel John has been able to offer our Members and our staff has been 
invaluable. It is no exaggeration to say that without his help, we 
would have been, if not lost, at least temporarily delayed in getting 
our appropriations bill done each year on time and within our budget.
  As he prepares to leave the Department, I wish to take this 
opportunity to say thank you to John Trezise for all he has done and to 
let him know that he will be sorely missed by the members of the Senate 
Appropriations Committee.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, as the ranking member of the Interior 
appropriations subcommittee, I wish to join my colleague from Montana 
in extending our congratulations and our best wishes to John Trezise as 
he prepares to leave Federal service.
  Each spring, the Interior Subcommittee holds a budget hearing to 
review the Interior Department's budget request for the coming fiscal 
year. The Interior Secretary is always seated, front and center, at the 
main table in our hearing room ready to answer the myriad of questions 
coming from our subcommittee's members. And despite the sometimes 
obscure nature of the questions asked, the Secretary has always been 
able to offer a timely, if not credible, answer. That ability to 
respond is more often than not due to the fact that, seated immediately 
next to the Secretary, has been John Trezise and the fattest looseleaf 
binder any of us has ever seen. No matter what is asked, John has been 
able to reach into that book and almost instantly retrieve a figure or 
some other pithy explanation that nearly always seems to satisfy the 
inquiring Senator. It is a magical exercise that must be seen to be 
believed.
  Mr. President, too often the word ``bureaucrat'' is used as a 
pejorative. But in the case of John Trezise, those of us on the 
Interior Subcommittee have come to learn that he exemplifies the best 
in civil service. And so I join Senator Burns in saying to Mr. Trezise 
that he can be justly proud of his service to the American people and 
that we wish him and his family all the best in the coming years.

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