[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 24335]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RETIREMENT OF WAYNE RIDDLE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute 
to Wayne Riddle, who is retiring at the end of this year from the 
Congressional Research Service. Wayne is the model of a dedicated and 
talented public servant. He has spent his career working out of the 
public eye for the greater good, providing excellent assistance to all 
of us in Congress for over three decades, and also taking time to 
mentor younger staffers.
  Wayne is a graduate of the University of Virginia. He earned a 
master's degree in economics from George Washington University while 
working at the Congressional Research Service, where he has spent the 
past 36 years serving as a key analyst on elementary and secondary 
education, and twice as head of the Education and Labor Section at CRS.
  Throughout that time, Congress has given high priority to 
strengthening the Nation's schools, and Wayne has been helping us 
immensely every step of the way. He began not long after the passage of 
the original Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965--the 
Federal Government's major program to improve educational opportunities 
for low-income students. Wayne has been indispensable in our work on 
every subsequent reauthorization of the act and on all our other 
efforts on elementary and secondary education, including the Goals 2000 
Act during the Clinton administration and the No Child Left Behind Act 
during the current Bush administration. His guidance, support and 
knowledge on issues big and small have been invaluable to us time and 
again.
  As Wayne retires to devote more time to his family, I know that his 
colleagues at CRS will miss him, and so will we. I wish him a long, 
healthy, and happy retirement. He certainly deserves it, because he has 
served our country well, and made a very real difference in the lives 
of countless children who have benefited in their education because of 
his expertise and dedication.

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