[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING MITCH KING IN HIS RETIREMENT

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Mitch King, a 
government relations manager at the U.S. Postal Service, who, on May 1, 
is retiring after 36 years of work for the Postal Service, for 
Congress, and our Nation.
  Mitch King began his postal career in 1973 as a letter carrier in 
Falls Church, Virginia, just a few miles from here, and then became 
supervisor of letter carriers before becoming an instructor in the 
delivery service branch of the Postal Management Academy in Potomac, 
Maryland.
  In the spring of 1982, he began working in the government relations 
department at Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1992, 
he was promoted to the position of government relations manager, a 
postal career executive position equivalent to the executive branch's 
senior executive service. During the latter part of his career, he 
managed postal service congressional liaison activities for the States 
of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, 
Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and the District of Columbia. He also 
served on the Election Mail Task Force.
  Mitch has managed government relations activities with many Members 
of Congress, addressing an ever-expanding variety of postal-related 
issues. He has also served as the principal postal contact for the 
House Appropriations Committee and the Financial Services Subcommittee. 
When I chaired the Treasury Postal Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
Committee, I dealt with Mitch on a regular basis.
  Since that time, as whip and majority leader, I have continued to 
deal with Mitch King and have found him very responsive, very 
knowledgable, and very conscientious. He was, in short, a model of an 
employee that the citizens of this country would want to have.
  For years, Mitch worked with me to help ensure my constituents the 
level of service they have rightfully come to expect from the Postal 
Service. Indeed, he's done that for all of our Members. He was a true 
and dedicated public servant. He did his work well and faithfully for 
decades with no expectations of great rewards or renown. For 36 years, 
Mitch King helped keep the mail going. He was part of a collective 
accomplishment that is no less impressive for the fact that it happens 
6 days a week.
  The United States Postal Service handles millions and millions of 
pieces of mail a day. Does it make some mistakes? Yes. But an 
extraordinarily small percentage. In fact, it's the most productive 
mail service in the world. And 40 percent, frankly, ahead of number 
two.
  At the same time, Mitch's humor, intelligence and consummate skill 
help make him entirely unique in many ways. I know I speak for all of 
us when I say he will be missed from public service. I am sure that he 
will go on to continue to contribute to his community, to his family, 
to his State, and to his country.
  Good job, Mitch King. Godspeed.

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