[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15979]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE DEPARTURE OF LISA WOLSKI

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, it has been said no one is indispensable and 
that may be true, but next week we will test that theory after the 
departure of my chief of staff, Lisa Wolski. Lisa has been on my whip 
staff since January of 2003. She started as tax counsel in my personal 
office, because I serve on the Finance Committee, and then moved to the 
whip office in late 2007.
  We refer to people around here as staffers. She is more than that. 
That name doesn't begin to encapsulate what we think of those people 
who work with us every day and provide us with all the things we need 
to try to be successful. That certainly is Lisa Wolski. She is and 
always has been one of my most trusted advisers. She is the gold 
standard of expertise and professionalism. Everything I have asked her 
to do she has done and done well. More important, she brings to me the 
things she thinks I should be thinking about, and more often than not 
that is exactly what I end up doing. She knows what she is talking 
about. She knows what I want and what I need.
  Those who work with her know she is smart, she is articulate, and 
through her mastery of complex policies and political savvy, she has 
accomplished great things in my whip office during the time I have been 
whip.
  I cannot tell you the number of people who have told me, over the 
last several weeks since they learned she is going to be departing, how 
much they will miss working with her.
  Other than her extraordinary competence and work ethic, one of the 
many reasons I will miss her is because, as I said, I think she and I 
think alike. That is not because she accommodated her views to mine but 
because she came to her views separately, from a basis of understanding 
and reason and experience and knowledge and it happens our views 
generally coincide. That is a happy coincidence for Member and staff, 
and in my case to have a chief of staff who shares those views with me 
has made my job much easier and it makes work much more comfortable, to 
be able to work in great harmony with someone on whom you rely.
  She instinctively knows what I will think about a particular issue 
and she has always been there with good counsel and advice.
  I wish to conclude by saying Lisa Wolski leaves behind a great 
example for all the other staff people who work here, as well as the 
legacy of achievement and professionalism. I know she will be a great 
success in her new job--she doesn't need good luck. Her new employer 
will be very fortunate to have her wise counsel--undoubtedly more than 
they even know at this point. But I do know in the Senate we are going 
to miss Lisa Wolski very much.

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