[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TRIBUTE TO PAGES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as we know, very clearly, today is Saturday. 
But the Senate had some very important work to do today, so we stayed 
in session to present some issues to the American public that were 
extremely important. One was to make sure there would be no tax 
increase on millions of American families--in fact, 160 million.
  We had a duty to be here, the Senators, but also other people had a 
duty to be here, and they are here. Four very dedicated pages are here 
today: Grace Mason, from Roanoke, VA; Kristina Biddle, from Hockessin, 
DE; Mitchell Bustillo, of Fort Worth, TX; and Zach Schroeder, from 
Clarksville, TN.
  They didn't have to be here. They could be home with their families 
during this holiday season, as the other pages are. Instead, they 
stayed to help keep the Senate running smoothly. They didn't have to be 
asked. They volunteered.
  We expect a lot of our pages, and I so appreciate their work. I have 
had two granddaughters who were pages--my two oldest grandchildren--and 
it actually changed their lives. I say that as seriously as I could say 
anything. Ryan and Mattie were not interested much about government. 
They had other things to do as juniors in high school. But they came 
back here in this environment, where they saw us wandering around and 
making speeches and voting and they got interested in reading the 
newspapers and watching the news more intently. My two granddaughters 
now are both in France studying abroad. One is a junior at New York 
University, the other is a senior at The New School in New York. I mean 
it when I say their lives were changed as a result of this program. I 
not only heard it from these two young women, my granddaughters, but I 
have heard it from their parents, about what a significant change it 
made.
  As I said, we expect a lot of the pages. They work long, hard hours, 
as do Senators and their staffs. So I want them to know, speaking for 
every Senator, the pages here are terrific. We appreciate their work. 
It is a tradition that has been here for a long time, and I will do 
everything I can to protect the pages and the work they do.
  I thank them for their service and wish them the very best of 
everything in their next endeavor. But I am confident, as with Mattie 
and Ryan, their lives will have been changed as a result of their being 
here.

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