[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 14798]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                         REMEMBERING JON HOLDER

 Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I would like to take a few moments 
to pay tribute to Mr. Jon Frederick Holder, a man who was instrumental 
in helping my staff prepare for a hearing the Senate Finance Committee 
held on private long-term disability benefits in September 2010.
  Jon died unexpectedly last spring at the youthful age of 71. The 
world has lost a dedicated attorney, a civil rights activist who took 
part in the Selma-Montgomery march, and an advocate who specialized in 
disability law. Jon spent the last 30 years working alongside his wife 
Kathleen at their small law firm in Maine defending people whose voices 
are muffled in a process that can become mired in duplicative forms, 
draconian due dates, and burdensome record collection.
  Jon worked with my staff as the Committee's hearing date neared, 
staying late into the evening to distil with witty anecdotes and a 
razor sharp understanding, ERISA's complex statutory law, its 
legislative history and the seminal judicial interpretations that 
dramatically changed it. He described the insurance industry's 
corporate structure and its goal to reduce the benefit ratio 
percentage. Then he put flesh on that structure as he described what 
achieving that reduction goal means to the individual whose disability 
check suddenly stops arriving.
  A philosophy major-turned-lawyer, an avid bicyclist who loved the 
ocean, a husband and a father, Jon approached life with passion and 
purpose questioning and challenging the status quo and always seeking 
for ways to change or improve it. He will be missed by those close to 
him, but his legacy of good works lives on.

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