[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10835-10836]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               IN HONOR OF THE RETIREMENT OF GAIL MILLAR

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 29, 2012

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin, and 
I would like to take a moment to recognize the career and the 
retirement of Gail Millar, the General Counsel for the House Budget 
Committee,

[[Page 10836]]

and to thank her for the service she has provided to not just the 
Committee, but to the Congress and the United States of America in a 
wide variety of roles. Ms. Millar is retiring after more than three 
decades of dedicated service to our Nation as an employee of the 
Federal Government.
  In 1981, she began her time on Capitol Hill by joining the Senate 
Budget Committee under Senator Pete Domenici and became Chief Counsel. 
She went from there to the Senate Parliamentarian's Office and stayed 
there from 1984 through 1988. After the departure of the Senate 
Parliamentarian, Bob Dove, she took on the enormous responsibility in 
1987 as First Assistant to the new Parliamentarian, Alan Frumin. He has 
characterized her as a ``great colleague, smart, courageous, reliable, 
loyal, and tough as nails.''
  When she announced that she was leaving the office, Majority Leader 
Robert C. Byrd made a personal appeal for her to stay with the Office.
  Even so, soon after, Ms. Millar began as an assistant counsel for the 
Congressional Budget Office, rising to General Counsel during her stay 
there, which lasted from 1989 to 2000. Ms. Millar's area of expertise 
was budget scorekeeping and working with budget analysts and program 
analysts on budget issues.
  She also served from 2000 to 2002 as clerk for the Subcommittee on 
Commerce, State, Justice, the Judiciary and Related Agencies at the 
House Committee on Appropriations. After that position, she worked from 
2002 to 2005 as associate director for budget policy and management in 
the Office of Technical Assistance at the Department of the Treasury, a 
job in which she and her staff advised governments around the world 
about how to put in place budget processes and procedures to advance 
their nations.
  In 2005, she began serving as Chief Counsel to the Senate Budget 
Committee before leaving to work for the House Budget Committee as 
General Counsel in 2007.
  As Counsel to both the House and Senate Budget Committees, Ms. Millar 
has been dedicated to the proper interpretation of the law, the 
drafting of bills and amendments, and the development of important 
concepts related to those laws.
  Throughout her public service, she has fearlessly advocated to 
preserve the integrity of the budget process and the principles of the 
House and Senate.
  For all of the outstanding work she has done in her 32-year career, 
her greatest accomplishments and her proudest achievements are her two 
children, Joe and Jeanne.
  We deeply appreciate Gail Millar's long service to Congress and to 
the Executive Branch, which has been manifested in so many ways and in 
so many roles. We will truly miss the wisdom that she brings to her 
work. We wish her the best in her retirement and in her new opportunity 
to spend more time with her family and friends.

                          ____________________