[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12679-12680]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO ROHIT KUMAR

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to say a few words about 
my departing deputy chief of staff Rohit Kumar, who announced a few 
weeks back he would be leaving the Senate at the end of this week.
  Many of the Members of the Senate know Rohit pretty well. He has been 
trolling the floor out here for a long time, telling us on the 
Republican side what to do and how to do it. He has been a constant 
presence at my side at just about every legislative battle we have had 
here in the Senate for the past 6\1/2\ years; actually, even before 
that, when he was working for Leader Frist, and I was over in the 
whip's office.
  So many of us could recount Rohit's many talents, but as his boss it 
falls on me to do it, and I am happy to do it because we have been 
through a lot. The first thing to say about Rohit is that his mind is 
like a trap. He has the answer to literally every question the moment 
you ask him, and he has usually thought through the politics of it too. 
That might not sound terribly unusual, but I assure you it is rare in 
this business to come across somebody who combines a brilliant mind for 
policy

[[Page 12680]]

and a brilliant mind for politics in one package, but that is Rohit. He 
is remarkable that way. It is one of the reasons he has been 
indispensable to me, not only in the day-to-day stuff but especially on 
the three major deals I helped broker with Vice President Biden, 
starting with the 2-year extension of the Bush tax cuts in late 2010, 
the debt limit deal we arrived at in the summer of 2011, and then, of 
course, the fiscal cliff agreement at the end of last year in which we 
locked in the Bush tax rates permanently for 99 percent of Americans. 
That is something we couldn't even do, by the way, when we had a 
Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican President.
  Every one of those agreements involved a lot of work, a lot of nights 
and weekends, and tremendous focus. We couldn't have done any of them 
without Rohit. Anything that ever came up in those discussions, Rohit 
can tell us the upsides and the downsides, where the other side was 
willing to go and where they weren't. He knew where all the tripwires 
were, and it is because of these same skills as well as his grasp of 
Senate rules and procedure that he has become sort of an informal 
adviser to the entire Republican conference over the years.
  It is not at all unusual for me to walk back to Rohit's desk and see 
him talking to another Senator in my office--either in person or on the 
phone. He knows how things work, and folks who are smart know they can 
call him or swing by if they want to know what is going on or what is 
possible or what is not on absolutely anything. A lot of other Senators 
will miss him every bit as much as I will.
  Rohit says he was drawn to public service by the example of his 
parents, both of whom are doctors, and viewed their work as more of a 
calling than a source of income. His dad is a widely respected and 
well-known teacher at the university level, and his mom worked at a VA 
hospital.
  Rohit wasn't drawn to medicine, but like his folks he wanted to make 
a difference, and that is what drew him to politics. He got his start 
by answering phones for the mayor of Dallas, and then translated that 
into an internship for Phil Gramm's State office after his sophomore 
year at Duke. After graduating in just 3 years, he took a job in 
Senator Gramm's Washington office as an LA, and did that for a couple 
of years before heading off to law school.
  The plan was to become a Federal prosecutor. So he moved down to 
Charlottesville, stayed there for a clerkship on the Fourth Circuit, 
and then saw his plan go up in smoke when he called Senator Gramm for 
career advice. Rohit told him what he was thinking, and Senator Gramm 
listened. Senator Gramm then told him he thought it would be a much 
better idea if he came back to the Senate and worked for him instead. 
Senator Gramm can be pretty persuasive. Rohit agreed, and he has been 
here ever since.
  It wasn't a straight line. About a month after Rohit got here, Gramm 
announced he wasn't running for reelection. Over the year that 
followed, Rohit impressed a lot of folks. It wasn't long before Senator 
Lott picked up the phone and asked him if he would join him in the 
leader's office. Rohit accepted, and then spent pretty much his entire 
time there figuring out how to get the Department of Homeland Security 
up and running in such a way that it wouldn't be hamstrung by union 
rules.
  Over a holiday weekend in late 2002, he got a taste of things to 
come. President Bush wanted DHS approved, so Rohit and a few other key 
staffers had a holiday weekend to do it. They started writing the bill 
on a Thursday night and wrapped it up by Tuesday morning.
  Rohit stuck around during the Frist years, gaining even more 
experience and impressing even more people--including me. When Leader 
Frist left at the end of 2006, I brought him onto my leadership team, 
and it has been one of the best hiring decisions I have ever made. As I 
said, he has been an extraordinary help to me and a great guy to have 
around. He is not only whip smart, but he has a fantastic sense of 
humor and work ethic like I have never seen.
  I thank Rohit for his dedication and service to me and to the Senate. 
Since this is the only opportunity I have ever had to do this, I want 
to thank Hilary for letting us have him for this long. I think she is 
here today. I know how supportive she has been of Rohit staying here 
for so long, and so I want to thank her for that and apologize for all 
the canceled trips and lost weekends. I know it wasn't always easy to 
see it in the moment, but he has made an enormous difference not just 
to me but our country.
  I can't promise the transition will be easy. He might want to find a 
good 10-step BlackBerry recovery program when we finally take it away 
from him, but I am sure he will figure it out.
  With that, I wish Rohit all the best in the future. I know he has a 
bright one. I understand he will be unemployed after the weekend, but I 
expect that won't last long.
  Rohit, if you ever want to come back, we always have a place for you. 
Thanks, buddy.
  I yield the floor.

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