[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12700]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DAVID F. VITE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am honored today to pay tribute to my 
friend David Vite on his retirement from the Illinois Retail Merchants 
Association, IRMA. He spent 35 years with the Illinois retailers, 
helping businesses across the State of Illinois engage with government 
and better serve their communities.
  David has a long history of service. After serving in the Army, he 
went to college in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of 
Wisconsin at LaCrosse. This must be where he developed his affinity for 
the Green Bay Packers. In all of the time David spent in Illinois, he 
never adopted our very own Chicago Bears. He remains to this day a 
loyal Packers fan.
  Early in his career, David became the Executive Director of the 
Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and oversaw community developments in 
Woodstock, IL. By 1978, David had joined the Illinois Retail Merchants 
Association as a field representative. Within 3 years, the Association 
had promoted him to Vice President of Government Affairs and not long 
after that, David Vite took over as President.
  As President, David was determined to help resolve the challenges 
facing Illinois retailers and at the same time to create opportunities 
for them. He provided training for his members to help them promote 
sales. He created a school-to-work training program to help cultivate 
the next generation of retail leaders. He led an effort to publish a 
manual to help merchants become more environmentally friendly. And 
throughout his tenure, he was the voice for business as Illinois 
policymakers addressed dilemmas in unemployment insurance, worker's 
compensation, and sales taxes.
  I can't thank David enough for the support he helped build across 
Illinois for the Marketplace Fairness Act. I am proud to say that in 
May, the Senate passed this bill by a vote of 69-27, helping to level 
the playing field for retailers in Illinois and across the country. 
With David's help, we were able to communicate with retailers in every 
corner of Illinois to better understand the need and urgency for tax 
fairness legislation.
  I would like to thank David for his leadership and many contributions 
over his decades of work with communities and business. Illinois retail 
has been lucky to have had such a strong, good-willed advocate. I wish 
him the very best in his retirement.

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