[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12971]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             THANKING STAFF

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I appreciate the Presiding Officer's 
patience in waiting for us to wrap up things.
  Let me say a word very quickly about the staff. I wish everyone a 
good August. It has been an extremely difficult first 7 months of this 
congressional period. We got a lot done, and I appreciate very much all 
the hard work of everyone.
  I have said before, but not recently, that we get a lot of things 
done around here--not nearly as much as we should--but it is the result 
of all the work that is done by those here and the scores of other 
people we don't see that are back there doing all kinds of things to 
make this place work, all the committee staff, the police officers but 
especially the floor staff.
  As we talked earlier today about some departures we have here, one of 
the good things we have is that in all the time I have been here, as 
far I am aware--there could have been instances, but I am unaware of 
any, where there was bitterness expressed publicly and, as far as I 
know, privately between each other. I haven't seen that. I appreciate 
very much the good work we do for the Senate. The staff is not partisan 
in the work for their bosses that they try to get done, and we can only 
do that through them.
  I am so grateful for all they do for the Senate leadership, all the 
Senators, and the country. Words are not adequate for me to express 
that, but I truly do appreciate all they do.

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