[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4205-4206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JANET AIRIS

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I join with the vice chairwoman of the 
Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski, and the chairman and 
ranking member of the Budget Committee, Senator Enzi and Senator 
Sanders, in honoring Janet Airis on her retirement after 32 years of 
distinguished service to the Congress with the Congressional Budget 
Office. Janet is highly regarded by both Republicans and Democrats on 
both sides of the Capitol for her encyclopedic knowledge of the 
appropriations and budget process and its lexicon, her responsiveness 
to committee and Member staff, and her dedication to the nonpartisan 
role that CBO plays in the successful enactment of appropriations bills 
year after year. Janet has been a valuable asset to eight of the nine 
CBO directors.
  Janet came to CBO in the waning days of 1983, fairly soon after 
graduating from Wellesley College. She joined the scorekeeping unit in 
the budget analysis division, which has the responsibility of tracking 
and scoring the appropriations bills at each legislative stage as well 
as tracking mandatory spending in authorizing legislation. Janet was 
hired to assist in maintaining the database used by the division. Janet 
has worked to keep the database in sync with the many changes in the 
budget process, integrating new categories and methods so that CBO 
could accurately tabulate and report on Federal spending. Janet started 
as the scorekeeper for the defense and military construction 
appropriation bills. Over the course of her

[[Page 4206]]

career, she also handled the Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing 
and Urban Development and Agriculture, and legislative branch 
appropriations bills, in the process gaining a vast array of knowledge 
of a substantial part of the Federal budget.
  In 2000, Janet made the transition to unit chief. For the past 16 
years, she has successfully overseen the analysis of the President's 
budget request for each of the appropriation bills, the scoring of the 
appropriation bills at each stage, the production and review of 
baselines, and the writing and coordination of CBO's annual report on 
unauthorized appropriations and expiring authorizations. Through all of 
these tasks, she has been the steady hand of the scorekeeping unit, 
generous with her time and knowledge, and vital to the smooth 
functioning of the budget analysis division. Senate staff and 
colleagues have come to depend on her for her ready expertise, 
diligence, and attention to detail.
  Janet is also famous for sharing her prodigious baking talent. Every 
year she has coordinated the provision of cookies during the conclusion 
of the December baseline, which often coincided with the final days of 
a congressional session. The appearance of a red-clothed table outside 
of the scorekeeping unit bearing plates of homemade cookies always 
brings a smile to stressed budget analysts checking final numbers or 
scoring final bills.
  Janet's expertise, corporate knowledge, and generosity of time and 
spirit will be sorely missed, but she well deserves an opportunity to 
rest after her years of outstanding service to the Congress. We are 
grateful for that service, and we wish her the best in the years to 
come.

                          ____________________