[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10884]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   THANKING VICKIE PLUNKETT FOR TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE 
                         UNITED STATES CONGRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 13, 2017

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank Vickie Plunkett for 
her over twenty years of service in the United States House of 
Representatives. As we consider the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense 
Authorization bill in the House Armed Services Committee, for the tenth 
and final time with Vickie as a Professional Staff Member on the 
Committee, I would like to take a moment to reflect on her decades of 
service to this body, and our nation.
  Vickie has served as the lead staffer for the Readiness Subcommittee, 
which oversees the largest account in the Department of Defense, 
Operations and Maintenance, to include military operations, readiness, 
and training issues, funding, and programs. In this capacity, she has 
fought to ensure that our men and women in uniform are trained, ready, 
and equipped to carry out missions we ask of them, while ensuring that 
we are acting as responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollar. As the 
Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, I have deeply valued 
Vickie's counsel and advice, as well as her candid perspectives.
  Vickie joined the House Armed Services Committee in 2007 after more 
than a decade of working on defense issues in Congress. From 1989 to 
2002, she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Military Legislative 
Assistant to my friend and the former Chairman of the Readiness 
Subcommittee, Solomon Ortiz, as well as former Congressman Glen 
Browder, another member of the Subcommittee. Prior to relocating to 
Washington D.C., Vickie honed her critical thinking and journalistic 
skills as a publisher, editor, reporter, and photographer for daily and 
weekly newspapers in Alabama and Georgia. Her editorial expertise and 
deliberative approach served her and the Committee well not only as we 
crafted the annual defense authorization bill, but also through 
countless hearings, markups, and meetings. Her efforts have been 
instrumental to enacting good public policies for our military and our 
servicemembers and their families are better equipped, trained, and 
resourced because of them.
  Mr. Speaker, Vickie's departure from the House Armed Services 
Committee will leave us without the decades of experience and wisdom 
that she brought to each and every challenge we encountered. I am proud 
of the work she did, as well as the intelligent, thoughtful manner in 
which she approached it. On a personal level, Vickie has been a 
tremendous friend of Guam and the men and women who serve on our 
island. So on behalf of my constituents and the people of Guam, I 
extend her my sincere un dangkulo na si Yu'os ma'ase (deepest 
gratitude). I wish her, her husband David, and their families well as 
they enter the next chapter in their lives.

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