The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO REEMA DODIN” mentioning Cory A. Booker was published in the Senate section on pages S53-S54 on Jan. 19.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO REEMA DODIN
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as we begin the Congress and prepare to welcome President Biden and Vice President Harris, I find myself thinking of the words of the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi. He wrote,
``Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.''
For the moment that we are living through, I would edit his words slightly. I would say: Out beyond the ideas of right versus left, out beyond the rigid confines of our current polarized politics, there is a field of common good and common purpose. I hope we will all find the courage to meet there, to work together in this place.
At another moment of dangerous division in America, Abraham Lincoln prayed that the ``better angels of our nature'' would help us to rediscover our common bond and pull back from the brink of a civil war.
Today, the Union, preserved through that war, is battered and divided. For the first time since the Civil War, thousands of Federal troops stand guard at our Nation's Capitol to protect it from attack by American citizens.
Carpenters and other crafts people are still hard at work repairing the doors and windows and furniture smashed to bits less than 2 weeks ago by the insurrectionist mob. We must be better than this or we risk losing our democracy.
I believe that beyond the killing field of weaponized politics, there is still a field of shared dreams, which brings me to a specific reason I take the floor of the Senate today.
I come to thank a remarkable woman who has devoted countless hours over many years trying to help the Members of this Senate, Democrats and Republicans, find that field on which we can work together.
Reema Dodin has been a member of my staff for more than 14 years. She started as a law school intern in my Chicago office, and over the years, she rose through the ranks: legislative assistant; research director; Judiciary Committee staff member; floor counsel; and finally my deputy chief of staff.
For years, my person on the Senate floor has been this woman, this amazing woman. I am grateful for her service to the Senate and her service to the people of Illinois and to our Nation. But tomorrow Reema begins a new challenge as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. This daughter of immigrants will make history as the highest ranking Palestinian-American woman ever to work in the executive branch of the President of the United States.
As the liaison to the U.S. Senate, she will continue to help the Senate search for common ground on which to build a better future; only now she will be doing it from a different office, with a much better boss.
I know that she will be a tremendous asset to President Biden and the Nation. In these divided times, it is rare to find a public servant like Reema, whose excellence and integrity is so widely admired on both sides of the aisle.
No one understands better than Reema--well, perhaps two people in the Chamber might understand better--how this Senate works but only two. As the saying goes, she wrote the book on it, coauthoring an insightful tome entitled ``Inside Congress: A Guide for Navigating the Politics of the House and Senate Floors,'' published in 2017 by the Brookings Institution. It came this close to being a New York Times bestseller. But maybe still, with this speech today, it will reinvigorate sales.
As floor director for the Senate Democrats, Reema has worked closely with staff and Members on both sides of the aisle to whip bills and overcome hurdles. No matter how long or pitched the debate, she has always remained friendly, decent, optimistic, and dedicated. It was not unusual to find her still at her desk at midnight or 2 in the morning, sending her final whip alert or email of the day to Senate staffers summarizing the day's activities and the next day's Senate agenda.
Reema acquired her political and diplomatic acumen through hard work and partly, it seems, through genetics. Her grandfather served as Social Affairs Minister for the Kingdom of Jordan under King Hussein and was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in the 1970s.
As I mentioned, Reema, like so many Americans, including myself, is a child of immigrants. Her parents both came to the United States as college students from Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
Reema was born in North Carolina and grew up in Orange County, CA. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, earned her law degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and we made her an honorary daughter of the land of Lincoln. She also is a Truman National Security fellow; a New Leaders Council fellow; an Aspen Socrates alumnus; a former term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a member of the Jenkins Hill Society, a consortium of women in politics supporting women politicians.
Reema loves the Senate, and she loves the challenge of this great Chamber. She loves to give tours in this Chamber to those who want to know the procedure and the history of this beautiful room in American history and the Capitol of our Nation. She cares about the people who protect and preserve this building, including the maintenance people, cafeteria workers, and everyone who works here.
Even after so many years of climbing the marble staircase from the Senate floor to my office, she and I remain in awe of those time-worn steps, the colorful Minton tiles that brighten the Senate floors, and the majestic Brumidi frescos that adorn the walls.
During the recent siege of the Capitol, Reema worried for the safety of Senators and their staff, police officers, and troops who were defending this building, but she also worried about the priceless paintings, statues, and other historical treasures that had been passed down from one generation to the next as part of our national legacy.
Most of all, I know that Reema reveres the Senate as the place where men and women representing all of the people and all of the competing interests of the United States can reason and work together for the common good of our Nation.
In her personal inscription to her book on the Senate, Reema thanked me for taking a chance on folks with only dreams and no connections.
Well, Reema, tomorrow when you join the staff of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, you will have the best connections in Washington, and I know that you will use whatever opportunity presents itself on this new assignment to bridge the gaps in America and bring together the people of this country in a better, more caring nation.
I will forever be grateful for your many years of brilliant, loyal service, and I wish you the best.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. WICKER). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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