On the recordDecember 11, 2014
as I prepare to relinquish the gavel as chair of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I would like to take a few minutes to express my deep gratitude to our staff director, Derek Miller, for his sterling service in one of the Senate's most demanding staff positions. Knute Rockne was fond of saying: ``I've found that prayers work best when you have big players.'' Successful committee chairs in the Senate have the same approach. We know that it is not enough to be on the side of the angels; we have got to have big players. Here in the Senate, that means big intellect, work ethic, big heart. Those are qualities that Derek Miller possesses in superabundance. Derek originally came to work for me in 2003, during my tenure as chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where he was the lead staffer in our efforts to address the childhood obesity epidemic by improving the nutritional content of foods available in schools. Derek's goal and mine, simply put, was to get junk food out of our schools and to get healthy foods in. Our efforts came to fruition with passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which reformed the school lunch program and established national nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools, including foods sold in vending machines, school snack bars, and a la carte cafeteria lines.…
