On the recordMarch 31, 2014
I wish to take a moment to thank a longtime member of my staff who is leaving the Senate after 27 years of service to Congress. Alan Bruce is not technically from Illinois, but he is from Indiana--in this case, close enough. The fact is that he served the people of Illinois in an extraordinary way during his time on Capitol Hill. For the last 22 years Alan has been my systems administrator. He joined my staff in 1992 when I was a Member of the House and moved with me to the Senate in 1997. He is the person most responsible for keeping my offices in Illinois and Washington connected electronically to each other and to the world outside the Senate. He oversees our network of desktop and laptop computers, BlackBerrys, cell phones, and all the rest. Over the years, he taught me a lot of things, and there was a lot to learn, everything from how to make my computer work, dealing with email, saving a digital photo, and how to Skype. He has been a good teacher and a hard-working, loyal member of my staff. In an age when most people change employers and even careers repeatedly, Alan is unusual. The U.S. Congress is the only employer he has had since he graduated from Cumberlands College--now the University of the Cumberlands--in Williamsburg, KY, in 1986. He didn't plan to come to work on Capitol Hill. Six weeks after he graduated from college, he was getting ready for an interview to become a manager of a Radio Shack in Fort Wayne, IN.…
