Bill Cassidy: “oh my gosh, I wish I didn't have to rise today because I rise to say goodbye but also to honor someone who has been an…”

“oh my gosh, I wish I didn't have to rise today because I rise to say goodbye but also to honor someone who has been an incredibly important member of our Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee team and, before that, in my personal office team. Amanda Lincoln is leaving Capitol Hill after 15 years of service to the Congress and to our country. Amanda joined my personal office after she had served as staff director and legislative director for the late Senator Mike Enzi. In my personal office, she was integral to advancing policies to improve the lives of all Americans, spearheading laws that increase access to generic drugs, boost domestic manufacturing of medical products, and enhance forecasting of epidemics. She also was a partner in brainstorming solutions to emerging and vexing policy challenges, like how to finance gene therapies and protect patient privacy. Now, it was interesting. When we began to work on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, I had a group of six, and there was no one of them that had been tapped as a leader. And there were just alpha males in there, and there was this and there was that. And just organically, Amanda emerged as the leader among that group. One of the young men who was on that project, with strong personality and strong intellect--and I just kind of wasn't quite sure how that would manage--and he goes: I just got to tell you, Amanda is doing a great job.…”