Angie Craig: “if you serve long enough in the Congress--I had the opportunity to serve 10 years in the House, and now I am into my…”

“if you serve long enough in the Congress--I had the opportunity to serve 10 years in the House, and now I am into my third term in the Senate--you have a lot of very capable and wonderful people who work for you. If you serve long enough, as I have mentioned, they not only work for you but sometimes they decide to retire. In my situation, in my office, I have two people retiring this month, and I am going to miss them greatly. I want to speak a few moments about them. First, I talk about Damon Tobias. Damon has been on my staff and handling my budget and tax issues and appropriations issues for a good number of years. I first met Damon in the House of Representatives when he was on the staff of Congressman Charlie Stenholm of Texas. Damon and I and Congressman Stenholm became involved in the balanced budget amendment movement at a time when deficits were totally out of control, and many of us worked to bring them under control. That is when Damon and I became friends. Through the 1980s we worked together on this most important issue. I left the House to come to the Senate, and Damon left the Stenholm office to go to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Later on, 2 years after I came to the Senate, Damon joined my staff in March of 1992. Damon has continued to work for me over that time, dealing with the balanced budget amendment, dealing with taxes and budget and labor issues, immigration issues.…”