Political Quotes

“I rise today to pay tribute to a true public servant and an icon of the Tri-Cities community. Last month, my good friend Karen McGinnis passed away. For 20 years, Karen served as the founding director of a critically important worker training facility, the Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response, HAMMER, Federal Training Center, at the Hanford site in my home State of Washington. Born in Nevada and raised in Oregon, Karen made her way to my alma mater, Washington State University, where she received her master's degree in agricultural economics in 1980. She went on to work at the Hanford site for almost her entire career, serving various Hanford contractors for 40 years, including two decades as the director of the HAMMER training center. This is where I had the great fortune to cross paths with Karen. Karen and I worked together from the get-go, along with Sam Volpentest, to plan, fund, and build HAMMER. I was so proud to stand with Karen and Sam at the groundbreaking for HAMMER in 1995, and I still have the shovel from that event in my office today. It serves as a reminder of what just a few people with a real passion to make a difference can accomplish--and if anyone had passion for this effort, it was Karen. Her work was essential to getting HAMMER off the ground and growing it into the world-class worker training center that it is today.…”