Tribute to Mike Di Silvestro

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Madam President, on another matter, it is my honor to help bid farewell to a distinguished staff leader, who has himself handled sensitive security matters with great care and dedication.

For more than 30 years, this body has functioned more safely and smoothly because Mike DiSilvestro was on the clock as Director of the Office of Senate Security. Mike D.'s job is tough to describe. That is partially because long tenured all-stars like Mike have a way of carving out their own niche, but it is mostly because his work is literally classified. Mike has been in charge of the Office of Senate Security almost as long as I have been in the Senate.

He came on board as Acting Director in 1987. He took over a brandnew office with incredibly important and sensitive functions. The details are not for public consumption, but let's say there were two main missions.

First, Mike has managed, modernized, and expanded the secure facilities and systems that provide classified information in the Capitol to Senators and committees as we govern the country. He has simultaneously been a diplomatic liaison to the executive branch and has advocated for the Senate's prerogative, and he has been a skillful manager of people and logistics, who has made sure our secrets stay secret once they arrive here.

Second, Mike has been one of our top leaders on the security of the Senate itself. He helps to plan for contingencies and guard every facet of our institution, its people, and its systems from outside actors with bad intentions.

These are tall orders--even for a fellow graduate of the University of Louisville. Consider how much has changed in the 37 years since Mike first came to the Senate and in the 32 years he has held this job: major wars, terrorist strikes on the homeland, anthrax in the Hart Building, countless technological advances that have made his task radically more complex. Imagine guarding some of the Nation's most closely held secrets, planning for possible attacks on the institution, and still being unanimously described by your colleagues as calm, cool, and even-keeled.

Mike is no cheap people pleaser. His duties don't permit it. When you see Mike outside his secure facility and heading our way, it does not mean a social call--it means bad news--and you had better believe this stoic sentinel has had to say no a lot more than yes. Just doing the job half as reliably and reassuringly as Mike is a herculean task by itself, but then factor in the fact that he is also one of the most personally well-liked and respected colleagues among the circle of folks with whom he has worked.

Mike D.'s reputation extends far outside the Senate. I have it on good authority that, when Secretary of Defense Esper--who served as national security adviser to a former majority leader--comes to Senate Security to brief us Members, he doesn't consider his visit complete until he has stopped in Mike D.'s office to check on his old colleague.

Yet, ironically, outside a select circle, most people in the Senate itself probably could not pick Mike D. out of a lineup. I guess, when everything you work on is strictly ``need to know,'' you wind up on a need-to-know basis yourself. Even Mike's own teammates describe his approach as somewhat ``stealth-like.''

In short, even to his beloved Senate, Mike has remained somewhat mysterious. It is definitely a good sign for all of us that he has never become a household name, but some careful intelligence work on our own has turned up clues about Mike D.'s next assignment. His well- earned retirement will bring more hikes, more long runs, a lot more golf, and more time with the family he treasures. He may miss his colleagues and the importance of his job, but I don't think tears will be shed for the end of those heroically long commutes on I-95 which took place at all hours, day and night, whenever duty called.

I can't offer Mike any higher praise than to repeat what he actually already knows.

The Senate has been safe and secure for more than a generation because of you. Decades of Senators have gotten the information we need because of you. Some people spend their whole careers wondering if they have made a difference. You have not needed to ask that for almost 40 years, and you will never need to ask it again.

Mike, we are going to miss you, but old habits die hard, and we simply aren't willing to sever all ties.

So, this morning, the Senate will officially designate Mike as Senate Security's Director Emeritus. The Office's first-ever Director will become its first-ever Director Emeritus.

But don't worry, Mike. Your new job description will just be a little bit lighter. I hope the biggest mystery you have to tackle for a while will be whether to play 9 holes on Saturday or fit in 18. The Senate and your country thanks you for everything you have done.

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