Nomination of Jonathan Davidson

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I am coming to the floor to talk about a nominee that we have before us this afternoon, who is nominated by President Biden to be the Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury for Legislative Affairs.

He is a person who is well known to this Chamber. He spent roughly 20 years working in the Senate. He started out as Senator Paul Sarbanes' body man years and years and years ago and became chief of staff for Senator Sarbanes when Senator Sarbanes was the chair of the Banking Committee. He worked in the House for Representative Sarbanes, was chief counsel to Senator Warner, and then came to my office and was my chief of staff.

His name is Jon Davidson, and he worked for the people of Colorado and for the country for about 10 years in that role. When he came over as my chief of staff, it was very shocking to me that he was willing to do it because he had a good job and he was doing really well for Senator Warner. But it gave him the chance to run a Senate office, and he did an extraordinary job not just because of his understanding of policy and his understanding of politics--a lot of people have that around this place--but also his understanding of human nature and his belief that in all of us, even those of us who are Senators, there can be a gem of goodness in us to be found and to be brought along and to be grown. And that was true not just for me, but for the entire staff.

He was an incredible mentor to probably hundreds of people who worked for me over the years, both in the State of Colorado and in here. He was an extraordinary manager who led with integrity and discipline and drive.

And while I was extremely sorry to lose him, I wasn't at all surprised that President Biden and the Secretary of the Treasury wanted him at Treasury, where he could take what he had learned on Capitol Hill and apply it at a moment when the country urgently needs leadership like the leadership that Jon Davidson can provide.

Just one example: You know, Mr. President, I ran a not very well noticed campaign for President the last time we were having a campaign for President, and I ran it on the idea that we could cut childhood poverty almost in half in this country by adopting the changes that I had proposed to the child tax credit with Senator Brown from Ohio and Senator Booker from New Jersey and then-Senator Harris from California.

But, like with anything else a Senator does, the work is actually done often by the members of that Senator's staff. And in the case of Jon, the vision also came from him and from Charlie Anderson--another staff member that I had--and the entire team that worked together not just for that Presidential campaign but to make sure that, in the wake of it, that could actually become law.

And because of Jon's tenacity, among other things, and his willingness to be able to raise this issue again and again and again in rooms full of staff but also in rooms full of Senators, those changes in the child tax credit are now the law of the land, and we are cutting childhood poverty in this country almost in half this year. It is one of the signature accomplishments, in my mind, of the Biden administration. It is one that I hope that we are going to be able to continue.

So, obviously, I was extremely sad to see him go. I was very, very pleased to see the broad bipartisan support that the cloture vote on his nomination engendered. And I know great things are ahead for Jon and for the country because of his leadership.

He knows, I think, that he has got an open invitation to come back anytime that he wants to.

Before I leave the floor, I also want to say a special word of gratitude to his dad Garber, who lives in Baltimore; and to his wife Erin; and to his children Leo, Mia, and Serena--all of whom have been part of the efforts that we have undertaken on behalf of the people I represent in Colorado over the last decade and on behalf of the United States of America.

These opportunities for public service that all of us have are ones that can't be accomplished without our families; without, I know in the case of Jon, the mentorship that he received from his father, who himself was a distinguished public servant in the United States, and also the support of his family.

So I am filled with great happiness today that we are going to have a great, positive, bipartisan vote on Jon Davidson, as it should be. And perhaps that is a sign of things to come when the kind of quality of somebody like Jon Davidson is recognized in a way that it causes us to act not in a partisan way but in a bipartisan way, to embrace his public service but also a vision for the country that can move us forward.

So congratulations to Jon Davidson. Congratulations to his family, to the Department of the Treasury, and to the United States of America.

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