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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise today because today is a bittersweet day for me. I rise to recognize and express my gratitude for the outstanding work of Vanessa Valdivia, who has served as my communications director since my first day here in the Senate. I speak for everybody in my office when I say we are going to miss her.

But I am also proud. Next week, she will begin work at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and as Press Secretary to the First Lady. I have no doubt that she will do great things in her new role.

Since our first days in the Russell basement, in an office I had when I was transitioning, Vanessa has brought her incredible experience, her unique personality, and her tremendous passion to the job in helping me communicate our work to the people of California. From my maiden speech here on the Senate floor, during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, to crisscrossing the State on an infrastructure listening tour as we were negotiating the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act here in Washington, to ensuring that Californians were consistently informed of the historic progress that we have made in this Congress, Vanessa has been a key leader in my office and an adviser to me.

She is a California native and is the proud daughter of Mexican- Nicaraguan immigrants. Now, some of you may remember some of my remarks during the confirmation hearings of now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson when I said that, often, Americans of color needed to work twice as hard to garner half the respect. Well, it comes as no surprise that Vanessa has gained the utmost respect from her former bosses and colleagues on the various Presidential and Senate campaigns that she has been a part of and from the Senate offices that she has worked in, including those of Senators Booker, Heinrich, and Peters in addition to mine, and I have no doubt that she will bring the same work ethic and savvy to serving the First Lady and the Biden administration.

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Mr. PADILLA. (English translation of statement made in Spanish is as follows:)

Vanessa, I wish you all the luck in your next chapter. Don't forget your friends here in the Senate. I have no doubt that you will continue to do great things working for the First Lady and the Biden administration. Thank you for your work for all of California.

Mr. President, let the record reflect that Vanessa Valdivia will be deeply missed and that the State of California and the U.S. Senate thank her for her service.

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