Retirement of Vee Burke

RETIREMENT OF VEE BURKE -- (Senate - November 16, 2004)

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay a tribute to Vee Burke, specialist in income maintenance, Domestic Social Policy Division, a dedicated and gifted employee at the Congressional Research Service, who will be retiring from CRS at the end of this month.

Mrs. Burke is a graduate of the University of Chicago. She has four grown children and is the widow of Vincent Burke with whom she wrote Nixon's Good Deed, a book about Nixon's welfare reform proposals.

When Mrs. Burke joined CRS more than 30 years ago, she was already a recognized expert in the field of public welfare.
During her tenure at CRS, she became a leading expert on the history, evolution and interaction of welfare and public assistance programs for low-income individuals and families.

Because of her stature as one of the leading authorities in the country in this policy area, Mrs. Burke's advice and assistance has often been required by the Congress. Over three decades, Mrs. Burke has contributed to major congressional deliberations affecting AFDC and related public assistance programs, including the sweeping welfare reforms enacted in 1996 that replaced AFDC with TANF.

During the consideration of the reauthorization of the 1996 welfare reform legislation in both the 107th and the 108th Congress, Mrs. Burke provided invaluable assistance to the Senate Finance Committee. In the 108th Congress, Mrs. Burke was especially helpful to myself, as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and to my staff. She assisted in the drafting of the committee mark and legislation, providing technical assistance as well as continuously analyzing state data. Because of her vast knowledge, Mrs. Burke also functioned as an impromptu tutor to Senate Finance Committee staff on this history of welfare.

The work of the Congress is detailed and complex-in order to do our work members and our staffs need to be well versed in policy in order for us to make the best decisions. For this expertise, we often rely on the analysis of the Congressional Research Service. CRS provides a unique service to the Congress in that they are truly nonpartisan. The specialists from CRS provide non-biased, research based analysis that helps guide us, as policymakers, to make the best decisions.
Mrs. Burke, throughout her long and admirable career, has embodied the very best of what CRS provides for the Congress. Those of us who care deeply about programs affecting the poor thank her for her efforts, will miss her and wish her well.