congressional_record: CREC-2018-12-31-pt1-PgE1739-4
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
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| CREC-2018-12-31-pt1-PgE1739-4 | 2018-12-31 | 115 | 2 | RETIREMENT OF MATTHEW PINKUS | HOUSE | EXTENSIONS | RETIREMENT | E1739 | E1740 | [{"name": "Robert A. Brady", "role": "speaking"}] | 164 Cong. Rec. E1739 | Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 206 (Monday, December 31, 2018) [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 206 (Monday, December 31, 2018)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E1739-E1740] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] RETIREMENT OF MATTHEW PINKUS ______ HON. ROBERT A. BRADY of pennsylvania in the house of representatives Monday, December 31, 2018 Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I have the opportunity to inform colleagues that Mr. Matthew Pinkus, our Committee senior policy adviser and parliamentarian to House Administration Committee Democrats, retired recently, concluding a congressional staff career which began as an intern in 1971 and included 19 years on our committee, the longest of the more than twenty different congressional professional positions he had held during that period, including time as chief legislative assistant to Rep. Michael Barnes (D) of Maryland for the congressman's entire tenure in the House. Whether working in House leadership, on five different congressional committees and in Members' offices, Matt excelled in a huge variety of tasks. A summer college job as a congressional intern in the House for Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal of New York while attending Brandeis University prompted Matt to leave graduate school at U.C. Berkeley after receiving an M.A. in political science and work in Washington full time, first at Congressional Quarterly, then for a month in the Senate, and then the remaining decades in the House. He said of that path, ``I decided very early on that, as much as possible, I would do things the way I wanted and try to have fun. Usually, that worked.'' Matt had an eclectic career path since his first full-time job here in 1976, when he left a political reporting job at Congressional Quarterly. He often chose to seek work in specific subject areas which interested him, rather than follow the common alternate staff career path of attaching himself to one or two members and remaining in place. He was first appointed to the Committee on House Administration Democratic staff in 1991 by Rep. Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut to work on campaign finance reform, and then moved on to the Brookings Institution as a guest scholar on their ``Renewing Congress'' project before returning to the House in 1995 to work on oversight of the executive branch at the Committee on Government Reform. Between Hill jobs in the 1990s, Matt had finished writing a book for Congressional Quarterly in 1998, How Congress Works, and was ready to once again return to the House. Then-House Administration Ranking Member Gejdenson asked him to work on election contests, and he remained here to work sequentially for Ranking Members Hoyer, Larson and Chairwoman Millender-McDonald. Matt was probably best known on the Hill as one of the top experts on rules and process, serving on the Rules Committee staff and twice on the Subcommittee on Rules of the House, including as subcommittee staff director. His most distinctive job was as parliamentarian of the House Democratic Caucus for six years, which recognized and utilized his vast knowledge of the Caucus rules. It was a position created especially for him and lasted through the service of Chairmen Robert Menendez, Jim Clyburn, Rahm Emanuel and John Larson--all while he also worked simultaneously on the House Administration Committee. He was known for always being carefully prepared, totally candid, and was not intimidated by Members. Matt was always our committee parliamentarian, managed floor operations, and worked on elections legislation, congressional continuity issues, and the Smithsonian Institution. He drafted and edited views on committee reports and other publications, and proofed specialized historical books published by the House. He would discuss parliamentary strategy in the morning and then make an oversight visit to the National Zoo to learn about artificial insemination of Giant Pandas in the afternoon, something made possible by CHA's very eclectic jurisdiction. Matt sat behind me for years on the Committee on House Administration dais when I was a junior member and helped provide advice on hearings and markups for Members but when I suddenly became chairman in 2007 following the death of Chairwoman Millender-McDonald, he was there with an intricately drafted manager's parliamentary script for my very long first markup. This was a totally new role for me. When I went off script at some points and noticed Matt's look of concern, after avoiding disaster, I told him that [[Page E1740]] while I might sometimes deviate from his text, he should just keep right on doing what he does. Matt says he plans to travel, look for opportunities to write, and again take up playing chess, which he learned at the age of four from his father, AI, who was one of America's leading players in the mid- 20th century. ____________________ |