{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=F80ABEDB-36E3-4843-B0FA-85CD334B896B", "Barrasso Pays Tribute to Senator Mike Enzi", "2020-12-02", "2020", "2020-12", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "For nearly a quarter-century, Mike Enzi has represented the people of Wyoming in Washington and has done it with intelligence, with intensity, and with integrity. The Cowboy State and the Capitol are going to sorely miss Mike Enzi.\r\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso's remarks.\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C.  Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) paid tribute to Wyoming's senior U.S. Senator, Mike Enzi, who is retiring at the end of this term. Barrasso praised Senator Enzi for his nearly twenty five years of service representing the people of Wyoming in the United States Senate.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso's remarks:\r\nI come to the floor today to pay tribute to this great Wyoming leader.\r\nFor nearly a quarter-century, Mike Enzi has represented the people of Wyoming in Washington and has done it with intelligence, with intensity, and with integrity.\r\nThe Cowboy State and the Capitol are going to sorely miss Mike Enzi.\r\nHe's truly cemented his legacy as the trusted trail boss of the Wyoming's congressional delegation.\r\nAnd it has been an incredible honor and a great privilege for my wife Bobbi and for me to serve the people of Wyoming alongside Mike and his wife Diana who is with us today.\r\nMike is truly a devoted family man  as well as a man of great and deep faith.\r\nIn fact, Mike taught Sunday school over the decades.\r\nMany in the Wyoming faith community know that Mike's first Sunday school teacher in Thermopolis Wyoming was my wife Bobbi's mother, Jerry Brown.\r\nJerry and her husband Bob, a World War II and Korean War veteran, both passed away this past year, and they had been married 70 years.\r\nWell, she taught Sunday school in Thermopolis, Wyoming, and her star pupil was Mike Enzi.\r\nTo the point that she actually gave Mike Enzi his first Bible, and he still has that today.\r\nHere in the Senate, Mike has been not just a close friend to me, and a mentor to me, but he has been that to many members of this body.\r\nMike was sworn in, in 1997, and throughout four terms in the United States Senate, he has never wavered in his commitment to God, to family, to country and, of course, to Wyoming.\r\nHe's known by many as the Senate's moral compass, remarkable spiritual leader of our bipartisan Senate prayer breakfast.\r\nI am a member of that group, a number of the Senators here today are as well. We met today and Mike led us in prayer.\r\nAnd I've seen firsthand just how much Republican and Democrat members depend on Mike for his moral and ethical guidance.\r\nHe really is a bipartisan not just policymaker but also a peacemaker, and we've all seen it within this body.\r\nHis legislation, and he talked about the 80/20 rule, it has a long history of garnering overwhelming bipartisan support.\r\nOver 100 Enzi bills have become law.\r\nI have been proud to sponsor and cosponsor many of them with him in my time in the Senate.\r\nThe thing he didn't point out is that most of the bills that passed, passed with over 80 votes.\r\nIt's rare for an Enzi bill to get to the floor and pass with any more than 15-18 no' votes  remarkable accomplishment.\r\nAnd it's important to note that these bills have been signed by Republican and Democrat presidents.\r\nYou go into his office, his whole conference room is filled, the walls are filled, with bills and pens signed into law. With the pens being used by Bill Clinton, by George W. Bush, by Barack Obama, and by President Donald Trump.\r\nBehind all these, as he just talked about, is that very successful 80/20 Rule.\r\nA rule that he learned while in the Wyoming state legislature. And it has worked extremely well for him here in Washington, as well.\r\nSuch is the practical, western wisdom in Mike Enzi.\r\nBorn in 1944, in Bremerton, Washington, his father was there serving in the naval shipyards during World War II.\r\nMoved the family to Wyoming shortly thereafter, and that's when he started elementary school in Thermopolis, Wyoming. They moved to Sheridan, where he graduated from high school.\r\nMike didn't talk about this today, but Mike there earned his Eagle Scout award. He's a proud Eagle Scout, as is his son Brad, and his grandson is working on it as well. Mike has been named a Distinguished Eagle' by the Scouts.\r\nHe has a bachelor's degree in accounting from George Washington University and an MBA in retail marketing from the University of Denver in Colorado.\r\nMike and Diana moved to Gillette in 1969, where they started their own small business, and it's wonderful to listen to Mike talk about small businesses. It's called NZ Shoes.\r\nThey later expanded their successful family business to Miles City, Montana and Sheridan, Wyoming.\r\nBut Gillette, Wyoming is Mike's true home and where his heart is.\r\nHe served two terms as Gillette's mayor. During his eight years as mayor, Mike led Gillette to their first economic boom.\r\nHe's also served 10 years in the Wyoming Legislature. He was both a state representative as well as a state senator.\r\nWyoming is Mike's world  And family means the world to Mike. Their the proud parents of three  Amy, Emily and Brad.\r\nAnd even prouder grandparents of four  Megan, Allison, Trey and Lilly.\r\nAnyone who knows Mike knows that he loves to fish. Even during prayer breakfast today when you watched on the Zoom call, behind Mike you could see a fishing rod, you could see all the lures that he uses in his fishing on display.\r\nHe's an accomplished, an avid fly-fisherman. In fact, in August 2015 he achieved every fly-fisherman's dream by completing his Wyoming Cutt-Slam.'\r\nThis Wyoming Game and Fish Department program increases appreciation for our native cutthroat trout.\r\nIf you want to talk to Mike about anything, talk to him about fishing.\r\nHis passion comes through for his love for nature for being in nature's cathedral of the great outdoors.\r\nHe fishes in majestic spots throughout Wyoming and all over the world.\r\nHere in Washington, Mike is a leading voice on budget, on tax and on health care issues.\r\nHe has served in the Senate Budget Committee and as chairman since 2015.\r\nAs the first accountant to chair the Budget Committee, Mike is committed to making government more accountable to hardworking American taxpayers.\r\nHe's been a tremendous Budget chairman. It's because he learned valuable lessons in the Wyoming Legislature  Where, like American families, you have to balance the budget every year and live within your means.\r\nUnder Mike's leadership, Congress has passed balanced budget resolutions for fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018.\r\nHe worked tirelessly to pass these budgets  even working through the night all week for the marathon floor debates called vote-a-ramas.'\r\nHis budget blueprints offered a better fiscal path by reducing wasteful spending, by lightening tax burdens and by boosting economic growth.\r\nMike's fiscal year 2018 budget not only provided a path to balance  it paved the way for pro-growth, pro-jobs tax relief legislation, the most comprehensive reform of the tax code in over a generation.\r\nAnd as a reconciliation bill, this historic 2017 tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, went through Mike's Budget Committee.\r\nAs Budget chairman, Mike has also focused on the soaring national debt, on budget process reform and on oversight of federal programs.\r\nMike also has served as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee since his arrival in the Senate.\r\nAs a former chairman and ranking member, he championed the efforts to ensure a quality education for all.\r\nHe expanded access to affordable, quality health care. And he spearheaded the most significant pension reform in 30 years, securing millions of Americans' retirements.\r\nHe is also a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Joint Committee on Taxation.\r\nOther policy successes include improving mine safety, helping end the AIDS epidemic in Africa and passing mental health parity.\r\nMike's highest priority of course has always been helping the people of Wyoming.\r\nAs he said in announcing his retirement: I am an advocate for Gillette and Campbell County and Wyoming. I point out that everyone lives at the local level. No one lives at the federal level  or even the state level. So Diana and I are your Chamber of Commerce and economic development people for every town and county in Wyoming all the time.'\r\nMike started several annual events to boost our state  the Inventors Conference, the Procurement Conference and Wyoming Works tours.\r\nIn 2009, Mike and I started Wyoming Wednesdays, and it quickly became a big hit.\r\nThis is a great tradition when people from around Wyoming come to Washington and we get together every week for coffee, donuts and friendship. And people love to attend.\r\nBut Mike as well as Diana are a force here in the Senate. Mike has called Diana the most thoughtful person in the world.' And that's no exaggeration.\r\nHere in the Senate, every year Diana hosts a Christmas cookie party to thank as they describe the real workers' that keep the Senate running  the janitors, the cleaning crews, the electricians, the police officers, the food service workers.\r\nEvery year Diana and her friends work hundreds of hours and bake hundreds of dozens of cookies.\r\nAll the Senate workers look forward to Diana's 200-dozen cookie thank you event every year.\r\nIn fact, it's not unusual for people to come up to Diana in the hallway and ask when the party is. Mike is the wonderful co-host.\r\nThis year, because of coronavirus, she couldn't do all the baking, but they had the cookie festival with baked cookies and those who couldn't get to receive them, Mike and Diana walked the halls of this building in the Senate office building to make sure that the guards and the custodians and janitors and others, got their Christmas cookies.\r\nMike is usually a man of few words. But at a recent prayer breakfast, Mike reminded everyone about the importance of thinking before we speak.\r\nHe titled his presentation Me and My Big Mouth.' He reminded us that our mouths cannot be trained, only guarded.\r\nMike is a true Wyoming gentleman Someone who will always be a great friend and a mentor to me, to younger people in Wyoming, and to everyone here in the Senate.\r\nIn my office, there's a picture on the wall from my first day in the Senate in 2007. I'm being sworn in by then-Vice President Cheney with Senator Enzi, along with former Senator Malcolm Wallop standing behind.\r\nIt has been a tremendous privilege to serve with Mike from my very first day in the United States Senate.\r\nThe people of Wyoming owe him an incredible debt of gratitude for his tireless, and his faithful service.\r\nMike Enzi's character, his courage and his credibility have cemented his legacy as a highly respected leader of the Senate.\r\nSo today, so many senators are here gathering to listen to, to honor and to thank Mike Enzi for his decades of distinguished service to the nation.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=F80ABEDB-36E3-4843-B0FA-85CD334B896B"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5447926707565784, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}