{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warnock-accepts-prestigious-constituent-service-award-for-hurricane-helene-response/", "Warnock Accepts Prestigious Constituent Service Award for Hurricane Helene Response", "2025-09-19", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "GA", "Raphael G. Warnock", "W000790", "www.warnock.senate.gov", "warnock", "https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Reverend Warnock accepted the bipartisan Congressional Management Foundation\u2019s (CMF) 2025 Democracy Award for Best Constituent Correspondence & Outreach Services\n\nThis honor was awarded to Senator Warnock to recognize his office\u2019s constituent communication on disaster response and recovery resources during and after Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Georgia in September of last year\n\nSenator Warnock: \u201cI often say that I\u2019m not a Senator who used to be a pastor. I\u2019m a pastor in the Senate. I\u2019m used to walking with people even as I work for them. Sometimes we can\u2019t solve these really big problems [\u2026] on a dime, but in the meantime, we do get to walk alongside people and just solve everyday issues\u201d\n\nAbove: Senator Warnock at the 2025 Democracy Awards\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 This week, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) accepted the Congressional Management Foundation\u2019s (CMF) 2025 Democracy Award for the best Constituent Correspondence & Outreach Services. The award follows the Senator and his office\u2019s outreach efforts to communicate disaster response and recovery resources following Hurricane Helene\u2019s Georgia landfall in September of 2024. The Senator accepted the award at the CMF\u2019s Democracy Awards ceremony. In addition to Senator Warnock, the bipartisan CMF also recognized Congressman August Pfluger (R-TX-11) for his correspondence & outreach services.\n\n\u201cI often say that I\u2019m not a Senator who used to be a pastor. I\u2019m a pastor in the Senate. I\u2019m used to walking with people even as I work for them. Sometimes we can\u2019t solve these really big problems [\u2026] on a dime, but in the meantime, we do get to walk alongside people and just solve everyday issues,\u201d Senator Warnock said in his acceptance remarks.\n\nBelow are just a few of the Senator\u2019s efforts providing constituent correspondence and outreach services around the time of Hurricane Helene:\n\nAlerted Georgians of the deadline to apply for FEMA assistance.\n\nHosted community resource clinics across the state, helping connect 200 Georgians in rural communities to in-person federal resources and representatives.\n\nParticipated in a community roundtable following Hurricane Helene\u2019s landfall in Georgia.\n\nCreated a website as a one-stop shop of resources to help Georgians recover.\n\nVisited farmers in Ray City with President Biden to survey damage and hear from residents.\n\nAbove: Senator Warnock is presented with his 2025 Democracy Award by Randy Ford, President of National Write Your Congressman, Inc.\n\nThe CMF is a bipartisan non-profit foundation that has provided hands-on support and essential resources to Members and their staff to help govern effectively and better serve their constituents for nearly 50 years. Focusing on real-world solutions that drive congressional modernization, advance public service skills, and foster a culture of collaboration on Capitol Hill.\n\nA transcript of the Senator\u2019s remarks can be found below:\n\nGood morning, everybody. First, let me thank the Congressional Management Foundation for this recognition and for all the work that you\u2019ve done for nearly half a century to help public servants and their staff better serve the American people.\n\nLet me say that I am incredibly and deeply honored to receive the 2025 Democracy Award for Constituent Correspondence and Outreach Services for my office\u2019s work in the wake of Hurricane Helene last year. I have to say, I\u2019m a little bit embarrassed to receive this award. This is a perfect example of members getting credit for stuff their staff does. But you all give my staff a round of applause, please. They\u2019re the ones who do the work, not just my staff, but all of our staff.\n\nOne of the great things about this work is constituent services. Let\u2019s face it, we live in a time in which our nation is deeply divided, and we\u2019re so consumed with the culture wars. There\u2019s not much focus, not enough focus, on the real problems that confront us. And I think we could get together, if we would get together, focus on the real issues that we all have in common. If we would recognize that at the end of the day what we want is for all of our children to do well.\n\nThe amazing thing about constituent services is that it transcends partisan differences. I can\u2019t tell you how many Republicans have walked up to me and said, \u201cYou know, I didn\u2019t vote for you, but I called your office, and you solved the problem for me.\u201d I said, \u201cWell, you gonna vote for me the next time?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d Occasionally I get a taker. I\u2019ll take that. But listen, I didn\u2019t run for the Senate to win awards. I ran to serve Georgians.\n\nI often say that I\u2019m not a Senator who used to be a pastor. I\u2019m a pastor in the Senate. I\u2019m used to walking with people even as I work for them. Sometimes we can\u2019t solve these really big problems, health care, you know, issues around creating opportunity in our changing economy. We can\u2019t solve these big problems on a dime, but in the meantime, we do get to walk alongside people and just solve everyday issues.\n\nAnd so I want to thank and congratulate my staff, the ways in which they responded in the wake of Hurricane Helene, hosting community resource clinics across the state, helping connect 200 Georgians and rural communities to in person federal resources, the way they arrived early on the scene to distribute water, food, and supplies. I was there with them for a little while, but they really did the work creating a digital one stop shop of resources to help Georgians recover, alerting Georgians of the deadline to apply for federal assistance, meeting with community leaders and frontline responders, and traveling with President Biden to South Georgia to hear directly from impacted farmers.\n\nWhen I was on the ground in Georgia, just trying to do the work, trying to connect folks with services, I was really taken by the spirit of the people of Georgia, their resilience, their commitment to one another. I was inspired by Wayne Lanier, owner of Lanier\u2019s Fresh Meat Market, a barbecue joint. And he sells his food every day. But he was out there just giving it away, giving it away, making sure that the most marginalized members of that community were well taken care of. And I can cite example after example after example like that, the Tabernacle Baptist Church and others standing up and just creating a response unit right in real time to respond to their neighbors. The man I ran into on my way to that area had a generator, and his neighbors didn\u2019t have a generator, and he just started cooking for everybody. And so this is the spirit, the American spirit, and at the end of the day, we need more of that. So thank you very much for this award. God bless all of you. Keep the faith.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "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.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warnock-accepts-prestigious-constituent-service-award-for-hurricane-helene-response/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7869179826229811, "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"}