The publication is reproduced in full below:
COMMEMORATING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF KATHY GOLDSCHMIDT AND NICOLE FOLK
COOPER
______
HON. DEREK KILMER
of washington
in the house of representatives
Monday, March 7, 2022
Mr. KILMER. Madam Speaker, I'd like to take a moment to commemorate the public service of two individuals who have dedicated decades of their lives to enhancing the performance of congressional offices, helping Members of Congress and congressional staff improve as professionals and public servants, and working to revitalize Congress as an institution. Kathy Goldschmidt is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Congressional Management Foundation and reached her 25th year of service there last month. Nicole Folk Cooper is the Director of Research and Publications at CMF, and last year reached her 20th year of service. Both individually and as a team, Ms. Goldschmidt and Ms. Folk Cooper have made unparalleled contributions to enhancing the House and Senate.
Starting at CMF in 1997, Ms. Goldschmidt recognized early on the potential impact of the internet on Congress and democracy, urging the organization to proactively work to help congressional offices with this new technology. During the last quarter of a century, she has authored or co-authored nearly every major CMF study on technology and Congress. In 2006 she led the effort to help the House of Representatives create a 10-year information technology road map, a crucial step that helped institutional leaders identify areas for operational improvement. Recently, she co-authored a series of reports, The Future of Citizen Engagement, which has the potential to help every congressional office build greater trust in the Congress and democracy. And in 2018 she co-authored a report entitled the Job Description for a Member of Congress that sought to provide a common understanding of the duties and responsibilities of a Member of Congress for all Americans. She has twice testified before congressional committees, including the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which I chair. We thank her for her advice to our Committee and staff.
Nicole Folk Cooper began working at CMF in 2001. For more than two decades she has trained staff, conducted analyses of congressional offices, and overseen a broad range of CMF projects. For 16 years she has been the editor of CMF's signature publication, Setting Course: A Congressional Management Guide. Every Member of Congress and senior staff is familiar with this unique publication, which provides thoughtful guidance on setting up and running a congressional office. She was the project manager and editor of a similar CMF publication, Keeping It Local: A Guide for Managing District & State Offices. Probably Ms. Folk Cooper's greatest contribution to Congress has been her leadership in the last 10 years of CMF's ``Life in Congress'' project. This initiative, in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management, seeks to identify human resource challenges in Congress and provide recommendations for overcoming them in order to help make Congress a better place for both Members and staffers to work. Especially as the dual stresses of the pandemic and the attacks of January 6th weighed so heavily on the congressional workforce, CMF's
``Life in Congress'' webinars and publications offered valuable guidance to Members and managers.
As a team, Ms. Goldschmidt and Ms. Folk Cooper were also leaders in CMF's ``Gold Mouse Awards'' project, which identifies best practices in congressional websites. The modern congressional website, which focuses on Members' policy positions, voting records, and constituent services, was largely inspired and created by CMF and these two dedicated public servants.
Madam Speaker, we all know that Congress wouldn't function without the invaluable work done every day by the staff who support us. Kathy Goldschmidt and Nicole Folk Cooper have been vital advisors and guides to Members and staff for decades and have worked diligently to enhance the performance of congressional offices and Congress as an institution. It's hard to quantify every contribution or influence they've had on the Congress. But it's easy to conclude that Congress, congressional staff, and democracy are better because of their work. I congratulate them both on these milestones in their long history of public service and I look forward to continuing to work with them and their colleagues at CMF for years to come.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 40
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