S2806 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 14, 2019 Angelique Ramirez, Sabika Sheikh, victimized by violence, by brutality, by ported now that Federal charges have Christopher Stone, Cynthia Tisdale, terrorism, by murder. I believe in the come forward to ensure that this and Kimberly Vaughan. power of prayer, and I will tell you attacker is brought to justice and faces I would like us to pause for a mo- that the community of Santa Fe leaned the full consequences for the horrific ment of silence as we remember these on the power of prayer in the wake of acts of that morning. brave souls. that tragedy. (The remarks of Senator CRUZ per- Their names will live on. Their kill- Now, thoughts and prayers are not taining to the submission of S. 1442 are er’s name will not. His name is never themselves a substitute for action. In printed in today’s RECORD under ‘‘Sub- worth mentioning again. the days and the weeks that followed, I mitted Resolutions.’’) Thirteen others were also brutally met with mothers and fathers and Mr. CRUZ. I yield the floor. wounded, including three substitute teachers and students. I hosted Santa The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- teachers. Flo Rice, one of the sub- Fe students here in the Senate Dining jority leader. Room. We talked with law enforcement stitute teachers at the high school that f day, was shot five times. I have gotten and with first responders. I sat down to know Flo and her husband Scott with the President, and he traveled LEGISLATIVE SESSION well in the weeks and months since the down to meet with the Santa Fe fami- shooting. lies. I participated in a roundtable with MORNING BUSINESS But that day was not merely a day of Governor Abbott, families from Santa great tragedy. It was also a day of in- Fe and other communities victimized Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, credible bravery. Santa Fe police offi- by violence, and officials at the Fed- I ask unanimous consent that the Sen- cers did their duty and swiftly engaged eral, State, and local levels. We dis- ate proceed to legislative session and the shooter. One of those police offi- cussed how we could do a better job of be in a period of morning business, cers, John Barnes, was critically protecting our schools and protecting with Senators permitted to speak wounded in the process. They shot our children. We have lost too many therein for up to 10 minutes each. back, and, ultimately, they took the kids to homicidal action, and it has to The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without coward into custody. stop. objection, it is so ordered. Santa Fe students also proved them- We have to do much more to keep f selves to be heroes. One of them, Riley guns out of the hands of violent crimi- TRIBUTE TO MARILYN SKOGLUND Garcia, made the ultimate sacrifice. He nals and to better treat the mentally held a door shut to give other students ill—all while preserving and protecting Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I time to escape, and he was killed in the our constitutional rights. would like to take a moment to pay process. Other students tended to the There was a universal agreement in tribute to a remarkable and unique wounded and to each other. the wake of Santa Fe that, as a State person, Vermont Supreme Court Jus- In the wake of the shooting, Texans and as a Nation, we had to see justice tice Marilyn Skoglund, who will soon grieved with the families and friends of done and to take every step to try to be retiring after serving 25 years with those we lost. We heard stories of ter- ensure that such an attack never oc- the Vermont judiciary. ror and stories of hope. curs again. Justice Skoglund is what we all want I was at my home in Houston that Soon after, I was gratified to hear to see in a jurist and public servant. morning. Santa Fe High School is that the Department of Education an- She is dedicated, personable, and high- about 45 minutes away from my house. nounced $1 million in Federal funds for ly committed to the rule of law, but When I got the call as to what was hap- the Santa Fe Independent School Dis- her path to the Vermont Supreme trict through Project School Emer- pening, I jumped into a truck and head- Court was anything but typical. As a gency Response to Violence, or Project ed down there. I spent the entire day single mother working hard to get by SERV. It is a crucial first step in Fed- with families who had lost their chil- in the 1970s, law school was not an op- eral funding to help the Santa Fe dren, with first responders, with teach- tion. Instead, she took advantage of school community to recover and pro- ers, with school leaders, with a commu- Vermont’s ‘‘Reading the Law’’ ap- tect all its students, but the story nity that was grieving mightily. But in proach that allowed her to study while doesn’t end there. serving as an apprentice of sorts with Santa Fe, I also saw a boundless spirit In addition to a State prosecution, the Vermont Attorney General’s office. and hope and unity. most of us assumed there would be a After being admitted to the Vermont I remember that afternoon, traveling Federal case against the Santa Fe Bar, she would go on to serve as chief to the hospital and visiting with a shooter, as well, because his massive number of the students who had been assault was on students and teachers in of the civil law and public protection shot and wounded that day. I remem- a public school, and, crucially, because divisions in the AG’s office before ber meeting Clayton, a young man who authorities found explosive devices on being appointed to the bench in 1994 by had been shot just that morning. He the school grounds and off campus, in- then-Governor Howard Dean. She had pins in his arm from being shot cluding pipe bombs and a Molotov would be elevated to the supreme court twice. Clayton described how he cocktail. To any reasonable observer, just 3 years later. At the time, she was jumped over the fence, even after hav- this would open the case to Federal ex- only the second woman to serve on ing been shot, and his friends helped to plosives and terrorism charges. Vermont’s highest court. Today, carry him to safety. This young man All of us were committed to seeing women make up the majority of its five described how he is a bull rider and a the attacker prosecuted to the fullest justices. pole vaulter. I asked him if he is a lefty extent of the law. Early press reports, I have had the pleasure of knowing or righty. He said he is a lefty, and however, indicated that Federal au- Justice Skoglund during her many that was the arm that was wounded. thorities were not going to proceed years of living and working in my But he said with a smile: ‘‘You know, with the Federal case. Those press re- hometown of Montpelier. Her personal now I gotta learn to ride a bull with ports dismayed me—dismayed many— story was so compelling that she was my right arm.’’ That is the toughness in particular because the shooter was my first choice in 2008 to keynote and the spirit of these students and under 18 at the time of the massacre, Vermont’s Women’s Economic Oppor- their entire community. which means it is likely that the max- tunity Conference, an annual event I All across Texas and all across the imum State sentence he would receive have now hosted for 23 years. country, millions of Americans lifted is 40 years, which means that, if only But no tribute to Justice Skoglund those children and lifted those families State charges were brought, the shoot- would be complete if it did not mention up in prayer. You know, it has become er would be potentially eligible for re- her keen sense of humor. Perhaps it is politically fashionable now to deride lease at 57 years old. Releasing this this trait that has so deftly served her thoughts and prayers. To suggest that mass murderer into society would not these many years, for as serious as the thoughts and prayers are not appro- be just, and it would not be right. supreme court must be in delivering priate, I will say this: We should al- Thankfully, Attorney General Barr justice, Marilyn Skoglund has dem- ways lift up in prayer those who are agreed, and it has been publicly re- onstrated time and again the benefit of

VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:15 May 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MY6.035 S14MYPT1 May 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S2807 laughter in our lives. She finds the lent of Ozzie and Harriet.’’ Her father man- ‘‘When I hire [clerks], I explain that I’m time to appreciate what some might aged a steel treatment plant and her mother, hiring my best friend for the next year,’’ only see as mundane; she cherishes her a former hairdresser and math tutor, raised Skoglund said. ‘‘I have to be able to come in friendships, and she mentors those who the future justice and her sister. and vent and bitch and moan and get solace Skoglund spent seven years meandering from them.’’. . . will succeed us. By her own account, her way through Southern Illinois Univer- For the past 35 years, Skoglund has lived she has led a full life. sity—a fine arts major and ‘‘hippie folk sing- in a tall, brown- and green-shingled house I ask unanimous consent that these er’’ who worked, for a time, as a graphic de- perched above the Statehouse on the south- excerpts of the May 1 Seven Days pro- signer for the inventor and futurist ern boundary of Hubbard Park. The place is file of Justice Skoglund be printed in Buckminster Fuller. She finally earned her crammed with books and artwork and fea- the RECORD. diploma after getting married and becoming tures a ‘‘wall of dogs’’ consisting of canine pregnant with her first daughter. paintings she’s collected. ‘‘It’s kind of a There being no objection, the mate- The young family moved to Vermont in rial was ordered to be printed in the magical place for me,’’ she said of her home, 1973 so that Skoglund’s husband could take a where she does much of her off-the bench RECORD, as follows: job teaching painting and printmaking at legal work. ‘‘It’s just a sanctuary.’’ [From Seven Days, May 1, 2019] Goddard College. They rented a small, Skoglund’s two grown daughters, an obste- JUSTICE SERVED: MARILYN SKOGLUND TO uninsulated cottage on a 500-acre dairy farm trician and a neuropsychologist, have long in Plainfield. Skoglund learned to milk RETIRE FROM THE VERMONT SUPREME COURT since moved out. Her current roommates in- cows, taught photography and worked as an (By Paul Heintz) clude a 4-year-old goldendoodle named John- editor at Goddard. The marriage didn’t last, ny and, during Vermont’s four-month legis- On her way out the door of her Montpelier though, and soon she was raising her daugh- lative session, Senate Majority Leader Becca home last Friday, Vermont Supreme Court ter on her own. Balint (D-Windham). ‘‘I always say I have Justice Marilyn Skoglund rolled up her right Skoglund found herself relying upon the the best roommate,’’ Balint said. ‘‘Some- sleeve to show off her latest tattoo. generosity of Walter Smith, the 68-year-old times it’s seven o’clock in the morning and ‘‘I waited until my youngest daughter’s dairy farmer who served as her landlord and we’re both crying because we’re laughing so wedding,’’ the justice said with a sneaky her ‘‘very own personal version of welfare.’’ hard.’’ . . . smile. ‘‘I knew she wouldn’t want me to get He provided firewood when she needed it and Last Friday morning, after showing off her it.’’ let her dip raw milk from the bulk tank. tattoo, Skoglund wrapped an unused dog Written in a simple black cursive on the When she and her daughter were low on food, leash around her waist and commenced her inside of her arm were the words, ‘‘Jag a¨ r they would join Smith for cans of chicken three-block commute down the hill and past ma¨ tt,’’ a Swedish expression often uttered in noodle soup and mayonnaise sandwiches. the Statehouse to the Supreme Court. John- ‘‘He saw me through it,’’ she said. her childhood home at the conclusion of a ny pranced along in front of her, relishing Skoglund’s experience with poverty later family meal. ‘‘I am satisfied,’’ she trans- his freedom. informed her work on the bench and, she lated. ‘‘I am full.’’ Skoglund gushed about her daughters and said, gave her ‘‘a very good understanding of The 72-year-old jurist reflected for a mo- 9-year-old granddaughter, with whom she desperation and frustration and what it ment—perhaps on a life rich in family, had spent the previous weekend. friends, dogs and the law—and declared, ‘‘I causes people to do.’’ ‘‘I think I’m the only ‘‘They’re not thrilled with this tattoo—at am satisfied! I mean, what else can you say? justice that’s ever been poor,’’ she said. least, the younger one isn’t,’’ she conceded. After completing a six-month paralegal I’m very lucky. I am satisfied.’’ ‘‘But that’s the way it goes, ladies. Mom’s class, Skoglund landed a clerkship in the This week, Skoglund plans to inform Gov. gotta do what Mom’s gotta do.’’ Vermont Attorney General’s Office and Phil Scott that, after 22 years on the state’s Skoglund entered the court through a side began reading for the law—an alternative highest court, she intends to resign effective door and showed off one of her most concrete route to the bar that enables aspiring attor- September 1. contributions to the institution: an art gal- neys to bypass law school through inde- Skoglund’s retirement brings to a close lery in the lobby of the building that she’s pendent study. It was a solitary, self-moti- one of the most remarkable and least likely curated for the past 20 years. vated education, but I am disciplined,’’ she careers in the Vermont judiciary—that of a ‘‘When I first got here, it was the hall of wrote in a recent essay about her unconven- struggling single mother who passed the bar dead justices,’’ she said, referring to the oil tional path. ‘‘In the central office of the at- without a day of law school and worked her paintings of her predecessors, now relegated torney general, I was the only student with way up to become the second female justice to the stairways and upper floors. In their about 50 ‘teachers.’ ’’ in state history. place was a series of mixed-media pieces by Skoglund spent four years clerking for Now, the famously irreverent attorney is the artist Janet Van Fleet consisting of red Louis Peck, then the chief assistant attor- looking for a new challenge, be it the begin- buttons and plastic animals. Johnny led ney general and later a Supreme Court jus- ning Spanish class she plans to take this fall Skoglund up to her third-floor office, which tice. She would run lines for Peck, an ama- or the online bartender course she’s long features a smiling boar’s head mounted to a teur actor, and he would school her in the contemplated. ‘‘I just need to take a chance wall. ‘‘Behind you is Emmet, my amanu- law. Skoglund credits him with informing and see what else I can do before I drop ensis,’’ she said, gesturing at the hairy crea- her ‘‘legally conservative’’ approach. ‘‘I dead,’’ she said, letting loose her trademark ture. ‘‘A lot of those wild boar things look don’t take liberties with the language, and I cackle. scary and vicious. He’s just sweet.’’ don’t read myself into it,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s not Skoglund’s sense of humor has long served Skoglund took a seat behind her cluttered about you, Marilyn.’’ as the ‘‘collegiality glue’’ on the court of Skoglund spent 17 years in the Attorney desk and said, with a resigned tone of voice, five, according to retired justice John General’s Office, eventually serving as chief ‘‘I’ve been here for 22 years. It’s time to go.’’ Dooley. In her decades on the bench, she has Asked how she hoped people would remem- of its civil law division and then its public made it her mission to draw colleagues and ber her, Skoglund answered without hesi- protection division. She was appointed to the staff members out of their casework and into tation. ‘‘I worked hard,’’ she said. ‘‘I took Superior Court in 1994 and to the Supreme the world—through court poetry slams, end- my position very seriously. I never cut cor- Court in 1997. of-term parties and art openings at the Su- ‘‘It’s like candy,’’ Skoglund said of her cur- ners. I understood the responsibility. That’s preme Court gallery she founded and over- rent gig. ‘‘I have never been bored.’’ what I hope.’’ sees. The pace of the job wouldn’t allow it. The f ‘‘I would describe her as a unifier,’’ said supremes hear an average of 120 full cases a Victoria Westgate, a Burlington attorney year, plus many more appeals on the so- TRIBUTE TO E. THOMAS SULLIVAN who clerked with her from 2013 to 2014. The called ‘‘rocket docket.’’ They’re also con- Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, justice has also served as a role model to a sumed by the myriad unseen administrative today, I am honored to recognize the generation of young women in the law, duties of the judicial branch, such as president of the University of Vermont, Westgate said. divvying up its ‘‘shoestring’’ budget and UVM, Thomas Sullivan, who is step- Though Skoglund may be best known for managing the lower courts. her larger-than-life personality, colleagues ‘‘This all takes hours when all I want to be ping down this June after 7 years as a describe her as a deeply serious jurist with doing is reading cases,’’ Skoglund said. . . . remarkable leader for the university. an unmatched work ethic. According to Skoglund, her acid prose oc- Tom’s tenure as the 26th president of ‘‘Of all the justices I’ve worked with, I casionally gives her law clerks ‘‘panic at- the University of Vermont came during think she probably put . . . more effort into tacks.’’ But members of her tight fraternity a tumultuous time in higher education. preparing and understanding a case than of former clerks praise her ‘‘dedication to Despite demographic declines and re- any,’’ said Dooley, who served alongside raising a new generation’’ of lawyers, as duced public investments in higher Skoglund for two of his three decades on the Todd Daloz put it. court . . . ‘‘She has a real energy and a real humor education, Tom made quality, afford- Born in Chicago and raised in St. Louis, and a real joy of life,’’ said Daloz, who able education and investment in Skoglund had what she describes as an ‘‘idyl- clerked for Skoglund from 2009 to 2011 and scholarship his top priorities. lic childhood,’’ replete with a picket fence now serves as associate general counsel for Tom expanded UVM’s course offer- and parents who were ‘‘the Swedish equiva- the Vermont State Colleges System. ings, oversaw 20 building projects, and

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