Mr. President:
Today I would like to continue a tradition that our former colleague, Ted Kauffman of Delaware, began in 2009 during the 111th Congress.
Senator Kauffman would appear here on the Senate floor on a regular basis to highlight the great work performed every day by members of our federal workforce.
It is a tradition I proudly carried through the last Congress, and one that I will carry forward into the current session.
And the two great federal employees I wish to celebrate today – both Virginians, I might add -- also serve as excellent role models. They represent the thousands of professionals who work quietly every day across our intelligence community to keep our nation safe.
Very often, these professionals work in anonymity, and many risk their lives in trouble spots far away from the limelight. And this is as it should be.
Mr. President, for their service - for the late nights and early mornings away from their families - for the risks they take and the sacrifice they make every day - and because they do not hear this nearly enough – allow me to say, “Thank you.”
Today, I would like to briefly tell the remarkable stories of two extraordinary women who built their careers at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Jeanne Vertefeuille passed away on December 29th at the age of 80, after a brief illness.
In announcing her death to the CIA family, Acting Director Michael Morell appropriately described Ms. Vertefeuille as “an icon” within the agency.
If her story were not true, it would read like something from a spy novel.
Jeanne joined the CIA when she graduated from college in 1954. At a time when America’s intelligence community could best be described as a “boys club,” she was hired at CIA as a GS-4 typist.
But over a career that stretched nearly a half-century, Jeanne Vertefeuille blazed a trail for women in the national clandestine service.
She methodically worked her way up to leadership positions. There were overseas postings in Ethiopia, Finland and The Hague. She became an expert in Soviet intelligence and spycraft, and she retired as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service in 1992.
But even after her retirement, she continued her work for the Agency as a contractor, making still more valuable contributions and working without a day’s break in service until she became ill last summer.
As her obituary reads, “She remained a quiet agency soldier… purposefully nondescript and selflessly dedicated.
“She lived alone and walked to work.
“But if she was a gray figure at the agency, Ms. Vertefeuille was also a tenacious and effective one, and in October 1986 was asked to lead a task force to investigate the disappearance of Russians whom the CIA had hired to spy against their own country.”
Together with her colleagues at the CIA, she invested years in the methodical and painstaking hunt for a mole.
And it was through her efforts, and the good work of many others, that we ultimately unmasked the notorious traitor Aldrich Ames in 1994.
Aldrich Ames turned out to be one of the most dangerous traitors in the history of our nation.
Thanks in large measure to Ms. Vertefeuille’s efforts, he was convicted of espionage and he is now serving a life prison term without parole.
But Jeanne Vertefeuille’s story does not end here.
The Washington Post recently described how one of her colleagues, Sandy Grimes, another Virginian who worked with her on the Ames task force, stepped-up over the past year to care for Jeanne as she was battling cancer.
Sandy Grimes, a career CIA employee whose parents worked on the Manhattan Project, ultimately served as Jeanne’s primary caregiver.
She sat with her each day during the final three months of her remarkable life.
She monitored Jeanne’s care, and tried to make sure she remained comfortable. She often brought personal messages of support and appreciation from their former CIA colleagues.
‘I felt an obligation to be there with her,’ Grimes said. ‘I can’t imagine not doing it. I was the one Jeanne would accept. I owed it to her as a friend.’”
Now, by all accounts, Jeanne Vertefeuille was an intensely private woman, and she doubtless would recoil at the attention she is now receiving.
But one cannot help but be inspired by this true-life story of service – and patriotism -- and friendship -- demonstrated by these two great federal employees, Sandy Grimes and the late Jeanne Vertefeuille.
Their service reflects well on the work of thousands of other intelligence professionals whose names can never be revealed. Both of them deserve our recognition and thanks.
Mr. President, during the last Congress, I joined 14 Senators in a Joint Resolution to mark U.S. Intelligence Professionals Day.
This was an effort to bring respectful attention to these quiet professionals who keep our nation safe every day, without any thought of recognition.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to reintroduce this resolution here in the new Congress.
And, Mr. President, I would like to conclude my remarks today by once again expressing my deep respect and sincere appreciation for the service of Sandy Grimes and the late Jeanne Vertefeuille.
Each of these women has earned the thanks of a grateful nation.
Thank you, and I yield the floor.
