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May 20, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextshe is an Oklahoma institution. Her name is Ramona Taylor. She was born in Oklahoma City, but if you ask her, she is going to claim Burns Flat, OK. You have got to be from Oklahoma to know where Burns Flat is—or use Google Maps. But Burns Flat is a small town in Western Oklahoma. She brought those small-town, Western Oklahoma values to our team as well.
She has served the Nation for 41 years—41 years of Federal service. And, unfortunately, she is retiring, and my State has no idea what is about to happen in the loss of Mona Taylor.
State University—which is now called the University of Central Oklahoma—got a bachelor's degree in business administration and then began her Federal career serving with Congressman Mickey Edwards.
Now, this will tell you how long ago that was. At the time, Mickey Edwards was the only Republican Member of Congress from Oklahoma. We had one, and it was Mickey. She served with Mickey Edwards there.
who has been a terrific leader. They have now been married for 34 years.
will never know, but just the story of her life is also significant as well: Being the girl from Burns Flat and then finding ways to be able to serve that the country will never forget.
career in air traffic control, moving up to Washington, DC. They just had their first son Clay in 1994, and they moved up to DC to have this job up here to be able to work alongside Andy.
bombing happened in Oklahoma City. It was a painful day for the entire country, but especially for those of us from Oklahoma. But she realized that day that if she had not been with her husband here in Washington, DC, that their young son Clay would have actually been in the Murrah Building bombing in that daycare that day. It never leaves you.
work to be able to walk alongside families during that time period because, as you can imagine, there was a lot to do.
was serving alongside him in his office here. She returned to work with a guy named J.C. Watts and to be able to serve with J.C. Watts and then with the person after him, Tom Cole. Along the way, her second son Sam was born in 1996, and they continued to be able to build their family.
Mona really sunk into what some people call constituent services. She just calls it ministry to people. She wants to help in every way she possibly can. Mona was the one—when people want to call and to be able to yell on the phone, and they are just angry at whatever is going on in government, Mona was always the calming voice to be able to listen. In fact, our team calls it “getting Monaed” because this angry person would rage, and she would listen and listen and calm them and calm them, would take notes. And I will tell you, if she couldn't calm them down and they just wanted to be able to continue to scream and cuss at her endlessly, she would just say, “God loves you. Thank you. Goodbye” and just hang up because she wants to be able to help people just to be able to see that things can get better. And she has helped make it that way over and over again.
She had a short stint working with the FAA. In her leadership role at the FAA is when I was actually elected into the House of Representatives. I will never forget how I met her. I knew her husband Andy before I knew Mona. We were planning to go on a mission trip together, and I had to sit down with Andy and say: Hey, I can't go on this mission trip. You don't know it; I have not announced it yet, but I am going to be running for Congress, and so I am not going to be able to leave with you and go on this mission trip because that is going to be a distraction to what is going on.
I remember him saying to me: Do you know who my wife is?
I said: No.
He said: My wife is Mona Taylor.
I remember distinctly saying to him: The Mona Taylor is your wife?
I said: I would love to be able to pick her brain.
behind the scenes about how Federal offices work from working with so many different Federal offices and actually finding ways to not just do the job but to actually serve people in that role, to set an atmosphere on this.
that Mona agreed to leave FAA, come back into congressional service, and to be able to serve as my district director. Then, when I was elected into the Senate, she then took the role as the State director for me. I will never regret that.
She has an absolute heart of gold and loves people. She has often said that she wants our office to be known for our casework, how we take care of people, and it is. Mona has also mentored countless staff from all over the Federal delegation in our State. Literally, there is no caseworker in any of the seven Federal offices in our State that Mona has not impacted in some way.
shooting happened in 1986. She was the one working with all of those families and trying to be able to help them through years ago. She was the one doing a lot of the casework, as I mentioned before, in 1995, with all the victims and families around the Murrah Building bombing. She was the one that was actually taking care of a lot of these issues and coordinating the work behind the scenes to make sure we helped each person.
for the task and what she is going to do that day. We have never forgotten the day that Mona, on the way in to work, saw two French bulldogs just on the side of the road and determined those French bulldogs were probably somebody's. So she just picked them up, put them in her car, and then started working to try to figure out—because they had to be a constituent—try to figure out how to be able to take care of a constituent that lost two French bulldogs. You know what. She figured it out and got the dogs back to them. So apparently Mona not only loves people, but she loves dogs as well because she knows they are attached to people.
ever tell
staff members would say to her, “I really like that jacket that you are wearing,” she would just take it off and give it to them. If she brought something for lunch one day and they would say, “That smells delicious,” well, guess what, she would actually bring it to them the next day to be able to make sure they had it because Mona's mission was always to take care of people. It has always been that way.
be for our State because the person in the middle of our Federal delegation has had that heart for four decades and has impacted the way we take care of people.
I don't fault Mona for retiring. Her best job is her job of being “Momo” to her granddaughter Georgia Marie. She is the biggest cheerleader for her two boys, and she loves taking care of Andy. She dedicated early on, according to their agreement, that their house will never ever, ever run out of ketchup—ever—because Andy loves ketchup. And she, early on in their marriage, said: Our house will never ever run out of ketchup.
Mona is also the person that keeps the “mom” drawer in her desk. She is the one in our office—if you need a bandaid or if you need something else, Mona has got it. And she is going to take care of everybody else.
go through and see the cases and the things—and the people—that she has done, but, really, her heart for service will be the legacy for Mona Taylor.
didn't want to miss a moment for us to remember that our policy issues are all connected to people. Mona never forgot that—ever—and I have been honored to be able to serve with her this decade and a half. I am grateful for the gift of her time to our State and her mentorship to so many different staff across our State.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this has nothing to do with why I am speaking, but I was sitting there thinking, listening to Senator Lankford talk about Miss Mona.
Miss Mona, we are going to miss you.
God had given me a voice like Senator Lankford's. You know, he gave me a voice that scares small children and sets off car alarms. I would love to have a voice like Senator Lankford's. I would also like to have his big brain too.
That was really nice of you, James.
And thank you, Mona, for your service.