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Congressional Daily Record
This section is a tribute, commemoration, or district-facing statement. It mentions members such as Maxine Dexter. Extensions of Remarks are statements submitted for the official record, even if they were not spoken live on the floor.
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July 23, 2026
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Extensions of Remarks
Material lawmakers submit for the official record even when it was not spoken live on the floor.
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Download official Extensions PDFReturn to issue contextHON. MAXINE DEXTER
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Ms. DEXTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate Kathie Eastman Tell, who is retiring after a cumulative twenty years of service in the United States House of Representatives.
Congressional District to the rugged coast of Oregon's 4th Congressional District, to the vibrant urban core of Portland in Oregon's 3rd Congressional District.
every role of a House office operation, in both the D.C. and district offices. The handful of positions she never occupied were by her choice—much to the quiet dismay of offices that would have trusted her with all of them.
Neil Abercrombie. She then joined Representative Peter DeFazio in 1998 as a Senior Legislative Assistant, where she was especially active on issues related to transportation and infrastructure investments—a dedication that carried her onward as DeFazio's Legislative Director, and later his District Director. That same commitment to keeping our communities moving continued in Representative Earl Blumenauer's office, where she served as Press Secretary until 2006. Kathie then prioritized raising her two young children, McKenzie and Ben, in Portland, Oregon, with her spouse Jason Tell. Never far from the Oregon delegation and public policy, she took on part-time roles and projects during this time. She returned to Blumenauer's office in 2019, as a favorite Caseworker among constituents and prized Scheduler to the Member. Oregon was lucky to have DeFazio and Blumenauer invested in transportation and infrastructure. They were luckier to have Kathie embrace this legislative portfolio. Most recently, in the office of Representative Maxine Dexter, Kathie efficiently helped build a brand- new district office from the ground up as the Operations Director.
enough can be said about her infectious sense of humor. One colleague recounted that while he learned many things from Kathie, most of them should not go in the Congressional Record.
people of Hawaii and Oregon, it is fitting Kathie will retire to Southwest Washington, claiming her final Pacific Rim state, in a life spent leaving every person and place she touched wiser, with a bit more grit, and better than she found them.