[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 166 (Friday, December 21, 2012)] [Senate] [Pages S8359-S8360] TRIBUTE TO KATHLEEN TURNER Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, this month marks the retirement of Ms. Kathleen Turner after nearly 32 years in government service, specifically working in various capacities in the intelligence community. I commend her for her service to the Nation and wish her the very best in her retirement. Ms. Turner has had a varied and distinguished career, having worked in different positions and capacities within the intelligence community. For most of that time, Kathleen worked where efforts and successes are not always rewarded publicly. I am glad we can do so here today. I have known Kathleen mostly in her capacity as the director of the Office of Legislative Affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a position she assumed in the summer of 2006. For the last 6 years, Ms. Turner has had the sometimes unenviable job of representing the intelligence community on Capitol Hill and representing Capitol Hill to the intelligence community. Ms. Turner is the daughter of Robert and Beverly Turner, a television repair shop owner and homemaker respectively, and was born and raised in the small suburban town of Pacific Palisades, in my State of California. Kathleen is the fifth of seven children and she went to UCLA and majored in political science and then came to the East Coast. I am willing to forgive her for this lapse in judgment. Kathleen received a master's degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. When she completed her master's, she went right into the Defense Intelligence Agency. Ms. Turner started her professional career with DIA as an analyst of Soviet strategic forces. She served as the Intelligence Liaison Officer to the Strategic Defense Initiative Office, and later served as the Senior Analyst for [[Page S8360]] Russia and Eurasia, managing all military intelligence analysis on these regions. During the 1990s, Ms. Turner progressively served as DIA's Director of Human Resources, the Director of Administration, and the manager of the DIA and General Defense Intelligence Program and budget office. Starting in 2002, Ms. Turner served as DIA's Director of Congressional and Public Affairs. In short, in her 24 years at DIA, Kathleen did and saw every aspect of intelligence work in one of the few intelligence agencies to perform every kind of intelligence operation. That, combined with her outgoing personality and ability to juggle many tasks at once, made her a natural choice to join the Legislative Affairs Office for the first Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, in October 2005 as that office was standing up. She quickly became the DNI's Director of Legislative Affairs in July 2006. As Director, she was responsible for the Office of the DNI's interactions with the Congress, and informing the Office of the DNI seniors of Congressional interests and perspectives on intelligence matters. In addition, Ms. Turner provided policy guidance to all 16 intelligence community legislative affairs offices. I got to know Kathleen in the job when I became chairman of the Intelligence Committee in January 2009, through numerous meetings with DNI Dennis Blair and then DNI Jim Clapper. She always had suggestions for ways to work through problems, and could translate issues and perspectives between intelligence-speak and congressional-speak. Kathleen could also work a room--she knew every Member on the committee and all of our staff, and knew what questions needed answers or what policies were being proposed. I must say, it is a good thing for Kathleen that she has retired from legislative affairs, as the delay in reauthorizing FISA legislation now, only 10 days from its expiration at the end of the year, would have been keeping her up around the clock and adding one more time when Congress' special way of doing things caused stress and aggravation to all involved. On a more personal note, Kathleen's most direct contribution to me was her idea, which she then brought to fruition, to bring together a group of senior women in the intelligence community and me for a dinner on November 7, 2011 at the Hay Adams Hotel. It was a hit. Since then, the group has gotten together three more times, twice at my house and once more at a restaurant, and we have really gotten to know each other and build a relationship beyond our meetings across the meeting or witness table. Throughout her career and travels around the world, I know Kathleen has had the loving support of her husband, Bob Sparks, who is the son of a naval officer. Bob was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and then at the University of Virginia for law school. He currently practices law in Northern Virginia. With her retirement, Kathleen and Bob look forward to spending more time together and on the water. I am pleased to be able to thank Kathleen Turner for her service and wish her all the very best in all her future endeavors. ____________________