to honor my longest serving staff member, my chief of staff, campaign manager, and close friend kyle ruckard who is departing the senate this week to start an exciting new career. kyle was one of my very first hires when i was first elected to the u.s. house of representatives in 1999. mr. vitter: he started as my legislative director in the house under the really wonderful tutelage of my first chief of staff marcy greceler. we're both indebted to marty who is deceased for getting us started on a wonderful foot in congress. then kyle became my chief of staff upon marty's retirement in 2002. and i guess i would sum up the bottom line in a very simple and important way. there's not been one moment during these 17 years when i've regretted placing my complete trust in kyle to lead our office and serve the people of louisiana, not one. from day one kyle set the office standard of serve to constituents and set it as a top priority. he establishes -- he established offices throughout the state and one of his most memorable decisions instituted a mobile office on wheels so that we could reach out t