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• Mr. McCURDY. Mr. Speaker, the Intelligence Committee recently lost the services of one of the most effective members of its staff when Larry Prior resigned to accept a position in private industry. Larry made many contributions to the work of the committee and he will be sorely missed.

• Larry joined the committee's staff after a distinguished 11 year career as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. His military service gave him extensive experience in a variety of activities related to intelligence, and the committee benefited enormously from the experience.

• On the committee staff Larry served as the program and budget analyst responsible for the general defense intelligence program and a collection of defense programs know as tactical intelligence and related activities. During his tenure, these programs had to respond to rapidly changing events including the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the implosion of the Soviet Union. Larry was able to fashion budgetary and programmatic recommendations which enabled the committee to take a leadership role in urging the termination of activities made irrelevant by global change, and increased investment in areas where deficiencies were evidence as a result of the war against Iraq. Larry's knowledge, and his well-deserved reputation for thoroughness, gave the committee great confidence in his recommendations on all issues for which he was responsible.

• Larry's departure was viewed with both pride and regret by the committee. The opportunity for career and personal advancement which he accepted reflected, at least in part, a judgment by others on the quality of his work at the committee. While we shared that judgment we knew that as its consequence, Larry's considerable talents and uncommon commitment would no longer be at our disposal. As I am sure his new employer has already realized, the committee's loss with Larry's departure was truly private industry's gain.

• Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Intelligence Committee, I want to extend best wishes for continued success and happiness to Larry, his wife, Mary Kay, and his daughters Megan and Emily.

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