July 30, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S5655 

Bunch was a member of the Kentucky 

National Guard for 23 years, where he 

notably led the Mountain Warriors in 

Iraq as a first sergeant. 

Although he valiantly represented 

his Nation and State abroad, Representative Bunch also did much of his 

work from within the community. He 

was a math and science teacher at 

Whitley County High School for 17 

years, and in 2010, with the support of 

the citizens of the 82nd District, was 

elected State Representative. However, 

after an injury in 2011, Bunch resigned 

from his post to receive medical treatment. His wife Regina ran for the position and succeeded her husband as the 

82nd District’s representative. 

The loss of Representative Bunch to 

the members of the Whitley County 

community is immeasurable, and 

Dewayne’s death has saddened Kentuckians across the State. Members of 

the State House Republican Caucus 

said he was committed to serving the 

public and ran for elected office in 

order to more fully serve the people of 

the Corbin community. The Governor 

of the State of Kentucky, Steve 

Beshear, acknowledged the loss of Representative Bunch by ordering flags 

lowered to half-staff. 

Hundreds of people came to pay their 

respects at Representative Bunch’s funeral on July 15, held at Highland Park 

Cemetery in Williamsburg. Military 

graveside honors were conducted by 

the Kentucky National Guard. At the 

funeral, Representative Bunch was 

posthumously awarded the Kentucky 

Distinguished Service Medal to commemorate his work on behalf of his 

community and the State of Kentucky. 

I am privileged today to recognize Representative Bunch and his legacy of 

service to the Commonwealth. 

Madam President, at this time I ask 

my colleagues in the U.S. Senate to 

join me in honoring the life of Representative Dewayne Bunch of Corbin, 

KY. The Croley Funeral Home has published an obituary that highlighted his 

achievements and pays tribute to those 

Representative Bunch leaves behind. I 

ask unanimous consent that said article be printed in the RECORD. 

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the 

RECORD, as follows: 

[From the Croley Funeral Home, July 12, 

2012] 

DEWAYNE EVERETT BUNCH

Dewayne Everett Bunch of Old Corbin 

Pike, Williamsburg, Kentucky, departed this 

life on Wednesday, July 11, 2012, at the Oak 

Tree Hospital in Corbin, Kentucky. He was 50 

years, 4 months, and 20 days of age. He was 

born on February 22, 1962, in Whitley County, 

Kentucky, to Charles Everett Bunch and the 

late Gloria Eunice (Rains) Bunch. He was a 

member of Highland Park Baptist Church. 

Dewayne was a veteran of the United States 

Army and retired from the Kentucky National Guard after 24 years of service. He was 

a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (82nd District) and a schoolteacher at the Whitley County Schools for 

over 17 years. 

He is survived by wife Regina Petrey 

Bunch of Williamsburg, Kentucky; three 

daughters, Stephanie Fox (Brad) of Lexington, Kentucky, Kristen Bowlin (Tommy), 

and Brittany Morgan (Jeremiah) all of Williamsburg, Kentucky; two grandchildren, 

Miah Morgan and Thomas Blake Bowlin; his 

father, Charles Everett Bunch of Williamsburg, Kentucky; a sister, Shanda Weddle 

(Bruce) of Williamsburg, Kentucky; brothers, 

Tim Bunch (Lisa) and Jim Bunch, all of Williamsburg, Kentucky; his father and motherin-law, Herbert and Teresa Petrey of Williamsburg, Kentucky; several nieces and 

nephews; and a host of other relatives and 

friends to mourn his passing. 

Visitation will be from 12:00 noon until the 

funeral hour on Sunday, July 15, 2012, at 

Croley Funeral Home. 

The Funeral Service will be at 4:00 P.M. 

Sunday, July 15, 2012, at the Croley Funeral 

Home Chapel with Rev. Doyle Lester and 

Rev. Gerald Mullins officiating. A Masonic 

Service will be conducted at 4:00 P.M. by the 

Williamsburg Masonic Lodge #490 F&AM. He 

will be laid to rest in the Croley Addition of 

Highland Park Cemetery in Williamsburg. 

Military Graveside Honors will be conducted 

by the Kentucky National Guard. Dan 

Ballou, Gary Taylor, Terry Huddleston, Bear 

Lancaster, J.R. Peace, James York, Danny 

Ford, Bobby Freeman, Tom Cline, and Alex 

Patrick will serve as pallbearers. Honorary 

Pallbearers will be the Citizens of the 82nd 

District. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made 

to the Dewayne Bunch Scholarship Fund at 

Forcht Bank of Williamsburg and Corbin. 

f 

RECENT EVENTS IN EL SALVADOR 

Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I 

want to speak very briefly about recent 

events in El Salvador which is in the 

midst of a constitutional and political 

crisis involving the composition and 

power of the Supreme Court. 

Essentially what happened is that in 

June the Supreme Court ruled that the 

National Assembly had abused its 

power by naming justices to the court 

on two separate occasions, and ordered 

a new judicial selection process with 

which the National Assembly then refused to comply. A majority of the deputies took the extraordinary step of appealing the Supreme Court’s decision 

to the Central American Court of Justice, and a final ruling is expected in a 

matter of days. 

Last week, Congressman JIM MCGOVERN, who is probably more knowledgeable about El Salvador than anyone 

else in Congress, and I commented on 

the situation. We said: 

We are encouraged by the commitment by 

President Funes and representatives of El 

Salvador’s political parties to resolve this 

crisis expeditiously. We agree with the Department of State that this is a matter to be 

resolved by Salvadorans through dialogue, 

and we reaffirm our support for U.S. assistance for El Salvador which addresses a range 

of mutual interests, from improving law enforcement to combating poverty. 

Over the past 30 years, El Salvador has 

faced many challenges, from civil war, to 

corruption, to cyclones. This constitutional 

political crisis is the latest test of whether 

the country’s governmental institutions can 

emerge stronger, the rule of law strengthened, and its people more united. 

Since then, there has been further 

progress towards a resolution of this 

crisis. As a former prosecutor, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and 

Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations that funds international aid programs, I can think of few things as important to any society as an independent judiciary. Like free and fair 

elections, it is a cornerstone of democratic government. Sometimes I agree 

with the decisions of our Supreme 

Court and sometimes I disagree. But 

we comply with its decisions because 

we know the alternative is chaos and 

the erosion of the checks and balances 

that protect our 226 year old democracy. 

I suspect the people of El Salvador 

feel similarly, and I am hopeful that 

however their representatives resolve 

this matter the independence of the 

Salvadoran judiciary will be preserved 

and strengthened. 

f 

LIFTING OF OBJECTION 

Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, 

on June 27, I provided notice of my intent to object to proceeding to the 

nominations of Mark J. Mazur, to be 

an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Matthew S. Rutherford, to be 

an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. My support for the final confirmation of these nominees depended on receiving information from both the 

Treasury Department and the Internal 

Revenue Service regarding their implementation of the tax whistleblower 

program. Since I have received the responses, I no longer object to proceeding to these nominations. 

The IRS is making progress in paying 

whistleblower awards under the old 

statute over 90 awards paid from October 1, 2011, until now. However, I want 

to make clear that the responses do 

not alleviate my concerns about these 

agencies’ implementation of changes to 

the tax whistleblower statute I authored almost 6 years ago. Regulations 

to implement the new reward program 

have yet to be issued and only a handful of awards are expected to be paid 

out before the end of this year. 

I began asking questions about the 

program’s implementation in 2010. I 

wrote again in 2011 and then again on 

April 30 of this year. Unfortunately, I 

did not get complete answers until I 

objected to proceeding to the nominations of Mr. Mazur and Mr. Rutherford. 

If I hadn’t objected to proceeding to 

these nominations, Congress would not 

have received the most recent annual 

report on the whistleblower program 

that is mandated by law. It was provided to Congress on June 13, 2012, for 

the fiscal year ended September 30, 

2011. That is almost 9 months from the 

end of the year for which it contains 

data. 

If I hadn’t objected to proceeding to 

these nominations, the IRS likely 

would not have acknowledged that 

there is, in fact, a problem with timely 

processing whistleblower claims. IRS 

Deputy Commissioner Miller’s June 20, 

2012, directive to IRS executives and 


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S5656 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 30, 2012 

senior managers is a good first step toward correcting this problem. 

However, more needs to be done. IRS 

still has not committed to prioritizing 

claims raised by whistleblowers. In addition, the important protections afforded to taxpayers, including the right 

to appeal IRS decisions, delay IRS 

from actually collecting the taxes for 

years and, as the law is currently written, the taxes must be collected first 

before a whistleblower can be paid any 

money. 

From my long history of oversight of 

the IRS, I know that it is essential 

that taxpayers be protected from sometimes overeager IRS employees. Yet 

there must be a way to ensure that the 

process and procedures that exist to 

protect taxpayers don’t deter whistleblowers from coming forward. The 

Treasury Department and the IRS have 

agreed to participate in a roundtable 

discussion that I hope will help identify solutions. 

It is unfortunate that objecting to 

these nominees, both of whom were approved by the Finance Committee by 

unanimous, bipartisan votes, was the 

only way I could get information about 

the whistleblower program. At least 

there is now more information than 

ever before about the IRS whistleblower program. 

f 

BULGARIA TERRORIST ATTACKS 

Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I 

rise to express my outrage at the recent attack on a tour bus in Burgas, 

Bulgaria, that killed five Israeli citizens and the Bulgarian driver and injured scores of passengers. This heinous act was obviously the handiwork 

of terrorists who prey on innocent civilians in order to shock and horrify 

the world and try to rally some to a 

twisted, violent ideology. The terrorists must be stopped. 

I am equally outraged by the fact 

that the Burgas attack appears to be 

the latest in a series of attacks on 

Israeli citizens. There have been several since the beginning of this year 

alone, two aimed at Israeli diplomats 

in India and Georgia in February, as 

well as a foiled plot against tourists in 

Cyprus the week before the tragedy in 

Burgas. The attacks targeting Israeli 

Embassy personnel in India and Georgia fell on the 18th anniversary of a 

suicide bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires which 

killed 85 people. Argentine authorities 

blamed that attack on Hezbollah 

operatives. 

All of these attacks have the hallmarks of Iranian involvement or plots 

by their surrogates. The day after the 

attacks in India and Georgia, Iranian 

nationals involved in a bomb-making 

plot in Thailand were arrested after 

they accidentally detonated their 

homemade explosives, severely injuring one of the perpetrators. Thai officials reported that the improvised explosives found in Bangkok were the 

same as those used in India and Georgia. 

I understand that the investigation 

of the Burgas attack is ongoing and the 

United States and other countries are 

working closely with Bulgarian officials. White House counterterrorism 

chief John Brenan has visited Bulgaria, 

and, while he did not implicate Iran or 

Hezbollah in public statements he 

made while there, he pointed out that 

both Tehran and its Lebanese surrogate have been implicated in attacks 

on civilians in the past. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu has stated that Israel has 

‘‘fully substantiated intelligence’’ that 

the Burgas attack was carried out by 

Hezbollah. I have not seen that information, but I think that based solely 

on press reports of results thus far in 

the investigations of these attacks, one 

can reasonably conclude that Iran and 

Hezbollah have been involved—further 

evidence of Iran’s longstanding use of 

political violence and sponsorship of 

terrorism to achieve its goals. 

According to a recent edition of the 

Jewish Press, the Director of Israel’s 

Mossad and the Chief of its Shin Bet 

have said that Iran and Hezbollah have 

tried to commit terrorist attacks 

against Israeli diplomats, businessmen 

and tourists in over 20 countries during 

the past 2 years. 

We must stand with the people and 

the Government of Israel. We must 

lead the international community in 

redoubling efforts to assist Israel, and 

all countries on whose soil these heinous acts are committed, in tracking 

down the terrorists and bringing them 

to justice and continue to work to prevent such attacks in the future. 

I am confident that my colleagues on 

both sides of the aisle support our government’s work with Israel and the 

international community to counter 

Iran’s insidious network of terror. 

f 

REMEMBERING NEIL MCMURRY 

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, 

Wyoming has experienced an incredible 

loss. I rise today to remember one of 

Wyoming’s most beloved citizens, Neil 

McMurry. On Thursday, July 19, 2012, 

Neil passed away at the age of 88. During his remarkable life, Neil made a 

profound and lasting contribution to 

the Casper community and the great 

State of Wyoming. 

Neil was a successful entrepreneur, a 

committed citizen, and a good friend. 

Throughout his life, Neil always demonstrated an enduring commitment to 

his family, Wyoming, and our Nation. 

He loved his family. He loved his home 

State of Wyoming. He loved his country. 

Ann Chambers Noble, a Wyoming author, recently wrote Neil’s biography, 

‘‘Hurry McMurry: W.N. ‘Neil’ 

McMurry, Wyoming Entrepreneur.’’ 

The title appropriately describes this 

extraordinary man. He grew up during 

the Great Depression, and saw firsthand the impact it had on his community. In 1941, Neil joined the U.S. Army 

Air Corps. He flew over 29 missions in 

Europe as a turret gunner on a B–17 

aircraft during World War II. 

Following his brave service to our 

Nation, Neil returned to Wyoming to 

raise a family and start a very successful business career. Neil was a man 

with determination, integrity, and a 

strong work ethic. He recognized the 

vast opportunities and great potential 

Wyoming has to offer. In 1949, he saw 

opportunity in constructing roads and 

highways across Wyoming. Along with 

his business partner, Vern Rissler, the 

Rissler-McMurry Company became one 

of the largest highway construction 

companies in Wyoming. The company 

built much of Wyoming’s transportation routes. 

While many people would have retired after running a successful contracting firm for over three decades, 

Neil was on the lookout for new opportunities. Neil and his business partners, John Martin and Mick McMurry, 

had a hunch that significant natural 

gas was in the Jonah Field in southwest Wyoming. In 1991, the McMurry 

Oil Company purchased wells and mineral leases in the Jonah area. His vision and willingness to take a risk 

turned into a natural gas play of historic proportions. 

Neil McMurry will be remembered for 

his successful business endeavors that 

created thousands of jobs for the people 

in Wyoming. His efforts and entrepreneurial spirit significantly impacted 

Wyoming’s economy. 

While his business abilities will continue to be admired, it will be his selfless devotion to others and his willingness to give back to his community 

that will forever keep his memory in 

the hearts of the people of Wyoming. 

His charitable donations made a difference in the lives of people in his 

community. 

Even though he lived a long life, Neil 

left us too soon. His remarkable contributions to the youth of Wyoming 

will be honored on August 7 by the 

Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming. While this would have been just 

one of many honors, it was very special 

to Neil. Through the generosity of the 

McMurry Foundation, Neil and his 

family have given unprecedented levels 

of support to Wyoming organizations 

particularly organizations supporting 

our youth. 

My wife Bobbi and I will truly miss 

him. We are blessed that Neil was our 

friend and grateful for the moments we 

spent together. During this time of 

such great loss, we find solace in knowing that the legacy of Neil McMurry 

will live on. 

Bobbi and I extend our deepest sympathy to the McMurry family. We wish 

his family all of our best and send our 

prayers to each of them. 

f 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS 

MELBA, IDAHO 

∑ Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, today I 

wish to congratulate and acknowledge 


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