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Thomas Burr, our Washington reporter, had a busy week.

His front-page work included:

• An analysis on two Utah congressmen — Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz — and their first year as high-profile committee bosses in which they can be particularly nettlesome to President Barack Obama while drawing strong criticism themselves.

• Coverage of Obama's executive action on gun background checks. As the president announced his plans Wednesday, to his right was Carolyn Tuft, critically wounded in the 2007 Trolley Square shooting. Her teenage daughter, Kirsten Hinckley, died that night. Obama's speech took on a particular Utah resonance, captured by Burr.

• On the same page was Burr's story on a UtahPolicy.com poll, conducted before Obama's action, showing that Utahns overwhelmingly approve of the type of background checks the president will implement, a contradiction to the rhetoric of the Utah delegation.

• The next day, Burr and colleague Matt Canham collaborated on the Utah delegation's take on the standoff in Oregon, in which the lawmakers expressed sympathy for the armed occupiers, but took issue with their tactics and threats of violence.

Also from Burr were stories on Chaffetz endorsing GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio and Gov. Gary Herbert's State of the States report, delivered in Washington in his role as chairman of the National Governors Association.

Readers of The Salt Lake Tribune know Burr and rely upon him to report what our senators and representatives are doing, or not doing. He is the only Washington journalist working for a Utah news outlet, and has spent the past decade covering the state's delegation and the federal agencies that impact life here.

His commitment and award-winning work will be recognized by his Washington peers Friday as he becomes the 109th president of the National Press Club, among the world's leading professional organizations for journalists. On Jan. 23, he will be inaugurated at a gala at the Press Club building, two blocks from the White House.

The most public face of the Press Club — and now Burr's responsibility — is its speaker series, which auspiciously began in 1932 with President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The series is known for peppering elected officials and other powerful people with tough questions. Other speakers through the decades have included Nikita Khrushchev, Nelson Mandela, Indira Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. along with Jane Pauley, Robert Redford, even Mister Rogers.

In the past year, Cabinet members, presidential candidates, governors and top executives of major U.S. companies have appeared at the Press Club.

Equally important is the support the National Press Club brings to journalists in the trenches.

"The Press Club is an institution revered for its efforts to help our profession, and I'm honored to build on that reputation and ensure that we hold elected officials accountable, bolster our fellow journalists and ensure that when reporters face a government crackdown, that we'll go get their back," Burr said after winning the election for president in December.

In various positions with the club, Burr has successfully fought on access issues for reporters covering Congress. He's also been a recipient of the club's annual awards, receiving the Washington Regional Reporting Award a record three times, in 2010, 2011 and 2013. (The Tribune's Canham won the prize in 2009.)

A graduate of Southern Utah University, Burr joined us in 2002, rising from a hard-charging county government reporter to a top-notch Washington correspondent who covered Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman in the 2012 presidential campaign and co-wrote, with Canham, "Mormon Rivals: The Romneys, the Huntsmans and the Pursuit of Power."

Tribune readers, the beneficiaries of his journalism, know Burr well. As he takes the reins of the National Press Club, it is clear his national colleagues do, too.

Terry Orme is The Tribune's editor. Reach him at orme@sltrib.com.