Norton Statement on Passing of Former House Speaker Tom Foley

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today made the following statement on the passing of former House Speaker Tom Foley.

"The loss of former Speaker Tom Foley today will be felt far and wide, not alone in his home state of Washington, in Japan, where he served as ambassador, or in the District of Columbia, where he lived in retirement. Time and again Tom Foley did what was best for his country, often at considerable political risk to himself. His success with passage, by one vote, of President Clinton's 1993 budget plan, including tax increases, which led to a phenomenal period of economic growth, balanced budgets and surpluses, is still remembered today as few such growth periods are. During the plague of gun violence in the 1990s, his long opposition to gun control bowed to the needs of the country for the assault weapons ban.

"Many throughout the country will have memories like ours, of Tom's selfless good works for their districts. We in the District of Columbia will never forget the progress we made towards equal rights under Speaker Foley. Building on the vote in committee, delegates had long exercised, I asked the Speaker for a vote in the Committee of the Whole. After vetting the question with outside lawyers, he gave the District its first vote on the House floor, later approved by the federal court. The Speaker brought the D.C. statehood bill to the floor in 1993 when we could not claim to have the votes for final passage in the House and the Senate, the first and only time the bill has come to a congressional vote. Our hope was to gain momentum with a strong vote – and we got two-thirds of the Democrats – to go further, at least, to voting rights and budget autonomy, but Democrats lost control of the House. Tom was a personal friend to me, my district and many members still in the Congress. His command of the issues made me understand why the person who leads the House is called Speaker. Tom Foley seemed to master any subject before the House, compellingly bringing to bare the facts and the arguments with dazzling brilliance. He is remembered as a man to whom principles mattered, and he will always be remembered as the quintessential Speaker of the House."

Published: October 18, 2013