Trent Lott: “I wish to honor Thomas F. Houston for his 37 years of public service. For the past 9 years, Tom has served as the Senior…”

“I wish to honor Thomas F. Houston for his 37 years of public service. For the past 9 years, Tom has served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. After almost four decades of service, he will retire this month after a career in which he served the United States in numerous capacities, including almost 20 years as a congressional staff member. He left Mississippi in 1973 to join me on the staff of Congressman William Colmer. Tom served as Congressman Colmer's press assistant and later helped with my first campaign to replace our former boss. Tom's skill and hard work earned him a stint as deputy press secretary for the Ford-Dole Presidential campaign in 1976, and when that came to a close, Tom joined the staff of the House Committee on Government Operations, serving there until June 1989. During his 12-year tenure on the committee, Tom had a major hand in writing a number of historical pieces of legislation, including the Inspector General Act of 1978 that first established Inspector General Offices inside Cabinet-level agencies to independently monitor their work. In 1989, Tom left the Hill to join the George H.W. Bush administration at the Department of Defense. During the Persian Gulf buildup and war, he was the Director of the Desert Shield/Desert Storm Public Affairs Cell. That operation set the precedent for the military's public affairs policy during the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”