John Spratt: “we are here tonight to honor Al Davis, a dear friend, who died in the prime of life in a tragic, wholly unnecessary…”

“we are here tonight to honor Al Davis, a dear friend, who died in the prime of life in a tragic, wholly unnecessary accident. But in his 56 years, he made a huge, if unheralded, contribution to the government of this country. We have lost a close associate, a valuable colleague. The House has lost part of its institutional memory and its analytical ability, particularly in the bramble bush we call tax policy; and the country, the country has lost a genuine, if sometimes critical, patriot. Before Al became the chief economist for the Committee on Ways and Means, he was the chief economist for the Committee on the Budget; and it was on the Committee on the Budget that I came to know him best. Mr. Speaker, if I might digress a minute, I would say that from 1969 to 1970 I served as a young officer, Army officer in the Pentagon and interacted with Congress and its staff; and when I came here in 1983 as a Member of Congress, the most striking change I found in the institution was in the staff, Members' staff and committee staff both. The number of staff had increased several fold, and the professional quality has increased even more. And more than I had ever appreciated, I soon found out how the House literally could not function without our staff. Their roles are often off stage. They make, however, those of us on stage look good.…”