Eli Crane: “it is quite possible I have known Bill Archer longer than anyone in this Chamber. We met for the first time 30 years ago…”

“it is quite possible I have known Bill Archer longer than anyone in this Chamber. We met for the first time 30 years ago at a Lincoln Day festival. Bill was serving in the Texas State legislature at the time. I was told by mutual acquaintances that Bill was a strong conservative of unwavering principles, and that he would soon be elected to Congress. They were right on both counts. In fact, the only time I have known of Bill wavering occurred about three years before we first met. Bill found it necessary to correct a mistake he had grown up with. He switched from the Democratic to Republican parties. I have had the great honor and pleasure to sit next to Bill for 25 years now on the Ways and Means Committee. We have fought many fights together. We saw the power of the Committee exercised first-hand under Wilbur Mills. We experienced the curious mix of Chicago-style politics applied to national policy under Danny Rostenkowski. We celebrated the 1981 tax cut together, the effects of which are still being felt in today's prosperity. And we suffered through the lost opportunities of the 1986 Tax Reform Act and the disastrous 1990 and 1993 tax increases. Bill Archer has been a forceful and effective Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee through some of its most difficult years. These are partisan times, and, sadly, this partisanship has infected the work of the Committee all too often. Through it all, Bill has kept to his principles, and kept his sense of humor.”