[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 17, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         A TRIBUTE TO AL DAVIS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 10, 2003

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, this body lost someone very important 
when we lost Al Davis. We lost a man who helped fix the course of the 
House Ways and Means Democrats. We lost a man of ideas and a man of 
data, a combination that is too uncommon. Al was a man of endless 
information, which the Committee Democrats used to tack and jibe 
through the political storms that erupt so often in the Ways and Means 
Committee.
  Al Davis passed away after 56 years of life. I didn't know him well 
outside of his briefings, his memos, and his witty analysis but I don't 
think that anyone had to be particularly close to Al to know how much 
he cared for those who have the least among us. I now know that he 
loved to go sailing.
  Members of Congress are often generalists. Our knowledge is usually a 
mile wide but only an inch deep. I frequently could not fathom the 
amount of memory and facts that Al retained. When it came to taxes and 
our economy, Al Davis increased the depth of my understanding about the 
issues and how changing public policies would affect working class 
Americans.
  Things move fast in the House and in the Committee on Ways and Means. 
Members often find themselves confronted with complex and multifarious 
issues, which can be quite challenging. Al was just the type of person 
that our committee needed. He liked to linger down in his ``engine 
room'' to make certain that the ship and its crew had all it required. 
Al was a harbor in a tempest. I could go to Al, and he could, within a 
few sentences, quickly and easily break down a complex issue for me.
  Some say that statistics lie and liars use statistics. Al would say 
that it doesn't have to be that way. Whether it came from the Bush 
Administration, or elsewhere, Al was not a fan of distorting data for 
political gain.
  Recently during President Bush's campaign to sell another tax cut, 
the President said that his plan would on average cut everyone's yearly 
taxes by $1,083. As soon as President Bush said that, Al quickly 
rattled off a memo to me correcting the misleading data that was being 
used by the President. In the memo, Al said that when Bush refers to 
the ``average'' tax cut in his proposal, it ``is like saying that every 
farmer in the nineteenth century got the average of a mule, if a few 
farmers were given a team of draft horses and most farmers got a small 
dog, instead.''
  I will miss Al Davis. I will miss his talent, his wisdom, and his 
humor. But I think that most of all, I will miss the trust that Al 
invested in Ways and Means Democrats. Al trusted that we would use our 
best effort to honestly employ the information he gave us to improve 
the well-being of the average American. We'll sail on without Al. But I 
feel that, at least for a while, our ship is heading into the wind, and 
against the tide, because we are without our navigator.

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