[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11602-S11603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO BILL HOAGLAND
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to one who is known
as Mr. Budget of the Senate. When I stepped up to the position of
majority leader 4 years ago, my first priority was to hire a staff of
capable advisers. When I stepped up, it happened very quickly, so I
knew I wanted the best of the best. I already had a wonderful staff
devoted to help the people of Tennessee, but what I needed was a core
group of people to help me with the larger picture, to set an
aggressive agenda and help me get it through.
I knew immediately who I wanted to advise me on budget and
appropriations. In an ideal world, I knew exactly who that would be.
And, of course, that was Bill Hoagland. I had known Bill and worked
with Bill as a freshman Senator when he was staff director of the
Budget Committee, then chaired by Pete Domenici, and I relied on him
through those early days again and again in private meetings and
tutorials to show me and to introduce me and my budget staff at the
time the budget ropes, the process. So when that Christmas Eve 4 years
ago came, I picked up the phone and I called Bill Hoagland. I asked--I
pleaded with him--to become a part of my team.
Bill came to the Senate Committee on the Budget in the early 1980s
from the Department of Agriculture. He started as a group leader and
senior analyst and worked his way up through the ranks to become staff
director. After more than two decades on the Budget Committee under
Senator Domenici, Bill was the acknowledged expert on Senate floor
procedure for budget resolutions and appropriations measures. He was
there during Gramm-Rudman-Hollings. He was staff director during the
Balanced Budget Act of 1995. For 21 years, Bill had a voice in every
major Senate budget and appropriations measure. I was certain his
expertise would be a tremendous asset to my team. And, indeed, it has
been.
Bill has proven his worth time and time again. While serving as my
director of budget and appropriations, Bill has played critical roles
in ushering forth the Deficit Reduction Act and the Tax Increase
Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2006, and many others.
During these negotiations, Bill's voice is often the voice of reason,
practicality, of realism. His plain speaking only enhances credibility
as the preeminent authority, the unquestioned preeminent authority on
Senate budget and appropriations.
But Bill isn't all business. The Senate Committee on the Budget
fondly remembers him for genuinely caring about his staff. They
remember his informal Friday late-afternoon happy hours where staff
could share stories about the past week and learn things
[[Page S11603]]
about activities in the weeks ahead. In fact, they were so fond of
those informal get-togethers that the current Republican staff director
installed a plaque naming the room after Bill Hoagland.
My own staff and I will always carry memories of Bill bringing the
Kentucky Derby to the Capitol with mint juleps on the Dole balcony
behind me. And I will never forget Bill's weekly economic reports which
I share on a regular basis with my colleagues. They were as much an
exercise in dry wit as a profound analysis of the economic outlook.
After some 25 years, Bill has led one of the most distinguished staff
careers ever to grace the Senate. On behalf of this Senate, I thank
Bill for his dedication as a public servant to this Nation. Never doubt
for a moment how much we value your wise counsel, Bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). The Senator from North Dakota.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, Bill Hoagland is truly one of the best I
have had the chance to serve with in 20 years. Bill Hoagland is deeply
knowledgeable, decent, caring. He is one person who has extraordinary
credibility on both sides of the aisle.
I have known Bill in my 20 years in the Senate. Throughout that
period I have served on the Committee on the Budget. Bill has been, at
various times, the staff director or the leadership stamp on these
issues. I have enjoyed so many quiet moments with Bill in which we have
reflected on things that concern us about the direction of the country.
More than that, I have enjoyed his uncommon decency.
Bill Hoagland is somebody who will be very much missed. I believe
Bill Hoagland, because of his intense interest in the fiscal affairs of
this country, in the economic well-being of our Nation, will always be
there to give good advice.
On many occasions I have joked with Bill and made him job offers for
far more pay than he was getting on the other side of the aisle. Bill
always kind of indulged my humor and never paid too much attention to
it because he was firmly rooted on the other side.
Bill Hoagland represents the best of this institution. And it is with
real sincerity I say I will very much miss Bill's very good judgment in
this Senate. I thank the leader for his remarks about our very good
friend, Bill Hoagland.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I have been drafting my farewell comments,
and I had a little section in there about my friend Bill Hoagland, but
I will just take this opportunity now to add my voice to those who have
been talking about Bill.
I cannot tell you how many times in the last few years I have gone up
to Bill in the corner of the Chamber over here and asked him what was
really going on around here. And Bill Hoagland always knows what is
really going on around here. Not only is he an expert on the budget, he
is an expert on the Senate, and he is an expert, quite bluntly, in
strategy as well as an expert in tactics.
So I thank Bill for his good and wise counsel to me. I know he has
supplied that counsel to so many other people in the Senate as well.
But I, from a personal point of view, have appreciated Bill very much.
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