[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.

                          ____________________