[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 143 (Thursday, November 20, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING CONGRESSMAN BILL FRENZEL

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 19, 2014

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to our former 
colleague, Bill Frenzel of Minnesota, who passed away on November 17 at 
the age of 86.
  Bill served in the House for ten terms from 1971 to 1991. During his 
time on the Hill and upon leaving Congress, he was a strong advocate 
for trade and economic growth.
  So many of our colleagues did not have the privilege of serving with 
Bill. I respectfully submit this Washington Post article from November 
19, 2014, on his passing.

Bill Frenzel, Minnesota Republican and Fiscal Authority, in U.S. House, 
                               Dies at 86

       Bill Frenzel, a Minnesota Republican who became a prominent 
     congressional authority on federal budget and international 
     trade issues during 20 years in the U.S. House of 
     Representatives, died Nov. 17 at his home in McLean, Va. He 
     was 86.
       The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Pam Lindon.
       Mr. Frenzel was an executive at his family's warehousing 
     operation and served in the Minnesota House of 
     Representatives before winning an open congressional seat in 
     1970. He represented his district in the Twin Cities suburbs 
     until 1990, when he declined to seek reelection.
       By then he had become dean of the Minnesota delegation, 
     ranking Republican on the House Budget committee and an 
     influential member of the tax-writing Ways and Means 
     committee. On both sides of the aisle, he was admired for his 
     deeply researched positions on complicated fiscal matters.
       ``Loud and brainy, partisan and thoughtful, he puts his 
     stamp on every debate in which he participates,'' read his 
     profile in the Almanac of American Politics.
       Among Mr. Frenzel's principal legislative interests were 
     promoting free trade and balanced budgets. He helped 
     negotiate the major 1990 deficit-reduction deal, a 
     significant achievement at a time when Mr. Frenzel had become 
     increasingly frustrated by what he described as the 
     Republican Party's ``seemingly permanent minority.'' 
     Democrats ``think they were born to be kings,'' Congressional 
     Quarterly quoted him as saying, ``and that there's a servant 
     class, and that's the Republicans.''
       In an effort to invigorate his party, Mr. Frenzel nominated 
     Newt Gingrich for party whip, a position that the Georgia 
     Republican won in 1989. Gingrich's fiery style contrasted 
     with Mr. Frenzel's more moderate one, but Mr. Frenzel said he 
     had concluded that the party ``needed to take some risks.''
       In 1994--four years after Mr. Frenzel's retirement--
     Gingrich led the GOP to recapturing control of the House. Mr. 
     Frenzel remained involved in public affairs, including in the 
     Democratic administration of Bill Clinton. Clinton tapped Mr. 
     Frenzel as an adviser on the North American Free Trade 
     Agreement, a centerpiece of the president's first-term 
     agenda, and tasked him with helping rally GOP support.
       ``I took a position up in the Rayburn Building and I think 
     I met with every member of the Republican caucus,'' Mr. 
     Frenzel told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. ``The idea was to 
     get the vote nailed down before you bring the bill to the 
     floor. Some of the members were difficult and slippery.'' He 
     continued, ``For instance, some of the members said, `We 
     don't think the Mexicans know anything.' We flew them to 
     Mexico City and had them meet with President [Carlos] Salinas 
     and his cabinet, who, of course, were all University of 
     Chicago PhDs and who bowled them over. That was very 
     effective.'' NAFTA was passed in 1993 and enacted the next 
     year.
       Mr. Frenzel later served under George W. Bush, a 
     Republican, and Barack Obama, a Democrat, on advisory 
     commissions on Social Security and trade policy. He was a 
     guest scholar with the Brookings Institution think tank for 
     more than two decades and was a co-chairman of the Committee 
     for a Responsible Federal Government, both based in 
     Washington.
       Years after he left office, he remained sought after for 
     his insider's perspective on politics.
       ``Republicans used to be interested in not running 
     continual rivers of red ink,'' he told the New York Times in 
     2012. ``If that meant raising taxes a little bit, we always 
     raised taxes a little bit. But nowadays taxes are like 
     leprosy and they can't be used for anything, and so 
     Republicans have denied themselves any bargaining power.''

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