[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 212 (Wednesday, December 8, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1332]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN RECOGNITION OF MR. JOSEPH K. DOWLEY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. RICHARD E. NEAL

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 8, 2021

  Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, our Ways and Means family mourns the passing 
of Joseph K. Dowley. Joe was the Committee's Chief Counsel during the 
1980s, who left us an important legacy in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, 
for which he did so much to enact into law.
  Joe became Ways and Means Chief Counsel in 1984 after earning 
undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University, Army service 
in Vietnam, and employment as administrative assistant to my friend, 
former Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. He was a deft tax technician who not 
only knew what was broken, but also how to fix it. He never forgot that 
lawmaking is the art of the possible, and was ready when Chairman 
Rostenkowski accepted President Ronald Reagan's challenge to undertake 
comprehensive tax reform. His patient but relentless pursuit of that 
lofty goal helped create the political alchemy that made an initially 
improbable goal inevitable.
  Success didn't come quickly or easily. As with any major piece of 
legislation, the process was a combination of the tense and the 
tedious. My colleagues writing the act recall it as a challenging time 
when long hours sometimes resulted in short tempers. But Joe's calm 
combination of competence and confidence kept the legislative train 
moving toward the inevitable compromises that signal success.
  As the current Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, I now more 
deeply appreciate the role he played as an exemplary staffer, enabling 
those of us elected to enact legislation to do so by drawing the map 
that translated an idea into a legislative proposal that could become a 
workable law.
  After leaving Capitol Hill, Joe continued to be an active member of 
Washington's tax community. His service to Congress wasn't easy, and 
there are few who have done it as well. He remains a role model for 
doing serious business in a humane way, and we will miss him. We join 
his wife Carol and his entire family in mourning his passing.

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