Former Rep. Tom Bliley: A gentleman who knew how to get legislation passed 

Tall, slim, silver-haired, bespectacled, and bow-tied, he walked the halls of Congress at a fast gait, certain of where he was going, never late. He was Tom Bliley, chairman of the House Committee on Commerce from 1995-1999. Mr. Bliley passed away recently. 

It would be an understatement to say that Chairman Bliley was a master legislator. Vast sectors of the American economy from pharmaceuticals and food safety to financial services and securities to communications have benefitted from the deregulatory legislation that passed the Commerce Committee under his leadership. The committee, one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill, rarely if ever passed as much influential legislation in a six-year period as under Bliley’s chairmanship. 

Legislation passed expeditiously and emphatically through the Commerce Committee not because Bliley watched passively but because he actively compelled passage. Bliley would engage members from both parties and all groups within each party to find common ground.  Votes on major legislation were rarely along party lines. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 which updated communications law for the first time in more than 60 years passed with more than 400 votes in the House. It would have been possible to pass the legislation with a much smaller majority, but that would not have been good enough for Bliley. 

Chairman Bliley would tell his staff simple unoriginal truisms: “Half a loaf is better than no loaf;” “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” And his staff would recite the truisms which became the mode of legislation.  

Organizing and passing important legislation did not always endear Chairman Bliley to his colleagues. Some envied his power. Some resented his willingness to cut deals to get legislation passed. Some muttered about lack of ideological purity. But all recognized that, if something needed to be done, Tom Bliley was the person to do it. And practically all members turned to him to help with legislation they needed to pass. 

Few members had the poor judgment to challenge Chairman Bliley directly. But more than a few members, insinuating that one of his staffers had been disloyal, would ask him to fire the staffer.  As a great judge of character, Mr. Bliley knew that his staff was loyal. These efforts by his colleagues only added to the prestige of the staff member and the amusement of Chairman Bliley. 

Bliley had a deep abiding faith in the American consumer, in American entrepreneurship, and in economic competition. He had skepticism about regulation and regulated monopolies. But mostly, Mr. Bliley loved America and all that it stood for. He was an optimist about the country and its future. No problem was too big to be solved. 

Congress of the 1990s was no different from Congress in other years: some members and senators were morally and ethically challenged. Not Tom Bliley. He was a proud and practicing Catholic. His life revolved around his family and his wife, Mary Virginia. He was never tempted by Washington. Like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Tom Bliley was moral and a gentleman. But unlike Jimmy Stewart, Tom Bliley knew how to get legislation done. 

In 1995, a celebration to mark legislative achievements was held at each of the House committees. The Commerce Committee staff gathered bursting with energy. Chairman Bliley called the staff to order. House leadership asked that committee chairmen read aloud an essay to committee staff. Chairman Bliley began reading the essay. It was childish nonsense. The staff became painfully quiet. What would the chairman do? It would have been reasonable for Chairman Bliley to refuse to read further. But Chairman Bliley took the high road. Duty-bound to House leadership, he read the entire essay. 

On that day, and on many days that followed, I recognized that Tom Bliley’s greatest achievement was not as a legislator but as a gentleman. His word was his bond. He was loyal and honorable. He knew right from wrong. He loved his country and served it well. He loved his family. The world has too few Tom Blileys, and now we have one fewer. 

Harold Furchtgott-Roth was chief economist of the House Committee on Commerce from 1995-1997. Currently, Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.