Former Rep. Bill Archer, a Texas Republican who spent three terms chairing the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the 1990s, died Saturday at his farm in Stanley, Va. He was 98.
Archer, who came to Congress in 1971, was elected to fill former President George H. W. Bush’s House seat. He got his start in local politics before his election to the Texas legislature, where he served two terms, starting as a Democrat before switching parties and joining the GOP.
During his three decades representing west Houston in Washington, Archer was known for leaving his mark on the tax code, perhaps most notably through his role in establishing the $500-per-child tax credit and decreasing the estate tax. He was a champion for tax cuts and changes to welfare programs.
Archer was also in Congress long enough to see the end of 40 years of Democratic control of the House — a streak that, once broken, would leave him with the Ways and Means gavel and an outsize role in defining the GOP’s tax agenda for the coming years.
“Serving as the first Republican chairman after Republicans took back the House in 1994, he was instrumental in passing fiscally conservative tax policies that returned Americans more of their hard-earned dollars,” Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a statement on social media. “His legacy lives on today in policies like the Child Tax Credit, which he helped create, and in our enduring commitment to a pro-growth tax code that will benefit American families for years to come.”
