Washington State Congressman Thomas S. Foley, 84, died Friday in this home due to previous stroke complications, The New York Times reported.
His wife, Heather Foley, said in a statement that her husband suffered a stroke last December and has been under hospice since catching pneumonia in May, according to the Times.
Foley was born March 6, 1929 in Spokane. He attended Gonzaga University in Spokane before transferring to the University of Washington, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1951 and a law degree in 1957.
Since becoming the house speaker on June 6, 1989, Foley has been unmatched in his ability to fight "partisan combat," the Times reported.
President Barack Obama said in a statement that Foley was "a legend of the United States Congress (whose) straightforward approach helped him find common ground with members of both parties."
Before becoming the speaker of the house, Foley was the House majority leader. He succeeded for a time in calming the House and making it more civil between parties, but that came to an end in 1994 when Republicans painted the Democrats as "out of touch" and "corrupt," the Times reported.
That year was the first time Republicans won the majority of the House in 40 years, and Foley lost re-election in his own district, according to the Times. A few days before becoming speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich and the Republic National Committee tried to portray Foley as a homosexual, but he denied these accusations, the Times reported.
According to the Times Foley's five and half years as speaker were marked by successful efforts to force President Bush to accept tax increases as part of a 1990 deficit-reduction deal, and by unsuccessful opposition to the president's plans to invade Iraq in 1991.
In 1993 during the Clinton administration, Foley took part in the passage of Clinton's 1993 budget plan. In 1994 he also helped pass the ban on assault weapons, which played a major role in the Republican victory that fall, the Times reported.
Foley was a fierce opponent of proposed constitutional amendments that would have required a balanced federal budget, and said "If I had one compelling concern in the time that I have been speaker, but previous to that as well, it is that we not idly tamper with the Constitution of the United States."
