Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), a senator known for filling the partisan gap, passed away at the age of 93.
Simpson I passed Earlier on Friday after struggling to recover from a broken hip in December, according to a statement from the Buffalo Bill Center in the West, a group of museums he served for 56 years.
“He was an unusually generous man. And I am absolutely generous in an unconditional way. Give him time, give him his energy – and he did it in politics, and he did it forever with his family,” his brother Peter Simpson said in a statement.
CBS News reported:
Simpson is famous for his humor, and often says, “We have two political parties in this country, the stupid party and the evil party. I belong to the stupid party.”
Simpson's three terms as a senator from 1979 to 1997 covered Republican rejuvenation under President Ronald Reagan. Simpson played an important role in bringing together GOP Senators on the party's legislative agenda as Senators as Senate leader during that time.
Simpson is known as a deficit hawk and often absurd to those who relied on government programs, but he supported abortion rights.
His Democratic friends, known for his bipartisan friendships, included Robert Reich, who served as President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor.
Colin Simpson, one of the three children of the late Senator and former Wyoming Senator, said the former senator is “talented to cross party lines and build bipartisan consensus.”
“Dad and Pete have been anchoring the expanded Simpson family for decades with the same love, humor, compassion and dedication that their parents had before them. Dad is a powerful force, with a steady hand on his mother's side, and we are so blessed and proud to have been involved in the once-in-a-lifetime ride,” he continued.
President Barack Obama tapped Simpson to jointly lead the Deficit Reduction Committee in 2010, and ultimately formulated a plan to save $4 trillion through a combination of tax cuts and spending cuts, which didn't gain much support in Congress.
In 2022, President Joe Biden awarded Simpson the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him with x @seanmoran3.
