Keynote Address
In December 2007, Trent Lott left the United States Congress where he has worked on behalf of the people of the State of Mississippi for the past 35 years. A champion of a strong national defense, he remains dedicated to encouraging economic growth and protecting Americans’ economic security by getting government off their backs and out of their pocketbooks. Seven Presidents have known both his cooperation and his opposition, for he has kept his country ahead of partisan and personal concerns.
As the House Republican Whip in 1981, he forged the bipartisan alliance that enacted President Ronald Reagan’s economic recovery program and his national security initiatives. Part of the reason for this and other victories was Congressman Lott’s creation of the House of Representative’s first modern whip organization, focusing on regular member-to-member contacts and extensive outreach to sympathetic Democrats. Counting votes, building coalitions, and moving legislation were things he seemed born to do, and he genuinely enjoyed the process.
Elected to the Senate in 1988, he was a member of the group of pro-growth stalwarts who opposed the tax increase forced on President Bush in 1990. When he became the Senate’s 16th Majority Leader in 1996, he again put his coalition-building skills to the test and, along with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, enacted his historic welfare reform bill of 1996. The next year, Lott, Gingrich and congressional Budget Committee chairmen John Kasich and Pete Domenici together produced an historic budget and tax cut agreement that limited some federal spending. But more important, it created new incentives to save and invest, thereby stimulating the economic growth that brought the federal budget into balance for the first time since 1968.
As the Republican Leader during the first two years of President George W. Bush’s administration, Senator Lott led the fight for passage of the President’s tax cut package, the President’s landmark education reform bill, the largest increase in defense spending since the Cold War, the most significant trade legislation in a decade, and the resolution supporting the President on military action in Iraq.
During the Senate’s lame duck session of November 2002, Senator Lott, drawing on his experience as a legislative negotiator, reached the compromises that created the Department of Homeland Security. In 2006, Senator Lott was elected Senate Republican Whip for the second time in his career. He is the only member of Congress to hold this position in both the House and Senate.
For 16 years in the House of Representatives and 19 years in the Senate, Trent Lott has been a driving force in the United States Congress. After his retirement from the United States Senate, Senator Lott founded the Breaux Lott Leadership Group with former Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, a partnership offering strategic advice, consulting and lobbying to a wide range of clients. The firm unites two former Senate leaders from opposite parties, with a combined total of nearly 70 years experience in Congress.
