Cage 655
Thomas S. Foley
Congressional Papers, 1964-1997
Congressional papers of Thomas S. Foley, Member of the United States House of Representative for the Fifth District of the state of Washington from 1965 through 1994, were donated to the Washington State University Libraries in 1995. Further materials were transferred in 1997 by the Former Speaker's Office in Spokane. Papers were processed between mid-1995 and early 1998. Employees of the University Libraries who participated in inventory and processing of the papers and in compilation of the guide were: Mary Kay Duffié, Robert Hadlow, Jean Johnson, April O'Riley, Liza Rognas, Lawrence Stark, Scott Stratton, Debra Sutphen, JoséVargas, Anna Vogt, and Baodi Zhou.
Number of Containers ----- 480
Linear feet of Shelf Space ----- 550
<link>
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/foley/FRONT.HTMBIOGRAPHY
Thomas S. Foley was born at Spokane, Washington, in 1929. He practiced law and worked for the Spokane County Prosecutor from 1957 to 1961, following his education at the University of Washington. From 1961 through 1964 he was on the staff of the Interior Committee of the United States Senate, a position he was introduced to by Senator Henry Jackson. In 1964, Foley won election as the Representative for Washington's Fifth District. Between then and 1994 he won fourteen more elections, ultimately serving in Congress for thirty years. He left Congress after the election of 1994, in which he was unsuccessful.
Foley became Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee in 1974, Majority Whip in 1981, Majority Leader in 1987 and Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1989. He also held other Democratic Party leadership posts in the party caucus and its Steering and Policy Committee. In 1997, he was appointed United States Ambassador to Japan.