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Former Congressman, HUD Secretary Jack Kemp Dies at 73
 Jack Kemp, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the George H.W. Bush Administration and nine-term congressman from Buffalo, N.Y., died of cancer on May 2. He was 73.
Kemp, who was a strong proponent of a bipartisan national housing agenda during and after he left public office, was the founder and chairman of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm. In 1993, he was a co-founder of Empower America, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy and advocacy group, with former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane Kirkpatrick.
Kemp, who served in Congress from 1971 to 1989, advocated the Kemp-Roth tax cuts in 1977, which later became law under President Ronald Reagan. A political star while in Congress and after he held office, he campaigned nationally for tax cuts and Social Security and education reform and helped move his party toward supply-side economics. In 1996, he received the Republic Party nomination for vice president and was the running mate of former Sen. Robert Dole.
Earlier this decade, Kemp teamed with Henry Cisneros, former HUD secretary during the Clinton Administration, to develop a bipartisan housing agenda.
In 2005, he and Cisneros received the 2005 Search for Common Ground Award for Bipartisan Cooperation for their collaborative effort. The Common Ground awards are presented annually to recognize achievements in conflict resolution, community building and peacemaking.
Kemp and Cisneros also worked closely with Kent Colton, former CEO of NAHB, and Nicolas P. Retsinas, the director of Harvard’s Joint Center of Housing Studies, to publish, “Opportunity and Progress: A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy.” The publication was available through the Joint Center.
Before entering politics, Kemp was a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and led the team to back-to-back championships in the old American Football League (AFL) in 1964 and 1965. He played until 1967. He also co-founded the AFL’s players association and was elected its president five times.
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