Tom Foley

Tom Foley

Former U.S. House Speaker Tom Foley has died, his wife Heather told CNN's Paul Courson today.

Foley, 84, was a Democrat who represented Washington state in the House for 30 years and served as speaker from 1989 to January 1995. Ref. CNN

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Former House speaker Tom Foley, a Democrat who lost his congressional seat in the 1994 Republican revolution, has died at the age of 84. Foley, also a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan in the Clinton administration, had been in declining health for a while and was in hospice care at his home in the nation's capital. He represented eastern Washington state in the U.S. House of Representatives for 15 terms, from 1965 to 1995. Ref. USAToday