John Spratt

Spratt was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on November 1, 1942, and raised in York, South Carolina.{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/12/17/john-spratt-congressman-dead/|title = John Spratt, South Carolina congressman and fiscal steward, dies at 82|last = Langer|first = Emily|date = December 17, 2024|accessdate = December 17, 2024|newspaper = The Washington Post|url-access = limited}} His father founded the Bank of Fort Mill and the York law firm where he would eventually practice. His only sibling is Jane Bratton Spratt McColl, wife of Hugh McColl, former chairman and chief executive officer of Bank of America Corporation.[https://guides.law.sc.edu/MemoryHoldTheDoor-VolumeII/SprattJohnMcKee "Memory Hold the Door: John McKee Spratt, 1907-1973," University of South Carolina School of Law, law.sc.edu, 12 June 2008.]

After graduating from York High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in history from Davidson College in 1964. He served as student body president at both schools. Spratt then earned an MA degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University (Corpus Christi College) in 1966 while studying on a Marshall Scholarship, and an LLB degree from Yale Law School in 1969.

Spratt was a captain in the Army from 1969 to 1971, serving in the Operations Analysis Group in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) at the Pentagon, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.[http://spratt.house.gov/about/biography.shtml Biography of Congressman John Spratt, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324231235/http://spratt.house.gov/about/biography.shtml |date=March 24, 2010 }}

Spratt returned to York in 1971 to practice at the law firm of Spratt, McKeown, and Spratt. He was county attorney and school board attorney, and president of the Bank of Fort Mill. He also ran a small insurance agency and owned a farm in Fort Mill.

File:John spratt bw.jpg

For his work in Congress, Spratt won praise from Columbia's newspaper The State, which called him "one of his party's most reliable 'bridges' to the Republican side.""Spratt Finds Bridge Over Party Divide," The State, Columbia, SC, April 1, 1996. National Journal featured him on its cover as "a stand-out" in Congress, comparing his legislative skills to the "best infielders in baseball.""Congress's Designated Hitters," National Journal, January 28, 1989, No. 4, p.174. In a Washingtonian magazine survey, Congressional staff voted him a "Workhorse" and "House Member I'd Like to See Win the Presidency in 2008."[http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/1666.html "Best and Worst of Congress," Washingtonian, 01 September 2006, Vol. 41, No. 12.]

Spratt co-authored the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, putting the federal budget in surplus for the first time in 30 years.[http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/ls968.htm "Joint Statement of Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the Treasury, and Jacob J. Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2000," U.S. Department of the Treasury, 24 October 2000.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100517233616/http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/ls968.htm |date=May 17, 2010 }} In 2003, Spratt engineered an amendment which shifted $30 million in the defense appropriations bill to the Airborne Laser program.Costa, K. (2002). With Spratt amendment ...: HOUSE SHIFTS $30 MILLION FROM SPACE-BASED KINETIC INTERCEPTOR TO ABL. Inside the Air Force, 13(27), 13-15. Retrieved November 27, 2020, from {{JSTOR|24789760}}

In the 111th Congress, Spratt supported legislation such as the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, extension of unemployment benefits, increased infrastructure and labor workforce funding, increased federal financial aid packages, increased home foreclosure and small business assistance, reduction in estate taxes for 99.8 percent of estates, clean water legislation, health insurance reform, expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, reforming of medicare payment plans, clean energy legislation, pay as you go legislation, defense authorization for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and increased VA hospital investment.{{Cite web |url=http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/legvotes.html |title=Roll Call Votes, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. |access-date=March 18, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718135530/http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/legvotes.html |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |url-status=dead }}

On March 21, 2010, Spratt joined a majority of his House colleagues in approving H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate version of the health care reform bill. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, he made the floor motion which led to the vote on the bill. "I was where the action was when the bill had to be called from the clerk's desk," he told The Herald, a Rock Hill, South Carolina newspaper. "It was like sharing a moment in history."[http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll165.xml Final Vote Results For Roll Call 165] Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, March 21, 2010.

File:Barack Obama with Kent Conrad & John Spratt 3-17-09.jpg

On March 24, 2010, Spratt was appointed to the president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In reporting on the appointment, Dow Jones Newswires called Spratt "one of the staunchest fiscal conservatives among House Democrats."[http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201003241944dowjonesdjonline000612&title=correctpelosi-names-last-3-members-of-fiscal-commission Corey Boles, Dow Jones Newswires, in NASDAQ.com, 24 March 2010.] One of Spratt's last acts in Congress was helping compile a 65-page report on fixing the country's financial deficit.{{Cite web|last=All Things Considered|date=December 3, 2010|title=Spratt Says Farewell To House|url=https://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131790977/Spratt-Says-Farewell-To-House|access-date=November 27, 2020|website=NPR.org|language=en}}

Spratt became active in politics within the Democratic Party at an early age, and was elected delegate to the 1964 Democratic National Convention, which he attended at the age of 22. Spratt was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, succeeding fellow Democrat Kenneth Holland. He was reelected 13 more times. Although parts of the district were becoming friendlier to Republican candidates at the national level, the GOP was more or less nonexistent in this part of South Carolina at the local level for some time; Spratt only faced a Republican opponent twice from 1984 to 1992, winning easily in both instances. In 1994, however, Spratt was nearly defeated by Republican Larry Bigham, only surviving by a margin of 6,300 votes. He defeated Bigham by a slightly larger margin in 1996, but from 1998 to 2008 Spratt usually won with relatively little difficulty due to his popularity and campaigning skills.{{cite web |last=Galderisi |first=Paul |title=Redistricting in the New Millennium |page=194 |date=2005 |url=http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~bgrofman/140%20Grofman%20and%20Brunell.%20%202005%20%20The%20Art%20of%20the%20Dummymander....pdf}}

Spratt typically stayed out of presidential politics while he was a congressman because the national party was not popular in his district. For instance, he did not endorse any candidate in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries.{{Cite web|last=Kuhn|first=David Paul|date=January 22, 2008|title=Congress' only white S.C. Dem stays neutral|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2008/01/congress-only-white-sc-dem-stays-neutral-008049|access-date=November 27, 2020|website=POLITICO|language=en}} Nonetheless, he was rumored to have been President Obama's pick as White House Budget Director, though President Obama instead chose Peter R. Orszag, whom Spratt had helped hire as the director of the Congressional Budget Office.{{Cite web|date=December 5, 2008|title=John Spratt - Power Broker|url=https://www.wbtv.com/story/9467417/cover-story-john-spratt-power-broker|access-date=November 27, 2020|website=wbtv|language=en-US}}

In 2010, John Spratt's re-election chances was the subject of numerous articles. He was seen as particularly vulnerable due to his ties with the Democratic party leadership, his district's double-digit unemployment rate, and the district's growing Republican base.{{Cite web|last=Hook|first=Janet|date=August 26, 2010|title=Defying an anti-incumbent mood, a veteran Democrat runs on his record|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-26-la-na-south-carolina-20100827-story.html|access-date=November 25, 2020|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}} He was defeated that year by Mick Mulvaney by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent—one of the largest margins of defeat for an incumbent in the 2010 cycle.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Mulvaney successfully weaponized Spratt's bipartisan credentials against him during the election.{{Cite web|date=December 1, 2010|title=Packing Up the Past|url=https://www.rollcall.com/2010/12/01/packing-up-the-past/|access-date=November 24, 2020|website=Roll Call|language=en}} He lamented that Spratt was no longer fiscally conservative like he had once been in 1997 when he helped balance the nation's budget and criticized his relationship with Nancy Pelosi.{{Cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|date=October 13, 2010|title=After 28 Years, a Congressman on the Ropes (Published 2010)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/us/politics/13spratt.html|access-date=November 24, 2020|issn=0362-4331}} The National Republican Congressional Committee called John Spratt an "amnesiac" and stated he was forgetting what was going on in Washington.{{Cite web|date=May 18, 2010|title=Republicans suggest Spratt losing his memory|url=https://wach.com/news/local/republicans-suggest-spratt-losing-his-memory-10-23-2015|access-date=November 25, 2020|website=WACH}} Notably, President Barack Obama flew into Charlotte with Spratt on Air Force One during the campaign.Will U.S. Rep Spratt be helped by Obama photo op? McClatchy DC. April 4, 2010. Retrieved from https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24578920.html. (November 26, 2020). Spratt was among three Democratic U.S. House chairmen who lost that year to Tea Party candidates.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

On May 31, 1968, Spratt married Jane Stacy of Filbert, South Carolina.{{cite news|url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/749759947/|title = Local, State Ceremonies Unite 12 Couples in Marriage on Friday|newspaper = The State|date = June 1, 1968|accessdate = December 17, 2024|page = 11|via = Newspapers.com|url-access = subscription|quote = A 6 p.m. Friday wedding in Filbert Presbyterian Church united in marriage Miss Margaret Jane Stacy and John McKee Spratt Jr.}} They had three daughters, Susan Spratt, Sarah Spratt, and Catherine Spratt, along with five grandchildren, Lily Tendler, Jack Tendler, Max Tendler, Jane Grace Brennan, and James Brennan.{{Cite web |title=2025-2026 Bill 200: Congressman John Spratt - South Carolina Legislature Online |url=https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess126_2025-2026/bills/200.htm |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=www.scstatehouse.gov}} Spratt lived in York, South Carolina, where he was a member of the local First Presbyterian Church. He was active in the United Way and other civic and charity organizations. He was brother-in-law to Hugh McColl, CEO of Bank of America and NationsBank.{{Cite web |last=Holdman |first=Jessica |date=December 16, 2024 |title=Funeral scheduled for SC's former U.S. Rep. John Spratt • SC Daily Gazette |url=https://scdailygazette.com/2024/12/16/funeral-scheduled-for-scs-former-u-s-rep-john-spratt/ |access-date=December 17, 2024 |website=SC Daily Gazette |language=en-US}} After his departure from Congress, Spratt served as Visiting Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Winthrop University.{{cite web |url=http://www.winthrop.edu/cas/faculty/default.aspx?id=19820 |title=Winthrop University: CAS Faculty Profile - Spratt, John M. Jr. |website=www.winthrop.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625192236/http://www.winthrop.edu/cas/faculty/default.aspx?id=19820 |archive-date=June 25, 2013}}

In 2010, Spratt was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.{{Cite web|last=Taylor|first=Jessica|date=March 3, 2010|title=Spratt in early stages of Parkinson's disease|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2010/03/spratt-in-early-stages-of-parkinsons-disease-035204|access-date=November 24, 2020|website=POLITICO|language=en}} He died from the disease at his home on December 14, 2024, at the age of 82.{{cite web|url=https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article297137674.html|title=John Spratt, longtime US Congressman from South Carolina, has died, daughter says|publisher=The State|date=December 15, 2024|accessdate=December 15, 2024}} His funeral service was held on December 18, 2024, at York's First Presbyterian Church, followed by burial at Rose Hill Cemetery.{{Cite news |last=Dys |first=Andrew |date=December 18, 2024 |title=SC Rep. Clyburn, family, friends praise late congressman John Spratt at funeral in York |url=https://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article297238099.html |access-date=December 19, 2024 |work=The Herald}} At the funeral service, a eulogy was delivered by Jim Clyburn, congressman for South Carolina's 6th congressional district and Spratt's colleague in congress from 1993 to 2011. Clyburn described Spratt as "an inconspicuous genius and the most ordinary, extraordinary person I have ever known."{{Cite web |date=2024-12-16 |title=Clyburn Statement on the Passing of Congressman John Spratt - Congressman James E. Clyburn |url=https://clyburn.house.gov/clyburn-statement-on-passing-of-congressman-john-spratt/ |access-date=2024-12-22 |language=en-US}} Governor Henry McMaster announced that flags would be flown at half-staff on the day of his funeral.{{Cite web |last=Foley |first=Claire |date=December 15, 2024 |title=Longtime South Carolina Congressman John Spratt dies at age 82 |url=https://abcnews4.com/newsletter-daily/longtime-congressman-john-spratt-dies-at-age-82-south-carolina-lawmaker-democratic-party |access-date=December 17, 2024 |website=WCIV |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Bruce Schreiner |first=and Meg Kinnard |date=December 15, 2024 |title=Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/15/former-south-carolina-congressman-john-spratt-dies/ca6b434c-bb3d-11ef-b94f-104ed944ce38_story.html |access-date=December 17, 2024 |work=The Washington Post}}{{Cite web |date=December 18, 2024 |title=Lowering flags for former Congressman John Spratt |url=https://governor.sc.gov/sites/governor/files/Documents/Executive-Orders/2024-12-17%20FILED%20Executive%20Order%20No.%202024-34%20-%20Lowering%20Flags%20for%20Fmr.%20Congressman%20John%20M.%20Spratt%20Jr..pdf |access-date=December 18, 2024 |website=Governor Henry McMaster}}

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• Committee on Armed Services
• Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces
• Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
• Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on the Budget (Chair)

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name| 3779081}}{{CongLinks | congbio=s000749 | votesmart=27065 | fec=H2SC05052 | congress= }}
• {{C-SPAN|13719}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/live/WivyOPbMyes First Presbyterian Church of York, SC - Service of Witness to the Resurrection, John Spratt Jr.] - December 18, 2024

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