Then-House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC) holds a copy of U.S. President George W. Bush’s 2008 budget after receiving it from the Government Printing Office, on Capitol Hill, February 4, 2008 in Washington, D.C. (File/Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The funeral for former U.S. Rep. John Spratt, who represented South Carolina’s 5th District for nearly 30 years, is Wednesday in his hometown of York.
The Democrat who fought for balanced federal budgets died over the weekend due to complications from Parkinson’s disease, according to his family. He was 82.
Spratt, first elected to the U.S. House in 1982, managed to hold on to his seat as the 5th District leaned increasingly Republican — beating several GOP challengers — until 2010. His loss to Republican Mick Mulvaney gave the GOP control over a seat they hadn’t held in more than a century and left South Carolina with a single Democrat in its congressional delegation.
Over his political career, Spratt rose to chairman of the House Budget Committee.
One of his proudest accomplishments, his daughter Catherine Spratt wrote, was the Balanced Budget Agreement of 1997, which created a federal surplus for the first time in 30 years and kept federal spending aligned with revenue collections until 2002.
The budget hasn’t been balanced since.
He also became the second-highest-ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. As head of the committee’s panel on nuclear weapons production, Spratt led the first foreign delegation to tour a then-Soviet Union nuclear weapons plant near the end of the Cold War.
Spratt also helped broker a 1993 settlement between the Catawba Indian Nation and York County landowners that secured long-sought federal recognition as a tribe and provided $50 million. The Catawba Nation remains South Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe.
South Carolina’s only congressional Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn, who recently won his 17th term representing the state’s 6th District, shared his condolences on social media.
“Serving in Congress with John Spratt was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life,” Clyburn wrote in a post on X. “He was a friend and confidant, a colleague and counselor, and a mentor and partner. His love of country and respect for humanity were always on display. He was an inconspicuous genius and the most ordinary, extraordinary person I have ever known.”
The family also shared snippets of letters from President Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton.
“Guided by his wit, wisdom, decency, and grace, John deeply understood the promise of America, and he fought tirelessly to bring people together to help us live up to that promise,” Biden wrote.
Clinton called Spratt “masterful in his knowledge of policy” and “willing to work with anyone to pass legislation that would make a difference in people’s lives.”
“He had a unique ability of knowing when to hold the line and when to compromise, and it earned him the respect of all in Washington,” Clinton continued.
Republican U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who has held Spratt’s former seat since 2017, said Spratt set the “gold standard” for service to his congressional district.
Norman, who unsuccessfully challenged Spratt in 2006, won a special election after Mulvaney left Congress to work in President Donald Trump’s first administration.
South Carolina’s U.S. Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, both Republicans, also paid tribute to Spratt on social media.
“While we were on opposite sides of the aisle, I appreciated how John was always trying to find common ground for the greater good,” Graham wrote. “In my view, his disposition and approach to the job represented the best of public service.”
Gov. Henry McMaster ordered flags across the state be lowered to half-staff Wednesday for Spratt’s funeral.
The service will begin at 1 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in York, followed by burial at Rose Hill Cemetery.
Visitation is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the church.
Spratt is survived by his wife of 56 years, Jane Stacy Spratt, three daughters, and several grandchildren.
Before entering politics, Spratt practiced law alongside his father, ran a farm and small insurance agency, and was president of the Bank of Fort Mill, according to his family.
He also was the brother-in-law of Hugh McColl, the CEO of NationsBank who oversaw its merger with the Bank of America to create the second largest bank in the United States and make Charlotte the banking capital of the South.
As a father and grandfather, Spratt is remembered for his “imaginative bedtime stories” and cooking “delicious seafood after vacation days spent riding the ocean waves of his beloved South Carolina coast.”