Alan Simpson (American politician)

Alan Kooi Simpson (September 2, 1931 – March 14, 2025) was an American politician from Wyoming. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives representing Park County, Wyoming from 1965 to 1977 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1979 to 1997. Simpson was Republican whip of the U.S. Senate from 1985 to 1995, serving as majority whip of the U.S. Senate from 1985 to 1987. He also served as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (often referred to as Simpson–Bowles) with Democratic co-chair Erskine Bowles of North Carolina.

Born in Denver, Simpson completed his undergraduate and law school studies at the University of Wyoming. He served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1965–1977 before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978. After serving three terms, Simpson declined to seek re-election in 1996. After leaving office, Simpson practiced law and taught at multiple universities. He also served on the Continuity of Government Commission, American Battle Monuments Commission, and Iraq Study Group. He was a vocal proponent of amending the Constitution of the United States to overturn Citizens United v. FEC (2010) and allow Congress to set spending limits on campaign finance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado, on September 2, 1931,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the son of Milward Simpson and the former Lorna Kooi. His middle name, Kooi, comes from his maternal grandfather, whose parents were Dutch immigrants.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Simpson has an older brother, Pete Simpson, a historian and former administrator at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, who served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1981 to 1984, having represented Sheridan County, Wyoming, while he was then an administrator at Sheridan College. Pete Simpson was the 1986 Republican gubernatorial nominee, having sought the office while his younger brother was serving in the U.S. Senate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simpson had several run-ins with the law during his youth, later remarking, "I was just dumb and rebellious and stupid. And a different person," adding that "you're not who you are when you're 16 or 18. You're dumb and you don't care, and you think you are eternal."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For the 2010 Supreme Court of the United States case Graham v. Florida on the constitutionality of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses, Simpson submitted an amicus curiae brief explaining his own troubled youth:

Alan Simpson graduated from Cody High School in Cody, Wyoming in 1949 and attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1950 for a postgraduate year. He graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1954. Like his brother, he was a member of the university's Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Simpson served in the United States Army in Germany from 1955 to 1956 with the 10th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Infantry Division and the 12th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 2nd Armored Division.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

After graduating from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1958, he joined a private law firm and eventually became the city attorney of Cody, Wyoming.<ref name="McFadden" /> Simpson was first elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1964.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During his tenure, Simpson represented Park County and served as the speaker pro tempore of the Wyoming State Legislature. He resigned on November 10, 1977, to prepare to run for the U.S. Senate in 1978.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

United States Senator

Simpson (second from left) in a Cabinet Room meeting with President Ronald Reagan, Bob Michel and Bob Dole, 1985

Simpson was elected to the United States Senate on November 7, 1978, but was appointed to the post early on January 1, 1979, following the resignation of Clifford Hansen, former Governor of Wyoming from 1963 to 1967 who had succeeded Milward Simpson, Alan's father who was Governor of Wyoming from 1955 to 1959, in the seat. From 1985 to 1995, Simpson was the Republican whip, assisting Republican leader of the United States Senate Bob Dole from Kansas. He was chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1995 to 1997 when Republicans regained control of the Senate. He also chaired the Immigration and Refugee Subcommittee of Judiciary, Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee, Social Security Subcommittee, and Committee on Aging.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simpson fishing in Wyoming with President of the United States George H. W. Bush (center) and United States Senate member Craig L. Thomas (left)

Simpson was characterized as a moderate conservative by The New York Times upon his death in 2025.<ref name="McFadden" /> Contemporaneously he was known as a hardline conservative who was loyal to Ronald Reagan's policies.<ref name="Thornton">Template:Cite web</ref> He supported the abortion-rights movement and in 1995 and 1996, he voted against a ban of late-term abortions that only exempted life-threatening conditions, rather than all physical health needs. However, he opposed federal funding for abortions by supporting the Hyde Amendment.<ref name="McFadden" /> In 2013, Simpson stating that abortion should not be a political issue in a party that believes in "government out of our lives," "the right to be left alone," and "the precious right of privacy".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the early 1980s, illegal immigrants were prohibited from working in the United States, but employers were not penalized for hiring them as unreported employment. Alongside Democratic Party United States House of Representatives member Peter W. Rodino from New Jersey, Simpson was the main force<ref name="Thornton"/> behind the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which included a provision prohibiting the intentional hiring of illegal immigrants, while providing legal status to those that arrived before 1982.<ref name="McFadden" /><ref name="Thornton"/>

As a ranking minority member of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs in 1987, he drew criticism for calling Hmong who had fought for the United States fleeing to the US in the aftermath of the Vietnam War "the most indigestible group in society" for their perceived inability to adhere to white American norms, which Hmong American scholar Kou Yang said was at the time the "worst of all" comments on Hmong.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rubén G. Rumbaut highlighted the irony of Simpson's derogatory characterization of Hmong in a 1999 study that showed that Hmong students in San Diego schools "outperform[ed] all native-born English-only American students".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Reflecting on his work for the American Sociological Association's Contexts, Rambaut said, "One thing I know is that popular conceptions about immigrants and their assimilation don’t square with the facts."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rambaut saw Simpson's use of the word "indigestible" as indicative that Simpson was imagining an assimilation where Hmong were absorbed into the more desirable Anglo-Saxon race.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Natsu Taylor Saito concurred: "[Simpson thinks] they [Hmong] should be fully 'digestible'; their purpose is to nourish settler society, not to change it."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dwight Conquergood remarked Simpson's comments were typical of Western visitors to the largest Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. "Instead of seeing the Hmong as struggling within a constraining context of historical, political, and economic forces that have reduced them from proud, independent, mountain people to landless refugees, the Hmong are blamed for their miserable condition."<ref name="Conquergood"/> Shelly R. Adler likened Simpson's comments to an article in The New York Times that asserted the Hmong were “the most primitive refugee group in America"—to which Paul Pao Herr, a Hmong reader of the paper responded, "[E]vidently we were not too primitive to fight as proxies for the United States troops in the war in Laos".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the most widely read book on Hmong people The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,<ref name=Entenmannp1>Entenmann, Robert. "Template:Usurped." () Hmong Studies Journal, Volume 6, 2005. p. 1. Retrieved on July 11, 2014.</ref> which chronicles a Hmong family's struggles with the US healthcare system, Anne Fadiman draws a parallel between Simpson and the historical Chinese government, which also sought to assimilate the Hmong ethnic minority among them. "...[Simpson] sounded much like the authorities in China long ago who were grievously insulted when the Hmong refused to speak Chinese or eat with chopsticks."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Simpson visited Ban Vinai for one day during his tenure on the immigration subcommittee.<ref name="Conquergood">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Simpson frequently derided immigrants and refugees for not meeting his standards for assimilation into white US cultural norms and was at the forefront of opposing immigration. From 1980 to 1996, Simpson was "the leading voice attacking family immigration" according to Annelise Anderson of Stanford University. Simpson advocated for removing sibling immigration entirely, on the basis that in the United States siblings were not "important relatives".<ref name="o756">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="q468">Template:Cite web</ref> Christian Joppke dubbed Simpson "the Republican leader of immigration reform in Congress".<ref name="o330">Template:Cite book</ref> In one effort to reduce undocumented immigration, Simpson proposed a national magnetic strip-enabled identity card, an idea that was strongly opposed by both Democrats and Republicans, and likened to Nazi Germany.<ref name="c194">Template:Cite web</ref>

Simpson championed the Immigration Reform Act of 1995, which further restricted legal immigration avenues and the rights of immigrants, particularly staunching family reuinification, ostensibly in favor of degree-holding workers. Vijay Prashad argued measures such as the slew of immigration bills Simpson supported were rather a new wave of white supremacist sentiment, aimed especially at Latinos and Asians who were perceived by white Americans as "fundamentally 'immigrant' despite their generations-long presence in the United States". Simpson's 1995 bill "reinforce[d] the idea that immigrants are only wanted for their labor and not for their lives".<ref name="v980">Template:Cite book</ref>

Simpson resented the influence American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) had on protecting senior social programs like Social Security and Medicare—once referring to AARP as "evil".<ref name="l685">Template:Cite book</ref>

In his youth, Simpson was a Boy Scout and once visited Japanese American Scouts who, along with their families, were interned near Ralston, Wyoming, during World War II. He developed a life-long friendship with Norman Mineta, who later served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California from 1975 to 1995 and as the United States Secretary of Transportation during the Presidency of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their friendship spurred Simpson to support the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which provided reparations to Japanese Americans subjected to internment.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Aside from their time in Congress, Mineta and Simpson also served on the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simpson voted in favor of the 1983 Passage of Martin Luther King Jr. Day establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday and initially voted in favor of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, though he voted to sustain President Ronald Reagan's veto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Simpson voted in favor of the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination and Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination, the former of which failed.<ref name="McFadden">Template:Cite news</ref>

Simpson was considered as a potential vice presidential candidate for George H. W. Bush in the 1988 United States presidential election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In March 1991, Simpson denounced CNN (Cable News Network) journalist Peter Arnett as a sympathizer for Saddam Hussein over the latter's reporting from Baghdad, Iraq, during the Gulf War.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Simpson was harshly criticized for questioning Arnett's patriotism based on the latter's 1964 marriage to a Vietnamese woman rumored, but never confirmed, to be related to Viet Cong soldiers.<ref name="McFadden" /> In a letter to The New York Times, Simpson apologized for disparaging Arnett's family.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At Template:Convert, Simpson was the tallest Senator in United States history until overtaken by Template:Convert Luther Strange of Alabama in 2017, 20 years after his retirement.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Simpson would later claim to have shrunk to Template:Convert at age 85.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Post-Senate career

In 1995, he lost the position of Republican whip to U.S. Senate member Trent Lott from Mississippi,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and he did not seek reelection to the Senate in 1996. From 1997 to 2000, Simpson taught at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University's Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he served for two years as the Director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School.<ref name = McFadden/>

Simpson then returned to his hometown of Cody and practiced law there with his two sons (William and Colin) in the firm of Simpson, Kepler and Edwards.<ref name = McFadden/> The three were also partners in the firm of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine in Englewood, Colorado.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Colin M. Simpson, the third generation of his family in Wyoming politics, was a Republican member of the Wyoming House of Representatives who served as its Speaker from 2008 to March 2010. Colin Simpson finished fourth in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Simpson periodically taught at his alma mater, the University of Wyoming, with his brother Pete. From 2001 to 2005, he served as chairman of the UW Campaign for Distinction, which raised $204 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2018, Simpson was chosen as one of four speakers to eulogize President George H.W. Bush at his state funeral.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Simpson was involved in the 2002 Wyoming Republican gubernatorial primary on behalf of former Democrat Eli Bebout of Riverton, Wyoming.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Iraq Study Group

In 2006, Simpson was one of ten (five Democratic and five Republican) contributors to the Iraq Study Group Report.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

Simpson and Erskine Bowles meet with President Obama in 2010.

In 2010, Simpson was appointed to co-chair President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with Erskine Bowles.<ref name="Weisman">Template:Cite news</ref> Simpson extensively spoke about the burden being placed on future generations by the structure of current entitlement programs. In a 2012 opinion piece, journalist Matthew Miller recounted that as a senator, Simpson advised the nation's youth to collectively advocate for government reforms through an interest group.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He continued to advocate for fiscal responsibility as a board member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and founder of the Campaign to Fix the Debt.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref name="Sahadi">Template:Cite news</ref>

File:CRFB Annual Conference - Dinner Discussion with Judy Woodruff, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.webm

Campaign finance reform

Simpson was a strong critic of the US Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, calling for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in the case.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In an interview with Wyoming Public Radio, Simpson said: "I think most Americans would like to see reasonable limits on campaign spending."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, he joined the advisory board of American Promise, a national, cross-partisan organization that advocates for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution that would allow Congress and state governments to set limits on campaign finance in U.S. elections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

LGBTQ rights

Simpson supported LGBTQ rights throughout his life. In 2001, Simpson became Honorary Chairman of the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), a gay/straight alliance within the Republican Party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In that capacity, Simpson recruited former President Gerald Ford to serve on the RUC advisory board.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In a 2007 Washington Post article, Simpson criticized the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, stating that "'Gay' is an artificial category that says little about a person. Our differences and prejudices pale next to our historic challenge." The policy was ultimately ended in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Civic participation

Simpson was on the board of directors at the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD). The institute was created at the University of Arizona after the shooting of U.S House of Representatives member Gabby Giffords from Arizona.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope and co-chair of the advisory board of Issue One, a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life and death

In 1954, Simpson married the former Susan Ann Schroll, who he had met while studying at the University of Wyoming. Together, they had three children named William Simpson, Colin M. Simpson, and Susan Gallagher.<ref name="McFadden" />

Simpson's health declined after contracting frostbite in his late eighties, which led to the amputation of his lower left leg and foot.<ref name = McFadden/> In December 2024, he had broken a hip and never fully recovered, which led to his death under hospice care in Cody, Wyoming, on March 14, 2025 at age 93.<ref name = McFadden/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In popular culture

The June 7, 1994, edition of the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News reported that twelve senators were aliens of extraterrestrial life from other planets, including Simpson. The Associated Press ran a follow-up piece which confirmed the tongue-in-cheek participation of Senate offices in the story. Then-Senator Simpson's spokesman Charles Pelkey, when asked about Simpson's galactic origins, told the AP: "We've got only one thing to say: Klaatu barada nikto," quoting the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), in which an alien arrives in Washington, D.C. by flying saucer.<ref>"Senators Jokingly Confirm Tabloid Claim They Are Space Aliens", Associated Press, May 25, 1994</ref>

In December 2012, Simpson filmed a "Gangnam Style" video for a campaign, with a man in a tin can costume. The video, aimed at young people, is called "The Can Kicks Back," a reference to the tendencies of Congress to "kick the can down the road" instead of making difficult decisions about lowering the government debt. In the video, Simpson admonishes younger Americans to make better use of their social media than "instagramming your breakfast and tweeting your first world problems." He advises younger people to use their social media skills and resources to rally their friends to join The Can Kicks Back. If younger Americans do not take heed, Simpson advised, "These old coots will clean out the Treasury before you get there."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Recognition

Simpson awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in July 2022

In 1998, Simpson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, Simpson and Erskine Bowles were presented the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government for their work on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2022 Simpson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony at the White House.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Works

• Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with the Press. (William Morrow & Company, 1997). Template:ISBN.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Further reading

• Template:Cite episode The story of how Simpson acted as relationship counselor for a constituent.

Comments on Hmong

• Template:Cite book

Responses

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite thesis
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External links

• Template:CongLinks
• Alan K. Simpson—Nothing Else Matters (2011), documentary produced by Wyoming PBS
• Hon. Alan K. Simpson biography from his former lawfirm Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine

Archives

• Template:C-SPAN
• Alan K. Simpson papers, 1911-2021 (Template:ARK), archival collection of records from Simpson at American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

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