The Honorable Thomas M. Davis
Tom Davis was first elected to office in 1979, winning a hard-fought campaign to represent Mason District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. This would be the first of 11 straight victories, a winning streak spanning three decades.
In 1991, after spending 12 years as the Mason District supervisor, Tom defeated the incumbent chairman of the county board, taking the top elected office in Fairfax County, Virginia. Despite a severe economic downturn and a county budget deep in the red, Tom was able to implement a number of reforms that resulted in Fairfax being named the best managed county in the country by Governing Magazine.
In 1994, Tom successfully took on another incumbent, this time winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the 11th Congressional District of Virginia. He was the first freshman in 50 years to be given a subcommittee chairmanship, taking the gavel of the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Tom was widely recognized as a skilled legislator, an honest broker and a political mastermind. Through legislation such as the D.C. Control Board Act, he helped rescue the District of Columbia from its troubled fiscal situation. The National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 resulted in the closure of Lorton Prison, a long-standing but previously unachievable goal for the citizens of Fairfax County.
Tom also drew on his past experience as the general counsel of PRC,Inc. to establish a well-deserved reputation for expertise on procurement and information technology issues. In this regard, he was representative of his Northern Virginia district, the economy of which is driven by IT and government services. Measures such as the Federal Acquisition Reform Act, the Services Acquisition Reform Act, and the Federal Information Security Management Act illustrate Tom's knowledge of and interest in these matters.
Tom earned national recognition as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2000 and 2002, when was instrumental in maintaining his party's majority in the House of Representatives. He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of political minutia, often teaching members of Congress on the electoral history of their own districts. He has also twice won the Political Trivial Pursuit challenge sponsored by the Hotline and National Journal.
After the 2002 election, he was named chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, gaining national prominence once again by chairing hearings on the use of performance enhancing substances in professional sports. Other notable accomplishments include his hard-hitting but objective report on the federal response to Hurricane Katrina; his sponsorship of legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco; and passage of the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act, which authorizes much needed capital reinvestment in the Washington Metro system.
Tom now serves as a Director for Deloitte & Touche in which he continues his effort to being effective, common sense solutions to government.
The Honorable Beverly B. Byron
Beverly Byron of Frederick was western Maryland's representative to Congress from 1978 to 1992, elected to seven consecutive terms.
Rep. Byron served as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, where she was elected sub-committee chairman having oversight of 42% of the Defense Department's budget. She was a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and the Select Committee for Aging. From 1983-86 Mrs. Byron chaired the House Special Panel on Arms Control and Disarmament. In 1987 she was elected Chairman of the Military personnel and Compensation subcommittee, becoming the first woman chosen for a prominent leadership role on the Armed Services Committee. In her oversight, presided over policy issues that, with the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and the stunning changes in the Soviet Union, reshaped the American military.
Mrs. Byron served on the following committees: National Parks and Public Lands, and Water Power Offshore resources for the Interior Committee; Housing and Consumer Interests for the Select Committee on the Aging. In addition to her committee assignments, Mrs. Byron was appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on the Leadership Task Force on AIDS and the Task Force on Health in 1988 and 1989 respectively.
Mrs. Byron serves on the Board of Directors of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland, Farmers and Mechanics Bank and LMI. Mrs. Byron served on the Board of Directors of McDonnell-Douglas Co., Constellation Energy, and UNC of Annapolis.
She serves on the Executive Panel to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Air Force Memorial Foundation and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. She was also a member of NASA's Technology and Commercialization Advisory Committee and a member of the Secretary of Defenses' Advisory Committee on Women in Service. Upon leaving Congress, President Bush appointed her a Commissioner of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
In 1993 she was awarded the President' medal, Johns Hopkins University. Mrs. Byron received an honorary degree from Boston University, also Mount Saint Mary's College and Frostburg State University.
President Clinton appointed Mrs. Byron to the Board of Visitors, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland in 1995, which she chaired from 1998-2003.
Governor Glendening appointed her to Tedco in 2000, which she currently chairs.
In 1994 she founded Byron, Butcher and Associates that provides advice and assistance in Congressional and governmental affairs.
Born in Baltimore, Mrs. Byron was raised in Washington, DC where she graduated from the National Cathedral School. She later attended Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. Her late husband, Goodloe E. Byron, served in Congress from 1971 until his death in 1978. Mrs. Byron has three children, Goodloe E., Jr., Kimball, and Mary McComas Kunst. She is the grandmother of seven. In 1986 Mrs. Byron married B. Kirck Walsh, a Washington businessman. She has resided in Frederick since 1958.
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