Former New Hampshire Sen. Warren Rudman died overnight, the Union Leader reports. He was 82. He had been in declining health.
Rudman was a co-author of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction act.
He was best known, however, for his co-writing of the bill with fellow Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and Democrat Ernest Hollings of South Carolina. The bill required “sequestration’’ of federal funding if deficit targets were not reached. The move helped reduce the deficit during the 1990s. President Bill Clinton asked Rudman to become his Treasury secretary but Rudman declined.