After about a year battling brain cancer, Oldaker Law Group partner Frank Cushing died Monday at his Falls Church, Va., home. He was 59.
Cushing, who joined Washington-based Oldaker in 2008 after working on Capitol Hill, focused on appropriations, budget, energy, environmental and science issues at the firm. In 2011, he lobbied for more than a dozen organizations, including General Atomics Corp., the Environmental Defense Action Fund and University of Chicago, according to congressional records.
His last visit to his office was in December, Oldaker partner Joel Widder said. “It wasn’t a complete surprise,” he said. “But it is a big hole.”
Cushing was “an extraordinary person” with a deep interest in science, Widder said. During his career, Cushing helped secure funding for numerous science programs and projects, including the new Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which was dedicated in 2008. Widder said that this year, he gave Cushing a U.S. flag that flew over the Antarctic scientific station in his colleague’s honor.
“He was a great help and great advocate for [science] spending,” Widder said.
During the past three decades, Cushing held several senior posts as a congressional staffer.
From 2005 to 2007, Cushing served as the clerk and staff director of the House Appropriations Committee under then-chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.). He previously was the clerk and staff director for the Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee's Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and independent agencies subcommittee from 1995 to 2003. That panel handled appropriations for NASA, the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and other science-related agencies, in addition to the Veteran Affairs and Housing and Urban Development departments.
In the Senate, Cushing served as staff director for the Republicans on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 1984 to 1991 and was their clerk and staff director on the Appropriations Interior subcommittee from 1981 to 1984.
Between those congressional stints, Cushing worked on federal affairs for Coastal Corp., becoming a vice president of the Houston-based energy company in 1994. Cushing also was a lobbyist at Cornerstone Government Affairs from 2003 to 2004.
He is survived by his wife, Amy Hammer; his mother, Elizabeth Cushing; his brother, William Cushing; four children; and a dozen grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 3 p.m., at Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church.
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