Former Arizona lawmaker Jon Kyl dies at 84

Nearly three decades in Congress

Jon Kyl, a longtime Arizona lawmaker whose work included water policy, has died at 84. He spent almost three decades in Congress and served in both the House and the Senate.

His federal career extended from Ronald Reagan’s presidency to Donald Trump’s first term. The length of that service placed his work in more than one political era and gave him experience in the two chambers that write federal law.

Water policy in his record

Kyl helped shape water policy during his years representing Arizona. That work formed a distinct part of a congressional record that also stretched across changes in presidential leadership.

His service in each chamber gave him two different roles in the federal legislative process: one in the House and one in the Senate. Together, those parts of his career made him a long-serving Arizona voice in Congress, including on water questions.

A changing political period

Kyl also watched his party change drastically over the course of his career. Reagan was president during the early part of that span, while Kyl’s service reached into Trump’s first term.

Those two presidencies mark the breadth of the period his congressional career covered. Kyl’s years in office connected an earlier period in his party with the substantially different party he encountered decades later. He was 84 when he died, after a federal career defined by service in both chambers and work on water policy.