Barney Frank, one of the first openly gay members of Congress and the progressive Democratic namesake of the Dodd-Frank Act, died on May 19, according to media reports. He was 86.
Frank had entered hospice care at his home in Maine in April, his sister told NBC Boston.
Frank represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2013. He served as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee from 2007 to 2011, and was a leading sponsor of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted to provide financial stability following the 2008 mortgage crisis.
"In the aftermath of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Barney Frank was the gravelly-voiced, smart-as-a-whip congressman who fought hard to get the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the finish line," U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement on May 20. "His one-liners were wicked and wickedly funny. Barney delivered for working people, and the world is a poorer place without him."