Gradison, Willis D. (Willis David), 1928-

Willis David Gradison Jr. (born December 28, 1928) is an American investment broker, politician, and health care executive. A member of the Republican Party, he notably served as Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1971 and as a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 1st (1975-1983) and 2nd (1983-1993) congressional districts. He was the first Jewish Representative elected to the U.S. Congress from the State of Ohio.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he attended the elementary and secondary schools there before earning a B.A. from Yale University, an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, and a D.C.S. from Harvard University. Gradison worked as a lawyer and investment broker as well as assistant to the Under Secretary of the United States Treasury from 1953 to 1955 and as assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1955 to 1957. From 1961 to 1974, he served on the Cincinnati city council; in 1971, Gradison served as mayor. After narrowly losing the March 1974 special election for Ohio's 1st congressional district seat, he won the 1st district seat that November, serving the first of ten terms. He was redistricted to the 2nd district in 1983.

In Congress, Gradison was a member of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, during the 95th through the 101st U.S. Congress, and was closely involved in many successful legislative efforts. One effort was the original sponsorship of the bill providing the income tax indexing clause that was later inserted into President Reagan's famous tax reduction bill of 1981, called The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. He also served as ranking Republican of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security during the Social Security system reform of the early 1980s, and in particular when the Social Security Reform Act of 1983 was passed into law. Included in the 1983 reform act were provisions that Gradison had originated as U.S. Bills. In 1984, he sponsored a bill that clarified how non-statutory fringe benefits should be treated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in terms of how the IRS should issue regulations on fringe benefits. Gradison was also involved in parts of the 1986 tax reform legislation. He requested a study by the Joint Committee on Taxation on how far corporate tax rates could be reduced, in a revenue neutral fashion, if the 10% investment tax credit were eliminated. They reported that the top corporate tax rate could fall from 46% to 39%, while eliminating the investment tax credit, and still keep total revenue unchanged. This elimination of the 10% investment tax credit was then included in both the House and Senate versions of the bills that became the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which reduced top corporate tax rates to 34%.

Gradison resigned from Congress weeks into his tenth term to accept the position of president of the Health Insurance Association of America. In 2002, Gradison was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a founding Member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Gradison was unanimously reappointed to a full five-year term in August 2004, and served as Acting Chairman from December 2005 to July 2006. He remained a PCAOB Board member until February 2011. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.