Ed Whitfield
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Tom Barlow
Personal details
Born	(1943-05-25) May 25, 1943 (age 69) Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Political party	Democratic (1974-1994) Republican (1994-present)
Spouse(s)	Constance Whitfield
Residence	Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Alma mater	University of Kentucky
Occupation	attorney, railroad executive
Religion	Methodist
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1967-1973
Rank	First Lieutenant
Unit	Reserves

Wayne Edward "Ed" Whitfield (born May 25, 1943) is the U.S. Representative of Kentucky's 1st congressional district, serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party.

The district covers much of the western part of the state, including Hopkinsville, Paducah, Henderson and Kentucky's share of Fort Campbell.

Early life, education and career[link]

Whitfield was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and attended the University of Kentucky for both undergraduate and law school, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.^[1] He also attended the Wesley Theological Seminary. He served in the United States Army Reserve and reached the rank of First Lieutenant. He served as legal counsel to executives at Seaboard System Railroad of Washington. He served as a vice president for the later CSX Corporation in two different capacities and was the legal counsel to the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1991 to 1993.

Kentucky House of Representatives[link]

Whitfield gained his first political experience as a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1979.

U.S. Representative[link]

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Power (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Environment and Economy
  • Subcommittee on Health

Whitfield is a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership. On his official website, he represents himself as a conservative who has consistently voted pro-life and "supports allowing students to engage in voluntary school prayer." He also lists military issues and encouraging the use of coal and nuclear power as substitutes for oil as two of his main priorities. The Sunlight Foundation pointed out that among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Whitfield has the seventh-highest amount of investment in oil stocks.^[2]

He was one of three Republicans who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.^[3]

When chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations within the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Whitfield held hearings on child pornography and flag burning.

He is the co-sponsor, with Fred Upton, of the “Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011”.^[4]

Political campaigns[link]

Whitfield had been a Democrat for most of his life, but in 1994 filed to run in the 1st District as a Republican. He defeated the 1992 Republican nominee, Steve Hamrick, in the primary, and then narrowly defeated freshman Democratic Congressman Tom Barlow by only 2,500 votes. He narrowly defeated Dennis Null in 1996 even as Bill Clinton carried the district, but hasn't faced a close race since.

Personal life[link]

Whitfield's wife, Constance Whitfield, is a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

References[link]

1. ^ "Delta Tau Delta | About Us: Subpage". Delts.org. http://www.delts.org/about/famousdelts.html. Retrieved 2010-08-23. 
2. ^ "The Sunlight Foundation Blog - Oil Industry Influence: Personal Finances'". Sunlight Foundation. August 8, 2008. http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/08/08/oil-industry-influence-personal-finances/.  Retrieved on Aug. 8, 2008
3. ^ http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll009.xml#Y
4. ^ http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dhawkins/dirty_air_extremism.html

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed Whitfield

• U.S. Congressman Ed Whitfield official U.S. House site
• Whitfield for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs

Henry Waxman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 30th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Xavier Becerra
Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
In office January 5, 2009 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by	John Dingell
Succeeded by	Fred Upton
Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
In office January 4, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Thomas M. Davis
Succeeded by	Edolphus Towns
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 29th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Maxine Waters
Succeeded by	Adam Schiff
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 24th district
In office January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	John H. Rousselot
Succeeded by	Anthony C. Beilenson
Member of the California State Assembly
In office 1969–1974
Personal details
Born	Henry Arnold Waxman (1939-09-12) September 12, 1939 (age 72) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Janet Kessler
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles UCLA School of Law
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Judaism

Henry Arnold Waxman (born September 12, 1939) is the U.S. Representative for California's 30th congressional district, serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress. His district includes much of the western part of the city of Los Angeles, as well as West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, and used to be the 29th District before the post-2000 census redistricting. Before his election to Congress, he served six years in the California State Assembly.

Early life, education, and early career[link]

Waxman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Esther (Silverman) and Ralph Louis Waxman. His father was born in Montreal, Canada, and his mother was from Pennsylvania; all of his grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Chişinău.^[1] He attended college at UCLA, earning a bachelor's degree in political science in 1961 and a degree from UCLA's law school in 1964. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer. He was elected to the California Assembly in 1969 and served three terms. Along with Congressman Howard Berman, Waxman co-founded the Los Angeles County Young Democrats.

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

Elections[link]

In 1974, the special masters plan a Hispanic influence district. Ed Roybal's as some areas from Thomas Rees' district was formed to create the 24th district, in the neighborhoods west of downtown Los Angeles. Waxman won the Democratic nomination for the district, and easily won the general election, as this was tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic district. He never won re-election with less than 61% of the vote. He has been re-elected 16 times, never facing substantive opposition. He faced no major-party opposition in 1986, and was completely unopposed in 2008. His district has changed numbers three times in his tenure—from the 24th (1975–1993) to the 29th (1993–2003) to the 30th (2003–present). He is one of two surviving members of the large Democratic freshman class of 1975, along with George Miller of California.

Waxman's district, California's 30th congressional district, includes Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu, West Hollywood, and Westlake Village as well as such areas of Los Angeles as West Los Angeles, Fairfax, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Beverlywood, Topanga, Chatsworth, Palms, Westwood, West Hills, Westside Village, Woodland Hills.

Tenure[link]

Before the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 1995, Waxman was a powerful figure in the House as chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment from 1979. In this role he conducted investigations into a range of health and environmental issues, including universal health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, AIDS and air and water pollution.

According to his Web site, Waxman's legislative priorities are health and environmental issues. These include universal health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, tobacco, AIDS, air and water quality standards, pesticides, nursing home quality standards, women's health research and reproductive rights, the availability and cost of prescription drugs, and the right of communities to know about pollution levels. As an example of Waxman's thoughts regarding tobacco, on April 13, 2010, he requested that Major League Baseball ban smokeless tobacco.^[2]

Waxman was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which places limits on taxpayer-funded abortions in the context of the November 2009 Affordable Health Care for America Act.

In 1998, he created a "Special Investigations Division" to investigate matters that he felt the full committee had neglected. This was possible because the committee has broad powers to investigate any matter with federal policy implications, even if another committee has jurisdiction over it.^[3] He has also harshly criticized the Republicans for ignoring their "constitutional responsibility" to conduct oversight over the government.^[4]

With the Democrats' victory in the 2006 midterm elections, Waxman became chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the principal investigative committee of the House. He was the committee's ranking Democrat from 1997 to 2007. In 2009, he began serving as the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee after defeating Chairman John Dingell in a 137–122 secret vote of House Democrats on November 20, 2008.

On the day after the 2006 elections, Waxman directed his aides to draw up an "oversight plan" for the panel. He had already let it be known that he wanted to investigate Halliburton, as well as its alleged malfeasance related to government contracts in Iraq. It is very likely that he could also investigate the numerous scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff. This led to concerns among Democratic aides that the Government Reform Committee under Waxman would stage a repeat of the committee's performance under the Clinton administration, when it issued over 1,000 subpoenas. However, Waxman told Newsweek that he is interested in accountability and not retaliation.^[5]

On March 16, 2004, at Waxman's request, the Committee on Government Reform Minority Office published "Iraq on the Record, the Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq"^[6] a detailed and searchable collection of 237 specific misleading statements made by Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq. It contains statements that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made. It does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight. If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was made, it was excluded even if it now appears erroneous.

In 2006, Project On Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, presented Waxman with its Good Government Award for his various contributions to government transparency and oversight.^[7]

In 2007, Waxman changed the committee's name from the Government Reform Committee to the "Oversight and Government Reform Committee," or the "Oversight Committee" for short.

In 1985, Waxman sponsored a bill supported by affluent homeowners groups in his district to ban federal funding for the Red Line subway after a methane gas explosion in the Fairfax District. In 2005, a robust real estate market, multi-dwelling construction boom, and lack of public mass transit planning on the westside caused by Waxman's bill resulted in gridlock throughout Waxman's district.^[8] At the request of Los Angeles Mayor and LACMTA Board President Antonio Villaraigosa, Waxman agreed to lift the ban if a panel of five engineers found tunneling under the Miracle Mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard to be safe. In October 2005, the panel decided that tunneling was possible, and on December 16, Waxman responded by announcing he would introduce a bill to the U.S. House that would lift the ban on federal money for subway tunneling in the district. This bill passed the House via unanimous vote on September 20, 2006.^[9]

Waxman maintains that the 1985 bill was sponsored in the interest of public safety and not, as some allege, to hinder access of the working classes in South and East Los Angeles to his affluent district. In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, Waxman cites the 2005 study: "The panel concurred as well that in 1985, the decision to hold further tunneling in abeyance was prudent, given the circumstances and extent of information and technology at that time. Much has changed since then to significantly improve tunneling and operation safety."^[10]

In January 2011, Republicans became the majority party again in the House, ending Democratic chairmanships.

Waxman had a reputation for a vigorous approach to oversight long before becoming ranking Democrat on what was then the Government Reform Committee in 1997. He was well known for insisting that witnesses appearing before his subcommittee testify under oath, thus exposing them to perjury charges if they didn't tell the truth. For example, in 1994, he forced the chief executives of the seven major tobacco companies to swear under oath that nicotine was not addictive.

Committee assignments[link]

• Committee on Energy and Commerce (Ranking Member)
  • As ranking member of the full committee, Rep. Waxman may serve as an ex officio member of all subcommittees.

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Space Caucus
• Congressional Travel & Tourism Caucus
• International Conservation Caucus

Electoral history[link]

Personal life[link]

Waxman and his wife, the former Janet Kessler, have a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren.

Jewish identity[link]

Waxman is proud of his "strong Jewish identity" and has drawn political conclusions from his exploration of the religion.^[14] "Judaism is about acting and doing the right thing, not simply believing in it or mindlessly following ritual," he said in a speech presented by the University of Southern California's Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life.^[14] Waxman said he applies Jewish ethical values to his congressional service. He further said that the "Jewish values" of "human rights, social justice, and equal opportunities ... are synonymous with American values," and that such values "are in my opinion closer to a Democratic position." Waxman supported fellow representative Jane Harman during her primary challenge from Marcy Winograd when Winograd said she would support a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, instead of the two-state resolution endorsed by Waxman and Harman. Saying it suffers from "a culture of corruption" and "has become obsessed with secrecy," he accused the American government of having abandoned these values. "(The) Republican leadership ignores presidential rules and norms and has no consideration for custom," he said.^{[citation needed]}

Mr. Waxman claimed that some Jews vote against Democrat candidates supported by the Obama administration "because of their misunderstanding of Obama's policies in the Middle East, and some of it, quite frankly, for economic reasons. They feel they want to protect their wealth..."^[15]

See also[link]

• Hatch-Waxman Act
• Politicization of science for a brief discussion of Waxman's work on the subject
• Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 for Waxman's take on whether that bill became law or not
• American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill, legislation for the introduction of emissions trading into the United States.
• The Waxman Report – book written by Waxman
• Bigger Faster Stronger- where he does not know the legal drinking age in the United States

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Henry Waxman

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Author:Henry Arnold Waxman

• U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman official U.S. House site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Profile at the Jewish Virtual Library
• Profile at SourceWatch

Articles

• The Scariest Guy in Washington Karen Tumulty, Time, November 27, 2006
• Congressman writes White House: Did President knowingly sign law that didn't pass?, The Raw Story, March 15, 2006
• On Chalabi, Congress, and Getting Back to Work Rep. Henry Waxman, Huffington Post, November 12, 2005
• Rep. Henry Waxman on Karl Rove: "The President Said He Would Fire Anybody He Found Responsible", Democracy Now, July 12, 2005
• Red Line to Somewhere Christine Pelisek, LA Weekly, Thursday, March 3, 2005, interview on subway proposal
• Waxman: Democrats' Eliot Ness David Corn, The Nation, January 27, 2005
• BuzzFlash Interviews Congressman Henry Waxman January 31, 2002
• BuzzFlash Interviews Congressman Henry Waxman December 24, 2001
• Los Angeles Times Interview: Henry Waxman Robert Scheer. LA Times, October 10, 1993
• The Almanac of American Politics, "Rep. Henry Waxman (D) – California District 30"