CALIFORNIA
      Nov. 2, 2010 U.S. Senate

Bio - 8 1/2" x 11". 


In these challenging economic times, Senator Barbara Boxer' s top priority is getting California back on track and getting Californians back to work.
 
Senator Boxer supported the 2009 economic stimulus plan, which is protecting and creating American jobs. She coauthored the bipartisan Invest in the U.S.A. Act, to encourage companies to bring overseas profits back to the United States to create jobs here. She has worked to provide funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which would help American manufacturing companies remain competitive and keep jobs in the United States. To keep jobs and investment at home, she called for ending the tax break that companies receive for moving plants overseas.

Senator Boxer wrote the first-ever law to authorize federal funding for afterschool programs, so that children have a safe and enriching place to go at the end of the school day. She also wrote the law that provides businesses with an enhanced tax credit for donating computer equipment to schools, and she is a strong supporter of the tax deduction to help pay for the costs of a college education.

Boxer has been a strong supporter of health care reform measures to put patients first throughout her career. To provide quality health care, Boxer authored one of the first bills in the Senate to combat HMO abuses and to enact a Patients' Bill of Rights – so that medical decisions are made by doctors and patients, not HMO bureaucrats. She has written a bill to provide a tax deduction to help pay for the cost of health insurance premiums, and she believes that all Americans should have access to the same health insurance program that members of Congress have. Senator Boxer supports allowing Americans to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada. And, she has been a strong advocate for increasing medical research funding to find cures for diseases.

As Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer believes that a strong economy and a healthy environment go hand in hand. One of her top priorities has been to address climate change, fighting for legislation to create clean energy jobs and reduce carbon emissions.

Boxer wrote the law to ensure that drinking water standards are set to protect children and other vulnerable populations and fought the Bush Administration's attempt to allow more arsenic in drinking water. She supports expanding the program to clean up toxic waste sites, and she is pushing to ensure that polluters – not taxpayers – pay to clean up the mess. And, since 2005, she has won passage of legislation to protect as wilderness more than one million acres of pristine land in California.

Following the September 11 attacks, Boxer authored and fought for a bill to increase security in our transportation system and at our ports as well as to provide assistance to local first responders. She wrote the law allowing airline pilots with special training to carry guns in the cockpit, the law requiring that air marshals are on board high-risk flights, and the law that ensures California's entire rail system is eligible for security grants to protect against possible terrorist attacks.

In 1990, while a member of the House, Boxer authored the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which became law in 1994 as part of the comprehensive federal Crime Bill. Senator Boxer was also a strong advocate of the COPS program to put more police on the streets and directing stimulus funding to the COPS program.

Boxer is the Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and also chairs the Senate Ethics Committee, the only Senator to chair two committees.

She also serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, where she is a member of the following Subcommittees: Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance; Aviation Operations and Security; Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard; Science and Space; and Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security.
On the Foreign Relations Committee, Boxer chairs the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues.

Boxer started her career in public service in local government, serving six years as a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, including becoming the first woman to be elected by her peers as Chair of the Board.

Boxer was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and represented the Bay Area for 10 years. In 1992, she was elected to the Senate, making history with Senator Dianne Feinstein, as the first time two women had been elected as Senators from one state. Elected to a third Senate term in 2004, she received more than 6.9 million votes – the highest vote total for any Senate candidate in U.S. history.

Before her career in public service, Boxer was a stockbroker, graduating from Brooklyn College with a B.A. in Economics.


P.O. Box 411176, Los Angeles, CA 90041
www.BarbaraBoxer.com

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