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| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 21em; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;" cellpadding="3"|+ style="font-size: larger;" | Barbara Boxer |- | colspan="2" style="text-align: cenmter;" | |- | colspan="2" | |- | colspan="2" | 1993–Present |- |- ! Political party: | Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and the current junior U.S. Senator from the State of California. A member of the Democratic Party, Boxer was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. Throughout her career, Boxer has been a vocal advocate for environmental issues, women's rights, gun control, and medical research. She is generally classified as a progressive in the left wing of her party and is often in conflict with conservative groups. Her electoral margins have increased each time she has sought re-election. Early Life and Family Barbara Levy was born to a Jewish family and a Polish-born mother in Brooklyn, New York, attended public schools, and graduated from Wingate High School in 1958. She also attended Camp Kinder Ring in Hopewell Junction, New York as a child. Levy graduated from Brooklyn College in 1962 with a degree in Economics. That same year she married Stewart Boxer. Boxer worked as a stockbroker for the next three years, while her husband went through law school. Later, the couple moved to Greenbrae, Marin County, California, and had two children, Doug and Nicole. During the 1970s Boxer worked as a journalist for the Pacific Sun and as a congressional aide. In 1976, Boxer was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, serving for six years. She served as the first woman president of the board for a portion of those years. In 1994, their daughter, Nicole Boxer, married Tony Rodham, brother of then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a ceremony at the White House. The couple had one son, Zachary, and divorced in 2000. Boxer's first novel A Time to Run, published in 2005 by San Francisco-based publishing company Chronicle Books, was released to mixed reviews. U.S. Representative Boxer was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, where she represented California District 6 (Marin County) for five terms. During this time she focused on human rights, environmental protection, military procurement reform, and pro-choice issues. She was also involved in seeking protection for whistleblowers in government and pushed for higher budget allocations for health, biomedical research, and education. Boxer, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, exposed, with the help of the Project on Military Procurement (now POGO), the '$7,600 Pentagon coffee pot' and successfully passed more than a dozen procurement reforms. However, Boxer also was involved in the House banking scandal in which congressmen, herself included, wrote bad checks in large amounts, an issue that the Sacramento Bee covered in a March 1, 1992 article quoting Boxer as admitting she didn't pay enough attention to her House bank account. More specifically, that meant 143 bad checks totaling $41,417 over a three-year period that she had written on the House bank. In 1991, during the Anita Hill Senate hearings, where Hill accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, Boxer led a group of women House members to the Senate Judiciary Committee -- demanding that the all-white, all-male Committee of Senators take Hill's charges seriously. This helped propel Boxer's candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 1992, when a record number of women ran for the U.S. Senate. Elections Senator Boxer's predecessor, Democrat Alan Cranston, retired in 1992. She won the open seat contest in the U.S. Senate election, 1992, defeating Bruce Herschensohn, a conservative television commentator, by 3 percentage points after a last-minute revelation that Herschenson had attended a strip club. In 1998 she was re-elected for a second term, beating Matt Fong, a former state treasurer, by 10 percentage points. She had decided to retire in 2004 but says she decided to recontest to "fight for the right to dissent" against conservatives like Tom DeLay. After facing no primaries opposition in the 2004 election, Boxer decisively defeated Republican candidate Bill Jones, a former California Secretary of State, by a margin of 20%, garnering the highest number of votes in the history of direct elections for the U.S. Senate (with 6,955,728 votes ) in the nation's most populous state, and the third highest vote total in the country in 2004 (behind only presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry). Health care Senator Boxer is part of a coalition to increase medical research to find cures for diseases. Boxer authored successful bipartisan legislation to accelerate America's contribution to combat global HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. She authored a Patients' Bill of Rights in 1997. She has written a bill to make health insurance tax deductible and another bill to let any American buy into the same health insurance program that members of Congress have. She supports comprehensive prescription drug coverage through Medicare and the right of all consumers to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs reimported from Canada. In October 2002, Boxer urged the Bush Administration to take specific steps to address the causes of the steep increase in autism cases in California. She wrote HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to establish a common national standard for the diagnosis of autism; instruct the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to convene a task force to review the current literature on autism and conduct its own study if necessary; and direct the NIH and CDC to work with the states to create a national chronic disease database. Boxer is an advocate for stem-cell research, which she believes has the potential to help those with diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, and other diseases. Education Boxer introduced legislation providing federal funding for local after-school programs, which have been shown to increase student performance while decreasing juvenile delinquency, crime, and drug use. Her 'Computers in Classrooms' law encourages the donation of computers and software to schools. Boxer supported the No Child Left Behind Act. Since its passage in 2001, she claims that the bill has been underfunded by billions of dollars and aims to make sure it is fully funded, as originally pledged by President Bush. Boxer has voted to increase the maximum award for the Pell Grant program, which provides grants to lower income students for college. In addition, she has supported tax benefits to help more families pay for higher education. Boxer has introduced legislation to allow college graduates to refinance their student loans at market rate, in order to ease the financial burden on those starting their careers. Boxer established the Excellence in Education award to recognize teachers, parents, businesses and organizations that are working to make positive changes in education. Since 1997 Senator Boxer has presented the Excellence in Education Award to 38 recipients. The economy Senators Boxer and John Ensign of (R-NV) are the authors of the Invest in the USA Act. This legislation, which was signed into law in October 2004, is intended to encourage American companies to bring overseas profits back to the United States, to create jobs in the U.S., and stimulate domestic economic growth. According to one economic estimate, the Invest in the USA Act will create over 600,000 new American jobs. In March 2004, Senator Boxer offered an amendment to the federal budget to create a $24 billion jobs reserve fund. The amendment would set aside funds for a variety of investments to improve the economy and create jobs by establishing a manufacturing jobs tax credit for companies that create jobs in the United States, expanding investment in science research and development, providing a tax credit to small businesses to pay for health insurance for their employees, and expanding trade adjustment assistance to help those who lose their jobs because of foreign trade. The Boxer amendment would also end the tax break that companies receive for moving plants overseas. The environment Boxer successfully led the 2003 Senate floor battle to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2005, Boxer voted again to block oil drilling at ANWR. Boxer has introduced the National Oceans Protection Act (NOPA) of 2005. Some of the provisions of this act are: strengthen ocean governance; protect and restore marine wildlife and habitats; address ocean pollution; improve fisheries management. The bill also addresses needs regarding marine science, research and technology, marine mammals, coastal development, and invasive species. Boxer is an original co-sponsor of Senator Jim Jeffords’ (I-VT) Clean Power Act. This legislation would reduce emissions of four pollutants coming from power plants; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury. Womens rights Boxer authored the Freedom of Choice Act of 2004 and participated in the floor fight for passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. As a member of the House of Representatives, Boxer authored the original Violence Against Women Act. Later in 1994, she co-sponsored, and the Senate passed, the Violence Against Women Act, which provided reforms to the criminal justice system to better prosecute violent crimes against women, and provided federal funding to local law enforcement agencies for training and equipment necessary for prosecution. Boxer has also authored the Violence Against Children Act, based on the successful VAWA. Boxer is an original cosponsor of the Title X Family Planning Services Act of 2005, S.844, by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). This legislation aims to reduce unintended pregnancies, reduce the number of abortions, and improve access to women's health care. It authorizes funding for family planning services grants; allows states to provide such services to individuals who may not be eligible for Medicaid; prohibits health insurance providers from excluding contraceptive services, drugs or devices from benefits; establishes a program to disseminate information on emergency contraception; requires hospitals receiving federal funding to offer emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault; provides grants to public and private entities to establish or expand teen pregnancy prevention programs; and requires that federally funded education programs about contraception be medically accurate and include information about health benefits and failure rates. Boxer does not support restrictions on the availability of abortion, such as late term ("partial-birth") abortion procedures, and parental notification requirements. Social Security Boxer supports the current system of Social Security, and opposed President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. . She introduced the 401(k) Pension Protection Act to protect workers’ retirement by requiring the diversification of 401(k) plans. A modified version of the bill was signed into law as part of the 1997 tax bill. Following the Enron scandal, Boxer again worked to ensure that retirement plans are diversified. She also introduced a bill to prohibit accounting firms from auditing and consulting for the same company. National security
Election reform
Bush nominees During the confirmation hearings for the Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice in January 2005, Boxer challenged her to admit to alleged mistakes and false statements made by the Bush Administration in leading the United States into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and ultimately voted against confirmation, along with twelve other senators. *, * The dissent comprised the highest vote against a Secretary of State nominee since 1825 when Henry Clay was so named. Boxer voted against John Bolton's nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and filibustered him on the Senate floor. As a result of the strong Democrat opposition Bolton could not obtain Senate approval. However, President Bush bypassed the Senate by employing the constitutional right of recess appointment, only the second time such an appointment has been used for a United States ambassador to the United Nations since the UN's founding in 1945. Recess appointments themselves have been used numerous times by various presidents. Boxer voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice of the United States nominee John Roberts, and against the confirmation of Associate Justice nominee Samuel Alito.*, * Her votes against these two nominees were motivated by concerns over their record on abortion, women's rights, and the proper role of executive authority. Foreign policy
The Internet Along with Republican Senator George Allen (R-VA), Boxer authored the Jumpstart Broadband Act. This bill would make more spectrum available for use by devices that incorporate new broadband technology, such as WiFi. The Federal Communications Commission is now implementing the Boxer-Allen bill. Boxer is also supporting legislation to provide a 20% tax credit for expanding broadband to rural areas. Boxer opposes access and sales taxes on the Internet, co-authoring a bill with Republican Sen. George Allen in 2001 to extend the Internet tax moratorium for five years. She is also the co-author of bipartisan legislation to protect stock options. Boxer has joined in introducing the Spy Block Act of 2005, S. 687, in the U.S. Senate. The bill would regulate the unauthorized installation of computer software; require disclosure of software features that may pose a threat to privacy; prohibits false/misleading representations about software that cannot be uninstalled or disabled through usual program removal functions. Gun control Boxer authored legislation to require child safety locks on guns. Senator Boxer joined colleagues to pass a Federal ban on various semi-automatic firearms and established the COPS program. She supports reauthorization of both programs. She also supports a ban on so-called 'cop-killer' bullets (with hard metal cores which can penetrate protective vests) and authored legislation to require child safety locks on guns. Senator Boxer introduced legislation which would require American-made handguns to meet the same quality and safety standards as imported guns, in an attempt to get these "Saturday night special" guns off of the "street". These so-called "junk guns" are inexpensive, easily concealable, and are often purchased by those who cannot afford higher quality weapons, such as lower-income minorities. Gay rights Boxer has been a strong voice in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians. She has publicly spoken out against the Federal Marriage Amendment and has been a strong supporter of domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples and their protection from workplace discrimination. In 1996, she was one of fourteen senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act. Senator Boxer is a cosponsor of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would aid federal authorities in assisting local hate crime investigations and prosecutions and would expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes based on the victim's gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Boxer is a cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act, a bill which would allow US citizens and legal residents to sponsor their same-sex partners for residency. India-US nuclear deal Barbara Boxer is one of the most outspoken critics of the Nuclear energy deal between USA and India. Boxer is of the opinion that India should not get help from the US in the civilian nuclear energy sector until it breaks its relationship with Iran. Indian Gaming The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly the Federated Coast Miwok, was officially recognized by the U.S. government on December 27, 2000, pursuant to an act of Congress. California 6th District Representative Lynn Woolsey introduced the Graton Rancheria Restoration Act (105th CONGRESS, 2d Session, H.R. 4434) August 6, 1998. It was ultimately approved and signed by President Clinton as Title XIV of the Omnibus Indian Advancement Act (Public Law No. 106-568). Representative Woolsey's original bill (H.R. 4434, later H.R. 946) would not have permitted the FIGR to have an Indian casino. Senator Boxer removed that prohibition when she included Woolsey's bill in the Omnibus Act. Ideological ratings The American Civil Liberties Union has given her 75%.* The League of Conservation Voters has given her 100% on environmental issues. * The American Conservative Union has given her a lifetime rating of 3 (out of a possible 100). * Awards and honors Boxer has been honored in Congress by: Boxer has been recognized as a champion of human rights by: Boxer has been presented with various other honors: Senate Committee assignments Barbara Boxer serves on the: A member of the Senate Democratic Leadership, Boxer serves as the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip, which gives her the job, along with Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, of lining up votes on key legislation. She also serves on the Democratic Policy Committee's Committee on Oversight and Investigations. Possible presidential run in 2008 Having distinguished herself with her staunch liberal credentials, Barbara Boxer is favored by liberal activists as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. Major speeches and statements Trivia | |||||||||||||
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