CQ Custom Member Profiles Source: CQ Member Profiles Sen. Barbara Boxer (D–Calif.) Junior Senator from California Residence: Rancho Mirage Born: Nov. 11, 1940; Brooklyn, N.Y. Religion: Jewish Family: Husband, Stewart Boxer; two children Education: Brooklyn College, B.A. 1962 (economics) Military Service: None Career: Congressional aide; journalist; stockbroker Elected: 1992 (3rd term) Note: Chief Deputy Whip Political Highlights: Candidate for Marin County Board of Supervisors, 1972; Marin County Board of Supervisors, 1977-83 (president, 1980); U.S. House, 1983-93 Committees: • Commerce, Science & Transportation (Aviation Operations, Safety & Security; Consumer Protection, Product Safety & Insurance; Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries & Coast Guard; Science & Space; Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine) • Environment & Public Works (Chairwoman) • Foreign Relations (East Asian & Pacific Affairs; International Development; International Operations & Organizations; Near Eastern & South & Central Asian Affairs) • Select Ethics (Chairwoman) Phone: 202-224-3553 | Fax: 202-228-3972 | Web: http://boxer.senate.gov 112 Hart Bldg. | Washington, DC 20510-0505 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D–Calif.) Junior Senator from California Link to Profile Archives: February 2009 | October 2008 | April 2007 (PIA) | 109th Congress | 108th Congress | 107th Congress | 106th Congress | 105th Congress | 104th Congress CQ Politics in America Profile (Updated: March 11, 2009) As chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer has sparked more than a few YouTube moments in which she has brassily put down her opponents. That is hardly surprising, given her repeated outspokenness during her quarter-century on Capitol Hill. Boxer’s brash liberalism, environmentalism, feminist sympathies and anti-war sentiment have made her an icon of the political left. She often displays little patience for those who don’t share her views. “When I believe in something, I believe in it strongly,” she once said. In March 2007, not long after assuming the Environment post, Boxer hosted a hearing for former Vice President Al Gore to allow him to discuss his well-known views on how global warming must be confronted. When the committee’s ranking Republican, global warming skeptic James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, asked Gore to respond to his questions in writing, Boxer ordered Inhofe to allow the Nobel Prize winner to speak. “You’re not making the rules anymore. You used to when you had this,” she told the former GOP committee chairman, holding up the gavel. “Elections have consequences.” Boxer is likely to be a strong ally of President Obama’s administration after having tangled with George W. Bush’s appointees. She called for EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s resignation for his agency’s decision under Bush to black out information in documents her panel had sought as it investigated the Bush administration’s opposition to California’s bid for a waiver from federal rules limiting its ability to regulate car and truck emissions. Relations between the two grew so bad that for much of 2008 he refused to appear before her committee. When he and some of his top aides didn’t show up for a September hearing on the administration’s environmental record, Boxer let loose. “They’re cowardly and they have been a danger to this country,” she said. The incidents showed Boxer’s often-blunt style with opponents while demonstrating her commitment to combating global warming, a topic she calls her top legislative priority. She has had trouble, though, finding any consensus on the divisive issue. The closest she came was in June 2008, when the Senate almost took up a sweeping bill that would have created a mandatory “cap and trade” program to deal with global warming. Instead, the bipartisan legislation was never debated, as parliamentary wrangling left it shelved. In February 2009, Boxer predicted her committee would move a global warming bill in time to bring to international climate talks in Copenhagen that December. She said she needed time to ensure the bill has wide support. “We want to get a bill out there that is straightforward,” she said, and “doesn’t have so much weight that it sinks.” Getting major legislation passed has not been the trademark of Boxer’s career. Heading into the 110th Congress (2007-08), only one Boxer- sponsored Senate bill had ever been enacted into law. That 1994 measure allowed states to conduct seismic retrofitting of bridges without regard to whether the bridges could be fixed or replaced under an existing federal program. Nevertheless, she keeps a busy agenda. She has pushed legislation to protect people from exposure to perchlorate, a toxic component in rocket fuel that has contaminated drinking water in 35 states. She has tangled with the Bush administration over its refusal to list polar bears as endangered species and its decision to end the ban on offshore drilling, a significant environmental concern in California. A key legislative victory for Boxer came in November 2007, when the Senate voted to override Bush’s veto of the $23.2 billion Water Resources Development Act, a popular piece of legislation authorizing water projects but that Bush criticized as too expensive. His veto prompted a rare legislative moment in which Boxer and Inhofe worked together to reverse the president. She has taken up the cause of the nation’s vanishing honeybees, which have been suffering from “colony collapse disorder.” In seeking funding to study the decline in the insect that is a vital pollinator for many crops, Boxer has warned that the bees’ decline could cause a $15 billion direct loss in crop production, including in such important California crops as almonds. Boxer also has proposed putting anti-missile technology on U.S. commercial aircraft. And as an almost weekly cross-country commuter, she has pushed for enactment of an air passengers’ bill of rights. Boxer has another portfolio, as chairwoman of the Select Ethics Committee. In that role, she oversaw the committee process that in February 2008 resulted in a decision to admonish Republican Sen. Larry E. Craig of Idaho. The committee said he brought discredit upon the Senate by his efforts to escape charges in June 2007 when he was arrested in a Minnesota airport restroom for allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer for a sexual encounter. Boxer also serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, where she chairs the subcommittee on international operations and organizations, human rights, democracy and global women’s issues. She wants Obama’s administration to seek to end violence and discrimination against women globally. She has been a consistent critic of the Iraq War; in October 2002, she was one of 23 senators to vote against the resolution authorizing Bush to use force to oust Saddam Hussein, and she hasn’t let up in her criticism. Boxer’s other committee assignment is Commerce, Science and Transportation. During a 2008 debate on consumer product safety legislation, she responded to GOP resistance about a ban on certain phthalates — compounds commonly used to make plastics more flexible — by putting 90 scientific studies on the dangers of phthalates into the record. House and Senate conferees eventually reached a deal in which several of the compounds were banned. Boxer’s fiery stands have proven popular in California, where she was re-elected to her third term in 2004 by a 20-percentage-point margin over former California Secretary of State Bill Jones. Six years earlier, she had a similarly easy time beating state Treasurer Matt Fong by 10 percentage points. To ward off challengers in 2010, she raised nearly $4.7 million during the 2008 election cycle. Her initial Senate run proved more difficult. In 1992, the “Year of the Woman” in national politics, she defeated conservative TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn by 5 percentage points. Boxer, a Brooklyn-born stockbroker, got her political start in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, after she moved there at age 27 with her husband Stewart, an Oakland labor attorney. She won a county board of supervisors seat in 1976, on her second try, and won a House seat in 1982, taking over from longtime friend and mentor Rep. John L. Burton after he decided to retire. Boxer is a friend of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Bay Area Democrat, dating back to the time in the 1980s when they represented adjoining districts in the House. Boxer is also friends with former President Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Boxer’s daughter, Nicole, married Tony Rodham, the former first lady’s brother. The couple had a son, Zachary, in 1996, but divorced in 2000. Zachary Rodham is the only person ever to have a grandmother and an aunt serving in the Senate. Boxer hasn’t limited her energies to politics. She published a well-reviewed novel, “A Time to Run,” with author Mary-Rose Hayes in 2005. It tells the story of a female senator whose former lover attempts to sabotage her career. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D–Calif.) Junior Senator from California CQ Politics in America: State Description (Updated: May 2003) STATE LEGISLATURE Legislature: Year-round with recess Assembly: 80 members, 2-year terms 2005 breakdown: 48D, 32R; 55 men, 25 women Salary: $99,000 Phone: (916) 445-3614 Senate: 40 members, 4-year terms 2005 breakdown: 25D, 15R; 28 men, 12 women Salary: $99,000 Phone: (916) 445-4251 STATE TERM LIMITS Governor: 2 terms Assembly: 3 terms Senate: 2 terms URBAN STATISTICS City Population Los Angeles 3,694,820 San Diego 1,223,400 San Jose 894,943 San Francisco 776,733 Long Beach 461,522 REGISTERED VOTERS Democrat 43% Republican 34% Unaffiliated 18% Others 5% POPULATION 2004 population (est.) 35,893,799 2000 population 33,871,648 1990 population 29,760,021 Percent change (1990-2000) +13.8% Rank among states (2004) 1 Median age 33.3 Born in state 50.2% Foreign born 26.2% Violent crime rate 622/100,000 Poverty level 14.2% Federal workers 246,152 Military 228,903 REDISTRICTING California gained one House seat in reapportionment.