Jim McDermott | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from Washington's 7th district | |
In office January 3, 1989 –January 3, 2017 | |
Preceded by | Mike Lowry |
Succeeded by | Pramila Jayapal |
Chair of the House Ethics Committee | |
In office January 3,1993 –January 3,1995 | |
Preceded by | Louis Stokes |
Succeeded by | Nancy Johnson |
Member of the Washington Senate from the 43rd district | |
In office January 13,1975 –July 24,1987 | |
Preceded by | Jonathan Whetzel |
Succeeded by | Janice Niemi |
Member of the WashingtonHouseofRepresentatives from the 43rd district | |
In office January 11,1971 –January 8,1973 | |
Preceded by | Jonathan Whetzel |
Succeeded by | Jeff Douthwaite |
Personal details | |
Born | James Adelbert McDermott December 28,1936 Chicago,Illinois,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouses | Virginia Beattie (div. 1989)Therese Hansen (m. 1997;div. 2012) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Wheaton College (BS) University of Illinois, Chicago (MD) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Branch/service | United States Navy |
Years of service | 1968–1970 |
Rank | Lieutenant Commander |
Unit | Medical Corps |
Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
James Adelbert McDermott (born December 28, 1936) is an American politician and psychiatrist who was the U.S. representative for Washington's 7th congressional district from 1989 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th district includes most of Seattle, Vashon Island, Tukwila, Burien, Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway, and Edmonds. He served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was a member of the House Progressive Caucus. He was formerly the committee chairman, then in 1995, ranking minority member on the House Ethics Committee. On January 4, 2016, he announced that he would not be seeking another congressional term. [1]
McDermott was born on December 28, 1936, [2] in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Roseanna (Wabel) and William McDermott. [3] He was the first member of his family to attend college; [4] he graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, and then went to medical school, getting an M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in 1963. [2] After completing an internship in 1964 at Buffalo General Hospital in Buffalo, New York, a two-year psychiatry residency at the University of Illinois Research and Educational Hospital (now called University of Illinois Research Hospital), and fellowship training in child psychiatry (1966–68) at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, [5] he served in the United States Navy Medical Corps as a psychiatrist in California during the Vietnam War. [4] [6]
In 1970, McDermott made his first run for public office and was elected to the Washington state legislature as a representative from the 43rd District. He did not seek re-election in 1972 but instead ran for Governor of Washington losing the primary to former governor Albert Rosellini, who was seeking a return to the governorship after losing a third term bid in 1964. [7] Rosellini would lose that fall. In 1974, he ran for the state senate, and subsequently was re-elected three times, to three successive two-year terms. [8] During this time, he crafted and sponsored legislation that would eventually be called the Washington State Basic Health Plan, the first such state program in the country, which offers health insurance to the unemployed and the working poor. [9]
In 1980, while still a state senator, he saw a chance to take on incumbent governor Dixy Lee Ray in the Democratic primary for governor as she sought re-election. U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson endorsed McDermott and persuaded the leaders of the Washington State AFL–CIO to endorse and actively campaign for McDermott. [10] He was successful in the primary, upsetting an incumbent governor by a 57–42% landslide, but lost the general election to Republican John Spellman in the year of the Republican Ronald Reagan landslide. McDermott would lose 57–43% while Magnuson would lose in a narrow upset to Washington attorney general Slade Gorton.
McDermott chose for a third time in 1984 to run for governor. In his third gubernatorial campaign, he carried shiny red apples around the state as he campaigned in a state noted for its apple crops. He has pushed what he's called an "Apple agenda"—his acronym for Affordable health care, Promotion of jobs, Protection of the environment, Life with hope and without fear, and excellence in Education. [11] However, this time in the primary, he faced the Pierce County Executive Booth Gardner, a former state senator as well who ran in the slogan, "Booth Who?!" Gardner ran with a focus on LGBT and the pro-choice issues, and contributed $500,000 of his own funds to the campaign. McDermott ended up losing his third primary to Gardner, who then went on to defeat Spellman in the general election. [12]
In 1987, McDermott briefly left politics to become a Foreign Service medical officer based in Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo), providing psychiatric services to Foreign Service, USAID, and Peace Corps personnel in sub-Saharan Africa.[ citation needed ]
In 1988, the seat for Washington's 7th congressional district came open when five-term incumbent Mike Lowry gave it up to make an unsuccessful run for the Senate. McDermott returned from Africa to run for the seat and won handily with 71 percent of the vote. He was re-elected 13 times with no substantive opposition. He usually garnered wide support in his district, the most Democratic white-majority district in the nation, even in disastrous years for Democrats nationally. In 1994, for instance, he won with 75% of the vote even as the Republicans won control of Congress and took all but two seats in Washington (his and that of Norm Dicks). He was re-elected in 2010, taking 83 percent of the vote against independent challenger Bob Jeffers-Schroder. No Republican filed to contest the election in 2010. [13] In 2012 McDermott was challenged in the Democratic primary by attorney Andrew Hughes. Despite spending more than $200,000 on his campaign (versus McDermott's primary spending of $387,000), Hughes won just 6 percent of the vote to McDermott's 71 percent. [14] In the general election, McDermott won just under 80% of the vote, against Republican Ron Bemis. [15] McDermott did not seek reelection in 2016 following the announcement of a primary challenge by state representative Brady Walkinshaw.
In his first term, McDermott sponsored the AIDS Housing Opportunity Act, which provides state and local governments with the resources and incentives to devise long-term comprehensive strategies for meeting the housing needs of persons with AIDS and the families of such persons. [16]
The program established, known as HOPWA, has grown to be a $335M line in United States budget, at a cost of $5,432 per recipient in 2010. Despite the long-term focus of the original legislation, according to HUD, 59% of recipients received help with short-term housing. [17]
This consolidated land in Washington state which allowed the city of Seattle to gain greater control over its primary water source, thus enabling more efficient planning for the future. The bill was one of the last signed by President George H. W. Bush before he left office. [18]
In the fall of 2002, McDermott and fellow Representatives David Bonior of Michigan, Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Mike Thompson of California visited Iraq; in Baghdad they met with members of parliament and the Iraqi Foreign Minister, and in Basra they met with residents who talked about the effect on them of the Iraq sanctions. American conservatives sharply criticised McDermott for this trip, and for his predictions that President George W. Bush would "mislead the American public" to justify military action and that no WMD would be found in Iraq. [19]
After this trip, McDermott's opponents dubbed him "Baghdad Jim"; [20] [21] his supporters claimed that he had been proven correct on the facts. [22]
According to a disclosure form filed with the clerk of the House of Representatives, the nonprofit organization Life for Relief and Development paid McDermott's $5,510 travel expenses for the Iraq trip. On March 26, 2008, a Bush Administration indictment accused Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for the trip and paying for it with funds from Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency, the IIS. [23] Ultimately these charges were dropped; Al-Hanooti was convicted of attempting to sell Iraqi oil to raise money for humanitarian purposes without permission of the U.S. Treasury. [24]
This act lowered tariffs and spurred apparel trade with many African countries. The AGOA has brought approximately 15,000 jobs and $340 million in foreign investment to some of the poorest nations in sub-Saharan Africa. [25] On August 22, 2007, McDermott was knighted by King Letsie III of Lesotho, in recognition of McDermott's leadership on the Act. [26] [27]
This piece of legislation strengthened privacy and confidentiality of people already receiving care under the Act and modernized it by prohibiting cyberstalking as defined under the law. [28]
On April 28, 2004, Congressman McDermott omitted the phrase "under God" while leading the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The incident occurred after atheist Michael Newdow lost his court case to have the phrase "under God" dropped from the Pledge, and after McDermott had voted against a congressional resolution that called for overturning a court ruling that declared the phrase unconstitutional. In 1954, during the McCarthy era and communism scare, Congress had passed a bill, which was signed into law, to add the words "under God." [29] McDermott later stated that he had "reverted to the pledge as it was written and taught in the public schools throughout my childhood", as the phrase "under God" was added in 1954, the year in which McDermott graduated from high school; [30] he turned 18 in late December of that year, after graduating. [2]
In December 2004, the House Ethics Committee investigated McDermott over the leaking of an illegally recorded telephone conversation during a 1997 committee investigation of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.
In the conversation, Mr. Gingrich, his lawyer, and several other Republican Congressmen discussed how Gingrich's Congressional allies should deal with the political consequences of his admission that he had violated House ethics rules by giving inaccurate information to the House Ethics Committee for its inquiry into his use of tax-exempt funds. Democrats have described the conversation as evidence that Mr. Gingrich broke an agreement with the Ethics Committee that he would not orchestrate a politically motivated response to those committee findings. [31]
The recording was made by John and Alice Martin, who claimed that they had overheard the conversation on a police scanner, decided to record it for posterity's sake, and then decided that it might be important for the Ethics Committee to hear. [32] The Martins gave the tape to McDermott because he was the senior Democrat on the Ethics Committee. [33] Within two days, reportedly after the Republican Ethics Committee chair Nancy L. Johnson refused to allow a vote on making the tape part of the committee's records, sending the tape to the Justice Department, or taking any action against participants in the conversation, [34] and over the warning of the committee's counsel of possible legal liability, McDermott gave the tape to several media outlets, including the New York Times.
Rep. John Boehner, who was part of the Gingrich conversation, sued McDermott in his capacity as a private citizen, seeking punitive damages for violations of his First Amendment rights. [35] After U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ordered McDermott to pay Boehner for "willful and knowing misconduct" that "rises to the level of malice", McDermott appealed, arguing that since he had not created the recording, his actions were allowed under the First Amendment, and that ruling against him would have 'a huge chilling effect' on reporters and newsmakers alike. Eighteen news organizations – including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post — filed a brief backing McDermott. [36] On March 29, 2006, the court ruled 2–1 that McDermott violated federal law when he turned over the illegally recorded tape to the media outlets, ordering McDermott to pay Boehner's legal costs (over $600,000) plus $60,000 in damages. On June 26, 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the judgment, deciding to re-hear the case with all nine judges. [37] However, a split 4 to 1 to 4 en banc decision in Boehner v. McDermott, 484 F.3d 573 (D.C. Cir. 2007) affirmed the three-judge panel, but on different grounds; [38] the Supreme Court declined review. [39] [40] On March 31, 2008, Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott to pay Boehner $1.05 million in attorney's fees, costs and interest. McDermott also paid over $60,000 in fines and close to $600,000 in his own legal fees. [41]
The Ethics Committee formally rebuked McDermott in 2006, writing he had "violated ethics rules by giving reporters access to an illegally taped telephone call involving Republican leaders a decade ago. Rep. McDermott's secretive disclosures to the news media ... risked undermining the ethics process" and that McDermott's actions "were not consistent with the spirit of the committee." [42] Previously, the Martins pleaded guilty to violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. In 1997, Gingrich was reprimanded by the House for providing false information to the Ethics Committee and he agreed to reimburse $300,000 in costs.
This amendment to the Defense Authorization Act of 2006 directed the Department of Defense to study possible adverse health effects of the use of depleted uranium by the US military on servicemembers, employees and their families. [43]
A reform in the American foster care system, this legislation addresses needs affecting foster children in the United States; it extends federal foster care payments until children are 21 years old, provides federal support for relatives caring for foster children, increases access to foster care and adoption services by Native American tribes, and improves oversight of the health and education needs of children in foster care. [44]
McDermott oversaw the emergency unemployment compensation extensions during the recession that began in 2008 under the George W. Bush administration and continued into the administration of Barack Obama. [45]
H.R. 3174 required the US Army Board for Correction of Military Records to review dozens of convictions that followed the Fort Lawton Riot of 1944. The Board uncovered "egregious error" in the prosecution, overturned the convictions, issued retroactive honorable discharges to the defendants and ordered back pay. [46] H.R. 5130 provided that such payments, which were otherwise of amounts considered nominal, to include interest. [47]
The purpose of this act was to encourage job creation, strengthen the economic recovery, and assist those unable to find jobs during the serious economic downturn that began in 2008. [48] While the bill had unrelated provisions, the primary focus was on the extension of the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit; opinion is divided as to the effectiveness of the program. [49]
This legislation requires publicly traded companies in the United States exercise due diligence to ensure that conflict minerals (gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten) in their products do not come from mines funding civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Originally proposed as a standalone bill, it became section 1502 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. A United Nations Security Council committee reported that this legislation was a "catalyst" for efforts to save lives by cutting off a key source of funding for armed groups [50] at a cost to American firms of approximately $8 billion per year. [51]
McDermott sponsored a bill which would have eliminated the tax burden incurred by married same sex couples, same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners. The bill also would have ensured that domestic partners of federal civilian employees receive the same health care benefits as married spouses, including retirement, compensation for work injuries, and full life and health insurance benefits. It was eventually folded into and taken out of the House Health Care Bill in 2010, and has been referred to committee both times, where it died. Versions of this bill were co-sponsored under McDermott's leadership since the 106th Congress with Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon. The 2010 (111th Congress) and 2011 (112th Congress) bills were co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. [52]
In June 2011, McDermott introduced The Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R. 2230) along with John Campbell (R-Calif.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass). [53] This represented McDermott's fifth introduction of such an act, which would offer a tax structure should online gambling become fully legalized and regulated within the United States. [54]
Formerly ranking majority leader, then, in 1995, as the minority member of the Ethics Committee after Republicans retook control of the House.
McDermott belonged to several dozen Congressional caucuses and co-chaired the following caucuses:
McDermott has been married twice. He and Virginia Beattie McDermott divorced in 1989. He married Therese Hansen in 1997, divorcing in 2012. In filings for his second divorce, McDermott's and Hansen's joint assets were valued at $2.5 million. [56] He has two children and three grandchildren. [57] McDermott maintains a home in Seattle, but has been living in Civrac-en-Médoc, near Bordeaux, France, where he vacationed in 2017 and bought a cottage "his second day in town" as vacation home and one hectare of a vineyard in a wine cooperative, a "potential refuge from a second Trump presidency". [58]
Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
Spencer Thomas Bachus III is an American politician. He is a former U.S. Representative for the state of Alabama, serving from 1993 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as ranking member (2007–2011) and chairman (2011–2013) of the House Financial Services Committee. On September 30, 2013, Bachus announced his retirement from Congress. His term ended in 2015.
Fortney Hillman Stark Jr., known as Pete Stark, was an American businessman and politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 2013. A Democrat from California, Stark's district—California's 13th congressional district during his last two decades in Congress—was in southwestern Alameda County and included Alameda, Union City, Hayward, Newark, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Fremont, as well as parts of Oakland and Pleasanton. At the time he left office in 2013, he was the fifth most senior Representative, as well as sixth most senior member of Congress overall. He was also the dean of California's 53-member Congressional delegation, and the only openly atheist member of Congress.
Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who served as the U.S. representative for Washington's 4th congressional district from 1995 until his retirement in 2015. The district includes much of central Washington including the Tri-Cities, Yakima, and Moses Lake. The most conservative Republican in Washington's Congressional delegation, he chaired the House Committee on Ethics from 2005 to 2007 and chaired the House Committee on Natural Resources from 2011 to his leaving office.
Melvin Luther Watt is an American politician who served as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency from 2014 to 2019. He was appointed by President Barack Obama. He is a former United States Representative for North Carolina's 12th congressional district, from 1993 to 2014. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Robert William Goodlatte is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist who served in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia's 6th congressional district for 13 terms. A Republican, he was also the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over legislation affecting the federal courts, administrative agencies, and federal law enforcement entities. Goodlatte's district covered Roanoke and also included Lexington, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg, and Staunton.
Richard Keith Armey is an American economist and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from Texas's 26th congressional district (1985–2003) and House Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s, in which Republicans were elected to majorities of both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades. Armey was one of the chief authors of the Contract with America. Armey is also an author and former economics professor. After his retirement from Congress, he has worked as a consultant, advisor, and lobbyist.
John Andrew Boehner is an American retired politician who served as the 53rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served 13 terms as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 8th congressional district from 1991 to 2015. The district included several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton.
David George Reichert is an American retired police officer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Washington's 8th congressional district from 2005 to 2019. A moderate member of the Republican Party, he served as the sheriff of King County, Washington from 1997 to 2005.
Timothy Francis Murphy is an American former politician and psychologist who served as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district from 2003 until his resignation in 2017. The district included several suburbs south of Pittsburgh. A member of the Republican Party, he also represented the 37th Senate district in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1996 to 2003. Murphy consistently carried the 18th district with at least 58% of the vote, including unopposed re-election bids in 2014 and 2016.
David Schweikert is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative from Arizona's 1st congressional district since 2023. He previously served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he first entered Congress in 2011, representing Arizona's 5th congressional district until redistricting. His district includes most of northern Phoenix as well as Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, and Cave Creek.
Steve Beren is an American political activist from Seattle, Washington.
Timothy Alan Huelskamp is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Kansas's 1st congressional district from 2011 to 2017. Huelskamp, a member of the Republican Party, was rated the least bipartisan member of the House during the 114th Congress by The Lugar Center - McCourt School of Public Policy Bipartisan Index. Prior to entering Congress, he represented the 38th district of the Kansas Senate from 1997 until 2011.
David Lee Camp is a former American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1991 to 2015. Camp represented Michigan's 4th congressional district since 1993, and previously served one term representing Michigan's 10th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, Camp was chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, serving from 2011 to 2015. In March 2014, he announced that he would not run for re-election.
Richard B. "Rich" Nugent is an American retired law enforcement officer and former United States Congressman. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a former Sheriff of Hernando County, Florida. On November 2, 2010, Richard Nugent defeated Democratic nominee James Piccillo, to replace retiring Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite. Nugent was a member of the Tea Party Caucus. On November 2, 2015, Nugent announced he would not seek reelection.
Michael Gerard Grimm is an American former politician who represented New York in the United States Congress from 2011 to 2015, when he was convicted of tax fraud and resigned from Congress. Grimm represented New York's 13th congressional district during his first term, after which he represented New York's 11th congressional district. Both districts consisted of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn. Grimm is a member of the Republican Party; during his time in office was the sole Republican to represent a significant portion of New York City.
Rodney Leland Blum is an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 1st congressional district from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 2014 and won a second term in the 2016 elections.
The Freedom Caucus, also known as the House Freedom Caucus, is a congressional caucus consisting of Republican members of the United States House of Representatives. It is generally considered to be the most conservative and furthest-right bloc within the chamber. The caucus was formed in January 2015 by a group of conservatives and Tea Party movement members, with the aim of pushing the Republican leadership to the right. Its first chairman, Jim Jordan, described the caucus as a "smaller, more cohesive, more agile and more active" group of conservative representatives. Members of the Freedom Caucus are typically considered a part of the MAGA movement and loyalists to Donald Trump.
On October 29, 2015, during the 114th United States Congress, an election for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was necessitated by the impending resignation of John Boehner, set for October 30. Boehner was the first speaker to resign in the middle of a Congressional term since Jim Wright in 1989.
Warren Earl Davidson is an American politician and former military officer serving as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 8th congressional district since 2016. The district, which was once represented by House Speaker John Boehner, includes a swath of suburban and exurban territory between Cincinnati and Dayton. Before entering politics, he was an officer in United States Army special operations and led his family's manufacturing business. Davidson is a member of the Republican Party.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)