Anna Eshoo

Anna Georges Eshoo (born December 13, 1942) is the U.S. Representative for CA's 18th congressional district, serving in Congress since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which includes part of Silicon Valley, includes the cities of Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto. She is the only Member of Congress of Assyrian descent.

Early life, education, and business career
Anna Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage. Her father, Fred Georges, was a jeweler and watchmaker. She is a Chaldean Catholic and is the oldest of three children. She has a brother, Frederick Kenneth Georges, and a sister, Veronica May Georges.

She got an Associate of Arts degree in English from Cañada College in 1975. She worked for the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) between 1963 and 1966. She worked for Arcata National Corporation between 1966 and 1970.

Early political career
She was Chair of the San Mateo Democratic Party between 1978 and 1982. She was also a member of the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s. She was Chief-of-Staff to Speaker pro tempore Leo McCarthy of the California State Assembly between 1981 and 1982. She was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1982 and served until 1992. She was president of the board in 1986.

Elections
In the middle of Eshoo's second term on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, she ran for Congress in California's 12th congressional district. She won the Democratic primary with a plurality of 43%, but lost the general election narrowly to Republican Stanford law professor Tom Campbell, 51% – 46%.
 * 1988

Campbell gave up his congressional seat to make an unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate, and Eshoo entered the Democratic primary for the open seat, which had been renumbered as the 14th District. She won the seven-way primary with a plurality of 40%. In the general election, she defeated Republican nominee Tom Huening 57% – 39%.
 * 1992

She survived the Republican Revolution, winning re-election with 61% of the vote.
 * 1994

During this time period, she never won re-election with less than 65% of the vote.
 * 1996-2006


 * 2008

She won re-election against Republican Ronny Santana 70% – 22%.


 * 2010

She won re-election against Republican Dave Chapman 69% – 28%.


 * 2012

After redistricting, Eshoo ran for and won re-election in California's 18th congressional district based in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.

Tenure
In 2003, Eshoo was elected by her Democratic colleagues in the 108th Congress as an At-Large Democratic Whip, and she has served in that position to the present. She is currently the only Assyrian American member of Congress and one of two Armenian American members of Congress. The other Armenian-American in Congress is Jackie Speier, who represents the rest of San Mateo County.

On January 30, 2008, Rep. Eshoo formally endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama for President.

Eshoo's complete voting record can be viewed at Vote Smart


 * Energy

In 2005, Eshoo worked with Nancy Pelosi to develop the Democratic Innovation Agenda, which calls for America to achieve independence from Middle East oil over the next ten years. She has led efforts to raise fuel standards for automakers, and pursued reliance on alternative energy sources both in California and nationally. Legislation includes:
 * H.R. 6, Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation (CLEAN) Energy Act, co-sponsor - Repeals $14 billion in subsidies to the gas and oil industries, and commits that money to renewable resources.
 * H.R. 1506, Fuel Economy Reform Act, co-sponsor - Raises fuel economy standards, with a target goal of 35 miles per gallon by 2018.
 * H.R. 1590, Safe Climate Act, co-sponsor - An emissions reduction bill which includes a provision calling for 20% of all electricity generated in the United States to come from renewable resources by 2008.
 * H.R. 550, Securing America's Energy Independence Act, co-sponsor - Extends tax credits for homeowners and business using solar energy.
 * S. 2598, Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension and Consumer Protection Act - Temporarily suspends filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in order to lower the cost of petroleum to consumers.
 * H.R. 6074, Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act - Authorizes lawsuits against oil cartel members for price fixing.
 * H.R. 1742, A bill to establish a program to deploy and integrate plug-in electric drive vehicles in multiple regions, which was ultimately incorporated into the body of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which was the primary energy bill for 2009.

Click here to download a copy of Eshoo's floor statement on H.R. 3321, the New Direction for Energy Independence Act.

Eshoo is a strong supporter of the gay rights movement. In 1992 when a gay bashing mailer was directed at Supervisor Tom Nolan (the first openly gay supervisor in San Mateo and her opponent for her congressional seat) Eshoo stood fast in defending him, his record and years of service. She opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment and the Marriage Protection Act. Her website says the bill is "discriminatory, singling out for the first time a minority to prevent their interests from being considered by the highest courts in the land."
 * Human rights

As one of just two Assyrian members of Congress, Eshoo has worked hard to protect indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq from continuing religious persecution and political exclusion. She authored an amendment to H.R. 2601, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, requesting that "special attention should be paid to the welfare of Chaldo-Assyrians and other indigenous Christians in Iraq."

Rep. Eshoo has been a strong supporter of the Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. She also supports closer ties between Armenia and the U.S.

Rep. Eshoo has fought strongly against certain provisions of the Patriot Act, particularly Section 215 (Access to Business Records), which gives federal investigators the right to obtain any tangible business record without obtaining a subpoena.

Rep. Eshoo also introduced "Kevin's Law," which would have given the U.S. Department of Agriculture the power to close down plants that produce contaminated meat.

As an Assyrian and Armenian American, Rep. Eshoo is co-chair and co-founder of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated freedom of religion organization.

Rep. Eshoo has worked to create a legal "pathway to citizenship" for foreign workers of all kinds, from doctors and computer programmers to migrant farm workers. She has voted to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas to allow more temporary foreign professionals to work in the United States (especially those with Master's Degrees or higher).
 * Immigration

In her state of California, where as much as 90% of the agricultural workforce is composed of illegal immigrants, Rep. Eshoo cosponsored H.R. 371, the Agricultural Jobs Act, which would confer blue card status on illegal immigrants who had worked an agricultural job in the United States for 150 days or more. This bill never became law.

Other legislation includes:
 * H.R. 1275, American Dream Act, cosponsor - Allows states to provide tuition to students that are illegal immigrants, providing they meet certain criteria.
 * H.R. 1379, Citizen Promotion Act, cosponsor - Assists lawfully admitted aliens in becoming permanent citizens of the United States.
 * H.R. 2221, Uniting American Families Act, cosponsor - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to include "or permanent partner" where spouse occurs.

In November 2005, Rep. Eshoo led the House Democratic Caucus in introducing the "Innovation Agenda." Representative Eshoo developed this comprehensive policy in conjunction with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and others after extensive consultation with Silicon Valley and tech leaders around the country, venture capitalists, and scholars.
 * Technology

She authored a bill authorizing electronic signatures and introduced controversial legislation to help alleviate the proliferation of unsolicited email, known as spam. The U.S. House of Representatives passed The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (S. 877), which authorizes a “Do Not Spam” list, regulates commercial email, and imposes fines on spammers. Eshoo authored the Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act of 2001 (H.R. 237), created a program to provide discounts to schools and libraries for Internet access, and authored the Computer Donation Incentive Act.

Rep. Eshoo introduced HR 2428, the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009. The bill would require new federal road projects to include plastic conduits buried along the side of the roadway, and enough of them to "accommodate multiple broadband providers." “According to industry experts, more than half of the cost of new broadband deployment is attributable to the expense of tearing up and repaving roads,” said Rep. Eshoo. “By putting the broadband conduit in place while the ground beneath the roadways is exposed, we will enable any authorized communications provider to come in later and install fiber-optic cable at far less cost.” The bill is supported by Google.

Together with Rep. Edward Markey Eshoo introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009, which would make Net Neutrality the law.

Rep. Eshoo currently serves as co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus, a bipartisan group of over 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet.


 * Youth

Eshoo created student advisory boards in 1993 consisting of youth from her congressional district, who advise her on policies and make recommendations, and are located in Palo Alto, San Mateo and Santa Cruz. The students attend biweekly meetings and choose one topic to focus on each year. Past topics have included health care, the crisis in Darfur, medicine, voter reform, foreign affairs, and the media. Eshoo also hosts a congressional arts competition, which students can apply to win.

Committee assignments

 * Committee on Energy and Commerce
 * Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (Ranking Member)

Caucus memberships

 * Congressional E-911 Caucus, Co-Chair
 * Cancer Care Working Group, Co-Chair
 * House 21st Century Health Care Caucus, Vice Chair
 * House Information Technology Working Group, Co-Chair
 * Congressional Internet Caucus, Founding Member & Co-Chair
 * House Medical Technology Caucus, Co-Chair
 * Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease
 * California Democratic Congressional Delegation
 * Armenian Caucus
 * Coalition for Autism Research and Education (CARE)
 * Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
 * Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus
 * Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues
 * Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues
 * Congressional Coalition on Adoption
 * Congressional Diabetes Caucus
 * Congressional Food Safety Caucus
 * Congressional Kidney Caucus
 * Congressional Organic Caucus
 * Congressional Prevention Coalition
 * Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus
 * Congressional Taiwan Caucus
 * Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus
 * House Biotechnology Caucus
 * House Cancer Caucus
 * House National Marine Sanctuary Caucus
 * House Oceans Caucus
 * House Recycling Caucus
 * Long-Term Care Caucus
 * United States-Philippines Friendship Caucus

Personal life
She was married to attorney George Eshoo and is now divorced, with two children, Karen and Paul. She now resides in Atherton, California.

Organizations

 * Chair, San Mateo County General Hospital Board of Directors, 1984–1992
 * Member, American Association of University Women
 * Former Chair, Bay Area Air Quality Management District
 * Former Member, Bay Conservation and Development Commission
 * Democratic Activists for Women Now
 * Junior League of Palo Alto
 * League of Conservation Voters
 * Member, League of Women Voters
 * Co Founder, San Mateo Women's Hall of Fame.

Awards and honors

 * 1989 Legislator of the Year Award from the California's Governor's Committee on the Employing of the Disabled
 * 1991 Margaret Sanger Community Service Award from San Mateo County Planned Parenthood
 * 1990 Friend of BAYMEC Award
 * 1989 Public Official of the Year by the State Commission on Aging
 * 1987 Humanitarian of the Year by Easter Seal
 * First woman to join her local chapter of Kiwanis International.
 * Honorary doctorate, Humane Letters, Menlo College

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