Adam Schiff

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For the fictional television character, see Adam Schiff (Law & Order).
Adam Schiff
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 29th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2003
Preceded by Henry Waxman
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 27th district
In office
January 3, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by James E. Rogan
Succeeded by Brad Sherman
California State Senator
In office
1996–2001
Personal details
Born June 22, 1960 (1960-06-22) (age 51)
Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Eve Schiff
Children Alexa Schiff
Elijah Schiff
Residence Burbank, California, U.S.
Alma mater Harvard University
Stanford University
Occupation Attorney
Religion Judaism

Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is the U.S. Representative for California's 29th congressional district. He has served in Congress since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which was numbered as the 27th District during his first term, includes Alhambra, Altadena, San Gabriel, Burbank, Glendale, South Pasadena, Temple City, Monterey Park, and Pasadena.

In 2007, he became a member of the House Appropriations Committee. He is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early life, education and career

He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts to a traditional Jewish family. He received a political science degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard University. He was a lawyer, working as an assistant prosecutor in the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office. He was a member of the California State Senate, serving as the chair of that body's judiciary committee during his one term.

[edit] California Senate

During his tenure in the California Senate, Schiff authored Senate Bill 1847, Chapter 1021. Signed into law in 1998, this created the Pasadena Blue Line Authority, which continued work on the stalled then-Blue Line light rail extension to Pasadena, which would later be named the Gold Line instead.

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives

[edit] Committee assignments

[edit] Caucuses

  • Co-chair of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus
  • Co-founded the Democratic Study Group on National Security
  • Co-founded the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press
  • House Democracy Assistance Commission

[edit] Armenian Genocide

Schiff has also been a leading voice in Armenian-American issues; he claims to have over 70,000 Armenian-Americans in his district.[2][3] He has strongly pushed for signing of the US House Resolution 106 recognizing the Armenian Genocide. On October 11, 2007, the resolution sponsored by Schiff was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.[4] Turkey's prime minister said that approval of the resolution would endanger U.S.-Turkey relations.[5] The resolution was again approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, 2010 by a 23-22 margin.[6]

[edit] Political campaigns

Schiff was elected in 2000, defeating Republican incumbent Jim Rogan. The district had once been a Republican stronghold, but had been trending Democratic since the early 1990s. In what was the most expensive House race ever at the time[7] (several elections in 2006[8] and 2008[9] later eclipsed it), Schiff unseated Rogan, taking 53 percent of the vote to Rogan's 44 percent. He became only the second Democrat to represent this district since its creation in 1913 (it was the 9th District from 1913 to 1933, the 11th District from 1933–43, the 20th District from 1943 to 1975, the 22nd District from 1975 to 1993, and the 27th District from 1993 to 2003).

In 2010, Schiff defeated Tea Party backed Republican John Colbert for a 6th term.[10]

[edit] Personal life

Schiff has settled in Burbank, California with his wife Eve and two children, Alexa and Elijah.[11]

[edit] References

 This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (May 2011)
  1. ^ http://www.house.gov/melancon/BlueDogs/Member%20Page.html
  2. ^ Washington Post: "Worse than irrelevant: A congressional resolution about massacres in Turkey 90 years ago endangers present-day U.S. security", p. A16, October 10, 2007
  3. ^ Wall Street Journal: "Political History", Review & Outlook, October 2, 2007
  4. ^ "US House Speaker: Armenian Genocide Measure Will Go Forward". Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012155707/http://voanews.com/english/2007-10-11-voa71.cfm. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
  5. ^ "Turkey's PM says U.S. relations in danger". Reuters. October 12, 2007. http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL1262442020071012. Retrieved 2007-10-12. 
  6. ^ Simon, Richard; Watanabe, Teresa (March 5, 2010). "House panel narrowly passes recognition of Armenian genocide". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-armenian-genocide5-2010mar05,0,6057070.story. Retrieved 2010-03-04. 
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ [2]
  9. ^ [3]
  10. ^ [4]
  11. ^ http://www.schiff4congress.com/main/?page_id=2

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Adam B. Schiff
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
James E. Rogan		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 27th congressional district
2001–2003		 Succeeded by
Brad Sherman
Preceded by
Henry Waxman		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 29th congressional district
2003–present		 Incumbent
United States order of precedence
Preceded by
Mike Ross
D-Arkansas		 United States Representatives by seniority
187th		 Succeeded by
Patrick Tiberi
R-Ohio
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