Eddie Bernice Johnson

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Eddie Bernice Johnson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 30th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1993
Preceded by	None (District Created After 1990 Census)
Born	December 3, 1935 (1935-12-03) (age 73) Waco, Texas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	divorced
Residence	Dallas, Texas
Alma mater	Saint Mary's College-Indiana, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University
Occupation	nurse, therapist
Religion	Baptist

Eddie Bernice Johnson (born December 3, 1935) is a politician from the state of Texas, currently representing the state's 30th congressional district (map) in the U.S. House.

[edit] Early life and education

Johnson was born in Waco, Texas. She began her college education at Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame, Indiana and transferred to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, from which she received a bachelor's degree in nursing. She later attended Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, and earned an MPA in 1976. She worked as a nurse in a Dallas hospital and later as a psychotherapist before entering politics.

[edit] Political life

She was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1972 and served for three terms. She was an administrator for the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1977 to 1981. She was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1986. As a state senator, she was on the redistricting committee where she was instrumental in shaping the district she represents. By design the 30th Congressional District has a strong probability of electing an African-American and a Democrat. She was subsequently elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 becoming the first nurse elected to congress.

The 17th chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, she was a leading voice in opposition to the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. During debate on the house floor, she stated:

"I am not convinced that giving the President the authority to launch a unilateral, first-strike attack on Iraq is the appropriate course of action at this time. While I believe that under international law and under the authority of our Constitution, the United States must maintain the option to act in its own self-defense, I strongly believe that the administration has not provided evidence of an imminent threat of attack on the United States that would justify a unilateral strike. I also believe that actions alone, without exhausting peaceful options, could seriously harm global support for our war on terrorism and distract our own resources from this cause."

She was one of the 31 who voted in the House against counting the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004. [1]

On November 7, 2006, she was re-elected to serve an eighth term in Congress. Johnson won 80% of vote, defeating Republican Wilson Aurbach and Libertarian Ken Ashby. Because the 30th Congressional District is so safe it has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, an eight-term legislator from Dallas, Texas, is attacking the call for U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a "one-sided" view of a "historic dispute."

In a letter circulated on February 25 to all 434 of her House colleagues, she asked for her colleagues to consider carefully "the proposed Armenian genocide resolution, a resolution that holds that the inhumanity in the inter-communal war in 1915 was one-sided." She continued in her letter "I am naturally troubled by the assertions in the resolution, which would endorse one side of a historic dispute between Armenia and Turkey, thus undermining today’s normalization process" (between Turkey and Armenia).

Johnson's remarks were welcomed in Turkey but angered the American Armenian groups such as the "Armenian National Committee of America" (ANCA). ANCA initiated a campaign against Johnson.

Johnson pledged her support as a superdelegate to Barack Obama.

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
  • Subcommittee on Research and Science Education
• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Aviation
  • Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment (Chairwoman)

[edit] External links

• Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson official U.S. House site
• Eddie Bernice Johnson for Congress official campaign site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Profile SourceWatch Congresspedia

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