Frank Lautenberg

Frank Lautenberg
United States Senator from New Jersey
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2003 Serving with Bob Menendez
Preceded by	Robert Torricelli
In office December 27, 1982 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Nicholas F. Brady
Succeeded by	Jon Corzine
Member of the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
In office 1978–1982
Appointed by	Brendan Byrne
Personal details
Born	Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (1924-01-23) January 23, 1924 Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Lois Lautenberg (divorced) Bonnie S. Englebardt
Children	Ellen Lautenberg Nan Lautenberg Lisa Lautenberg Joshua Lautenberg
Residence(s)	Cliffside Park, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University (B.A.)
Occupation	former Chairman and CEO of Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Signature
Website	Senator Frank Lautenberg
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1942-1946
Unit	Signal Corps
Battles/wars	World War II

Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (pronounced /ˈlɔːtənbɜrɡ/; born January 23, 1924) is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey and a member of the Democratic Party. He first served in the United States Senate from 1982 to 2001; after a brief retirement, he was re-elected to the Senate and has served since 2003. At age 100, Lautenberg is the oldest current senator. Before entering politics, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

Early life, career, and family

Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Sam and Mollie Lautenberg, impoverished Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia who had arrived in the United States as infants. When Lautenberg was 19, his father, Sam, who worked in silk mills, sold coal, farmed and once ran a tavern, died of cancer. Frank Lautenberg had no formal Jewish education as a child; the family could not afford to join a synagogue and did not live very long in any single place.

Lautenberg served overseas in the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II after graduating from Nutley High School. Then, financed by the GI Bill, he attended and graduated from Columbia Business School in 1949 with a degree in economics. He was the first salesman at successful Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) and was its chairman and CEO. He was the executive commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from 1978 to 1982.

From his first marriage to Lois Lautenberg, which ended in divorce, Lautenberg has four children: Ellen, Nan, Lisa, and Joshua. In 2001, he married his companion of nearly 16 years, Bonnie S. Englebardt. He has a summer home on Martha's Vineyard.

U.S. Senator

In 1982, he received the Democratic nomination over 8 other candidates for a US Senate seat from New Jersey for that year's election after spending a considerable sum of his own money. The seat had been occupied by Democrat Harrison Williams who resigned on March 11, 1982, after being implicated in the Abscam scandal. After Williams's resignation, Republican Governor Thomas Kean appointed Republican Nicholas F. Brady to the seat. Brady served in the Senate through the primary and general elections but did not run for the seat himself. Lautenberg won the election, defeating popular Republican congresswoman Millicent Fenwick by 52% to 48%. Brady, who had just a few days left in his appointed term, resigned on December 27, 1982, allowing Lautenberg to take office several days before the traditional swearing-in of senators, which gave him an edge in seniority over the other freshman senators.

In 1988, Lautenberg was opposed by Republican Wall Street executive and former college football star Pete Dawkins, who won the 1958 Heisman Trophy for the Army Black Knights. After trailing in early polls, the Lautenberg campaign, headed by Democratic consultant James Carville, ran an aggressive advertising campaign enumerating Lautenberg's legislative accomplishments and raising the possibility that Dawkins's candidacy was intended solely as a stepping stone to the presidency, as well as pointing out his lack of roots in New Jersey. Lautenberg ultimately came from behind to win reelection, 54% to 46%.

Following reelection, Lautenberg became a member of the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (PCAST), which was set up in September 1989 to review and report on aviation security policy in light of the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

Lautenberg was again reelected in the Republican landslide year of 1994, defeating New Jersey State Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian by 51% to 47%. Lautenberg announced his retirement in 2000, and his fellow Democrat and businessman, Jon Corzine, was elected to replace him.

Sen. Lautenberg (center) is joined by Sen. Harry Reid (right) and outgoing Sen. Jon Corzine (second to left, with red tie) to welcome the new Senator Bob Menendez (between Corzine and Lautenberg) on Capitol Hill.

2002 election

A little over a year after he left office, Lautenberg was called upon again to run for the Senate. This time, however, it was to replace incumbent Senator Bob Torricelli, who had won nomination for a second term in the June primary elections but was facing federal corruption charges and an uphill climb for reelection against Republican nominee Doug Forrester. The selection of Lautenberg came with some irony, as there had been notoriously bad blood between Lautenberg and Torricelli when the two had served together in the Senate. It was rumored that Lautenberg was not the first choice of the Democratic Party to run, but their first choice of Bill Bradley (who had served in this particular seat until 1996, when he decided to retire) was rejected.

Almost immediately, the New Jersey Republican Party challenged the replacing of Torricelli with Lautenberg, citing that the timing was too close to the election and, per New Jersey law, the change could not be allowed. The ballot name change was unanimously upheld by the New Jersey Supreme Court, who cited that the law did not provide for a situation like Torricelli's and said that leaving Torricelli on the ballot would be an unfair advantage for Forrester, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case. Lautenberg easily defeated Forrester in the general election, 54% to 44%, and took office for his fourth term in January 2003 and joined Hubert Humphrey in a political rarity of having served as a Senator by holding both seats in his state (Class I and Class II).

Back in the Senate

Lautenberg is considered one of the Senate's most liberal members. He is pro-choice, supports gun control, has introduced many bills increasing penalties for carjacking and car theft, and criticized the Bush administration on national security issues. He has been heavily involved in various anti-smoking, anti-alcohol and airline safety legislation. He is probably best known as the author of the legislation that banned smoking from most commercial airline flights. He also is known for authoring the Ryan White Care Act, which provides services to AIDS patients. Upon his return to the Senate, Lautenberg was the first U.S. senator to introduce legislation calling for homeland security funds to be distributed solely on the basis of risk and vulnerability.

In 2005, he became a leading voice within the Senate in calling for an investigation into the Bush administration payment of columnists.

When Jon Corzine resigned from the Senate to become Governor of New Jersey, Lautenberg became the senior senator again in 2006. This also makes him the only person to have been both the junior and senior senator from New Jersey twice each. Lautenberg received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues.

In 2007, Lautenberg proposed the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007, designed to deny weapons purchases by persons that the government has placed on the terrorist watchlist. On June 21, 2007, Lautenberg passed Clifford Case for the most votes on the Senate floor of any United States Senator in New Jersey history.

At age 100, Lautenberg is currently the oldest serving member of the Senate. He is one of only two current Senators to have returned to the Senate after having retired from the Senate, the other being Senator Dan Coats of Indiana.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Subcommittee on Homeland Security (Vice Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
• Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
  • Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Insurance, and Automotive Safety
  • Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security (Chairman)
• Committee on Environment and Public Works
  • Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife

Political positions and votes

Transportation

Senator Lautenberg wants the federal government to spend more taxpayer dollars on public transportation such as Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.

Homeland security

Lautenberg is also a proponent of the Container Security Initiative which would screen cargo containers bound for the United States for radiological contents. This policy is intended to identify threats before they arrive at U.S. ports. The Bush administration has argued that the policy would be too expensive to implement (U.S. inspection teams, with equipment, would need to be installed in 700 foreign ports).

Agriculture

In 2007, Lautenberg voted for an amendment to the 2007 farm bill which would have limited the amount of subsidies that a married couple could receive to $250,000; the amendment failed. However, he has voted against eliminating farm price supports and eventually voted for the 2007 farm bill as well. He has supported increasing the minimum wage in the past.

Civil liberties

Lautenberg was not in the Senate at the time of the original Patriot Act in 2001; when the 2005 reauthorization came to the Senate floor, Lautenberg voted against cloture but voted in favor of accepting the conference report. In March 2011, he stated to an assembled group of constituents that Republicans "don't deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution...but we'll give them to them anyway."

Foreign policy

In 1996, Lautenberg voted against a bill that eliminated the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the United States Information Agency, the Agency for International Development, and the International Development Cooperation Agency and allowed the President to withhold 20% of funds appropriated to the United Nations if any agency of the organization does not implement consensus-based decision-making procedures on budgetary matters that assure that significant attention is given to the specific interests of the United States. He has opposed capping foreign aid and has voted to give billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund. He voted against implementing both the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement. He has called for action to be taken at the World Trade Organization against members of the OPEC cartel which sets production quotas that raise prices for crude oil, and consequentially America's gasoline. Lautenberg is an opponent of the Iraq War.

Environment and energy

Senator Lautenberg, who has a pro-environment voting record, co-sponsored the Consumer First Energy Act of 2008, which would have repealed $17 billion in tax breaks for oil companies and reinvested the $17 billion in renewable energy development and energy efficiency technology. However, the Senate rejected a cloture motion on the bill in June 2008. Lautenberg favors alternative energy sources and has voted in favor of giving tax incentives to those who use them.

Social issues

Lautenberg is pro-choice and has voted against banning partial-birth abortions in 1999. He has voted in favor of expanding embryonic stem cell research. The NAACP gave him a 100% rating, indicating his strong support for affirmative action. He is a consistent supporter of gun control.

Lautenberg is a strong supporter of gay marriage, and also voted to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and to expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation. He voted against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and has expressed his support for equal marriage rights for LGBT couples in recent years. Lautenberg did, however, vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. The Human Rights Campaign has given him a 100% rating, indicating his strong support for gay rights.

Tax policy

Lautenberg has voted against repealing and restricting the Alternative Minimum Tax and estate tax. Lautenberg voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which contained $280 billion in tax breaks by expanding the earned income tax credit, child tax credit, home energy credit, and college credit, introducing a homebuyer credit and a credit for workers earning less than $75,000, along with an increased ceiling for the AMT and extended tax credits to companies for renewable energy production, along with a new policy making more companies eligible for a certain tax refund. In 2008 he voted to raise taxes on those earning more than $1,000,000 per year. In 2006 he voted in favor of repealing the Bush tax cut on capital gains. He is a proponent of progressive taxation.

Miscellaneous

Since the advent of the late 2000s recession, Lautenberg has supported a number of Democratic bills designed to deal with the resulting problems plaguing Americans. In 2009, he voted in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly dubbed the stimulus bill. He later voted for the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights and the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.

The railroad terminal in Secaucus, New Jersey is named for him because he helped allocate federal funds to build it.

Key legislation

Lautenberg is primary sponsor of the S.294 [110th] "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007" (Full Text), which would fund Amtrak for the next five years and provide opportunity for expansion. With the dramatic rise of gasoline prices in 2007-2008, Amtrak ridership has reached record levels. The bill passed the house but Senate and House differences were never resolved.

The senator also sponsored the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, more commonly known as the "Lautenberg Amendment". This piece of legislation prohibits individuals (including law enforcement officers and military service members), accused of a crime of domestic violence, from possessing a firearm. Critics point out that this legislation effectively circumvents the Second Amendment of the constitution by linking an individual's right to own or possess firearms to a matter of irrelevance, and without the need for a trial and conviction in a court of law. The Tenth Amendment is also an area of concern in-that the Lautenberg Amendment assumes federal control over a state issue, in this case a domestic violence misdemeanor, turning it into a federal felony crime regarding firearm and ammunition possession. In both the law enforcement and military professions, to Lautenberg someone is to fire a law enforcement agent or discharge a military service member due to a charge of domestic violence.

2008 election

Main article: United States Senate election in New Jersey, 2008

In February 2006, Lautenberg announced his intention to run for reelection in 2008, saying that deciding not to run for reelection in 2000 "was among the worst decisions of his life." Lautenberg formally announced his candidacy on March 31, 2008.

On Wednesday, April 2, 2008 US Rep. Rob Andrews announced he would challenge Lautenberg in the June 3 primary for the Democratic nomination. Lautenberg defeated Andrews in the primary with 59% of the vote to Andrews's 35%. Senator Lautenberg defeated former Congressman Dick Zimmer in the general election 56% to 42%.

In both Republican and Democratic primary campaigns, candidates cited Lautenberg's age among reasons to vote against him. Andrews, for example, referenced Lautenberg's own 1982 defeat of Millicent Fenwick, in which Lautenberg was alleged to have referred to Fenwick's age (Fenwick was 72 at the time; Lautenberg was 84 in 2008). Lautenberg denied he made Fenwick's age an issue, saying he only ever questioned Fenwick's "ability to do the job".

Dubai ports deal and "devil" comment

In comparing the devil with Dubai, Lautenberg drew stern criticism from some Arab American groups after making comments relating to the Dubai Ports World controversy. Lautenberg was quoted as stating, "We wouldn't transfer the title to the devil, and we're not going to transfer it to Dubai." According to a Foreign Policy In Focus article, Lautenberg defended his remarks due to the UAE's refusal to support U.S. policy toward Israel and Iran. According to the Arab American Institute, Lautenberg apologized in a letter upon meeting with Arab American Institute representatives.

Health

On February 19, 2010, it was announced that Lautenberg had been diagnosed with a "curable" form of stomach cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He had been hospitalized following a fall in his Cliffside Park, New Jersey home after having just returned from a trip to Haiti with a 12-member Congressional delegation. It was planned that he would receive six to eight chemotherapy treatments over the course of several months, and a doctor for Lautenberg said that a full recovery was expected. Lautenberg intended to continue his Senate work between treatments. He was released from his hospital stay on Thursday February 25, 2010. On June 26, 2010, the senator announced that he is cancer-free.

Electoral history

• 1982 election for U.S. Senate
  • Frank Lautenberg (D), 50%
  • Millicent Fenwick (R), 48%

• 1988 election for U.S. Senate
  • Frank Lautenberg (D) (inc.), 54%
  • Pete Dawkins (R), 46%

• 1994 election for U.S. Senate
  • Frank Lautenberg (D) (inc.), 50%
  • Chuck Haytaian (R), 47%

• 2002 election for U.S. Senate
  • Frank Lautenberg (D), 54%
  • Doug Forrester (R), 44%

• 2008 election for U.S. Senate
  • Frank Lautenberg (D) (inc.), 56%
  • Dick Zimmer (R), 42%

External links

• United States Senator Frank Lautenberg U.S. Senate site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Profile at SourceWatch
• Oral history interview with Frank Lautenberg, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Lautenberg helped co-found the early payroll services firm Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) and served as both Chairman and CEO.