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Anna Eshoo
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Anna Georges Eshoo (born December 13, 1942) is a U.S. politician who has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1993, representing California's 14th congressional district. The district, known as "the heart of Silicon Valley," includes Redwood City, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.
Family, education, and private sector workEshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut of Assyrian and Armenian heritage. 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 was married to attorney George Eshoo and is now divorced, with two children, Karen and Paul. She resides in Menlo Park, California.
She received an Associate of Arts degree in 1975 from Cañada College, and an honorary doctorate from Menlo College. She worked for the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) from 1963 to 1966, and the Arcata National Corporation from 1966 to 1970.
Political careerEshoo became Chair of the San Mateo Democratic Party in 1978, a position she held until 1982. She served on the Democratic National Committee from 1981 to 1992. In 1981–2 she was the Chief of Staff for California Assembly Speaker pro tempore Leo McCarthy.
She is a member of the American Association of University Women, Democratic Activists for Women Now, the Junior League of Palo Alto, the League of Conservation Voters, and the League of Women Voters. She was formerly Chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and has served on the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. She co-founded the San Mateo Women's Hall of Fame.
San Mateo County Board of SupervisorsEshoo was elected in 1983 to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and served two full terms and two years of her third until 1993, amounting to 10 years. She held the Board presidency in 1986. She was simultaneously the Chair of the San Mateo County General Hospital Board of Directors from 1984 to 1992.
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1988, in the middle of Eshoo's second term on the Board, she ran for Congress in what was then the 12th District, but lost narrowly to Stanford law professor Tom Campbell. However, when Campbell made an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1992, Eshoo ran for the open seat, which had been renumbered the 14th as a result of redistricting. She won by 17 points, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district since its creation in 1953 (it was the 11th District from 1953 to 1983 and the 12th from 1983 to 1993). She has been reelected seven times, never facing serious opposition.
She was elected by her colleagues as an At-Large Democratic Whip in the 108th Congress in 2003 and has served in that position to the present. Eshoo 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.
She is a member of House Intelligence Committee, and the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence (appointed in January 2003). She also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, the House Medical Technology Caucus, the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, and the Subcommittee on Health. She co-chairs the Congressional E-911 Caucus and the House Medical Technology Caucus, and serves as Vice Chair of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus.
On January 30, 2008, Rep. Eshoo formally endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for President.
Human rightsAnna Eshoo is a strong supporter of the gay rights movement. In 1992 when a gay bashing mailer was directed at Supervisor Tom Nolan, her opponent for her congressional seat, Anna Eshoo stood fast in defending him, his record and years of service. Tom Nolan was the only openly gay supervisor in the history of San Mateo County.
Religious freedomShe authored an amendment to H.R. 2601, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, to protect indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq from continuing religious persecution and political exclusion.
TechnologyIn 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.
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.
YouthEshoo 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- Energy and Commerce Committee
- Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
- Subcommittee on Health
- Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management
- Co-chair of the Congressional E-911 Caucus
- Co-chair of the House Medical Technology Caucus
- Vice Chair of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus
External links- official House site
- campaign finance reports and data
- November 7, 2006, Election
- issue positions and quotes
- campaign contributions
- profile
- voting record
- official campaign site
- Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, April 29, 1997
- GCN, February 23, 1998
- Assyrian American Association of S. California, July 20, 2005
- Philosophy Talk on San Francisco's KALW (91.7 FM), January 31, 2006, interview
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