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John Boehner
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John Andrew Boehner (; born November 17, 1949) is an American politician of the Republican Party who is currently serving as the House Minority Leader in the 111th Congress, and a U.S. Representative from , which includes portions of the Cincinnati and Dayton suburbs, as well as a small portion of Dayton itself.
On February 2, 2006, John Boehner was elected House Majority Leader following Tom DeLay's resignation from the post after a criminal indictment.
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John Andrew Boehner (; born November 17, 1949) is an American politician of the Republican Party who is currently serving as the House Minority Leader in the 111th Congress, and a U.S. Representative from , which includes portions of the Cincinnati and Dayton suburbs, as well as a small portion of Dayton itself.
On February 2, 2006, John Boehner was elected House Majority Leader following Tom DeLay's resignation from the post after a criminal indictment. On November 17, 2006, after the Republican defeat in the 2006 elections, Boehner was elected House Minority Leader for the 110th Congress. After additional Republican defeats in the 2008 Elections, Boehner was again reelected by his peers to lead the Republican Conference in the 111th Congress.
Background and personal life
Boehner was born in Cincinnati to Mary Ann (Hall) and Earl Henry Boehner, as one of 12 brothers and sisters. He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. After graduating from Cincinnati’s Moeller High School in 1968, Boehner enlisted in the United States Navy during the height of the Vietnam War. He was discharged after eight weeks of training because of a bad back.
He received a bachelor's degree in business from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1977, and then worked as a businessman.
He and his wife Debbie have been married for 33 years. They have two daughters – Lindsay and Tricia – and live in the Wetherington section of West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio.
Political career
In 1981 Boehner served on the board of trustees of Union Township, Butler County, Ohio. In 1984, he served as president of that board.
John Boehner served as an Ohio state representative from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, Boehner was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 102nd Congress. During his freshman year, Boehner and fellow members of the Gang of Seven took on the House establishment and during the House banking scandal, successfully closed the House Bank, uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House Restaurant, and exposed drug sales and illegal cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office.
From 1995 to 1999, Boehner was the House Republican Conference Chairman. He was the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee from 2001 until 2006, when he resigned to become House Majority Leader.
Boehner is widely credited with championing the 1994 Contract With America, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, and the passage of "No Child Left Behind Act." He was also alleged to be one of the key figures in the failed 1998 coup to replace House Speaker Newt Gingrich with Buffalo, New York congressman Bill Paxon.
Congressional leadership
Boehner was elected House Majority Leader on February 2, 2006, following Tom DeLay's departure after DeLay was indicted on criminal charges.
There was some confusion on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed one more vote was cast than there were Republicans present at the Conference meeting. However, this turned out to be due to a misunderstanding as to whether the rules allowed Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño of Puerto Rico to vote or not.
Boehner campaigned as a reform candidate who could help both parties of the House cleanse and recover from years of political damage caused by charges of ethics violations, corruption, and money laundering leveled against both parties in the House. He defeated Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Representative John Shadegg of Arizona, even though he was considered an underdog candidate to Blunt.
Shadegg dropped out of the race after finishing third in the first round of voting. In the second round, Boehner received 122 votes compared to 109 for Blunt. Blunt kept his previous position as Majority Whip, the No. 3 leadership position in the House.
Although Boehner has a strong reputation and a mostly conservative voting record, religious conservatives in the GOP were not satisfied with his positions. According to the Washington Post: "From illegal immigration to sanctions on China to an overhaul of the pension system, Boehner, as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, took ardently pro-business positions that were contrary to those of many in his party. Religious conservatives — examining his voting record — see him as a policymaker driven by small-government economic concerns, not theirs… He opposed a tough illegal immigration bill that passed in December, 2005 with overwhelming Republican support over Boehner's opposition. One provision in the bill would mandate that every business verify the legality of every employee through the federal terrorism watch list and a database of Social Security numbers. For the bill's authors, the measure is central to choking off illegal immigrants' employment opportunities. To business groups and Boehner, it is unworkable.
On May 25, 2006, Boehner issued a statement defending his agenda and attacking his "Democrat friends" such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Boehner said, regarding national security, that voters "have a choice between a Republican Party that understands the stakes and is dedicated to victory, and a Democrat Party (sic) with a non-existent national security policy that sheepishly dismisses the challenges of a post-9/11 world and is all too willing to concede defeat on the battlefield in Iraq."
After the Republicans lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, Boehner was elected House Minority Leader by the Republican caucus. While as House Majority Leader he was second-in-command in the House Republican caucus behind Speaker Dennis Hastert, as Minority Leader he is the highest-ranking Republican in the House.
According to the 2008 Congress.org Power Ranking, Minority Leader Boehner is the 6th most powerful congressman (preceded by Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, Dean of the House John Dingell, and Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, all Democrats) and the most powerful Republican.
Controversies
Connections to lobbyists
In June 1995, Boehner provoked contentions of unethical conduct when he distributed campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor as House members were weighing how to vote on tobacco subsidies. Boehner stopped handing out the checks only "after being questioned about the practice by two freshmen who’d heard about the handoff on the House floor". Rep. Linda Smith (R-WA) said of Boehner’s actions, "[I]f it is not illegal, it should be.". This pressure from within his own party forced him to apologize for handing out the checks. He later led the effort to change House rules and prohibit campaign contributions from being distributed on the House floor.
Boehner's PAC raised $31,500 from four Indian tribes who at one time were associated with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was the central figure in an lobbying scandal. Boehner and spokesmen for the Indian tribes say that the contributions were not related to Abramoff's lobbying.
Boehner was the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. In October 2004, Rose DiNapoli, a lobbyist for student loan giant Sallie Mae, held a fundraiser in her Arlington, Va., home for Boehner. At the dinner, 34 Sallie Mae executives — including more than half the senior management team — wrote checks, most for $1,000 apiece, for Boehner's political action committee. In December 2005, Boehner told non-profit lenders that he thought they would be happy with the final results of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. "Know that I have all of you in my two trusted hands," he said, "I've got enough rabbits up my sleeve to be able to get where we need to." Boehner championed a bill making steep cuts to for-profit lender subsidies in an effort to save more than $13 billion in the Deficit Reduction Act, though the final package "soften[ed] [proposed] cuts to lenders" and "deal[t] a serious blow to the competing direct-loan program." The direct-loan program gives students access to loans from taxpayers, instead of through private lenders and banks. Supporters of Direct Loans suggest "direct-lending program costs taxpayers much less than extending loans through lenders like Sallie Mae. But the Direct Loan "program has not provided savings and is paying out more in interest payments — calculated at about $16.5 billion — than it has received from borrowers since its inception."
Boehner rents a two-bedroom Capitol Hill apartment for $1600 a month. The apartment building is owned by a Washington lobbyist; the Washington Post evaluated his rent to be about the market rate. Boehner does not deny his close ties to "K Street" lobbyists and says that his relationships are ethical, but that the ties were only for a short period of approximately 2 weeks.
Lawsuit against Congressman McDermott
Boehner has been involved in a lawsuit, first filed in 1998, against fellow Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington — the first such case ever between two sitting Congressmen. Boehner v. McDermott centered on the release by McDermott to the media of and taped conference call between Boehner, Newt Gingrich, and other Republican Congressional leaders that had been illegally recorded through a radio scanner and given to McDermott by a Florida couple. The call was a discussion of strategy over an investigation of Gingrich by the House Ethics Committee. Gingrich had publicly pledged not to organize opposition to the probe. The Florida couple were later fined $500 for violating the federal wiretapping law. McDermott was ordered to pay $60,000 to Boehner in addition to attorney fees and costs, which may amount to $500,000 based on his violation of House Ethics rules.
2006 Mark Foley scandal
Republican Leader John Boehner told The Washington Post that he knew of "contact" between Foley and Congressional pages in the spring, but was unaware of their nature or content. Boehner maintains that he believes he informed Speaker Dennis Hastert, and that Hastert assured him it had been "taken care of." Boehner says that he was unaware of Foley's e-mails and instant messages until the messages were released to ABC News and other sources.
2006 re-election campaign
In the November 2006 election, Boehner easily defeated the Democratic Party candidate, U.S. Air Force veteran Mort Meier, 64% to 36%.
In popular culture
- On the February 14, 2009 edition of SNL, Dan Aykroyd portrayed Boehner in the opening skit featuring Republican leaders.
See also
Footnotes
External links
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