John Boehner

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John Boehner
21st Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 4, 2007
Deputy	Roy Blunt Eric Cantor (whips)
Preceded by	Nancy Pelosi
25th Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives
In office February 2, 2006 – January 3, 2007
Deputy	Roy Blunt (whip)
Preceded by	Roy Blunt (Interim)
Succeeded by	Steny Hoyer
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 8th District
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Buz Lukens
Born	November 17, 1949 (1949-11-17) (age 59) Reading, Ohio
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Deborah L. Gunlack (from 1973)
Children	Lindsay Boehner Tricia Boehner
Residence	West Chester, Ohio
Alma mater	Xavier University
Profession	Business Consultant
Religion	Roman Catholic
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1968 (medically discharged after eight weeks)

John Andrew Boehner (pronounced /beɪnər/^[1]; 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. He serves as a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district, which includes all of Darke, Miami and Preble counties, most of Butler and Mercer counties, and the northeastern corner of Montgomery County.

[edit] Background and personal life

Boehner was born in Cincinnati to Mary Anne (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 for medical reasons. ^[2] He received a bachelor's degree in business from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1977 ^[1]. Upon graduation, he accepted a position with Nucite Sales, a small sales business in the packaging and plastics industry, and eventually became president of the firm.

He and his wife Debbie have been married since 1973. They have two daughters – Lindsay and Tricia – and live in the Wetherington section of West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio.

[edit] 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. Boehner then served as an Ohio state representative from 1985 to 1990.

[edit] Gang of Seven

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, Republicans and Democrats alike, and successfully closed the House Bank (House banking scandal), uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House Restaurant, and exposed drug sales and illegal cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office.^[1]

[edit] Contract With America

Boehner, along with Newt Gingrich and several other Republican lawmakers, was one of the architects of the Contract with America in 1994 that helped catapult Republicans into the majority in Congress for the first time in four decades.

[edit] Legislative accomplishments

From 1995 to 1999, Boehner served as House Republican Conference Chairman. There he championed the Freedom to Farm Act and a series of balanced budgets that led to the first federal surplus in a generation.

Following the election of President George W. Bush, Boehner was chosen by his colleagues to serve as chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee from 2001 until 2006. There he authored several landmark reforms including the Pension Protection Act and a successful school choice program for low-income children in Washington, DC. ^[3]

[edit] Congressional leadership

Boehner was elected by his colleagues to serve as House Majority Leader on February 2, 2006, after one of the most open and public House leadership races in American political history. The election followed Tom DeLay's resignation from the post after being indicted on criminal charges.

Boehner campaigned as a reform candidate who wanted to reform the so-called "earmark" process and rein in government spending. He defeated Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Representative John Shadegg of Arizona, even though he was considered an underdog candidate to Blunt. In the second round of voting by the House Republican Conference, 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. There was some confusion on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed one more vote cast than Republicans present,^[4] which 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.^[5]

After the Republicans lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, Boehner was elected House Minority Leader by the Republican Conference. As House Majority Leader, he was second-in-command in the House Republican Conference behind Speaker Dennis Hastert, but in his current position 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^[6]. As Minority Leader, Boehner serves as an ex officio member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

[edit] Congressional record

A profile in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said, "On both sides of the aisle, Boehner earns praise for candor and an ability to listen."^[7] And the Cleveland Plain Dealer says Boehner "has perfected the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable."^[8]

Although Boehner has a strong reputation and conservative voting record, when he was running for House leadership, religious conservatives in the GOP expressed that they 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.^[9]

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 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."

Boehner has been highly critical of several recent initiatives by the Democratic Congress and President Obama, including the "cap and trade" plan that Boehner believes would hurt job growth in his congressional district and elsewhere. He also led the opposition to the trillion-dollar stimulus and to the President's budget proposal, promoting instead an alternative economic recovery plan^[10] and a Republican budget (authored by Ranking Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.).^[11]

[edit] Political controversies

[edit] 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.^[12] Boehner eventually led the effort to change House rules and prohibit campaign contributions from being distributed on the House floor.^[13]

Boehner's PAC raised $31,500 from four Indian tribes who at one time were loosely associated with lobbyist Jack Abramoff,^[14] who was the central figure in a lobbying scandal. Boehner, who wrote that he had no connection to Abramoff that he was aware of, and spokesmen for the Indian tribes, both asserted that the contributions were not related to Abramoff's lobbying, and Boehner refused to return the donations for a lack of connection with the Abramoff lobbying scandal.^[15]

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 for Boehner's political action committee.^[16] 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."^[17] 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.^[18] 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."^[19]

[edit] Apartment rental

Boehner rents a two-bedroom Capitol Hill apartment for $1600 a month. The apartment building is owned by a Washington lobbyist.^[20] Boehner does not deny his close ties to "K Street" lobbyists and says that his relationships are ethical.

[edit] 2006 Mark Foley scandal

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.^[21]

[edit] McDermott lawsuit

Boehner was involved in a lawsuit, first filed in 1998, against fellow Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington — the first such case ever between two sitting Congressmen.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[22] The call was a discussion of strategy over an investigation of Gingrich by the House Ethics Committee.^[23] 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.^[24]

[edit] 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%.^[25]

[edit] See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio, 2008

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2006: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2005) pp 1328–32.

[edit] External links

Find more about John Boehner on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary

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Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Congressman John Boehner official U.S. House website
• Friends of John Boehner official campaign site
• Office of the House Minority Leaderofficial leadership website
• The Freedom Project political action committee

• 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
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Current Bills Sponsored at StateSurge.com
• Congressional profile at GovTrack.us
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Campaign contributions from NewsMeat
• NNDB profile — John Boehner
• Committee on Education & the Workforce
• The Charter Difference (8.24.04)
• The Farm State Pig Out (2002-05-05)
• Washington Post article
• 2006 attack on Boehner's record from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• Alleged Abramoff ties
• Gingrich is Heard Urging Tactics in Ethics Case. The New York Times, January 10, 1997, p. A1

v • d • e Majority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives Payne • Underwood • Kitchin • Mondell • Longworth • Tilson • Rainey • Byrns • Bankhead • Rayburn • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Halleck • McCormack • Albert • Boggs • O'Neill • Wright • Foley • Gephardt • Armey • DeLay • Blunt (acting) • Boehner • Hoyer

v • d • e Minority Leaders of the United States House of Representatives Richardson • Williams • Clark • Mann • Clark • Kitchin • Garrett • Garner • Snell • Martin • Rayburn • Martin • Rayburn • Martin • Halleck • Ford • Rhodes • Michel • Gephardt • Pelosi • Boehner