Henry Waxman

Henry Arnold Waxman (born September 12, 1939) is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for from 1975 until 2015. Waxman is a member of the Democratic Party. His district included much of the western part of the city of Los Angeles, as well as West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, and was numbered the 24th district from 1975 to 1993, the 29th district from 1993 to 2003, and the 30th district from 2003 to 2013, changing due to redistricting after the 1990, 2000 and 2010 censuses. He now serves as Chairman at Waxman Strategies, a DC-based communications and lobbying firm, working on issues like health care, environment, energy, technology and telecommunications. In addition, he serves as a Regent Lecturer for University of California, Los Angeles, and as an advisor and lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Waxman is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One. Waxman was considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress and was instrumental in passing laws including the Infant Formula Act of 1980, the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, the Clean Air Act of 1990, the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the State Children's Health Insurance Program of 1997, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. He served as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2007 to 2009, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce from 2009 to 2011 and was the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee from 2011 until 2015. On January 30, 2014, Waxman announced he would not seek re-election to a 21st term in 2014. State senator Ted Lieu defeated district attorney Elan Carr in the midterm election on November 4, 2014, and succeeded Waxman on January 3, 2015.