U.S. House of Representatives
Elections In 1974, Democratic U.S. Representative
Chet Holifield retired after 16 terms in Congress. Waxman gave up his state assembly seat to run for the district, which had been re-numbered from the 19th to the 24th in a mid-decade redistricting. Waxman won the Democratic nomination for the district, and easily won the general election, as this was
tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic district. He was re-elected 17 times, with no substantive opposition. He faced no major-party opposition in 1986, and was completely unopposed in 2008. His district changed numbers four times in his tenure — from the 24th (1975–1993) to the 29th (1993–2003) to the 30th (2003–2013) to the 33rd (2013–2015). At the time of his retirement, he was one of the last two members, along with
George Miller of California, of the large Democratic freshman class of 1975. From 2003 to 2013, Waxman's district included
Santa Monica,
Beverly Hills,
Agoura Hills,
Calabasas,
Hidden Hills,
Malibu,
West Hollywood, and
Westlake Village, as well as such areas of western Los Angeles as
West Los Angeles,
Fairfax,
Pacific Palisades,
Brentwood,
Beverlywood,
Topanga,
Chatsworth,
Palms,
Westwood,
West Hills,
Westside Village,
Woodland Hills, but through the creation of a new 33rd Congressional District by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, in the November 2012 general election, Waxman won re-election in an area including his home community of Beverly Hills and stretching to Malibu and Pacific-coastal communities heading south, including Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Northwest San Pedro.
Tenure Before the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 1995, Waxman was a powerful figure in the House as chair of the
Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment from 1979. In this role, he conducted investigations into a range of health and environmental issues, including universal health insurance,
Medicare and
Medicaid coverage, AIDS, and air and water pollution. In 1994, Waxman forced the chief executives of the seven major tobacco companies to swear under oath that
nicotine was not addictive. Waxman's stated legislative priorities are health and environmental issues. These include universal health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, tobacco, AIDS, air and water quality standards, pesticides, nursing home quality standards, women's health research and reproductive rights, the availability and cost of prescription drugs, and the right of communities to know about pollution levels. As an example of Waxman's thoughts regarding tobacco, on April 13, 2010, he requested that
Major League Baseball ban smokeless tobacco in all its various forms -
snuff,
dipping tobacco,
chewing tobacco,
snus, etc. With the Democrats' victory in the
2006 midterm elections, Waxman became chairman of the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the principal investigative committee of the House. He was the committee's ranking Democrat from 1997 to 2007. In 1998, while he was still ranking member, he created a "Special Investigations Division" to investigate matters that he felt the full committee had neglected. This was possible because the committee has broad powers to investigate any matter with federal policy implications, even if another committee has jurisdiction over it. He has also harshly criticized the Republicans for ignoring their "constitutional responsibility" to conduct oversight over the government. On March 16, 2004, at Waxman's request, the Committee on Government Reform Minority Office published "Iraq on the Record, the Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq", a detailed and searchable collection of 237 specific misleading statements made by Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq. It contains statements that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made. It does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight. If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was made, it was excluded even if it now appears erroneous. In 2006, Project On Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, presented Waxman with its Good Government Award for his various contributions to government transparency and oversight. On the day after the 2006 elections, Waxman directed his aides to draw up an "oversight plan" for the panel. He had already let it be known that he wanted to investigate
Halliburton, as well as its alleged malfeasance related to government contracts in
Iraq. It is very likely that he could also investigate the numerous scandals surrounding
Jack Abramoff. This led to concerns among Democratic aides that the Government Reform Committee under Waxman would stage a repeat of the committee's performance under the
Clinton administration, when it issued over 1,000 subpoenas. However, Waxman told
Newsweek that he is interested in accountability and not retaliation. In 2009, he began serving as the Chairman of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee, after defeating Chairman
John Dingell in a 137–122 secret vote of House Democrats on November 20, 2008. Senator
Alan Simpson of Wyoming once described Waxman as being 'tougher than a boiled owl.' Waxman is proud of his "strong Jewish identity" and has drawn political conclusions from his exploration of the religion.
1985 subway opposition In 1985, Waxman sponsored a bill supported by affluent
homeowners groups in his district to ban federal funding for the
Red Line subway after a
methane gas explosion in the
Fairfax District. In 2005, a robust real estate market, multi-dwelling construction boom, and lack of public mass transit planning on the westside caused by Waxman's bill resulted in gridlock throughout Waxman's district. At the request of Los Angeles Mayor and
LA Metro Board President
Antonio Villaraigosa, Waxman agreed to lift the ban if a panel of five engineers found tunneling under the
Miracle Mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard to be safe. In October 2005, the panel decided that tunneling was possible, and on December 16, Waxman responded by announcing he would introduce a bill to the U.S. House that would lift the ban on federal money for subway tunneling in the district. This bill passed the House via unanimous vote on September 20, 2006.
Solyndra Waxman, as the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, oversaw the case of
Solyndra, a solar company that filed for bankruptcy after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the DOE. Waxman recounted meeting with Solyndra's CEO two months before they filed for bankruptcy, who assured him that "Solyndra’s future was bright with sales and production booming." Waxman was accused of being involved with the Solyndra loan by
Darrell Issa. Waxman responded, saying he had no involvement in the selection of the loan.
Committee assignments •
Committee on Energy and Commerce (Ranking Member) • As ranking member of the full committee, Rep. Waxman may serve as an
ex officio member of all subcommittees.
Caucus memberships • Congressional Progressive Caucus • Congressional Space Caucus • Congressional Travel & Tourism Caucus •
International Conservation Caucus ==Electoral history==