Broussard attended
Georgetown University in
Washington, D.C., from 1879 to 1882. He was a night inspector of
customs in
New Orleans from 1885 to 1888, when he was appointed assistant weigher and
statistician. He held that position in 1888–89. He graduated from the
Tulane University Law School in 1889. He was admitted to the
bar the same year and launched his practice in New Iberia. He was elected
prosecuting attorney of the Nineteenth Judicial District and held that office from 1892 to 1897. Broussard was elected as a
Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the eight succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1897 – March 4, 1915). While in the House of Representative, he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the
Department of Justice (Sixty-third Congress); he did not seek renomination in 1914, having become a candidate for Senator. He was elected to the Senate already on
21 May 1912 and served from March 4, 1915, until his death three years later in New Iberia. In the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on
National Banks (Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses). Broussard introduced the "American Hippo Bill", H.R. 23261, in 1910. This bill proposed $250,000 in funding from the federal government to import the
hippopotamus from
Africa in order to solve two problems at once: the meat shortage in the United States and the invasive plant-species called the
Water Hyacinth invading Louisiana's waterways. He was a member of
The Boston Club of New Orleans. ==See also==