Congresswoman Jane Harman represents California’s 36th Congressional District which serves as the region’s economic gateway through the Port of Los Angeles and LAX; is a leader in green technology and in entertainment, and has miles of beautiful and fragile coastline. It also produces most of the nation’s satellites and is home to the Los Angeles Air Force Base Space and Missile Systems Center.

In 2007-2008, Jane was named by Congress.org – the website of Congressional Quarterly/Roll Call – as the 9th most influential Member of Congress and the 5th most effective Member of the California Congressional delegation. She chairs the Intelligence & Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee and serves on the Health and Energy Subcommittees of the powerful Energy & Commerce Committee.

Jane has authored major legislation on intelligence and homeland security reform, honoring POW/MIAs, environmental protection, and stemming the epidemic of sexual assault in the military.

In 2009 alone, Jane authored legislation:

• To prohibit the Homeland Security Department from opening a National Applications Office, which would have allowed military/intelligence satellites to be turned on the United States. (The office has since been closed.);
• To extend the Public Safety Interoperable Communications;
• To streamline the process for returning military medics to become emergency medical technicians;
• To stem the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the military (included in the Defense Authorization bill and enacted into law);
• The Outdoor Lighting Efficiency Act;
• The “Best-in-Class” Appliances Program, which provides incentives to trade in “clunkers” for more efficient products.

Energy/Environment

Jane has long advocated the importance of controlling carbon emissions and she authored legislation to end the manufacture of the inefficient 100-watt incandescent light bulb by 2012, which was modeled after precedent-setting California law.

She blocked a foreign-owned Liquefied Natural Gas producer from building a semi-submerged platform in Santa Monica Bay in 2008; worked with Los Angeles County to fund tidal gates for the Ballona Wetlands 1996; and secured annual funding to dredge contaminated material from the Marina del Ray channel. Harman has opposed all attempts to roll back clean air and water standards, and all efforts to drill in off-shore California waters or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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Choice

Jane's first vote in Congress was for the Family & Medical Leave Act, and she has consistently opposed all efforts to roll back a woman’s right to choose.

As one of four Members of Congress at the 4th United Nations Conference on Women in 1998 in Beijing, she supported First Lady Hillary Clinton when she said: “Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.”

Jane authored the Preventing Teen Pregnancy Act, to require that sex education funding goes to programs that work – and not to abstinence only programs exclusively if there is not proof they prevent unwanted pregnancies. She authored legislation to permit military women to pay for abortions in foreign military hospitals. She supported passage and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and has publicly criticized the government of Afghanistan for reinstating Shari’a law in parts of the country.

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Internet Freedom

Jane supports an open and innovative Internet. She co-sponsored the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act” in 2008 and 2009 to establish a national policy of nondiscrimination and openness with respect to Internet access offered to the public.

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LGBT Issues

As the most junior member of the House Armed Services Committee in 1993, Jane told Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is unconstitutional. She is an original cosponsor of legislation to repeal the flawed policy.

She was one of only 67 votes against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, a co-Chair of the “No on 8” campaign in 2008, and has urged that Congress file an amicus curiae petition in the Supreme Court to overturn the ban on gay marriage.

Intelligence Reform, USA Patriot Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

Jane has publicly stated that the intelligence on Iraq WMD was wrong and that she was wrong to believe it. Based on that experience, she co-authored major legislation that became the Intelligence Reform Act; urged that the entire Intelligence Committees be fully briefed on US intelligence activities; introduced legislation to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay; and a bill to clarify that all foreign intelligence surveillance activities strictly comply with FISA. Her legislation to limit over-classification of federal documents has passed the House twice, and is expected to pass the Senate and become law.

She is an original cosponsor of HR 3845 – the Conyers/Nadler/Scott bill to impose stricter standards on the roving wiretaps provision and the so-called “library provision” of the USA Patriot Act. .

Health Care

The daughter and sister of medical doctors, Jane voted for the Obama health insurance reform bill. She supports the most robust public option possible and succeeded in adding language to the House bill to help reduce drug costs by repealing the Bush Administration prohibition against direct negotiation with pharmaceutical manufacturers under Medicare.

Jane supports giving Americans safe access to prescription drugs produced in other countries where prices are substantially lower, allowing doctors to post prescriptions online where pharmacists would bid to fill them at the lowest price, and increasing the number of nurses and primary care physicians.

Education

A graduate of Los Angeles public schools, Jane believes ensuring a quality public education for every child is the best affirmative action policy. She supports full funding of IDEA and opposes private school vouchers.

Labor

Jane supports the right to organize and is an original cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. She refuses to cross picket lines, and has marched with local janitors, health care workers, and others to help them organize.

She has opposed unfair trade agreements, including NAFTA and CAFTA, and long advocated better technology and fairer hours for air traffic controllers.

Personal

Married to Sidney Harman, USC professor and Chairman Emeritus of Harman International; mother of four; grandmother of three. Jane resides in Venice, CA and Washington, DC.